Kingdom of Renalta: The Kingdom of Renalta was restored by Queen Kouri ten years ago, prior to this, it was a series of villages and towns that mainly kept to themselves. This Kingdom is perhaps the most idyllic in belief and in practice, with the concerns of the people often directly addressed by the royalty themselves, a great deal of emphasis is placed upon keeping the commoner fed, clothed, and housed, with ample opportunities for work at every corner. Often times the royalty themselves can be seen, sometimes even without bodyguards, walking the streets like any regular commoner. This has earned them the reputation of being both trustworthy and zealously adored by the majority of the people.

The culture of Renalta is openly tolerant, though there is still some underlying dislike of the now banished gods whom punitively destroyed the kingdom one thousand years ago. Their military is zealous and loyal, but untested in real warfare and relatively small in comparison to the other major world powers. Religiously, they tend to scatter across several religions. Racially, they tend to be the most diverse nation, though this sometimes causes friction between two immigrants whose homeland kingdoms are at war.

In general, most of the land is farmland, rolling grassy hills, hamlets, and rivers, with foothills and mountains to the north, and forests to the west and south. East they have a direct border with Liveria, which has little in the way of trade due to the sometimes tense relations between the two kingdoms. Renalta is the only significantly populated city, but it is one of the most populated on the planet, easily spanning several kilometers in every direction and boasting large, open streets for trade with open, welcoming architecture. The recent population explosion from refugees is making even this city however a little crowded.

Kingdom of Liveria: Liveria is a single city-state with self-sustaining farmlands. They are isolationist in nature and their ruler, Crown-Prince Xavier, rejected the idea of folding into the greater Renaltan kingdom due to conflicting ideologies. Where Liveria wants to be left alone, Renalta wants to swing open its doors. This has led to some friction between the two kingdoms at points, with Liveria claiming total control over the only coastline Renalta could feasible use.

Liveria is small but determined, and their people tend to be either commoners who work for the rich, or the rich who pay tariffs and taxes to the royalty, whom in turn use said taxes and tariffs to ensure their isolationism remains intact.

Unlike Renalta’s open city architecture, Liveria as a city holds are more gothic architecture, with stone gargoyles and dark stone used in construction one could almost be forgiven for confusing the keep for a citadel of engineering genius. Almost.

Kingdom of Rheinfeld: A once united nation now fractured in civil war, Rheinfeld holds to a germanic culture and is highly religiously charged. To call Rheinfeld a religious state would be to do a disservice: Nay, it is not religious merely in government, it is religious in its language, religious in its stature, religious even in its wars and how it holds to simple social gatherings. Grand cathedrals of great beauty dot the landscape, in every town there is a church, in every family a crusader or a priest.

The Papacy represented the four hundred year old government of the state, ever in contact with the Gods it lost its right to rule with the banishment of the Gods ten years ago. With the Templar Order and Rheinfeld Republic both nipping at its heels, the Papacy has surrounded itself with mercenaries and commoners still loyal to its cause. Pope Irvine the IV is rarely seen by his own people, though, which sometimes causes dissention among the ranks.

The Templar Order is the religious military wing of the government that declared the Papacy’s right to rule defunct and void. They have by and far the best trained men for combat, and women for priesthood, though they lack the siege machines necessary to truly besiege the Papacy, and don’t have access to the lumber necessary to construct it thanks to the Republic. Currently they are led by Taigyn, a member of Kouri’s companions who banished the Gods ten years ago. Middle aged but still quite fierce in battle, this one eyed man is highly respected by most of his peers, save for his second in command, Davian, whom questions his every motive.

The Rheinfeld Republic is by and far the most idealistic though weakest of the three splinter factions. Primarily made up of commoners and young ex-crusaders, they hope to form a government that represents the typically repressed commoners, inspired to take it a step further than what reports of the idyllic lives of commoners in Renalta presently have. Their leadership is chaotic, but most agree that Alida Spiegal, the child of two immigrants from distant lands and herself an ex-templar, inspires the most faith and wields the most leadership out of all those who attempt to lead the Rheinfeld Republic.

Kingdom of Tuleria: The Kingdom of Tuleria is ruled by a triad council, and holds a merchant’s culture above most other concepts. They are the masters of trade now that the Free Holds is under attack from multiple angles and tend to stay out of the world’s affairs, save where their own survival is involved. Presently, one of the three leaders of the triad council has gone insane with power, and is attempting to overthrow the other two at Barracks Varro.

The landscape can be summarized as swamps and desert. While they are a trader’s nation, this was at first by necessity: They had no farmlands to speak of, and thus had to import food. They began to export speciality goods, and soon enough the “little friendly not-slaver culture” to the Free Holds was born. Notable, lizardmen rank as one of the highest demographics population-wise.

This nation also holds a proud naval tradition, and claims the most powerful fleet in the world. They also tend to be one of the only nations that trades with distant lands, thanks to their natural presence on the ocean, though contact with such peoples is extremely limited.

