The Sun Shores
	North of the Wilderlund the Sturm Sea yields to the much more pleasant waters of the Sunhome Sea. The lands along the Sunhome are properly known as the Sun Shores. The climate is cooler than that of the Sturm Sea; there are cork-oaks and firs in abundance and along the southern climes of the Shore there are a number of olive groves. A fair amount of beech and juniper can be found there as well, particularly in the chilly regions of Craftsman’s Reach.

Kjellos
	The Kjellan peninsula juts into the sea like a spar, forming the northern arm of the Bay of Ahrain. The peninsula sweeps up from the water in the south and back down again in the north and is equally divided between rocky headland and marshes along its northern side. The great castle at Elborg was built during the Second Empire, lending the kings of Kjellos a deep majesty.
	It extends onto the mainland as far as the High River and the Malgor Bridge. A number of dwarves live up in the northern hills by the Highwood and the people of Kjellos own great sections of neighboring Craftsman’s Reach. The kingdom is kept safe by the Order of the Forge Divine, a western knightly order devoted to Haeron.

History
	Kjellos, along with Theris, Ambar, and Hurol were Valelan strongholds settled by the northern barbarian folk before the arrival of the empire. The Valelan barbarians filtered down from the north during the Third Age and drove out the indigenous goblins and kobolds, settling around the Bay of Ahrain. These settlements were encouraged by the sorcerers of Yer’is and the elves of Tailimisia.
	The whole region is known for the peninsula, which was long called Kjella. The First Empire settled it in the Fourth Age and used the Kjellan peninsula as a base for their navy in the west. This began the induction of a great number of Valelans into the imperial service. Many were settled in the imperial heartland itself.
	During the civil wars of the First Empire between the pretenders, usurpers, and schools of imperial sorcery, the permanently stationed imperial armies of Kelinum chose their own successor-emperor to stand against the usurpers in the heartlands. The general Thesus Spear-bearer, a man who had risen as an imperial soldier to become the ruler of the rapidly collapsing western arm of the empire. After his death, the magnates of the Sun Shores joined with Rho’anir the Shapeless.
	The western empire finally collapsed when the last of the High Mages standing against the east was slain. The magnates fell to warring among themselves and Kelinum fractured into principalities. Its major cities were saved from total chaos by the presence of the Milean temple, the Metropolitans being bastions of order in the wilderness. It was from these Metropolitans that the Order of the Forge Divine was founded to knit together the region. However, the Forge contracted to the outlines of the peninsula during the Eighth Age when the kings of the Sun Shores (particularly those of Ambar) ejected them from their kingdoms.
	The Ambarites were destroyed by reavers in the Eighth Age and during most of the Ninth their territory was ruled by the puppet-kings called the Agnarids. They served only at the behest of Tailimisia and conquered most of the Sun Shores at their command: much of the northwest was united into the kingdom of Agnar, which itself fell in X.13.
	Former tribal chiefs from the distant stretches of Craftsman’s Reach, the Tholharts came conquering in fire to overwhelm the Angarids. The first Tholhart was Aegus the Stag, who established his capitol on the bay between the peninsula and the forest. He established a cotton and amber trade that became the envy of the Sun Shores.
	In the days of the Tholharts, the kingdom was known as Tholnia. However, a counter-war was waged by the elves in X.280; fearing encroachment and the legendary alliance of the Tholharts with the goblins of the Bay of Ahrain. The elves fought up and down the coast from X.280-2 in a series of battles that annihilated the Tholnian armies. A rival Reacher family, the Karharts, seized the Kjella peninsula in X.285 and founded what we know of as modern day Kjellos.
	In the nearly two hundred years since its foundation, Kjellos has become more unified than it ever was in the preceding years. Wars with Tholverin and Ambar are not uncommon, though there is a tacit relationship between the Karharts and the elves which keeps the two great powers at peace.

Government
	Kjellos is a simple monarchy; the Karharts rule from Elborg Castle and themselves own great expanses of land in the Reach. The great nobles of Kjellos also hold land in the Reach, where there is little rule of law; these lands put them, if not on the same level, then at least makes them more difficult to manage than most petty nobles. They have a great deal of customary rights and powers which make them quite troublesome for a monarch to deal with. The primary privilege they maintain is the right to private council with the king, and their unofficial right of rebellion is one they can always intimate.
	The king has several highly important ministers: the Metropolitan of Elborg has traditionally had the ear of King Magnus and served as his Master of Treasury and High Purser and the king has traditionally appointed several others—the Master of Justice, the Grand Steward, the Protector of the Realm (also called the Master Militant), and the High Magister of Sorcery. These men, though chosen not from the high nobility, are just as powerful as any of them as they command the powers of the realm.

Defenses
	The Master Militant, by the power granted to him through the king, has the authority to command any soldier or knight in the realm. Some of the Reach lords keep large garrisons and a good number of household knights raised year round for the defense of their distant lands, and these are usually the first to get into conflict. The Reach is far more dangerous than the Kjellan peninsula, and it is there that orcs, goblins, and foes are generally to be found.
	The Protector of the Reach, beholden to the Protector of the Realm, resides within that troubled region in order to call up the arms if the need be. The king’s weapon-take generally lasts for two weeks if war is called, as he gathers all of his knights and bannermen to his side. In times gone past, the Protectors have often been appointed to lead armies of their own while the king and princes command the bulk of their loyal forces.

