VRIMINAX
Although the names of the original provinces are long since lost to
us, several pre-Flathead maps have survived that show the original
provincial boundaries. For the sake of convenience, the province of
Vriminax is referred to by the name of its chief city. When Entharion
the
Wise united the city-states to form the nation of Quendor, Vriminax was
one of seven-and-a-half provinces to enter the union (the others being
Galepath, Mareilon, Quendor, Znurg, Bozbar, Frobozz, and Borphee).
During
the Zucchini blights of the mid-fifth century, the zucchini crop in
both Bozbar and Vriminax were ruined for four seasons (from 460 to
463). By 474, the wars as a result of these Zucchinis, as well as the
population losses inflicted by the ongoing famine caused Bozbar to
suffer the longest throughout the entire affair. City and provincial
records record a population drop of an astounding 70% in just under ten
year. This pathetic state of
affairs was in clear evidence throughout the entire duration of the
conference at Znurg which freed the nations from this conflict. Dundor
of Vriminax was responsible for cleansing the entire city of Galepath
from a yipple rebellion during 466.
At
the time of Zilbo III's removal from power in 660 GUE, the provinces
were divided along rather arbitrary and outdated boundary lines that
had not been altered since the time of Entharion. In that same year,
Pseudo-Duncanthrax raised a
tremendous army to wage a systematic conquest of the neighboring
kingdoms. He moved swiftly and brutally against the southern
half of Borphee and put an end to the tottering and defenseless dynasty
of Mauldwood. Finally accomplishing the merger of the two halves,
Pseudo-Duncanthrax called the resulting territory Greater Borphee
Province. This move began a trend; one by one, the neighboring
principalities of Miznia, Gurth, and Mithicus were brought under
Quendoran sway and given new provincial administrations. With the
completion of the conquest of the Westlands, Duncanthrax was faced with
the peculiar problem of absorbing lands several times the size of his
original kingdom. Clearly it made little sense to turn each conquered
land into an individual province, since any one of the new territories
would be much larger than most of the original provinces combined. At
this point, realizing that the original seven provinces were now too
small to be effective in the new system, one of his many administrative
reforms was merging Galepath, Mareilon, Quendor, Znurg, Vriminax, Bozbar, and
Frobozz all into the Province of Frobozz, thus bringing to completion
the creation of the provincial system as we know it: Frobozz, Greater
Borphee, Miznia, Gurth, and Mithicus.
With
the final collapse of the Quendoran state in the older provinces of the
Westlands following the fall of the Empire in 883, the initial
political evolution of the area was characterized by a surprising
rebirth of the ancient city-states as prior to the days of Entharion
the Wise. The old families of nobility that had long controlled
Vriminax wasted no time in solidifying an alliance with Quendor, its
nearest neighbor and the most ancient of the northern cities. By 884,
the combined militias of the two cities occupied the western half
of the former Frobozz Province, under the notion that taking the
territory would provide a solid defensive zone between themselves and
the already growing tensions of Galepath and Mareilon. When war broke
out between Galepath and Marileon in 888, Vriminax and Quendor were in
no position to help either, as both were more involved in protecting
themselves against the incursions made by Kaldorn and Kovalli
respectively.
By the beginning of the tenth century, Syovar's
plea for a unified Kingdom of Zork was being considered by all the
leaders of the lands. Both Quendor and Vriminax had already benefited
in securing their own interests through Syovar's diplomacy. When the
Conference of Quendor was held in the old city of Quendor in the
Northlands, all the leaders of the surviving city-states, as well as
representatives rom Kovalli, Kaldorn and Antharia agreed to met. The
tremendous respect the nations felt for Syovar made the conference
possible. As it approached, a truce between all the warring neighbors
had been observed—but instead of working toward peace, the nations had
merely used this time to build huge armies, poised to attack should the
treaty not be signed. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Quendor was signed,
resulting once again in the unification of the entire under one unified
Kingdom of Zork.