New+Starting+Lands

=__**New Starting Lands**__=

__**PREDALLEN**__

The Kingdom that is buying the Slaves on the ship Ghostmoon

__**The Elven Homeland**__
Tom's description of elves and their culture is under the New Character section of this website.

__**The Dwarven Homeland**__
Tom's description of dwarves and their culture is under the New Character section of this website.

**__The Weathered Kingdoms__**
1) Land area This area is way South and little west of the #|lands that you know of. They are a chain of 9 major islands roughly the size of England and numerous smaller ones. The kingdoms lay in the middle of a warm gulf like stream that allows them mellow winters compared to how far south from the equator they lay. The bad news is they tend to get battered during in the fall and early winter by Hurricane like storms; it's how they earned their name, Weathered Kingdoms. Most of these lands tend to be very hilly with small mountain ranges scattered all around the lands, picture Scotland like weather, conditions and land type. Due to the severe storms that hit this area the #|local people tend to farm hardier plants than grains that can be wiped out by a early storm. There is still some grain types of crops but most tend to be tuber types: potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage and other type of crops that will not be damaged by high winds or strong rains. This is also true for the herd animals. They do have a few cows, but the main herd animals are goats, sheep, somewhat wild pigs; hardier animals that can live unattended for longer lengths or survive rougher weather. They also seem to have a no problems in finding ores of all sorts, except it seems the rare ores are even harder to find here then in other locations. 2) The People The kingdoms tend to share a number of cultural traits which backs up a very old myth, stories that at one time they were united and ruled by one leader. However that seems to be such a long time ago that it lies in the realm of the King Arthur and Camelot type of stories The Weathered Kingdoms have very strong clans, and being able to trace a family line not only in your own clan but how it is connected to other clans is considered highly important. A true surname could be very long with a tracing of blood lines that go back ages. Certain names hold a great mystique in these kingdoms. Most of the islands tend to have one clan that dominates the local lands with their size and power but there seems to be a lack of will to unite these lands under one true ruler. It seems to be a cultural belief in identity so strong for the respect of the right of other clans, that the idea of conquering them to force them into a single kingdom is met with scorn. The Kingdoms have regular festivals that also serve as gatherings for local leaders to meet and work out problems. The councils of these meetings are not law but if their judgment is not followed the clan that disobeys can meet a great deal of blowback from the other clans. There are festivals that allow all of the clans of each island to meet every year. There is even a roaming festival that goes from island to island that allows the major clan leaders of other islands to meet to work out issues. Dwarves seem to like these lands; the story is they like the constant parties at the festivals with the heavy drinking and such. But the dwarves claim that they come to the kingdoms because of the abundant ores that are to be found there. But there is a dark side as well, and that is to be unclanned!! They have a another name for these poor people "The Unclanned" as anther title, to have no clan line, to be disowned; there is no greater bane in this culture. They live on the outskirts of cities and even if the laws protect them from being killed outright or being stolen from, it does not protect with equal treatment when it comes to owning lands and such.



__ The Accord __
 The Accord is a very small Kingdom but it is very important for a few reasons: 1) It is the only known area where Dwarves and Elves live and work and rule together in decent numbers;  2) It is the birth place of most half-elves  3) Humans are not allowed any positions of rank   Located due south of the Politzanian land mass this is the second-largest land mass in the world, but most of it is not at all inhabitable. With an active volcanic mountain range in the middle surrounded by a vast desert, only small locations along the coast give any hope to living societies. The Accord is one such spot, and in fact about the only decent sized population on this land mass. It is ruled in a joint effort by Dwarves and Elves with humans denied any positions of authority and in fact are a second-class people inside this society. It is not that the Dwarves and Elves hate the humans, it is just that this group firmly believes that humans are frail in moral value and/or too easily corrupted to be trusted with much power. In fact they keep tight control over the human population limiting any immigrants and at times forcing some human population to leave. These are called "relocations". The fact that some of the humans removed were considered troublemakers is not by accident. They attempt to make it as smooth as they can by paying the humans very well for their property. Despite this claimed distrust of humans it has not seemed to stop them from getting romantically involved with humans and a decent number of births of half-humans happens every year. Most of the half-elves tend to leave since they are not trusted by the elves and, because of the society, never trusted by the humans as well.



