South: where the Haugrfolk howls;
In the ice-cold and harsh world of the Frjósavegr, strong warriors and wills are forged. Haugrfolk is the name of these fearsome warriors. Living in a land with sparse resources, they had to become good seafarers to survive, plundering the mainlands and leaving behind a trace of destruction and despair. The Haugrfolk is the bigger of the two main nordic tribes, having made the “Randlanden” their vassal. The Haugrfolk, however wild and fierce they are at war, are deeply loyal toward their allies. The Haugrfolk live in simple huts and focus mostly on strength and war, they aren’t big on technology or research. Whenever a kid is considered an adult because of their feats, they participate a ritual they call “Viania”. They form a circle around an ever blooming weeping willow, chanting, screaming and dancing. When the sky begins to melt and glow, the ever blooming willow starts growing a new branch and the form of a dragon appears on the solar plexus of the adolescents. The Haugrfolk call this dragon “Alantyr”, and they believe the dragon was slain by the Progenitor of their Clan.
West: where the Yunyan hoofs sing;
The Yunyan live in the Wifan plains and practice a nomadic lifestyle. They have mastered the horseback and have deep roots in spirituality and religious belief. The Yunyans are divided into a few tribes, with some of them living in the Lilun desert. The Lilun desert is home to the biggest gold mines in the world, which makes them a major target for the Haugrfolk. The Yunyans, having lived in the conditions of the Lilun desert now the terrain better than anyone else, and are fearsome warriors when it comes to guerilla tactics and fighting in their own lands. They fought off the Haugrfolk a couple of times when they tried invading the Lilun desert, but probably the biggest unknown threat to the Yunyans are the Keshen, who live up north of them. The Keshen started readying their special steam-navy and army to invade the Lilun Desert. The Yunyans usually have big feasts around a big bonfire. They have a special way and tradition to wear their “Focan”, a big piece of cloth which they pass down the generations. Whenever there is a hole in the Focan, they fix the hole in a ritual they call “Maucan”. They use a different colour of cloth for every generation of leader, and they believe that the more colours one’s robe has, the more he is connected with nature and the stronger he is.
Northwest: where the Keshen prepare for war;
The Keshen are small and weak people. They use special magic to read long forgotten knowledge of an ancient and mysterious civilization they call the “Srians”. The tradition in the Keshen lands is to wear high, triangular hats that are beautifully and masterfully crafted with many gems and golden fabric. The Keshen have mastered the art of crafting iron and steel. They are a calmer civilization and aren’t as wild as some of the other civilizations on this world. The keshen have a deep sadness passed down in them, and a strong will to fight back against everything in the world. The Keshen mainly eat fish, and they live to well over 200 years old. Whenever a person from the Keshen has accomplished one “Kanshen” (cycle of 50 years), they get a mark on the cheek by a member of the Yakusei, the leading family of the island. The Yakusei are a strong family, because their daughter, Mikana, has the ability to read the artifacts of the “Srians” by doing “Zakuten”, a ritual where Mikana sacrifices her memories to read the past from memories. Mikana wears a black silken band over her eyes and she has a red gem embedded in her sternum.
Northeast: where the Aonian cities roar;
The Aonians are located in the rainy and hot areas of the Northeast. They live in houses they mined into a special stone that only exists in Aonquo, the “Aonfa”, The Aonfa is a soft, yellow-ish stone that can be made extremely hard by keeping it dry. Drying the stone also makes it slightly blueish and shimmering. The Aonians found that the best way to live was by mining entire houses into these stones, and by using a special water-proof cloth as a roof, the stone on top hardens. The Aonians are rather tall and thinly built folks, and most of them wear red silken robes with golden inlays. The Aonians have a big focus on culture and showing their ability of building huge, impressive cities inside of giant mountains. When you enter one of those cities through their skyblue, beautifully adorned gates, it’s like entering a whole new world inside. Tons of high buildings inside this natural dome that is a mountain, pipes and bridges running across the dome for transportation and travel. Lots of cafés, theatres, opera houses, and shops. The Aonians are known for their street food culture. The Aonians, however, didn’t build all of this by themselves. A long, long time ago, the Aonians lived on the land bridge between the Republic of Aonquo and the Dalanian Desert. They quickly grew and made important technological advances. They invaded the Osha, a peaceful tribe that inhabited the Aonquo lands. The Osha were rooted deeply within nature. They took and gave to nature in an equal manner and lived a calm and grounded life. The Aonians invaded the Osha, and enslaved them in order for them to build these giant cities.
