Southreach

Location and geography

 * Southreach is an inner Arling, and one of the biggest in the Kingdom of Ferelden.
 * It lies South of The Bannorn, West of The Brecilian Forest, North of Gwaren and Kocari Wilds, and East of Ostagar and The Hinterlands.
 * The capital of the Arling is Southreach City, which lies by The Drakon River’s fork.
 * Southreach Geography is simple, it consist of Three prominent regions:
 * The Reach: The fertile plains that formed by The Drakon River (To the north) over the ages for hundreds of years. It’s where most fields and farms lie, and now with the Miracle of the healed land, these plains are one of the most fertile lands in Ferelden that can even compete with the famous Bannorn’s fertility.
 * Southron Hills: The hills east of Ostagar that Connects with Kocari Wilds. Where all ancient and new mines lies. Although some mines goes deep beneath the earth, non proved connecting to the Deeproads yet.
 * Shrublands: The land on the verge of The Brecilian Forest consists mainly of shrubs, small trees, and bushes.
 * The province lies between two rivers:
 * The Drakon River: Coming from the Lake Calenhad at the west and moving along the Imperial Highway until it pour out into The Amaranthine Ocean in the east (Where Denerim lies). The Brylands have built tens of bridges of the river to ease the movement between Southreach and the Bannorn (and rest of Ferelden), wing dams and Groynes have been built to slow down the waterflow and protect the bridges from bridge scours. The main bridge and biggest one by Southreach city and the river fork have a dozen floodgates (The province emblem) that can control to which branch the water flow increase or decrease.
 * The Sudrand River: Coming from the Southern wilds and flowing through the infamous forest and out of it. It forms a small extremely fertile small delta on the north-east part of the province, then pours into a chasm - that separates it from where the Drakon river runs - and takes the rest of its course underground. Expeditions who dared to descent into the chasm have never returned.

Iconography
The Floodgate

Demography

 * Due to inner location, Southreach don’t see many strangers, and most of the Reachmen are native Fereldens. With small exception of some nobles who marry into nobility from other countries.
 * Many elves in The Reach doesn’t live in the Alienage, those who don’t travel west to join Ostagar usually live near the woods and work as hunters and foresters.
 * There still few Dalish clans lives deep within the forest.
 * Southron Hills have Dwarven hired to mine Minerals from the mines.
 * Two villages near Lothering - which were destroyed and all their inhabitants killed during the blight - have been given to Kinloch Hold for study reason after the Miracle, now mages and their families inhabit them.

Allegiances and Allies/Enemies

 * Gwaren: Gwaren have been swaying back and forth between being direct enemies and rivals with Southreach, skirmishes had occurred many times between the armies of the two provinces.After the Battle of Ostagar, Brylands took up arms against Loghain who betrayed the king and used Kossith mercenaries named Kadan-Fe to terrorize the local people of Southreach. With The Blacks of Oswin now Ruling Gwaren, things are not much better. Though no direct battles occurred recently, it’s considered more like a long ceasefire than an established peace.
 * Highever: Brylands were friends with the Couslands, but since the Landsmeet decision that The Rothwells of River Dane’s takeover Highever, there have been no direct relations between the two provinces economically nor politically. Though some nobles presume the alliance between the big Terynirs puts Southreach as opponent to Highever.
 * Denerim: Being an inner province, all Southreach Sea transport goes through Denerim port, thus created an everlasting alliance with Denerim. The Arlessa has separate docks and warehouses for transporting Olivine/Peridot along with other goods.
 * Redcliff: Since the The Ferelden rebellion, Brylands and Guerrins are close allies. Redcliff lies on the way for for all trade coming and going to Southreach from the west.
 * Amaranthine: Relation with Amaranthine have been ever changeable, the two Arlings starting the Dragon age after the liberation of Ferelden as allies. then by the end of the third decade Brylands and Howes didn’t go well, until they fought each other’s during the civil war. With the Blight end and the the wardens given Amaranthine and ultimate support from Brylands to the wardens, new alliance been formed. But with the constant change of Warden commanders by the six decade of Dragon age, relations is unclear, but presumed still allies.
 * Waking Sea: Waking Sea have been allies with Southreach by marriage and friendship with Leonas Bryland, though with the death of the wife and heiress during battle of Denerim and now a new Arlessa not related to Waking Sea, ties not strong as they were before.
 * Dragon Peak: The alliance with Dragon Peak have flourished during the last decade with Brylands protecting the youngest mage daughter of the bann during the war, and her relation with the new Arlessa.
 * Southern Bannorn: control of "Lothering" has historically been a matter of contention between the Southern Bannorn and the South Reach Arling. King Calenhad himself stepped in and awarded the town to South Reach in the Exalted Age, which has largely ended the feud. Recently there are signs of old hatred getting renewed and competition over Lothering threatens to embark once more.
 * Elves of Ostagar: Not much contact occur between Southreach and Ostagar, and any matter needs addressing it’s usually taken to the elven ambassador in Denerim. But overall, Southreach is known to be more friendly to elves.
 * Dwarves of Orzammar: No direct contact with the underground kingdom, though Southreach has many surface dwarves working in the mines.
 * Mages of Kinloch Hold: Direct alliance with the tower have been established during the healing of lands, it came to a pause during the mages/templars war but resumed and became stronger after the peace treaty and the official recognition of the new faction ruling over the tower.
 * The Chantry: Southreach maintained as much as good relation with the chantry as possible, within reason. The chantry sponsored the late Arl in recovery of the province, but that debt have been fully paid back.
 * Outside the kingdom: The province had several connections across the borders, either by trading ties (Like some Antivan merchant princes, and The Marcher Viscount of Kaiten) or by marriage (Like the Comté of Lydes from Orlesian Empire)

