Humans of Khadin

Rough Draft

Gir
The human military nation of Gir. Legalized slavery & gladiatorial games play major roles in Gir culture. Gir's military & thus the entire nation is controlled by the the military leaders of the High Command, and they all answer to the High Commander. Over a generation ago, in response to a radical decree that would abolish slavery, the High Commander conspired with the House of Rooks and Owls and led a coup against the Emperor of Gir of the House of Crows. The Emperor & his wife were executed and all of their children and kin of the House of Crows were cast into the gladiator arena where they all perished horribly. It turns out that is not entirely true. One of the Crow children continued to survive the area, gaining fame and popularity to the point that outright executing him would be an unwise choice given the fragile hold High Command currently held upon the houses and people of Gir. The man earned his freedom and vanished. It was believed that he was likely to have perished, probably assassinated by agents of the High Command, but whatever his fate, no one knew for sure. A generation later, a drunken bard sang a tale of a young man, the only survivor in his family from the madness of his father and that the boy bore a mark his father had given him. The boy was known as Aidan Stormcrow. Ears heard the tale and understood it's meaning. The House of Rooks plotted, the invisible House of Ravens whispered and sent out eyes and ears and the Houses of Mallards and Magpie began to ready themselves if the Ravens turned up truth.
It had been the High Commander who had given the command that sealed the dwarves of Olmon within their city when a sickness began to spread amongst them. His unreasonable hatred for non-humans is particularly well known, and this act was seen by the neighboring nations as genocide, creating an even greater enmity between them. The High Commander has in recent years forged an alliance with the reigning Prince Cir of Sedas. This move is very unpopular with many of the elves and especially the other nations of Ilren, causing their relationships with the elves to deteriorate.
Sedas and Gir recently invaded the valley of the Kaishan in the northwest Olora Mountains, massacring the adults of the peaceful catfolk and taking the children as slaves (which the Prince of Sedas chose to legalize, seemingly upon a whim). This incident would spark an unexpected reactions from the gnoll tribes in the North. Due to some treaty or alliance that Gir and Sedas were unaware of, the gnolls were outraged by the massacre and enslavement of the kaishan and began attacking locals in both northern Sedas and Gir. The gnolls succeeded in seizing the Gir outpost located at the ancient gates of Olmon and have flung the sealed gates wide open. The gnolls sent troops within Olmon and traveled beyond the first fallen city beyond the gate to find the dwarves still alive in cities deeper in the world. The gnolls and dwarves spoke for days and the dwarves decided that their return to the surface was overdue; Gir needed to be held responsible for their actions and Sedas needed to be set right again, the Prince pulled down and his sister put in his place until she could be crowned Queen or her fathers health restored.

Noble, Military & Guild Houses of Gir

Hana
The human republic of Hana, which borders on both Sedas, Gir & Kanith (separating Gir & Kanith in the east). Hana is actually a number of kingdoms that have banded together to form a larger republic.

Kanith
The primarily human nation of Kanith is on the easternmost part of the continent, though they have numerous conclaves & provinces for other races that accept & follow their laws. Kanith is a spiritual nation and is where all faithful must one day travel in order to be recognized as full fledged members of their faith. The largest city in Kanith is simply called the Lance, named after the impossibly tall spire at the center of the city, guarded by many temples of the gods. The Lance was an ancient weapon created by a union of races & forgotten nations when they had assaulted & destroyed heaven & the primordial first gods - forcing the younger gods to flee heaven & take up residence within the planes of Creation. The Lance was tied into the primal elements of Creation and could not be destroyed outright without also destroying the world, the planes, everything - so the gods set the task to their faithful to guard the weapon against ever being used again. These faithful formed churches and formed a council to rule the city and later the country that would spring up and spread around them. Kanith is well known for the many enclaves of different races that live within their lands. So long as any group accepts their basic laws, they are allowed to establish recognized enclaves that are under the protection of the Lance. The largest known dwarven enclave called The Hill, is located north of the Lance. Kanith is also home to a number of orc & goblin clans & tribes. The goblins tribes raid towns & enclaves & ultimately seek to seize control of the Lance, destroy the churches of the gods & use the Lance to slay the gods & resurrect the primordials they worship. The orcs worship some of the darker gods, but oppose the primordials as do most other races. The orcs pose a threat to both Hana and Kanith lands as they seek glory in battle and conquest to establish and expand their territory. Both Hana & Kanith refuse to recognize the orc territories, which are called Grunnlag, insisting that they orcs are instead an infection upon their rightful lands.

Kuth
South of these nations, before reaching the Taren mountains are the vast hag ruled Kuth swamps. The great river Andir flows from the north, through the swamps & into a great cauldron lake at the northern side of the Taren mountains & then vanishes below ground from there into Nir. A road follows the river through the swamps. The elves say that the hags, who love to make deals & contracts, respect some ancient treaty from time before the Lance was built that prevents them from attacking those who strictly stick to the road, which has always seemed to be the truth. With the Nir gone, few travel this road now & it has been largely claimed by the swamp. It is said that the dark races that dwell within the swamps here were once the reigning races in the world when the old primordial gods controlled creation before the lost nations built & destroyed heaven with the Lance of Kanith. When the gods took control of the world from their home in the planes, they raised up their chosen races, humans, elves & dwarves and cast the hags, lizardfolk and myriad of other denizens down and hunted them down into the swamps where some dark power of the primordials still has some terrible power.

Ree
On the southern side of the Taren mountains where the Andir river reemerges, surrounding the southern gate of Nir is a town called Ree. The original name of this town is lost, it was a trading post where the dwarves of Nir and human traders from Al-Lorin to the south and even hobbits from the east would gather to live amongst each other and trade. After the Nir vanished, the town was abandoned. Centuries later, the surviving refugees from Al-Lorin found the remains of the town & claimed it as their new home, just as kobolds from the depths had found & claimed Nir as theirs.

Al-Lorin
South of Ree & Nir is the southern shore, where the once greatest of all cities lies in ruin, Al-Lorin. Al-Lorin was destroyed during the civil war between the Alfar ruling faction and their rivals, the Ree, an assembly of scholars & wizards. The war culminated in a terrible disaster when a Ree wizard had attempted to transform a powerful healing artifact into a weapon by inverting the positive energy in the device into negative energy. A terrible blast exploded from the artifact that negated all life for miles. The following night, the thousands of dead all rose as wraiths. Only the Ree who had been within their magically shielded compound had survived. They fled the city to the north and were never heard of again. Al-Lorin in a single day & night had been transformed from one of the greatest cities in the world to a city of death. Still to this day, any who die within miles of the city rise again the following night as a wraith. Some researches believe that the artifact that caused the fall of the city remains active in the Ree stronghold within the city, emitting this arcane necrotic field that causes the wraiths.

Tissa
Come to snowy Tissa in the North. We have guns! And gnolls and ratfolk...