Ziszerland is a mountainous land and was a part of the empire. During the Adarian Sucession Wars, the Ziszer rose up in rebellion against their foreign, absentee noble overlords, having grown weary crippling war taxes and of sending their young men to die uselessy for one faction or another as the nobles fought one another for the imperial throne. The nobles gather their troops and march into Ziszerland, intending to teach their rebellious subjects a hard lession. At first the nobles were sucessful and they overran Ziszerland, burning down many villages and plundering whatever stores they could, leaving the Ziszer homeless, without provisions for winter.
Instead of breaking the Ziszer's will by this brutal treatment, the Ziszer united and formed a confederation of cannons and instead of each village, town or area attempting to fight independently, they formed their units with members of each cannon in each formation. They then made pikes from the forrests and when the winter snows blocked the passes and trapped the heavy armored invaders in Ziszerland, the Ziszer with skies and snowshoes gathered together and slaughtered every single invader.
While this was in part revenge for the invading nobles and their mercenaries brutal treatment and plundering. The fact was that the Ziszer had no place to keep prisoners, not enough manpower to guard prisoners and continue the campaign against the invaders and perhaps most important of all, there was just not enough food for the Ziszers due to the plundering and burning of crops. Even after all the invaders were slain, many Ziszers stared to death that winter.
THE ZISZER TODAY
The Ziszerland is a loose confederation of cantons located in The Vaults, with a culture that draws from both Brettonia and The Empire. The Ziszer's main export are its cheese, chocolate and its famous bands of mercenary pikemen, found in armies across Albion and the Old World. These troops are highly paid professionals, very expensive and they will will not fight against other Ziszer mercenaries. Famous mercenary regiments include Emmerich Zoller's Black Berets, Stelnmann's Storming Band, The Blood Pikes, and Harcors Halberders.
A typical Ziszer mercenary company is armed in leather with pikes and swords. Some individual or whole units may be armed with halberds. Front rank men are often more heavily armored, being in scale. Most will have steel helmets.
Ziszer mercenaries have the reputation of being the very best soldiers money can buy. They are also reknown for their greed, their aggression (They have been known to charge cavalry units!). As long as they are paid on time, they will serve out their contract faithfully (they want return business and to be known as dependable mercenaries).
Ziszer are particularly blood-thirsty regarding noble foes whom they will not take prisoner for ransom (having fought their own long, bloody war for independence to free themselves from their noble overlords).
Zizser are also notorious for their treatment of other mercenaries whom they seek out intionally on the battlefield to slaughter (Both to intimidate other mercenaries and to remove completion). This policy of blood-thistyness has been very effect. Many mercenary units have routed or withdrawn even before battle was joined when they learned they would face Zizser mercenaries.
Ziszers make an excellent choice for bodyguards of an evil noble, as they possess more backbone than the average 'spear-carrier' and should provide your PCs with a decent fight. The most amoral of mercenaries, as long as they are paid on time, they will skillfully do their duty to their employer, even if that employer is a tyrannical evil noble and their duty is to break the peasant rebellion trying to overthrow the noble to gain independence.
They are notorious for their zeal - many a town has been rebuilt after receiving their attentions. As a result, Ziszers are ideal for any land-owner that wants to keep his feudal serfs underfoot. These can be used to create an impression of a town under military rule, if your noble uses them as a garrison in an unruly town.
