Location from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
The western kingdom — mountainous, pagan, fiercely independent, and the first realm to fall when the Storm King's war begins.
Hernystir is Osten Ard's Celtic heartland — a kingdom that acknowledges the High King's suzerainty but maintains its own gods, its own language, and its own fiercely independent identity. The Hernystiri worship the old gods — Brynioch, Mircha, Rhynn — and their pagan practices put them at odds with the Aedonite faith spreading from Erkynland and Nabban. King Lluth's death and the Rimmersman invasion under Skali drive the Hernystiri into the Grianspog caves, where Maegwin holds them together through sheer will and increasingly dubious visions. The kingdom's fate during the war is one of the trilogy's most painful threads — a proud people driven underground, clinging to gods who may or may not be answering.
A landscape of green mountains, deep valleys, and ancient stone circles older than the Aedonite faith. The Taig — the great wooden hall at Hernysadharc — is the seat of power, its walls covered in carvings that tell the history of the Hernystiri people. The mountains of the Grianspog range provide both beauty and refuge. The light is softer here than in Erkynland, filtered through mist and cloud.
Also known as: Hernystir, The Western Kingdom