Azran Lore

Sirnaan:	Despite being a country with an enormous desert in its midst, Sirnaan is a beautiful place with kind and easy going people. Almost all of the cities and villages are on the coast, with the exception of the royal city, called simply The High Seat – or Athun Dima in the language of the natives. Not much is known about this city however, as foreign traders are not even allowed past its walls!

Freemarsh:	A den of depravity and filth such as this is hard to find anywhere else on Azran. Freemarsh is the self proclaimed kingdom of thieves and scoundrels, with their "bandit king" keeping watch over these lowlives. I hear they derived the name from the fact that the place is almost like a single huge marsh, and that they have almost no laws – are very liberal in their in their interpretation, and that they in fact have no taxes, bar the one for protection. I advice any traveller to evade Freemarsh like a plague.

Pulta:		How could one place be so annoying and yet unrewarding at the same time? Whole clouds of stinging bugs and vermin scour the hot, damp swamps of Pulta, only to feed all sorts of beasts and animals that dwell here. Fortunately only a few people are dumb enough to live in here, but why the elves have to proclaim this place as a wildland preserve boggles my mind!

Dalhumn:	The great, misty peaks, the deep, lush valleys and the quick, fresh rivers they bring with them! Despite the fact that dwarves inhabit these valleys, it is not as filthy and abused as one would think. The dwarves have built great halls into the mountains, serving them as fortresses and cities in one, with only farming villages outside in the vales. Which was a good decision it seemed, when the first grey goblins were spotted in the area in great quantities.

Volhand: 	Never has a place impressed and surprised me like the volcanic islands on the western rim, the so called Searing Belt. The entire islands are volcanic rocks and sand, and yet thanks to the volcanic activity, the islands are lush with plants and animals alike. These islands belong to Volhand, a country ruled by large, dark scaled lizardkin and their kobold brethren, worshipping the God of Fire as their only deity. I wish I could tell you more, but I was expulsed from these islands for drinking water in their blazing hot temples...

Cernaan: 	Lush forests of brilliant emerald green as far as the eye can see, which is a gorgeous sight even from the tall mountains of Dalhumn, despite the distance between these two places! The elves that made these forests and glades their home live in what they call traditional ways, being one with nature. Very druidistic, in fact druids form the nobility of these lands. They are known for causing conflicts with countries that abuse destroy their nature,  though these conflicts have never been military in nature. They dislike dwarves and orcs and frown at their militaristically inclined brethren for their ignorance to their roots.

Teldum:	Men of the Mountains, as they are often called, have learned a thing or two from their dwarven neighbours to the west. They certainly use the wealth of their mountains, some even say they mine more than the dwarves themselves! However this much would not sattisfy these men, for they also act as a trading post between the dwarves and the great Empire.

Holdarn:	Vast, chilling plains of pristine snow and biting cold, high and towering peaks topped off with caps of snow and often times hiding amongst the clouds, immense and thick, rich forests of dark and powerful pine trees cover the landscape of Holdarn. And right here is where the proud men of the north, the so called Nords, reside. Tall and mighty with great tales of glory and heroes, they adapted to the cold of the north and outright thrive here, their strong pines making the best ships one can hope to be upon.

Ruins of Beru'an:	The very lush and thick jungles of the south are not pleasant to traverse by the unexperienced. Whole swarms of mosquitoes seem to patrol the jungle, leaving you no time of peace  from their stings. The heat and moisture of the air can make it hard to breathe at times, especially so when you must cut yourself a path through far too thick underbush. However once you get past this hell of a jungle, they are rewarded with the view of the gorgeous ruins of an ancient empire. The ruins are vast and certainly spaceous and littered with beautiful carvings... but I was not allowed to explore them, as they are under the rule and protection of what I believe are tribes of beautiful jungle elves, which also seemed very matriarchal in nature.

Empire of Gahz'vul:	Aah the jungles of the south. You might have heard about them, and yes, they are just as unpleasant as you have heard, if not even more. Mosquitoes are far too common, and this far south, there are even more unsavory critters about – leeches, fire ants and oh lets not forget about the snakes! However, this hellishly hot jungle houses the second empire of the continent. It is rather diverse in its population as well, since you can find lizardkin, humans and even orcs in here! Surprisingly, the orcs are way less hostile than the kind you normally hear of... but that might as well be because the lizardkin are the ones in charge here and treat the humans and orcs as... much inferior.