__**Free Traders**__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> The Free Trader cities are for the most part small and scattered all over the coastal lands in this world. These cities are mostly on lands leased from local cities or kingdoms. It seems the Free Traders like to avoid owning land and just want a port area to resupply, to drop off goods, repair, etc.. Outwardly they seem only interested in trading and not in local politics; that is the outward appearance at least. They are the main source of long range trading in this world and just a bunch of people that want to make a living on the seas and not bother any one. They claim no interest in world events and wish for peace and no conflict. All of their ships have a stylized FT on the main sail with the words made from wingless dragons forming the words. All of their ships are of a large size and all of them are equipped with magic to help them on their journeys with speed and protection that vary from ship to ship. They do NOT do coastal trips but journey from land mass to land mass, with the Politzanian land mass being the largest and many England-sized islands all over the world. They hold the key to the world economy.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> The cities of the FT are controlled by a Mayor appointed by the FT. The Mayor has only 2 jobs that concern the FT. One is to make sure that nothing slows downs or interferes with the FT operations. The second is to make sure that relations with the local authorities are smooth. Beyond that they seem not to care what happens or goes on in the cities. All types of races live in these cities and it is best to picture the scene from Star-Wars of the tavern with all sorts of villains hanging about. Anyone coming from this sort of background tends not to mention that they come from a FT city but will just name the closest city to the FT as their home to avoid getting a bad reputation.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;">

__**The Holdings**__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> The Holdings are a series of large islands on the equator ruled by Dragons! These 4 cities were created with the intention of using them as a example of how nice and fair a world ruled by Dragons would be, and the races would come to their senses. It seems this has failed so far. With a race of half-dragons ruling in their spot the dragons rule the cities very lawfully, at times without compassion, but always fairly. They also arrange marriages of important families in the cities with rumors of them working on breeding a true human. Every so often a "crusade" will leave one of the cities. These crusades can vary from an amount of 100 to a few hundred and composition can very. They travel the world helping kingdoms to enforce laws and spread the word of being under dragon rule. Most kingdoms accept this help at first, but they tend to wear out their welcome when they start to criticize local rulers for not being Lawful enough. But when asked to leave they do; it's the lawful thing to do! The people that leave the lands tend to come from two extremes. One tends to lawfulness without compasion and the other seems to be rebels without a clue; people that after a lifetime of strict law are starting to swing to the other extreme.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;">__**The Wilds**__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> Before the comet struck the area known now as The Wilds was an island chain which was located in a strategic location for shipping for a number of other island chains. The main island was blessed with a large natural port that helped the city located there grow to be one of the largest cities in the world, with a large port warehouse area and many commercial shops. The stories even claim that the Free Traders HQ were located there. But after the comet it became hard for a large city to feed itself due to climate change; it also seemed to change the trade winds and currents. Suddenly people started fleeing and income stopped flowing into the coffers of the rulers. Then the Enclave appeared, people preaching that the world was being over exploited and every one must return back to nature. It became obvious that magic was being used to destroy crops and storms to damage the remaining ships trying to use the port. Over several years the government collapsed which gave the Enclave the power to work out in the open. The Enclave finally came to power after years of constant warfare. Everyone left was forced to move out of cities, then large towns, then the villages. Everyone now lives in a similar style of the North American Natives, roaming tribes with no permanent home living off the land. A number of tribes have drifted back to a stone age life style, with few metal weapons. The Enclave rules this land preventing any large population from setting up any permanent settlements. Every 10 years they must all go to the ruins of the great city and be counted, and if the population is deemed too high some will be forced to migrate. This is the only time traders are allowed to trade with the populations of the islands. At this time the extra population is forced on the ships and sent away. There are stories told of people that do not return to the ruins to be counted, that try to hide from the Enclave. They are hunted down and killed. The power leading the Enclave is only guessed at and no one has ever stepped up to claim leadership, at least not in public.

__**The People**__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;">The culture that call themselves "The People" are one of the very few nomadic cultures in this world. They travel from the high plains in the winter back down toward the low plains in the summer. Picture the native Americans of the west, "Apache", etc. They believe they are the first people in the world and that horses as well originate from this land as a gift to them from the gods, and they guard and protect both with a very fierce determination. The only settled towns are along the coast that act as trading posts and consist mostly of a few old, dishonored, or injured "People" that live out their last days here, as well as foreigners that trade for the horse breeds here and a few unique foods and herbs in exchange for metal weapons. The tribes will compete for grazing lands, and settle feuds to avoid warfare between the tribes. They believe that it is a never-ending battle to protect the land from outsiders. An outsider landing and trying to establish a settlement will be meet by the combined might of all the tribes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;">__**Loki's Belt**__
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Loki's Belt is a series of landmasses that are somewhat close together and the Belt part of the name to this area is due to the way the lands string together forming a vague belt-like form. The Loki part is due the the consent bloody warfare that seems to never end in this area. With a number of warring orc tribes, and a human civilization that appears little better than the orcs in their behavior, the people in this area must be very tough and warlike to survive. This has brought about a strange alliance between 2 unique city states, the only known half-elf run city and the only known half-orc run city that work together to protect the lands they control. Anyone from this area is used to warfare and the constant brutal fight for survival and a nontrusting attitude toward strangers. The only blessing in this area is the very fertile land that provides an abundance for the farmers.