Twilight of Empires

Acasă: Easternmost of the actual nations in the Anyube River basin. Legend says the nomad clans of the South Tikume Plains originated here. Acasă thrives on its livestock trade, both domestic and those of the Tikume tribesmen. Acasă has a fairly high population of Capritaurs.

Aldus: Seat of power of the Sorcerer's League. A largely dormant volcanic island in the Ebon Gulf, Aldus has a native population of fiercely independent herdsmen and fishermen. Because of its location, the island has been conquered, and lost, several times by both the Yamato Shogunate and the various north coast nations. This did lead to the construction of the port towns of Nord and Sud, and one should note the locals didn't rebel until after construction was completed. The League has an unexpected level of support, as they bring in more cash and goods than they ask for, plus they conquered those bastards across the strait in Granblue.

Arasha: Independent city-state, formerly the crown jewel of the Hazad Sultanate. Last year, the sultan and his advisors decided that they could make much better use of all that tax and tariff money they normally sent on to the Calif. Seeing as the main overland trade route from the Uruk Mandarinate runs through their territory, that is a lot of money. The first thing the sultan did with his liquid assets was to make a generous donation to Prince Imrahil of the House Tempus, thus securing the services of Imrahil's #2 storm mage general, Kala.

Blackstone Freeholding: A small almost-a-duchy founded thirty years ago by retiring adventurers and their allies in what was then the wilderness of the Fallow Marches. It isn't the back end of nowhere, but you can get there from here in a few day's ride. Main town is Newhaven, with a population just under eight hundred. Outlying villages include Woodsdrop (river port), Digglett's Bluff (iron mine), Xuǎnzé (plum orchard), and Echad-Lum (hunting and trapping).

Boisnoir: A former territory of the Asterian Empire, now functioning as an independent county on the southern edge of the Fallow Marches.

Daernys Keep: a small holding in the Fallow Marches upstream of Blackstone Freeholding. Formerly a hobgoblin tribe of hillmen who relocated for a better life.

Drog: Once the breadbasket of the Anyube River basin, after the death of King Pytor five years ago, it fell apart into a couple hundred squabbling duchies, and can barely feed itself. Destination of most of the lower end mercenaries in the region.

Gnoum: One of the very few Goblin majority nations. Most of the population lives in small communities in the Sagat Hills, with a few larger towns in the lowlands between Drog and Acasă, plus a few clans of Halveling warg-riders on the edges of the South Tikume Plains. Moderately prosperous and self-contained, Gnoums prefer not to get involved in the troubles of “big folk”.

Granblue: Formerly one of the stronger seafaring powers on the Ebon Gulf's north coast. Culturally pre-Christian Danish, their entertainments largely involved squabbling with their north coast neighbors, contending with Yamato over control of Albus, and inflicting morbid epic poetry upon the world. Granblue is entirely subjugaded by the Sorcerer's League, and now provides most of their mundane military force.

Kajia: A smaller, somewhat Germanic on the south shore of the Anyube River. The national pastime appears to involve recreational feuding with Philli. Every so often, the two nations will settle their differences to harass one of their neighbor states.

Kring Tribes: The modern history of the people of the Plains of Kring begins roughly five hundred years ago, when the great leader of the Mongrel Clans, Wandling Khan, unified his people, subjugated everyone who couldn't get out of his way, and eventually rode into western Asteria. The Empire, more or less at the height of it's strength at the time, gave him a short and pointed lesson in the power of stone fortifications and occult artillery against light cavalry formations.
The Kring survivors, backed up by the tribes who had escaped up towards the Starfallen Wastes, proceeded to drive off the invaders. Since then they appear to have resolved to not have any permanent settlements to attract invaders, save for Moonwind Gather, at the center of their range.

Lallybroch: A Scottish themed territory north of the Redfang Mountains and the Lalfallell Hills. Not so much a single country as a collection of barony sized intermittently feuding clans unified by their “us versus them” relationship with adjoining nations.

Mongrel Clans: Sometimes referred as “Mongrellia”, these fircely independant peoples occupy the arid grasslands and hills south of the Great EastFyre Desert and east of the Wall of Han. They are proud of their extremely mixed bloodlines, which has led to an odd level of peace for such an obviously Mongol-derived culture, and a population heavy in goblins and hobgoblins, and at most 30% human. Every so often, a great Khan will rise to unify the clans, and they will either make a run at invading the Mandarinate, or subjugating the tribes of the Kring Plains, and possibly nipping off a chunk of eastern Asteria.