Uleron:	You would expect that a country neighbouring with the great arcane college would be way more educated and more civilised, however you could not be further away from the truth. The men are vulgar and often have multiple wives, as women are considered to be lower beings in their culture. Despite having such vast influence, I can see that this country has not changed much from its historical barbarism.

Kingdom of Fahryn:	Uleron's granary, as it is often called, has most of its land devoted to providing Uleron with food. Vast plains and fields with but a few bigger forests around has made this perfect for such a task afterall. They have a king of their own, but often listen to the demands of Uleron, despite being independent.

Arithia:	Not to be confused with Eritea! Despite their iron rich mines, the country is rather poor, mostly because almost all of the mines belong to Uleron and its wealthy merchant lords. Just like the Kingdom of Fahryn, they are a part of Uleron, but the landscape is much more hill and forest filled.

Amarea:	Remains independent mostly thanks to mercenaries of Keldorn, since their own military suffered heavy losses during the long war with the Empire. The resulting peace treaty however made them give up half of their territory, which is right now called the South Eastern Colony of the Empire. They are often under attack by the wild and savage tribes to the east.

Narthucca:	Men living here, oft called Easternlings despite living to the west of the vast Empire, are generally shorter and more slim, scrawny than other humans, and only rarely is there an exception of this. Now the surprising thing is, the women here are actually tall and absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous! Which kind of makes one wonder how these two actually fit together... or why. The men are also rather well known for being greedy, sly and way more cunning than intelligent – although I saw the exact opposite in their women.

Eritea:		This usually peaceful place used to be in a very long conflict with Kaerran, however with very clear potential assistance from the Empire and Holdarn, the conflict promptly ended.  Other than that, the erithean are a surprisingly peaceful folk, focusing on philosophy, arts and the pursuit of greater knowledge. Mostly due to the previous conflict, their cities are only on their great plains or right next to the vast forest, as the ones within had been easily turned into ruins by the Kaerran military.

Kaerran:	The country of the tall and proud elves of the north. They are pale and mighty, most known for the brilliant military tactics and very well trained army. They were forced into neutrality during their war with Eritea, mostly thanks to Holdarn and the Empire being about to join the side of Eritea. This age old conflict has left the northern elves very... prejudiced towards humans and not many human merchants are welcome with a smile, nor to speak of trust.

The Holy Isle of the Church of Light:	Yes, I am aware that the name is long, but the Holy Church of Light had insisted that I wrote it in full. Why this country was created is both simple and a mystery – The holy citadel appeared almost overnight, proclaiming the island as holy ground – but why, that I do not know. The Island is connected to the mainland via two wide and very long bridges, a marvel of engineering, I tell you! The only city on the Island is beautiful and mostly pristine white, just like the citadel itself. The gold and marble gleaming Citadel is a sight to behold, but I only saw one very beautifully decorated room before they found out I was not a follower of their religion... and I was then promptly asked to leave the citadel.

Keldorn:	The great island of the east is a place mankind does not visit often. I only managed a short visit thanks to a lie about our ship needing repairs (otherwise only merchant ships are allowed to dock) – something I had to arrange with the captain... it took a fair few strings to pull just to get me off the docks, but the view was staggering. I had heard that the black orcs reign over this island but I had not expected their cities to be vast, clean and very well made. Pillars of marble, scent of fresh bread, wine and smoked meat clung in the air along with various exotic spices. The orcs here seemed far more civilised than one would think, and that is an understatement. Unlike the human lands, the orc nobility only consists of very powerfull, yet noble individuals and thus there are rather few of them, governing over larger areas.

The Empire of Anareth:	The Empire, yes. Most of you have already heard of it, mostly because the empire takes over roughly 1/6th of the entire continent! It stretches from the northern sea to the southern ocean and from the Dark Mountains to the east to the rich merchant kingdom of Teldum. Many kingdoms make up this vast empire, with the Emperor ruling over all of them. It might be surprising to many that the Empire is not trying to grow even larger though, but rumors are spreading that it might be because there is already trouble within. Scholars suspect that a larger Empire would be even harder to manage, if not impossible, with the current way of doing so. Even with that, the Empire is still mighty and influential in both military and economic regards.