Rothringen

The Kingdom of Rothringen, established as an Imperial State during the reign of Bertold the Wise, is a region comprising the historical homelands of the Upper and Lower Rotheringian or Rothringien peoples. The Rothringian peoples were the sole foreign culture with which the Heartlanders held in typically well-regard. Their languages were similar enough to the Ancient Heartlandish, and the two cultures were united by camaraderie in defiance of the Mokosh Elgen Hegemony in Eastern Elgenea. Both states had been consistently opposed to the Mokosh conquest, although in certain areas such as the Petty Kingdom of Eisentrenk, this resistance was less vibrant than in the Mountainous regions to the north, which became well-known for displaying the heads of Mokosh Tributary-runners outside their villages.

By Bertold's Reign, the Rothringen had enjoyed a period of peace after the expulsion of the Mokosh in totality from all of Rothringia, but had remained splintered and politically divided due to the lack of a single leadership as the Heartlanders had enjoyed under Samson the Great. The ongoing conflicts to gain their independence had left much of the region desolated, and resulted in many states losing the land needed to support the armies which had ensured their sovereignty in earlier eras. As such, the resulting petty kingdoms that had emerged from the dissolution of the Khanate were in a state of chaotic disarray as they desperately sought to solidify their reigns. The Petty Kingdom of Eisentrenk, at this time, ruled by Liudhard II of the Wiberting dynasty. Eisentrenk, historically, had been the most prosperous region by virtue of its proximity to many resource-rich mountains in its hinterlands. However, these regions were now independent, having been liberated earlier, leaving Eisentrenk with much of its wealth intact, but now lacking the means to protect it. Seeing this, Liudhard petitioned Bertold, King of the Samsonites, to grant his protection to the Kingdom of Eisentrenk.

Bertold agreed, and offered this same protection to any other states in the region who would become subjects of the burgeoning Kingdom. Shortly thereafter, nearly a third of Rothringia had become tributaries or vassals of the Samsonite Kingdom. Bertold then proceeded to subjugate the remaining states in Rothringen after the growing Petty Kingdom of Fulcaire threatened one of his tributaries. The ensuing Rothringen War resulted in the forceful annexation of Fulcaire's kingdom and his allies, and the creation of the title of the Kingdom of Rothringen, held by the Samsonling Dynasty until 748 AS, when it was given special Administrative status, returning much of the control to its local lords who became the first granted Councillorship in what would become the Herrenversammlung.