The Cantons of Feotar
Faerdor also known as The Cantons of Feotar (a native eriadorian name) was the easternmost of the Cardolandren successor states.
Faerdor in T.A. 1640[]
After the death of Cardolan's King Osthir on the Barrow-downs, the powerful nobility of Cardolan claimed nearly absolute power within their own lands. Abuses were common, but none more flagrant or violent than those of Gaertil the Bad, the lord of Faerdor and also the Canótaran of all of Cardolan. The paranoid Gaertil slew virtually all of his petty nobility before he in turn found death at the hands of his outraged bodyguards. Faerdor was left with no nobility, so the common folk decided to rule themselves. They divided Faerdor into Free Cantons around the twenty-three villages in the region, a number reduced to seventeen since the Plague. Formerly a barony, they drove all the local Dúnedain out of the country several generations back. Now an extremely loose confederation of independent communities, the Cantons were seldom capable of anything resembling a cohesive foreign policy, and their militia-based army was hopelessly disorganized. In spite of this, Faerdor seemed to produce charismatic leaders at will, and these could, with some advance warning, put together a rugged, aggressive infantry army that, if erratic in action, was at least always larger then any other in Cardolan. Baumyakund, general for the Faerdorrim throughout the Stonearm Wars of the 1630's, had been the most recent of these charismatic leaders.Later retired, he was respected throughout Cardolan and considered an expert on matters in Rhudaur.
Each village governed its own affairs, electing officials and a council to govern mundane matters. Communication between villages was rare, as each community strove for complete independence and selfsufficiency. Along the Gwathló, the system generally worked as imagined, with decisions made in town meetings. Inland, though, wealthier citizens dominated the village affairs, forming a new aristocracy among themselves. Sheep herding formed the largest industry in the Cantons, though the villages rarely traded with the outside world. Those few traders from Dunfearn and Tharbad with good relations in the Cantons regularly imported luxury items in exchange for the villages' surpluses of wool, grain, and the finest wine west of Dorwinion.
- Political Organization: Federation of independent villages.
- Rulers: Baumyakund, a retired general who formerly united the Cantons against invading armies from Minas Girithlin and Dol Tinereb.
- Administrative Organization: Each of the seventeen Cantons elects its own officials to organize matters of daily life.Terms are usually only for a matter of months, and all males over the age of twelve can vote. Land is privately owned, but each Canton owns plows and other large and expensive tools collectively.
- Population: 10.000 Cardolandrim.
- Military: A standing force of about 500 Northman professional soldiers is deployed among several strategic homesteads. Given six weeks or so. the villages can raise a militia force of roughly 4,000 Men.
- Products: Wool, copper, grain.
- Symbol: None.
In Later Years:[]
Faerdor looses population in the 17th century, but manages to retain a goodly portion of its people and holdings until well after the fall of the Witch-king. The collapse of Angmar bodes well for Faerdor's rise as a major power along the Gwathló, but the loss of Moria to the Balrog destroys the best market for its foodstuffs and cloth; the long dreamed-of Faerdorrim capture of Tharbad never occurs. Faerdor continues as a petty state until the Orcish invasion ofbthe 28th century destroys most of its steadings on the upper Gwathlo and what is left of its government. Descendants of the Faerdorrim continue to live as Shepherds and Farmers in small and scattered farmsteads and hamlets in the southeastern South Downs, along the Mitheithel or north of the Greenway but are disunited and often harrassed by Brigands.An attempt to rebuild along the Gwathlo in the 30th century results in a state dominated by the Cult of the White Hand, a secret society financed and controlled by Saruman the Wizard. Only after the end of the War of the Ring are local leaders able to organize a new Faerdorrim Confederation; they are willing to accept the new King of Arnor as their ruler and he, in his turn, guarantees the freedoms of the Cantons they had fought for so long.In the early Fourth Age the Faerdorrim reunite and support the new King Elessar I.
References:[]
- MERP:Arnor