Song of Swords

This area is mostly populated by humans: the Alands; a nomadic people known for their skill with the bow and on horseback. The Kingdom of Alandi stands as a bulwark between the more agrarian peoples of the South and the hordes that periodically form on the steppe, and as such their fighting men bear the traits of both worlds: heavy armor, lances, guns, and castles, as well as the swift, skirmishing tactics, and bloody-mindedness of a pastoral warrior-culture.

An island nation located in the Northern Slivers, the island chain off the coast of Western Vosca, Clachland is a stony, barren land ruled over by clans of cattle-herding warriors and scrub-farmers. The Clachish people have a long and proud martial history, warring with the Albish of the South, the Lochmen to the West, and all other comers for centuries prior to the confederation of their people.

 

Now Clachland is united under one rule, a King situated in one of the powerful trade hubs on the coast. Having recently defeated the Krajini in a close-fought war in the Slivers, they are presently enjoying total dominion over the Western trade routes, and their cities have grown rich from the trade in beef, wool and tin. However, the Krajini grow restless in the South, and the Clachmen know it is only a matter of time until war comes again.

Dace is a young republic, founded by the former slaves of the Helion Empire, who were abandoned in their mining colony when the Orichalcum deposits dried up.

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Dace is a strange country. Its educated house-servants, well-versed in classical philosophy and the works of great Helian and Ruvian writers from antiquity, attempted to guide the nation in the direction of democracy, representative government and humanism. The average Dacian, however, is still a medieval peasant, a worker in an iron mine, or a salt-puller from the great salt-flats of the North. The Dacian government therefore is a zoo of warlords and populists, many of whom were mercenary commanders or even bandits prior to running for office.

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Despite Dace's problems, its mining industry is enormously productive (in steel and tin, goods in which the Orredin had only a passing interest and so left mostly untouched) and its people are fiercely patriotic, and despise foreigners. The unofficial emblem of Dace is a horde of rats devouring a snake, and anyone familiar with the military history of the nation would agree that it is an appropriate sigil.

A vast kingdom, the Western half of the former “Sunlit Empire of Ruvia” which was forged by Clovis the Great five hundred years ago. The Empire split along ethnic lines after Clovis' death, and Galli was, perhaps, the stronger half. Galli is not truly one nation, rather it is made up of twenty or so powerful duchies and principalities, most of which identify as “Gallian” only in the academic sense, rather calling themselves Aquilonians, Terisians, or Zellundians, and so on. Since the War of Ninety-Nine Kings, Galli has been slightly more united than ever before: all of the Dukes and Princes ostensibly answer to King Louis XIX, “The Hatchet-Faced,” though in practice they are still largely independent.

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Galli is a wealthy nation, rich in fertile fields, vineyards, and productive townships. Their warriors are known for their tremendously heavy cavalry and their strict discipline, and the knights of Galli are commonly understood to be equal to the Solar Knights of Illegon in chivalric virtue.

The Heartland of the once great Ruvian Empire, Illegon is truthfully a dominion of semi-autonomous states ruled over by the powerful city of Ruvia: the greatest city in the Genosian world. Many of the ancient structures of government which defined the Empire still live in Illegon, offices thousands of years old whose essential functions are still relevant today. Illegon is ruled by the Empress, who is also the Pontifatrix of the Ruvian Church, the largest of the Genosian religious factions and the most powerful by a broad margin.

 

Illegon's history may be martial, but these days they are primarily known as merchants and bankers, with enormous cities who rule by finance over the agrarian reaches and the small industrial towns which produce the goods whose import fuels the Empire's growth.

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Illegon, more than any other country, is known for its great expanse of colonies and trading posts that span across the continent and beyond, providing them with an ever-increasing influx of wealth and foreign goods to trade. The Holy Orders of Illegon—religious groups of knights often led by Divine Ascendants of the Solar God Genosus—are broadly stereotyped as the ideal incarnations of Solar Chivalry. This is partially deserved, though in recent years the wealth and decadence of the merchant nation has begun to erode this moral core of society.

An enormous Eastern power, Karthack is the oldest nation in the world, perhaps excepting Helion. Ruled over by the Zophkaga, the Sorcerer King of Kar-Karthack, the Thirteen Nations of Karthack have stood united against all threats, be they crusaders from the West, Steppeland Hordes from the East, or Southern raiders.

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Worshippers of the Moon Goddess Bocannadessia, whose living being is said to reside in the Black Citadel of Karthack, the mighty empire is a strange and foreign place for Western visitors. The people can all hear the distant song of their deity, melancholy one day, celebratory the next.

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All and sundry can be found in their kingdom, and they want for little, but trade plenty, just the same. The magnificent cities are wonders of magical science and engineering, often with entire districts rotating slowly on sorcerous energies to ease travel at rush hours and provide spectacles at night. The nation is divided into castes: the Workers, the Priests, the Warriors, and the Sorcerers.

Though once upon a time all were in theory equal, these days there is well-understood hierarchy, with Sorcerers at the top, and Workers at the bottom. The Priests have grand designs to upset this order, however, and (to hear them say it) restore some semblance of equity to the system.

Formerly the Eastern half of the Sunlit Empire of Ruvia, the Kaselreich is populated by the Kamens, a large linguistic group encompassing several ethnic groups. The Kaselreich, or the Empire of Kasel, is situated around the province of Kasel, which was and remains the heart of the country. Ruled over by the Emperor (alternatively called the Kaiser), the Reich is an enormous country with many political divisions.

 

Like their Gallian cousins, the Kamens face the eternal problem of squabbling nobility and inconsistent inheritance laws in its various provinces. Unlike the Gallians, the Reich has not experienced any major revolts against the Emperor in the last century, and a higher court does successfully impose some rules across the entire nation.

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The Kaselreich is known chiefly for three things: its industrious and clever people, its independent and proud crofters (small farmers), and the Schwarzvald. A cursed forest which periodically overtakes part of the Empire, the Schwarzvald is said by some to be a curse, a metaphysical wound left by some great massacre in the past, which spawns terrible monsters and evil spirits to periodically torment the Kamen people. The Schwarzvald spreads and shrinks with the Reich's borders, making it a specific curse upon the proud Kamen people from which they cannot escape. Brave men with fire and axe must drive back the black wood whenever it approaches, but many families huddle in fear at night, clutching spears or handguns, watching for signs of the creatures of the Black Forest that skulk about their homes, seeking a way inside.

Once a handful of trading posts ruled by pagan warlords, Svitgard has transformed over time into one of the bastions of Genosian civilization in the North. Though the Svitmen have always done things their own way, they have proven very receptive to the literacy and doctrine of Ruvian Genosism, and have led the fight to spread the Solar God's illuminating presence in the North.

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Ruled by the exceptionally affable Karl the Snickerer, a sensation in the Southern courts and much beloved by his people, great things surely await this unlikely kingdom in the frozen North.

Wracked by war and conflict, the Thanemarch's history is one of creeping desolation and desperate migration as the chill of the frozen horizon devours the nation. The Pagan kingdoms of the Thanemarch have continually fled South to seek warmer lands to settle, but those in the South, fearing invasion, have converted to Genosism.

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With the support of the enormous industry of their religious allies, these Southern kingdoms have held back the tide of northerners resolutely for centuries. The beleaguered survivors of the old ways have made their home in the unconquerable Wolfsmaw Isles, and many have turned to dark magics and dark powers to purchase a future for their people.