Noc: Every fantasy world needs a nation of dark sorcery, and Noc is one of two. The primary form of occultism practiced here is spirit based, as opposed to their neighbor Tyh, with whom the Nocs feud incessantly, mostly over the Darkhold. This dispute collects most of the higher quality mercenaries in the area with minimal ethics. Culturally Polish influenced.

Paratalle: A quiet viscounty allied with Verdante, with a surprisingly high population for its size: Halvelings do take up less space than humans, after all. Like those of Tolkein's Shire, the citizens tend to be peaceful, if conservative.

Philli: A smaller, somewhat Germanic on the east shore of the Lazuli River. The national pastime appears to involve recreational feuding with Kajia. Every so often, the two nations will settle their differences to harass one of their neighbor states.

Polar Lords: A mysterious nation far to the north of Lallybroch. No one has seen the Lords themselves, save as masked and robed figures at a distance. Their minions, brutish Pleikko and cunning Seal-kies, are usually enough to make their will known to more southerly peoples. The Polar Lords are rumored to have near Elven mastery of ice and cold magic, and to dwell in a city beneath a crystalline dome of perpetual ice.

Rikkor: Another Saxon-background nation at the mouth of the Anyube River. One of the more stable small countries in the region, Rikkor prospers by controlling the trade between the nations of the Anyube river basin and the Yamato Shogunate. Expends most of its military resources fending off north coast raiders, and the occasional incursions across the Lazuli River by Kajia and Philli.

Sugat: A similar culture to Granblue, but crankier due to greater exposure to ocean weather. Sugat has better sailors than the other north coast nations, but poorer quality ships. While technically an independent state, Sugat's nobility is almost completely under the thumb of the Sorcerer's league.

Tildane: Saxon themed kingdom at the east end of the Ebon Gulf, on the north side of the Anyube River. Coastal geography doesn't support a major seaport, so Tildane focuses it's military endeavors on land, either squabbling with Vjorn or pursuing a somewhat specious ancestral claim over the Lallybroch hilands. Militarily, best known for their archers.

Tyh: Every fantasy world needs a nation of dark sorcery, and Tyh is one of two. The primary form of occultism practiced here is magecraft, as opposed to their neighbor Noc, with whom the Tyhs feud incessantly, mostly over the Darkhold. This dispute collects most of the higher quality mercenaries in the area with minimal ethics. Culturally Slavic in flavor.

Verdante: A small kingdom in the Lost Territories, occupying over eighty miles of the fertile Verd river valley, and a good stretch of the adjacent Camwood forest. This includes a somewhat ambitious extension to the Old Trade Road, and the village of Riverseat

Vjorn: Easternmost of the Danish-themed nations along the north coast of the Ebon Gulf. The worst sailors of the lot, but has the best farmland and fishing. National hobby appears to be picking fights with Tildane over border rights.

Vulfheld: Another squabbling nation on the north coast of the Ebon Gulf. Vulfheld is known for superior warriors, though some argue this is because of their strong trade ties to Starfallen Hall. Vulfheld has voluntarily sided with the Sorcerer's League at this time, giving the League a direct line to Dwarven goods.

Whiteholt: A former district of the Yamato Shogunate up at the north end of the Fallow Marches. Whiteholt was initially claimed by the Shogunate simply because there were people living there. Over the last two generations it has been largely abandoned by the Emperor, central administration has collapsed, and the populace focuses one making it day to day. Population is about 40% Yamato-ancestry humans, and 30% other human bloodlines.

Witchfel: An independent power in the Lost Territories, located on the southern edge of the Camwood west of the Castella River. Witchfel is led by Nymenche, the great elemental spirit of Lake Aloches, though she depends on her ministers for most governing functions. Most of the populace has some rudimentary ability to perceive spirits in some way, and nearly one in three can perform spirit based magics.

Woden: Hailed as the first of the north coast nations on the Ebon Gulf, Woden is a deeply religious nation, in part because they lay claim to three of the Last Holy Sites known to be still intact: the god of Rulership, the goddess of Talespinning, and that of the twin gods of Law and Justice. Somewhere back in the Redfang Mountains there is supposed to be a community of Sun Giants that is marginally cordial to the Woden.

