The kingdom of Balray, if it could have been called such, was in actuality a vast and loosely tied confederation of Jeppri tribes that swore a sort of feudal alliegence to an Overlord. The Overlordship was fragile office that often fell in the strongest hands, and often it was held by the chieftain of the most powerful tribe. Over the last century, the rivalry that sprung up with the Humans of Alamaster gave the Jeppri a national identity. Early in the reign of High King Sixtus the Last, the Jeppri reorganized themselves into a more rigid feudal structure. The seven most powerful Warlords of Balray were appointed as Electors, whose task it was to select the next Overlord upon the current Overlord’s death and then to secure his claim among the tribes.
The Electors decided upon this course of action because civil war ravaged the countrysides of Balray, starving its citizens and exhausting its military might, as the Warlords fought for claim of the Overlordship. All the while, Alamaster encroached further and furthen into Balraen territory and threatened to all but take it as a protectorate. The Electors, would have diminished to nothing, had they not elected a powerful and ruthless Overlord, who could consolidate their might. Not only was he able to take the Electors into his hand, he was able to set himself above them permanently. This changed the face of Balraen politics forever and lead to the kingdom’s meotoric rise.
At this time, Alamaster controlled the Lowtide, the Great Isthmus, and the Balraen Coast along the Jadess Sea. Alamaster was also in the process of consolidating its power against the fiercly independent Corsair city-states south of Balray. The news of the political upheaval in Balray was welcomed by the ruling House of Starcrest, for it removed Balray from its war with the Pirate Ports. The High King and all of the Peers of Alamaster fully expected the Electors to appoint a weak figurehead that could be easily manipulated. The Humans believed that Jeppri culture could not support a strong, centralized authority.
Balray
and Alamaster had never been on good terms with one another. A great procession
of High Kings of Alamaster had through the ages kept a difficult peace withMen
and Jeppri of Balray. During the final years of Sixtus the Last’s pivotal rein,
the Jeppri came forth with an unprecedented unity and resolve to expel the
Humans from their kingdom, recapturing the coastlands and pushing the
Alamasterians back across the Great Ithsmus. From there the war turned into a
bloody stalemate with the Ithsmus becoming a forlorn waste between two
encroaching armies.