Scavenger Lands

The most populous hub of the East, consisting mainly of the River Leagues members, the most notable members of which are the city-states of Lookshy, Nexus, and Great Forks. The landscape is dominated by the major rivers of the Yanaze, the Yellow River, the Grey River, and the River of Tears. The Rolling River and the Avarice River are two other 'minor' rivers in the region, though each is competitive with the largest rivers on Earth.

The Scavenger Lands are so named because of their many ruins, filled with treasures of a past age, such as Denandsor, the Empty City, giving rise to an entire scavenging profession. This profession is made up of professional adventurer-archaeologists and flat-out treasure-hunters, all seeking relics of the Shogunate and First Age with which to enrich themselves.

The Confederation of Rivers

The Confederation of Rivers - sometimes also called the Rivers League, or the League of Rivers - is a political and trade council made up of the major powers and most of the minor powers in the Scavenger Lands. Generally speaking, most of the locations in the Scavenger Lands have representatives on the Confederation council, and those that don't tend to be those with stated antipathy for the Confederation: Thorns, Greyfalls, Joraba and similar locales.

The Lords of the Rivers

These nations and city-states are easily the most powerful of all the nations and cities in the Scavenger Lands. Each of them holds a position of tremendous importance in the Confederation of Rivers, and is a force to be reckoned with.

• Nexus: The largest city in the Scavenger Lands, Nexus is ruled by a shadowy council known as the Council of Entities, and serves as the headquarters for the Guild. A genuine hive of scum and villainy, Nexus has many laws and edicts, but only one real rule: nothing may obstruct trade.
• Lookshy: The severe and disciplined city-state of Lookshy is the most potent military force in the Scavenger Lands. Ruled by a handful of Dragon-Blooded houses referred to by the First Age term "Gentes," the Dragon-Blooded of Lookshy do not serve the Scarlet Empire. Instead, they are the last remaining elements of the old Shogunate, and have defied the power of the Scarlet Empress on many occasions. Their ability to do this is due to two things: the pervading military culture that defines citizenship in Lookshy, and the potent store of First Age artifacts and magical technology the Dragon-Blooded population of Lookshy have at their disposal.
• Great Forks: Considered a city of wonders, Great Forks is known for its overt hedonism and party atmosphere. It is also known for the large population of gods that dwell there, for Great Forks is also called the City of Temples. It is ruled over by a triumvirate of gods, and its laws tend to favor divinities.
• Sijan: The Funeral City is more than simply a necropolis - it is a culture and civilization based around funereal practices and the propitiation of the dead. Distinctly neutral in disputes between mortal states, Sijan has acted as mediators between the nations of the living and the nations of the dead in the past. It is ruled by the Mortician's Guild, an elite gathering of embalmists, necromancers and ancestor cult priests.

The Hundred Kingdoms

The eastern half of the Scavenger Lands, the Hundred Kingdoms is a huge swathe of territory in which have risen and fallen hundreds upon hundreds of various nations, territories, city-states and other political formations in the years since the Contagion. To this day, it is a seething morass of political aspirations, petty warlords, alliances and betrayals, made up primarily of kingdoms and domains a week or two across at most - the majority of the "kingdoms" in the Hundred Kingdoms are made up of singular cities, with a few outlying settlements in every direction that look to that city for protection.

The Hundred Kingdoms region of the River Province is the largest unified region in Creation that is not part of the Realm. The exact number of nation and city-states in this region is constantly changing, but they are nearly all member-states of the Confederation of Rivers.

The Hundred Kingdoms are generally looked down upon by the Realm and the superpowers of the River Province because they do not wield much power individually, and are a constant political and military nuisance. Hundred Kingdoms nations lining the Yellow, Gray, Meander, and Maruto Rivers are often thought of as little more than pirate states for the taxes and tariffs that they impose on travel and trade, while at the same time thy contribute little.

However, at several times in the past the Hundred Kingdoms have proven to be the deciding factor in military and political conflicts throughout the East. Military contingents assembled from the region, for example, were crucial in turning away several Realm invasions, including helping in the most recent Realm invasion via the city of Thorns. The southern Hundred Kingdoms, with the aid of the Seventh Legion, have proved to be an effective shield against the hordes of the warlord Ma-Ha-Suchi, while the northern Kingdoms have proved effective in that same role against the Linowan.

