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The Authority of Arvale

The Wizards of Arvale formed a mighty nation of powerful magic, constructing their city of towers and castles of stone from the use of spells. The Towers within the main city house the Congress of Arvale, powerful mages which rule over the lands and dictate law. Relatively peaceful, Arvale has little qualms with it’s neighbors, though being directly adjacent to the Niktoktin and Mettlebasin leaves the lesser castes which can’t prove their worth in magic to fend for themselves from outside threats.

Bitterglen Druids' Grove

The Druids of Bitterglen are also partly home to rangers of Kasha who wish to learn more about primal magic and improve their understanding. The Druids of Bitterglen refuse to take a side, rather providing a refuge for those who want to stay out of the impending war between Kasha and Stag.

Blackrock (Landmark)

The island chain of Blackrock is named after its volcano, which is covered in millenias' worth of obsidian.

Cascadia

Giant halls of beautiful ivory and marble, Cascadia is a flourishing land primarily ruled by elves and humans. Tourism is a hot commodity in Cascadia.

Clan of the Iron Belly

Millenia old, the Clan of the Iron Belly has resided in the southern “belly” of the Niktoktin. Often travelling into the shallows of the Niktoktin for wood and skins, the Mountain Dwarves here are proficient in navigating the mountains of the Iron Belly. Similarly, the Iron Belly Clan has kept what evils that lurk within the Niktoktin from spilling to the south of Kestra.

Democracy of the Shattered Coast

Once a whole nation, the democracy used to span the whole land covered by what is now the Hellion Confederacy. Used to be known as the Hellion Democracy, and when it was, there were often massive squabbles which slowed nominations and terribly hurt tieflings of rare or odd origins.

The Everdark

The Everdark is an enchanted fey forest, with blue foliage and magical creatures aplenty. Similar to the Niktoktin, the land is incredibly dangerous, and it’s advised to avoid going anywhere near the Everdark without an expert who can steer you clear of dangers.

Featherglow

The Bureaucracy of Featherglow is home to a large desert. The north-western lands of Featherglow are primarily sand and oases, and the city of Lorendan is built upon one itself. The south-eastern portions of Featherglow are heavily arid, though some small patches of true forest still grow in the hills. In recent years, the Iron Republic and Featherglow waged such a long and bloody war which ultimately ended in a stalemate after nearly a decade. For Featherglow, the war ending in a truce was favorable due to lack of morale and seeming impossibility to ever penetrate the Iron Curtain.

Glades of Galdenhorn

The Glades of Galdenhorn is a peaceful land of wood and high elves, who avoid conflict whenever possible but don’t give land for free. They occasionally have sold land – once the island of Helmeter, and recently some less desirable southern lands to the Authority of Arvale.

Gryphonquill

Gryphonquill is a land of giants, and primarily peaceful with all who travel or stay within. They have little interest in expansion, and provide quality trade of large woodworks.

The Helmeter Association

A conglomerate created by veterans of trade wars, the island of Helmeter was purchased from the Glades of Galdenhorn for a large sum. Since then, the Helmeter Association has monitored the northern canal between the western portion and eastern portion of Kestra – organizing, filtering, and monitoring the entire canal for conflict and contraband.

Isle of Graff

The Isle of Graff is a self-sufficient island between the Shard and the rest of Kestra, with high walls all along it’s outer shores and very limited trade. Not much is known about what lies within the walls of Graff.

The Iron Republic

The Iron Republic refuses to stand down from what it deems is right, and yields no land to invaders. The Crimson Fields within the Iron Republic are not natural – rather, the blood-spill over the land has tainted the soil and flora so much so that it has turned it a bloody, crimson red. After going to war with Featherglow for nearly a decade over Featherglow’s supposed bad practices, they agreed upon a truce and demilitarization zone between their lands. For the Iron Republic, this was done partly out of desperation, as manpower was weak and the Everdark was as aggressive as ever to spread westward.

The Hellion Confederacy

Splitting from the Democracy, the lands now known as the Hellion Confederacy are ruled by mostly free peoples and a still rather democratic system. The reason for the split is mainly tiring debate between the importance of tiefling heritage and who deserved to be president, which is now no longer a problem due to a ban on mentioning such things at all across the whole nation.

