Kingdom of Mettenheim

The Mettenheim Kingdom or simply, the "Mette" are an ethnic group native to the Volcanic Islands to the south-east of Kaedwen. They are experts in blacksmithing, and uphold many dwarven ruins and customs from an old dwarven Empire, that once ruled the Mettenheim Volcanic Islands. In recent years, their capital of Fuhldorf has suffered many disasters of volcanic activity and earthquakes. This has caused many Mette to leave their ancestral homeland to settle in the Autrichien Empire to form Mettenland. Under the Leadership of the now Chancellor Frederick, House Metternich, they now serve the Autrichien Empire in supplying arms and in industry, making swords, armour and more recently, firearms.

=History=

Dwarven "Aera" Civilization
The isles of Mettenheim were the host of a sprawling & ancient Dwarven Empire. Mountains fascinatingly hollowed out with technology never seen before, statues soaring over caves, captivating massive halls out of stone and withal, the mighty city of Bronze-Water, so marvelous to the Mettenheim peoples that they’d settle and rebuild. The once mighty halls of Bronze-Water was a sight to behold during the reign of past Dwarven Kings. Previously a Hall to an ancient Dwarven Empire during the Mythic Age, it now resides underwater after a catastrophic volcanic eruption from Mt. Feuerstein in recent years.

Collapse of the Dwarves
It's not known if Bronze-Water was the only city in the civilization that originally built it, but many of its architectural designs have been found on the east coast of the Autrichien Empire, suggesting this ancient Dwarven Empire was able to subjugate native human populations, or even colonize the mainland for a while. No written documents have been found regarding the Dwarves, it's proposed that they were all destroyed in a civil war long ago between powerful Dwarven clans.

Human Occupation
As the new settlers of Mettenheim arrived; towns, villages and cities were built. Bronze-Water was re-established. Slowly the Mette would differentiate themselves, becoming a people of their own away from the mainland. They took Dwarven customs of smithing, kinship and the passion for ale to heart, and flourished in isolation from the world for hundreds of years until recently.

Mettenheim was a small archipelago split into many larger and smaller islands which made up the Mettenheim Isles. The 3 largest Islands were named; Polis, Kaller and Volcanus. Each island had its own history and use within the old Kingdom of Mettenheim.


 * 1) Polis was the original island that the Mettenheim Kingdom was born on. Hilly and mountainous, it was a highly defensive island, as proved during fighting against the other kingdoms in the warring period. The mighty city of Bronze-Water was on this island.


 * 1) Kaller was the smallest of the large Islands. It had stretched out plains with large mountain peaks in the middle of the island. It had great farmland and highly fertile soil, becoming the Kingdom’s prime source of agriculture and countryside-hub. Moreover, it housed the famous Eagle's Den Inn, which was very popular among the rural-folk.


 * 1) Volcanus was the largest with Mt. Feuerstein as its main feature; it was a very volcanic island with many steam geysers that dotted around it. This island had the most dwarven ruins in the entire isle, as its volcanic nature made smelting ores easy and rare minerals were quite abundant.

Many of the smaller islands were homes to isolated tribes of Mettes in the early days. As the Great War took place, many of these tribes united into island kingdoms and fought off the Kingdom. Up until recently, many of the islands were used as farmland and pastures for cows and other animals.

The War of Rights
The War of Rights was a conflict that happened after Kalbador Mettenheim performed a coup on his liege lord, Luhnvar Iron-Teeth, and took over Ravenhout and proclaimed himself King. The neighboring Kingdoms were shocked to see an upstart Baron dethrone proper royalty, and slowly over time Kalbador found himself in war with every Kingdom on Polis. After solidifying his rule by crushing 2 rebellions at the Battle of Erderg and Jorl led by lieutenants of the former King Luhnvar, he rallied his army and marched to Fuhldorf, the then Captial of Polis-Ankz and intern capital of the his biggest rival, Joergsson III of Ertzandz. There he laid siege for many months until under diplomatic negotiations, Joergsson III surrendered Fuhldorf to Kalbador and was spared his life intern for loyalty to his crown. After such a crushing defeat, no one questioned Kalbador's legitimacy, but his right to rule by blood would ever plague his dynasty for centuries to come.

