The Divided Realm
The Splitting of the Kingdom · the Drift-Realm and the Hoarmark
The Divided Realm (c. 870 B.F. onward) was the splitting of the united Kingdom of the North into two rival kingdoms after the death of King Sigmund the Cold — the larger northern Drift-Realm (ten Drifts) and the smaller southern Hoarmark (loyal to Wintermere and the line of Davard). It is the long, tragic middle of the Chronicle of the Kings of the North and the age of the great prophets.
The Split
When Sigmund’s son refused to ease the people’s burdens, ten of the Twelve Drifts broke away under Yarob, who — to keep his people from going up to Wintermere — set up rival shrines with golden warm-calves, the original sin of the northern realm. Thus:
- The Drift-Realm (north) — larger but apostate, its kings “walking in the warmth of Yarob,” drawn into the Solarite sun-cult.
- The Hoarmark (south) — smaller, centered on Wintermere and the Frosthall, its kings a mix of faithful reformers and “warm” idolaters.
The Age of the Prophets
Into this divided, declining realm the Hoarfather sent the prophets to call both kingdoms back from their Thaw: Elgar the Stormcaller and Elsa against the Embermite priests; Isen, who foretold the Winter King; the Twelve, thundering for justice and against the social Thaw. The prophets are the conscience of the Divided Realm.
The Fall
- The northern Drift-Realm fell first, c. 722 B.F., to the warm empire of Asshar; its ten Drifts were scattered and “lost in the warm lands” (the Lost Drifts).
- The southern Hoarmark lasted longer under occasional reforming kings, but fell at last (c. 586 B.F.) to Bavel, and its people were carried into the The Long Thaw Exile.
Significance
The Divided Realm teaches that a people that goes warm divides and falls — that idolatry and injustice rot a realm from within. Yet through its very tragedy the Hoarfather raised the prophets and sharpened the promise of the Winter King, so that the darkest age of the kingdom produced the brightest foretellings of Connor Frost.