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The Free Peninsula

Randwulf's Notes: My story: Blackpowder, takes place on the Free Peninsula. The Free Peninsula, also known as the Merchant's Peninsula is named for the number of free cities that reside on it. It is also the home of one minor kingdom, Choson, which is situated at the tip. The largest city on the peninsula is Avaris, with a population of ninety thousand, followed by Kelewan with seventy thousand, and Merewik, with sixty-five thousand. The peninsula has an immense trading advantage, as it is situated between the two upper branches of the Tyvean sea, which offers traders from eastern lands a shortcut to the interior and west of the continent. Among the peasants, both fishing and farming are made very profitable by long coastlines and fertile soil, aided by heavy spring rains to bring up worms and moisten dirt. A more recently exploited resource is metallic ore. The Dwarves of Dargeet have mined copper and iron since time immemorial, but the humans of the free cities are now starting mining operations too. There was a large reserve of one of the most sought after substances, blackrock, under the Earth near the city of Kelewan, though it was destroyed by the army of Avaris after a brutal war. Blackrock, when crushed, becomes blackpowder, which can then be used to propel projectiles. For the most part the free cities peacefully coexist. They have in the past gone to war however, over trading contracts and fishing grounds for the most part. The most recent war was was incited when Kelewan was found to be secretly mining from the world's largest blackpower reserve and enlisting thousands of new troops, Avaris declared war preemptively and detonated the entire mine to avoid future use. Being in the North, winters can be harsh, and summers can be brutal. In Spring and Autumn, particularly Spring, heavy rain soaks the land, causing dense growth in the forest and a mud season.

Kingdom of Jeiran Randwulf's Notes: Jeiran is the first part of this world I'm creating because of a partiular appeal it has to me that I wanted to work in somewhere. Most of it, including the capital, is shrouded in darkness 24/7. Many hundreds of years ago, Jeiran and the lands to the north of it were home to a huge and prosporous empire, Nethal, one of the world's leading powers. However, during a war between the sun god Illume and one of the moon gods, Alunae, the empire allied with Alunae, who would eventually lose. To punish the empire, Illume positioned Alunae between it and the himself, shrouding their lands in darkness. The area became unfit to support such a large state, as the only thing that can now grow is ghost grass, which only the Teeblek herds will eat. However, through fishing, mining and importing, the Kingdom of Jeiran grew from the southern ruins of the old empire. The area beyond the northern mountains, due to distance from food sources, became home to various clans of lesser humanoids. The vast majority of the kingdom's population farms and fishes in the area below Dark's Edge, but the capital of Nightsong (population 20,000) and it's port, Tyne (population 10,000) exist as a bastions of will, beating the odds simply by being above in the ring of darkness. In the extreme north of the Kingdom are two fortresses (5,000 and 2,000 population), the purpose of which are to keep the raiding inhabitants of the beastlands from getting a foothold in Jeiran. In the south is the mining town of Entrar (population 6,000), old Nethalian for entrance. It also serves as the main hub of overland importation and exportation to and from Jeiran. Four distinct peoples live in Jeiran. The most populous are the low folk, the group of people numbering aproximately 166,000 people that farm, fish, and mine below Dark's Edge. Second are the Duskwalkers, the pale people that live in the Darkness numbering about 51,000. From the capital of Nightsong they look down on the low folk, seeing them as weak and ignorant. The eternal darkness has taught the duskwalkers to be stealthy and often less than honest in order to live and many are members of darker guilds, allowed to operate in Jeiran under the King's terms. Third in population are the Kurtelai, the pale human barbarians of northern Jeiran. Like the beasts north of the kingdom, they follow the herds of Teeblek. They are not citizens nor do they align themselves with the kingdom. The fourth group is the elves of Yonwood. Though there is an unsaid agreement that they are a sovereign people, they often ally with Jeiran. Jeiran is currently ruled by King Makyl the fourth, advised by Randyl the Blackblade and Archmage Xake Urethil. At current they command an army of 9,000, with 3,000 in reserve.