Kasha

After fires raged through what is now known as the Shadows of Cinder, the people demanded that the leadership of Stag came to their aid in stopping the fire from spreading. As the lordship did nothing, the magic casters and heroic of the commonfolk came together to halt the fires at the mountain pass. Claiming the negligence of Stag’s queen and leadership, Kasha rose as a nation, consuming the western half of Stag and forming it’s own nation.

The Kingdom of Embersong

Ruled by the Ember King, the Kingdom of Embersong is a relatively peaceful though small nation, with little history of conflict. Few have true wishes for the Kingdom to fall due to the Ember King’s power in controlling the volcano of Blackrock. Centuries ago, the ashes of Blackrock’s biannual eruptions fell and threatened to block out the sun for the crop season all across Kestra. Answering the pleas of the commonfolk, a fire Genasi by the name of Emberron travelled to what is now known as King’s Rock off the coast of Embersong, near Alchemist’s Cove. Through pure primal elemental magic, Emberron was capable of halting the eruption of Blackrock, and has since passed on the throne to his heir, along with his power to control Blackrock. So not only does the Kingdom of Embersong prevent famine on Kestra – they have the power to bring such suffering to the whole continent, making them a risky adversary.

The Kletic Throne

The Kletic Throne is thousands of years old, and has done virtually no expansion since inception. Thought to be ruled by dwarves by far foreigners, the Kletic Throne is actually primarily a land of humans and assorted races. Slavery is common within the Kletic Throne, and travelling alone is a terrible idea…

Mettlebasin

Dominated by Orcs, the badlands of Mettlebasin are a treacherous land for most travelers without adequate protection. However, those which survive the encounters with the Orcs can find refuge and trade at Dogshead.

Stag

The Queendom of Stag was a comfortable and lazy nation before the Shadows of Cinder incident, now split into two nations; Kasha, and Stag. Impending war between the two nations is drawing near as the loyal citizens of both nations are at odds, deeming each other nation as wrongful.

The Niktokin Rainforest

A rainforest of gargantuan size, the Niktoktin is a bastion for aggressive wildlife. People go missing if they venture too close, and few have survived a trip through even its shortest routes. Those that have are often single survivors whose crazed ranting about hordes of villainous Kobolds or giant crocodiles often cause them to branded as lunatics, or ignored as liars.

View Associated Homebrew Creature: Kobold Mastermind

The Reach

Colonized and turned into a kingdom by a former resident of the Old Republic, the Reach was risen by the colonial overseer and first king, Gerald Riverfallow, on the island off the southwestern coast of Kestra, known as the Shard. Many years and a successful colony later, he demanded his colony be separated from the Old Republic. The Old Republic seceded the land without issue – providing stipulations that the Republic earns 30% of all taxes and is exempt from sanctions of oversea trade from the new kingdom. After six years with a stifled economy but happy people, King Riverfallow stopped paying the dues. Three years later, King Riverfallow was on an annual cruise around the Shard when his ship never returned to moor. Not two weeks after did his corpse wash up on the beach of one of the small islands in King’s Cove, now known as Grave Rock – where all the royalty of the Reach has been buried since, at the side of the first king.

The Shadowless Marsh

The Shadowless Marsh is home to a lot of swampland and marsh wildlife. Many years ago, a bridge was built along the east portion of the marsh which connected the Kingdom of Embersong and Windfall as a trade route – however, the growing perimeter of the marsh slowly eroded away the stonework, causing it to crumble and become unusable. Since then, the two nations have traded primarily using the thin tract of forest between the Niktoktin and the Shadowless Marsh through a midpoint handoff system at Nightwind. However, trade caravans keep going missing after the handoff, which is causing rising tensions between the Kingdom of Embersong and Windfall.

Umbraforge

The Umbraforge is home to Duergar which made their homes primarily in the upper mountains akin to regular dwarves in what now are called the North and South Umbraforge. Connected underground by the Underdark, the Duergar of the Umbraforge occasionally offer transportation services through the Underdark at an exorbitant fee for those too cowardly to pass through the thinning forests between the Shadowless Marsh and the Niktoktin. Tensions have eased in recent years between the Umbraforge and the Mountain Dwarves of the Iron Belly clan, though they have a long history of prolonged wars over who truly has rights to the topside stone.

The United Nation of Windfall

The Ergatocracy of Windfall is a prosperous nation, wealthy and resource plentiful. Originally being named Windfield, they purchased the lands south of the Minnow Plains through to the island chains past the Hordàn Cliffs from a nation once known as Balefall. After uniting the land under one flag, the nation was subsequently renamed to Windfall.