Bossonian Marches

The is a country of the Hyborian Age.

Geography
The Bossonian marches are a stripe of land between Aquilonia, where they belong, and the Pictish Wilderness, extending from the Border Kingdom in the north to Zingara in the southwest. The marches have large walled villages.

History and politics
The marches were occupied by an aboriginal race, which was conquered by a tribe of Hyborians, early in the first ages of the drift, forming a mixed people. After centuries of warfare against the barbarian Picts in the west and Cimmerians in the north, they evolved their own war technolgy and tactics. Never attaining the civilization of the purer Hyborians, they were pushed to the very fringe of the civilized world. However they belong to the kingdom of Aquilonia, and form a bulwark against the barbarians. Typically Bossonian archers would hold off any barbarians before Aquilonian troops would arrive to support them.

Nonetheless, the Picts often stole grain, steel weapons and armor from them. They also copied from the Bossonians the art of making huts. The Cimmerians fought against the Bossonians and sometimes they made their way to Aquilonia itself for raids.

The ruder and less sophisticated Bossonians were derided by the haughty Aquilonians, who were self-proclaimed masters. They were taxed exorbitantly and were conscripted for the Aquilonian armies to fight for their territorial expansions, like in the campaign against Nemedia, with little gain for themselves. Few men were left to guard the frontier.

The Bossonian Marches were the first target of the Pictish invasion. The Bossonians, often aided by Aquilonian troops, held the invaders. Hearing of those outrages, whole Bossonian regiments quit the Nemedian campaign and marched to their land and fight in the frontier lines. The Picts were defeated in a great battle. Aquilonia punished them.

Fall
To punish the Bossonians for their desertion and the humiliating defeat by Nemedia, Aquilonian regiments were secretly brought to the borders of the marches, with savage Shemitish soldiers quartered among them in a guise of an expedition against the Picts. The Aquilonians invited the Bossonian chiefs to attend a great conclave, when the Shemitish turned on the unsuspecting, unarmed chiefs while the armored imperial hosts ravaged and burned the villagers and the people.

The marches were now a ruined and devastated land. But then the short-sighted retribution proved to be Aquilonia's demise. Without the Bossonian soldiers to hold them off, the Picts followed in a concerted rush against the Hyborian world. The invaders just swept the Bossonian remnants out of existence without opposition and swarmed into Aquilonia.

Population and culture
The Bossonians are descendants of aborigines and Hyborians. They are of medium height and complexion, with eyes brown or grey, and they are mesocephalic. They live mainly by agriculture, in large walled villages. They are sturdy archers and stubborn defensive fighters, having evolved a type of defense almost impregnable against direct attack.