Economy
Big portion of Southreach’s wealth comes from the minerals they extract from Southron Hills, iron, copper and other cheap metals are a thing. There were other rare minerals, but mines have been long thought depleted since Orlesian occupation. In the desperate times after the blight and in search of any resources to help the recovery, the Arl decided to rediscover the mines in search for any hope, dwarves were hired for the job and they found minerals deeper beneath the earth than what Orlesians reached.

One of newly discovered minerals is Olivine which is important for Ore smelting, used as ideal rock for hot baths stoves and the high quality of it forms "Peridot" a rare gem. Most of Thedas make use of it and the precious rock along with gemstones brought back the wealth to Southreach.

Second to that comes the agricultural products, after the miracle of the healed lands The reach’s lands have become fertile once more, perhaps better than what it where before the blight, so the farming flourished and the production heavily increased. The Reach are famous for its advanced irrigation system that integrate with the flow control system over the Drakon river (wing dams, irrigation tunnels.. etc) which helps the people having less floods and allow them going on a good crop rotation

Timber have been a major factor in Southreach’s economy, though that have been gradually limited to certain areas with existence of new bigger income sources and the danger of heavily cutting forests. But Southern woodworks are still famous among whole Ferelden.

Southreach’s also famous with Hunting goods like furs, teeth, claws, antlers and other parts of animals. Plus Fishing, Dairy farming, Chicken farmings, Honeybees, and Wool spinning and weaving.

Military
Being the widest Arling in Ferelden, Southreach can theoretically gather the largest army in the kingdom. But that was sought impractical and never happened, even at the open civil war during the blight. What the Arling could gather was a moderate sized army that fought Loghain and his allies furiously but without winning until The Landsmeet have been called.

Southreach has many strategic castles spread across the the Arling, but they are not fully manned over the year.

Due to the location of the province on the verge of the forest, a bigger portion of the army (especially elves) are trained as hunters, scouts, and Foresters. An evolution of the famous “Night Elves” who protected the Brecilian forest and Passage during the rebellion and dissolved afterwards, then recruited again in The Reach’s army. The elves are not a separate unit now, but they form some ranks within the scouting and hunting teams. Those hunters from the shadows are the biggest asset that held Gwaren back from openly waging a full war and taking over the Reach, (they have tried in the past and failed to make a safe crossing).

History
For ages, Southron Hills used to be big source of minerals for the whole kingdom. Thus, the Hills and The Reach along with it was one of the main priorities for the Orlesians at Blessed Age when they invaded Ferelden. Though the Reachmen have put a good fight, they had no strength nor numbers to push back the invaders and the province fell and most of the ruling family fell in battle. The last surviving Bryland - who was just a young boy - was forced to stroke a deal with Orlesians to give them the mines in exchange for the safety of people of Southreach, his life and the survival of the family line.

For long decades, the Orlesians have mined the resources like crazy, until the mines ran dry, or thought to be. And when Prince Maric took the lead to fight back the Orlesians, Southreach rose in the final stages, and Leonas Bryland, the late Arl served under his command in the same regiment as Bryce Cousland and Rendon Howe during the rebellion.