The Thessalian Mindset
	The legend of Thesus Spear-bearer has gained a widespread popular appeal in Kjellos, so much so that in the past three hundred years the Kjellans have taken to calling themselves Thessalians. They are a hardy people, used to the upright execution of the law, which they hold in high regard. There is a common belief in Kjellos that they are the true heirs of the Milean Empire, having had an emperor of their own. The kingdom is ruled more or less (outside of its powerful monarchy, of course, which runs counter to the traditions of imperial civil service) in accordance with the law codes of the ancient empire.
	Elves, dwarves, and smallfolk of all kinds are welcome in Kjellos, though they cannot hold noble titles. As the cosmopolitan center of the Sun Shores, Kjellos has a population that includes migrants and emigrees from all the nearby kingdoms. This has, of course, made trouble with the lords who prefer their tenants rather than the free citizens of the communes, which is traditionally what immigrants become after landing in one of the ports and living there for some time.

Locations of Interest

Elborg
	The city of Elborg is in the center of the region known as the Five Hamlets, along the protected inner edge of the Kjellan peninsula. It’s a trading port as well as the capitol, and has one of the most developed deepwater ports in the kingdom. Its most salient feature, however, is the huge red porphyry keep that stands on a hill over the sea. The gargantuan barrel towers and gray slate roofs have been a sign of power in Kjellos for centuries.
	The other great feature of the city is the Temple of the Forge Divine, where the Order’s Grandmaster resides as well as the Metropolitan of Elborg. It’s the chief temple in the realm, and unlike most Hierian foundations, the temple of Kjellos has no compunctions about gold and silver vestments or gilding, and thus the Forge Divine’s stronghold is appointed in the wealthiest of accoutrement.

Customs
*	Thessalians denote rank or knighthood not by golden belts, as heartlander imperials do, but rather with sashes of fine cloth.
*	Aurochs are quite common in the Reach, leading to their common use in decoration and drinkware.
*	Fermented milk drinks are common in Kjellos, though they are seen as disgusting in most other lands.
*	Thessalians dye the sails of their ships blue and paint their hulls gold or yellow, in accordance with the arms of their kings.
*	Plate armor is somewhat more common in Kjellos than in other lands, as there are a fair number of dwarves in the Reach.


Craftsman’s Reach
	The wide expanse of the Reach is a chilly place, insulated from the sea and the eaves of the elvish homeland of the Greatwood by the mountains and hills on either side. A great wide valley, it’s home to many gnomes and dwarves and no fair amount of halflings either. Elves from the Greatwood often travel through it, in caravan to the Sun Shores.
	They aren’t a land wholly tamed, filled with barbarians, outlaws, and goblin-kin from Tsaphon. There are also a good number of trolls lurking in the hills, lizard-folk in the marshes, and gnolls in the high grasses. Arms are carried as a matter of course whenever anyone leaves their homesteads.

History
	The Reach was long a province of the sorcerers of Yer’is during the Night, Dawn, and Pillar Ages. That ancient and powerful kingdom of magicians settled thousands of smallfolk in the Reach in order to help secure it. Once Yer’is sank beneath the sea, the Reach was left to fend for itself. The Reach doesn’t appear in any major history again until the War of the Mage-Lords when it was ruled by Gothea the Elf Slayer and an occupying army. By the end of the war there was naught left behind but devastation.
	The kingdoms of Alth’is, Teraspis, and Calantheas all had their day in the reach. They all passed, destroyed by pressures from within and without. The ruins throughout the Reach are an odd admixture of Yssan, Althissan, Teraspian, Calathean, and even some that were built by Gothea and Rho’anir.
	Most recently, the Reach has been made a sort of annex or colony of Kjellos. The rulers of that kingdom, the Karharts, as well as all their greater nobility own territories in the Reach and provide general protection for all the free regions as a benefit.

Government
	There is little to no government in the Reach outside the Kjellan nobility who also own estates there. Local governments are generally composed of alderfolk and priests, in the traditional style of smallfolk the world over.

Defenses
	The Order of the Forge Divine and the Thessalian Protector of the Reach are all the defense there is out in the wilds. Each town, of course, organizes a small militia but these are not co-ordinated in any meaningful way. Reliance on Kjellos is the order of the day.

The Craftsman’s Mindset
	The people of the Reach are generally peaceable, though the presence of danger around every hill and dell makes them somewhat nervous. All folk of the Reach learn to defend themselves and carry weapons with them when they leave the walled towns and homestead where they live. Most residents of the Reach are either Thessalian, smallfolk, dwarves, or Valelan “barbarians” and outlaws. There are a few elves that live within the Reach as well, but they are mostly merchants providing various services to the caravans coming from the Greatwood.

Customs
*	Homesteading, that is setting up familial fortress-homes, is extremely common in the Reach. Halfling matriarchs and gnomish patriarchs build cottages, tree-, and hill-homes out in the wilds.
*	Wizards are revered in the Reach, probably as a cultural remnant of the days when it was ruled by powerful half-elven Yssan sorcerers.
*	Gemstones are the preferred method of barter between gnomes and halflings in the Reach, giving them more value but making them much more common.
*	Roadsigns in the Reach are not always reliable: a common trick of the Reach bandits is to set up mislabeled road-stones and drive merchants or travelers into their ambushes.