The Great War
The Great War was the warring states period of the Mettenheim Isles. Many Kingdoms, Duchies, Houses and Clans fought for control over the Isle in a blood series of non-stop war which lasted many decades.

The Major Players in this conflict were:

Kingdom of Mettenheim (Ravenhout)

Principality of Polis-Ankz

Kingdom of Rolzheim

Dukedom of Yellandia

Kingdom of Arlorraine

Dukedom of Johansheim

During the Great War some of these kingdoms and duchies would be allowed semi autonomy and given some of their royalty would be given pardons on behalf of Kalbador himself to ensure their loyalty and cooperation.

During the Great War, technology advanced dramatically, as each side tried to gain the upper hand on each other. Which the discovery of Gun Powder roughly half way through the Great War, this turned the already bloodied battlefields into slaughters. Polis was the most effected Island in this war, as many communities collapsed before anyone even pulled their sword.

The Great War started after Kalbadors crushing victory against Joergsson III as remnants of Polis-Ankz declared war on the then Kingdom of Ravenhout. This caused many other major kingdoms to declare war on Polis-Ankz, which inturn turned other kingdoms onto the ones hostile to their allies and so on.

During the ending decades of the Great War, the sight of cavalry was rare, as most horses have been forced into service during the decades of fighting. This gave rise to the famous Forlorn Hope regiments, which replaced cavalry as shock troopers.

The final battle of the Great War was atop Mt. Feuerstein on Volcanus as the last remnents of Yellandia held out against overwhelming odds against Kalbador. The siege took 2 weeks before the Mette Forces broke through and won the battle.

With the Great War over, Kalbador reigned in peace, consolidating his territory and taking down rebellions. He died in his bed aged 92 in Fuhldorf.

=The Dynasty= The Metternich Family has been the ruling family of Mettenheim for many centuries. Founded after the King of Ravenhout was dethroned after a deadly coup by one of the kingdoms' lords, Kalbador Metternich. The dynasty slowly took over the Isle, as the many kingdoms that once dotted Mettenheim were thrown into war with one another.

After many decades of fighting, Kalbador subdued the rest of the kingdoms, and united all the peoples into one, The Kingdom of Mettenheim. Many years of peace and prosperity followed the founding of this new kingdom.

The Dynasty was however a delicate one. Many lords and ancestors of the old kingdoms wished to sabotage the family for their own goals. Many of the ruling family of Mettenheim have been assassinated over the centuries to these once-lords. Many tales of assassination guilds being run out of the Mettenheim countryside to hide from authorities were common among the city-folk.

Rumors' of guilds recruiting outsider mercenaries from the mainland drove the dynasty to banishing outsiders and isolating the whole isle from the rest of the world.

During modern day before the collapse of Mettenheim, the family was under much pressure from their fiefdoms to open up the isolation that the family put onto the Kingdom 50 years after Kalbadors' death under the reign of Ludwig I. Civil unrest was starting to take shape in the Isle as local communities would fight over resources, and the fear of civil war erupting once again was boiling over into the main cities.

It's possible that the Dynasty that once was could've been overthrown if not for the eruption of Mt. Feuerstein, that ended the Kingdom and broke the Isle.

Only 1 member of the dynasty is known to be still alive; Frederick Metternich, current Elector of Mettenland.

= Eruption of Mt. Feuerstein = Mt. Feuerstein was the largest volcano on the Mettenheim Isles and was situated in the centre of Volcanus. The volcano, home to many Dwarven ruins and Mette mining outposts, would eventually erupt and pose a catastrophic event to the people of Mettenheim and the Mettenhein Isles itself. Tons of earth and debris was hurled into the air, destroying the landscape and blowing up the side of the volcano, causing massive pyroclastic surges to flow and cover Bronze-Water and its surrounding areas.

The absolute devastation caused by the eruption would create massive waves, engulfing large parts of Volcanus and everywhere around it. The land would be desecrated and disconnected, sinking down into the Mettenheim Sea. The blast was heard all over the Mettenheim Isles and even up at Weissburg. Many Mettes lost their lives that day, with many more dying out from injuries or being stranded. What remained of the Metternich Dynasty was all but gone - besides Frederick Metternich.

= Religion = The main religion for the Mette is a form of ancestor worship, which is more common with Dwarven civilizations than human.