Things went well for The Reach after the Orlesians leave, the province could recover from its losses during the rebellion. No devastating major battles had occurred within their borders and Orlesians were distracted in other places, and all seemed well. With one exception, the rising threat at the east.

Loghain and his men looked at Southreach as allies of the Orlesians, nobles who stroke deals with the enemy and handed Ferelden resources to them. Tensions led to a silent cold war between the neighbours provinces, and ended up in an open war when Loghain betrayed Cailan and left him to his death at battle of Ostagar at 9:30. Leonas talked openly against Loghain, and Gwaren have supplied Kossith mercenaries with shields, armors, and weapons to terrorize people of The Reach while its army was busy fighting on the front lines. And when the landsmeet have been called, Southreach decided to vote in favour of the wardens no matter how weak their argument would be.

Luckily, the argument wasn’t weak, and the sole heir could claim the throne, support the wardens, unite the land and defeat the blight. Though the cost Southreach payed was very high, from the destruction of Lothering, to the thousands of acres that got tainted, the dried mines and the death of the Arl’s wife and daughter, the province saw sad years and most predicted no future for it.

Southreach spent all efforts to find a way to overcome the hardship, the Arl remarried an Orlesian lady related to the grand cleric, strengthened trading ties with Orlais, borrowed from the chantry to provide funds, and hired miners to follow a dim hope of rediscovering any of still intact mine. Human refused to go into blighted lands to seek a false hope, but the dwarves accepted the challenge and eventually have reopened some old mines and discovered new ones far deeper than what the Orlesians found. But that wasn’t enough for a recovery, only provided some funds but people were still dying from the blighted lands. Until a sudden change of events turned the winds.

By 9:37, the effort mages was spending on work to heal the land for years started to bear fruits, and the land wasn’t only healed, but also flourished and turned more fertile than its original self. A miracle happened, and Southreach could recover properly at last. The mages have been rewarded by having full access to two empty villages that got erased by darkspawns, for the tower mages to study the newly healed lands and learn more about ways to improve the techniques.

But world wide mages and templars war brought that to a halt, Southreach was on good terms with both the chantry and the Circle of Magi, and they decided not to take sides nor let either factions to use province as a war zone, the Arling stood firmly against warmongers a whole decade, and also were busy watching their back since Gwaren ambition didn’t stop with the new rulers of the biggest Teyrnir, but rather increased. The Arl recruited and trained more scouts to watch out for sneaking mages or templars through the forest and for any attempt to make a military move from the east, a movement that never came until today, but Southreach didn't stop watching.

In Dragon 9:47, the arl fell to illness. His wife became the acting Arlessa until 9:49, when the Arl died and she stepped down, allowing their oldest child, Olivia, to become the new Arlessa. With the young and ambitious Arlessa leading who flipped every stone around the Arling, Southreach is believed to be heading towards a bright future.

When the war settled between mages and templars, and the leadership of the Libertarians over Kinloch Hold have been admitted, the cooperation between the Arling and the tower resumed. The initial research of the land continued, and finding out that the Brylands have harboured an apostate lady the whole period of the war, it became easier to build trust between the mages-friendly province and the Libertarians. Later, some of the mages have been allowed to migrate with their families into the two villages (One works as residence and another as a training ground) under the supervisor and watch of the Libertarians battlemages instead of templars. The Arling and the order have agreed it was a legitimate way to create a safe harbor for mages to live normal life, to master their gift, not harming others, and not finding a reason to rebel nor taking the long fatal journey to mysterious lands of Rivian for a chance to freedom.

The Reach’s college
Among the civil achievement of the new Arlessa, the newly founded college stands tall as the prominent landmark in the Reach. The college is newly built on the countryside extension of the city, a calm and pleasing on the eye place where artists from all over Ferelden come and get one of the highest grades education in the kingdom. The college has other functions beside education, it works as cultural center, a translation hub, and within its walls a new art movement have born.

The college is a project of its own, with a separate budget the headmaster of the college managing, big portion of it comes from the Arling, but the college income is increasing and allowing bigger expansions like establishing an open air stage and several Outreaches in Denerim and remote provinces where people can inquire, read about the educational programs, and see samples of the college work. Also buy some products of the college, like translated books and paintings, which turned out to be another income source and a way to increase Southreach influence within the kingdom.