The Free Holds: The Free Holds is arguable the oldest nation still around, and is arguable hardly a nation at all. They are a series of city-states that hold to two creeds: That they shall only fight others when their own overall independence is threatened, and to keep trade as open as is possible. Infamously, they even deal in the slave trade, and monopolize the market at every opportunity. They have the most ingenius military save perhaps for the Goblin Holds, and boast the widest range of the finest assassins, mercenaries, and... “Physical Entertainers”...

The entirety of their territory is desert, save for the northern front, which is a frozen wasteland cut off by a magical barrier that has not been penetrated in thousands of years. Not that they much care, for profit is the single reason this nation is united and exists for.

Leadership is left to each hold’s currently reigning warlord to decide. Again, infamous, the laws of one hold can change overnight with the warlord’s sudden and unsurprising death. Followed up with the next one... And the next one... Some holds even place bets about how long the currently reigning warlord will live. After all, anything in the name of profit.

The city architecture and overall culture is a mix-mash, with a dominant Arabic culture present, though hints of Latin can be seen in some of the oldest holds.

The Goblin Holds: These are the Free Holds liberated over the last ten years by the Goblin Revolt led by Emperor Xixis Madheart, a shaman with a terrible powerful spell tome capable of rendering entire garrisons obsolete. The goblins have outlawed slavery, and work with other typically slave-races of the Free Holds, such as other humans and orcs.

The goblin hold is known for some of the most ingenius and unorthodox strategies ever created, partially thanks to Xixis, and partially thanks to his main military adviser, an orc named Nash Skullbringer. They even managed to tame massive sand worms known as ‘Asimov Worms’, and goblins ride them underneath the ground only to burst above ground and swallow several mercenaries whole before diving back into the sand.

Overall, they’ve finally gotten the attention of the entirety of the Free Holds, whom have made it their civic mandate to retake their holds, though neither side is making any significant steps forward after the recent taking and subsequent sacking of a now unnamed hold.

The Imperium: Ten thousand years ago, there was an Imperium that reigned over what is now the Amazons, Free Holds, Goblin Holds, and Tuleria. This Imperium was destroyed, and for ten thousand years a sliver of it remained hidden in a cavern system and maintained by a lich known as Maurie Merryweather. Kouri and her allies discovered them and aided in helping the lich bring back one hundred thousand souls to life by banishing the gods to ensure that they would not be immediately slain for the act of bringing so many back to life.

The Imperium now is a revived incarnation of its ten thousand year old ancestor. They fled the Free Holds and arrived in a heavily forested area, long ago abandoned thanks to whispers of evil from Rheinfeld priests. Undaunted, they set about clearing the forests and building their towns and cities, with Animus becoming the capital, and finding no evil creatures.

Their attempts at retaking their old homeland from the Free Holds were only initially successful. Surprising the Free Holds with their impressive one on one combat skills and formation-based tactics, they took one of the holds and renamed it to the West Hold Colonia--their foothold into their own homelands. They lost said Colonia shortly after as mercenaries and others used magic-based tactics, something the Imperium is not familiar with in the slightest, to decimate their legions and force a retreat.

The government of the Imperium can be summarized as a republican democracy with now Empress Maurie directing the military forces. Their nation, whilst struggling to remain populated, does inspire some fervour for their lucid dream of reuniting the world under civilization, order, and equality. Their architecture is grand and majestic, though not always tactically sound it does inspire their people.

The Underdark: A realm hidden underneath the world known as the Underdark, it is accessible through mostly mountainous areas. It leads miles into the ground, leading to the Drow, the Dwarves, and even Mindflayers. This land is entirely unmapped due to its chaotic and ever-changing nature; a tunnel that was there a week ago may no longer exist now. Most supernatural creatures hide within its depths as well, safe from the overworld thanks to the Drow’s inability to care that they exist, and the Dwarves mostly congregating near the surface.

The Drow live in a couple of large cities, where they sell indentured slaves, and have a primarily matriarchal government though men are not entirely excluded from power. Their architecture and general appearance often glorifies spiders and other arachnids, and they are infamous schemers and backstabbers, though few know the underground passages quite like they do, for even with its chaotic nature they know how to navigate it.

The Dwarves, on the other hand, live in great cities of iron and timber, and focus on living within mountains as natural fortresses. They are known as an eccentric people who have a love of all things rare and antique, and are often compared to the world’s greatest collective of librarians and collectors. They are also one of the only races whom speak and sometimes trade with the ever enigmatic Mechanists.

As for the Mechanists? They are a highly reclusive race of technological masterminds, responsible for introducing the world to black powder and firearms and are the sole producer of such technological marvels, for attempts to replicate them otherwise are mysteriously ineffective. Mechanist towns or cities are unknown, as nobody has ever seen them save the Mechanists, whom only rarely leave such places.