Dwarven kingdoms (“Holds”) tend to be scattered through the major mountain ranges of Lunistria, with the Holds in any given range connected by extremely difficult to access tunnel networks. Dwarf holds tend to be economic rivals with one another, with carefully defined mutual defense treaties. These hardly ever are invoked, because few surface nations really want to lay siege to a mountain.

The Elves have done so, twice. Each time the assembled armies of the Northwalls drove off the attackers, formed up, and marched out into the lowlands to visit one of those artistic freestanding peaks Elven nobility is so fond of. Then, said mountain was reshaped into the head of a great Dwarven king of antiquity, enchanted for durability, and then cursed to be completely immune to any further magic. At which point the Dwarves marched home again.

• Bloodspine Hall: The primary Asterian source of Crocoite, aka Blood Silver, an important ingredient in Aelum. Also used in the Shining Steel alloys of the Dwarves, but they don't talk about that much.
• Defiant Hall: The western of the two Eastwall Mountain Halls adjacent to the Asterian Empire. The Defiant Dwarves have fought three multi-generation wars against the Asterians, and not lost a single one of them. Defiant Hall has a small vein of Adamantite ore, and spectacular ruby deposits.
• Fortuitous Hall: A lesser Hall, in the north-east Eastwalls. Famed for its stonemasons and sculptors.
• Gulmacher Hall: A small semi-independent mountain holding in the middle of the Asterian city of Gildemar. Formerly the richest source of gold in the southern empire, most of the mines are currently in a fallow state, blessed by the priests of the Tunnel God. Until they recover in a couple centuries, the miners of Gulmacher toil in smaller sites around the province. Gulmacher hall is also a major gateway to the underdark.
• Ironspine Hall: On the Elven side of the Northwalls, directly north of what is now King Derm's Monument.
• Jutenheld: Centuries ago, when Crimson Bone Hall was abandoned, some of the Dwarven Refugees stumbled across these caverns under the Asterian Central Highlands. Known for exotic crystals, and the spectacular Amethyst Mausoleum, where scores of Sun Giants are entombed.
• Lost Hall, The: South of Gulmacher Hall, at the base of the Alton-Shan Mountains, this was once known as Crimson Bone Hall, and the finest source of steel products in the northern continent. Then something happened to anger the Earth spirits, an Elemental Mouth opened, and the hall was overrun by manifest spirits from much deeper in the Plane of Earth than anyone had ever conceived. Adventurers will periodically raid the mountain for treasure, but in the five centuries since it fell, none have discerned how to appease the spirits.
• Obdurate Hall: On the Yamato side of the Northwalls. The Obdurate Dwarves have been chipping away at the mountain's Adamantite veins for three thousand years now. The Obdurate Dwarves feud recreationally with Yamato. (The Yamato samurai may not look on the situation quite the same way).
• Obsidiün Hall: Located in the Lost Brothers mountains in southwestern Asteria, this extinct volcano has a core of Obsidiün, a strangely dense and durable form of volcanic glass that only certain master crafters know how to shape.
• Red Night Hall: Elven side of the southern Eastwalls, due east of King Fahrn's Redoubt. Known for diamonds and coal.
• Salzbury Hall: A rare dwarven community not under a mountain, but on the edge of the Burninglass Desert. Known for their massive salt deposits, and that's just the near-surface areas.
• Starfallen Hall: In the mountains north of the Ebon Gulf. Extensive gem deposits, including those huge, self-luminous quartz crystals everyone sets up as centerpieces in their temples.
• Thrall's Gate Hall: The eastern of the two Eastwall Mountain Halls adjacent to the Asterian Empire. The Dwarves of Thrall's Gate have an ancient debt to the Empire that they don't discuss with outsiders, merely refer to. The iron of Thrall's Gate contains certain impurities we would attribute to Damascus Steel.
• Tinker's Peak: The Hold nearest Blackstone Freeholding, a few hundred miles downstream in the southern Eastwalls. Named for extensive tin deposits, Tinker Dwarves trade heavily with surface dwellers, largely for timber.
• Yí Hall: In the mountains north of the Mandarinate, west of the Gate of Han. Iron deposits.