Named after its principle city, Gurth Province, one of the Southlands, which lies to the north of Miznia and Mithicus, is chiefly woods and fertile farmland. The Fields of Frotzen, in central Gurth, are known as the Breadbasket of Quendor. The capital of the province is Gurth City, home of the King Zilbo Hotel, and a local branch of Ye Olde Magick Shoppe. The Forest of Youth to the north of Gurth City is a known hideout of hellhounds and cruel puppets, thus the Gurth Woodland Trail to the southwest of the capital is preferred. The massive forest of Mauldwood, along with the Borphee River, divides Gurth from the Northlands.
The Southlands of Quendor are known for their many fine artisans, and Gurth is no exception. Tourists were able to make arrangements at the various guildhalls to see carpenters, woodcarvers, rock cutters, potmakers, and basket weavers at work. Gurth City is the site of the Gurth City Crafts Fair, held every weekend during the spring. In early autumn, the annual Harvest Festival gets underway for a colorful two-week celebration featuring local foods, drinks, song and dance.
Since the weather is absolutely wonderful most of the year, Gurth is a prime vacation land, with many activities to choose from, including sky diving near the mountains of Gurth, bullfighting, surfing, skin diving and glurking (rates for these events vary seasonally, but in 873 GUE, a day's worth of any of these activities costed no more than 2 or 3 zorkmids). In fact its nickname, along with Mithicus, is the Vacation Province. However, it can sometimes get unbearably hot during the peak summer months. Adventurers are always recommended to add mosquito netting to their inventory.
Gurth and Mithicus are together governed by an informal board of 13,000 citizens that meets three times each day to settle disputes and ratify the provincial budget.
The easiest means to reach Gurth are by taking the Coast Road south from Borphee or sailing to Mizniaport and heading westward from there. In 873, travel from any of the Westlands commonly costed no more than 5 zorkmids.
The flower of Gurth and Mithicus is the Morgia, and their motto is "Utribiz oomum flaxil zobs" ("Don't eat moldy bread")
GURTH & MITHICUS
PROVINCE STATS (873 GUE)Population: 2,883,190
Land Area: 21,545 square bloits
HISTORY OF GURTH
Gurth, and the other three major cities of the Southlands, Mithicus and Miznia, all date back many centuries before the invasions of Pseudo-Duncanthrax (early 660s GUE), and local tradition narrates that all three once lived together in harmony under the reign of the nearly forgotten Anatian Empire. If the Great Platypus Transformation (800 BE) is correct, then some of the inhabitants of the Southlands may be survivors that managed to escape the curse. This small remnant of humans multiplied and grew into the modern Quendoran cities, which would be later renamed Mizniaport, Gurth, and Mithicus.
In the ensuing vanity following Pheebor’s defeat in 396 BE, the Borpheans became rather excited about the notion of conquering new lands. After countless humbly uninquisitive generations, the population had flourished and the people were suddenly curious about what else lay beyond their borders. The first wave of settlers discovered the struggling remnants of the two cardinal villages of the Mithican tribes. The settlers utilized the villages and named them Gurth and Mithicus. Since then, the two provinces have become a haven for artisans, and the colorless Fields of Frotzen, located within Gurth, are renowned for their incredible agricultural capacity. Seeds that are planted within the fields often ripen within days. This attribute has made it the second most abundant agricultural region in the Westlands.
The cities in the Southlands were notoriously poor at chronicling their own histories, and thus the several centuries of time before the invasions of Pseudo-Duncanthrax (early 660s) have generally been lost to the mists of time. After conquering Mauldwood, and merging it into the province of Greater Borphee, one by one, the neighboring principalities of Miznia, Gurth, and Mithicus were brought under Quendoran sway and given new provincial administrations. The forms of local government to be found in the Southlands in the 9th century were in all likelihood direct descendants of the original systems that had been in place for hundreds of years before their incorporation into greater Quendor. In fact, Duncanthrax was well-known for preserving local systems of government in areas that he otherwise felt inclined to destroy entirely.
Following the disaster of the Curse of Megaboz in 883 GUE, entropy quickly took hold of the surface world. Lands were torn by violence and discord. Faced with the fact that Quendor was well past its prime, the once-great cities on both continents became dens of misery and confusion; lands were torn by violence and discord. The older provinces of the Westlands were characterized by a surprising rebirth of the ancient city-states as divided in the ancient era before Entharion. Borphee, in close communication with Accardi, and more concerned with its mercantile interests in Miznia and Gurth to the south, discarded the bulk of the ruined empire to the north, creating an immense territorial vacuum between Borphee and Mareilon.