Eastern Hundred Kingdoms

• Aryvyras: X
• Cho-Holuth: X
• Darangin: X
• The Girian Protectorate: A nation made up of four sizeable cities, the Girian Protectorate is less than a century old. In its short existence it has made a name for itself as a home to mercenaries, and is ruled by the Council of Armsmen, a ruling council made up of the leaders of all the member mercenary companies.
• Kalishar: X
• The Keldin Cliff-Cities: A nation of ancient settlements dug into the cliffs that overlook the Yellow River, the Keldin Cliff-Cities are known for their fine statuary work and stone craftsmanship.
• Laris: X
• Mahanaga: X
• Marita: X
• Matetha: X
• Meresh: X
• Nathir: X
• Nechara: X
• Rana: X
• Velen: X

Western Hundred Kingdoms

• Helz: X
• Lugwaal: X
• Melevhil: X
• Mugadesh: X
• Starshalla: X
• Werendut: X

The Last Vestiges of the Realm

Though the Realm is all but ousted from the Scavenger Lands, particularly in the wake of the Scarlet Empress' disappearance, there are only two places that are yet under the thumb of the Blessed Isle's Great Houses: the far-off nation of Greyfalls, and the southern jungle-kingdom of Joraba.

• Greyfalls: X
• Joraba: A nation once heavily segregated by a divinely-mandated caste system, Golden Joraba was "liberated" by the Legions nearly fifty years ago. Now one of the few strongholds of the Cathak Legions away from the Blessed Isle, Joraba is one of the few places in the Scavenger Lands still fulfilling its duties as a satrapy of the Realm.

The Range Towns of Marukan

The range-towns established long ago by the Marukani tribes for trading, the Range Towns have formed a government among themselves that is separate from the lives of the tribal horsemen.

• Mishaka: X
• Deren's Ford: X
• Celeren: X
• Puyo: X
• Varsi: X

The Republic of Chaya

A peaceful, friendly republic that experiences a strange annual madness.

Notable Cities: Larjyn

Lands of the Dead

The Scavenger Lands suffer from not one but several massive Shadowlands. Into these places, the dead always rise up from the Underworld, and in at least two cases, a Deathlord - one of the mighty and ancient dead lieges of ghosts - have arisen as well, and built their black citadels in the heart of these fell places.

• Walker's Realm: An ancient Shadowlands south of Great Forks, this Shadowlands is rulled by the Walker in Darkness from his citadel, the Ebon Spires of Pyrron.
• Thorns: The youngest Shadowlands in the River Province, Thorns was once a thriving city of the Confederation of Rivers. Then, its royalty ceded power to the Scarlet Empire, and war broke out between Thorns and the rest of the Confederation of Rivers. Thanks to the overwhelming numbers of Hundred Kingdom soldiers, and the advanced tactics and weaponry of Lookshy's Seventh Legion, they were beaten back and the Dragon-Blooded put to flight. Thorns was weak and vulnerable, however, and it didn't stand a chance when the Mask of Winters came with his terrible undead army and his citadel atop the massive animated behemoth corpse known as Juggernaut. Now, it is a land of the dead.

Scavenger Lands Barbarians

The tribal folk of the Scavenger Lands range from the quite savage to the nearly civilized. Even the wildest of them, however, know that they stand to benefit from trade with the stinking cities, and so tend to limit their attempts to raid the greatest of settlements. Still, this doesn't quite protect the outlying villages and traveling caravans of the area from falling victim to the occasional barbarian raid.

• The Karala: X
• The Hill Folk: A tribe of proud barbarians in the hills of the central Scavenger Lands, the Hill Folk maintain their way of life through sheer determination and grind-jawed will. Many Hill Folk men act as mercenaries and hired axes, while the quality of their leather goods are highly sought after in Scavenger Lands markets (and beyond).
• The Riverlin: The Riverlin are a merry, river-going tribe of folk. Though many consider them to be barbarians like the Hill Folk, the Riverlin are more of a loose coalition of vagabonds and gypsies than anything else, though they do have a distinct tribal culture all their own. Clans of Riverlin each own at least a single boat, and the Riverlin travel in small groups of five to fifteen such boats, all marked with brightly colored pennants. When the Riverlin arrive in a town or city, they bring a festival atmosphere to the proceedings, acting as tinkers, traders, piercers, tattooists and fortune tellers.
• The Marukani Alliance: Though the Marukani do have settlements and even a city or two, the Marukani themselves - like the Delzahn of the South - still choose to uphold the nomad's way of life as inherently superior. Though some of them Marukani choose to remain in settled areas to facilitate trade, most Marukani spend only a few weeks out of the year in the various steadings and clanhalls they maintain in these settled areas. For the most part, they follow their herds of horses, tending to them and continuing to travel from watering hole to watering hole, avoiding overburdening any singular stretch of land with the sheer number of horses they've raised.