Most of the richess of the Aonians comes from their king, king Ao XXIV. He made the already developed Aonians rich by trading goods like the Aonfa stone and silk that are home to the Republic. He was the king that gave part of the country back to the descendants of the Osha, who now live peacefully in the western region of the Republic. This decision wasn’t solely out of goodwill tho, king Ao also wanted a buffer between the cities of Aonquo and the Keshen, who had been expanding their military in recent cycles. King Ao is respected by the Osha and the Aonians alike, and the Osha have sworn loyalty, protection of an imagined Kenshen attack.
East: where the fire of the eastern tribes burns;
Dalanian desert
The Dalanian desert is mostly inhabited, tho it is used as hunting grounds by the Mutraha tribe, and the Federation of Choia has used a river that runs through the desert as a pathway to the northern tribes for trade for a long time. The wooden vessels with blue sails that are so known for bringing long-awaited goods to the places, and for coming back with astonishing piles of gold and traded goods. Escorted by Mutrahan camel riders, the Federation of Choia has found an ideal ally for protecting their northern trade route.
Mutrahan Tribe
The Muthraha are closest to the other tribes, and they are allied with the Federation of Choia in order to protect their trade route with their renowed camel riders, and in return they get supplied with a good amount of luxury goods, that have lifted the Mutraha from being a rather primitive tribe to being a developed civilization. The Mutraha, allthough being very close to other tribes, still have a lot of pride in their traditions. They wear a special silver hat, made from a fish species that lives in the Dalanian river, and white thawbs.
The Alalaha
The Alalahan lands are full of huge fruit trees full of juicy fruits, and wild animals. The Alalahans use one of the fruits, the Alala, to make a special parfum that they say has aphrodisiac properties. They export this parfum to the Federation of Choia, which then trades it with other tribes all over the world. The Alalahans use magic to grow huge trees, exceeding the scale of normal trees manifold. The high treecrowns of the Alalans can clearly be seen from most high spots of other countries. The Choia use their magic to use the plants they have been given to the fullest extent. The Choia wear leaves of a tree they call the “Parala” as clothes, and harded the leaves of the parala with their magic to get armour for their warriors. The Alalahans have ancient wooden instruments they treat as artifacts and gifts from god.
Qusan Tribe
The Qusan are a tribe of strong magic. They mine magical ore from their mines and harvest special magical herbs from their fields. Throughout the world, they are probably the civilization with the strongest affinity to magic. The Qusan are also big lovers of food. They use magic to grow plants that are tastier than anything most of the other tribes ever tasted. They export their plants to the best Aonian restaurants and to the rich all over the world. They use their money mostly to welcome poor from all over the world. The gold is spread evenly across all inhabitants of the tribe, and so is food.
Nimbian Tribe
The Nimbs are very agile and small people. They mostly live in trees and love to prank eachother. They have built lots of tree houses high in the “Mabo” trees, a tree with yellow and orange leafs. The Mabo also has red fruit, but the fruit are toxic to humans, which doesen’t mean they arent eaten, since they are the favourite food of the “Bimi”, little monkeys that live together with the Nimbs and have been tamed by them. The Nimbs love to dance around big bonfires and make music, especially when using their signature “Pompom”, a drum using the orange leaves of mabo trees and mabo wood. The Nimbian are fierce fights that like to outnumber and outmove their enemies with their agility.
Pronu Tribe
The Pronu are very strong warriors. The Pronu spend most of their day meditating and doing rituals to strengthen their bond to earth. The Pronu are not interested in expansion or gold, they are a proud tribe that follows their leader, Ndia. The Pronu used to be one of the technologically more advanced tribes, but they stopped researching new things in order to stop a disease they called “truur”. Truur isn’t really a virus or a bacterium, but through the advances they had made, they had lost their bond to nature and have become mentally and psychologically unstable. It was Ndia who then introduced the meditations and excercises to bond to nature. The Pronu use chants and percussion to bond to nature.
Central East: in the quiet of the Muwarid plains;
The Muwarid plains are a vast field of mostly grass and not many trees. It is thought to be inhabited, but under the earth, there lies “Hane”, a dwarfian city. The Hane are dwarves that built a massive city below surface. Not much is known about the Hane, but it is said that they are probably the most technologically advanced people in the world. They didn’t use the same kind of magic to research artifacts from the past like the Keshen, they built a new magic system used to power machines and powerful weapons.
Center: where the trade routes of the Choians meet;
The Federation of Choia is the main trader in this world. They manage trade between north, south, east, and west. They are tall people that use a special ore found in the Tsenkian empire to give their skin a blue shimmer. The Choians aren’t strong fighters, they mostly use allies like the Mutraha tribe for protection of their trade routes. They are at war with the Haugrfolk, and have been for as long as most of the inhabitants can think. The biggest city of Choia is on the Mayanguk lake. It’s a big city built from a greenly shaded stone found below the lake. The city is built tall in height, with big buildings and lots of lights. Obviously, there are a lot of trading companies in the city of Mayanguk. Mayanguk is probably the socially most advanced city in the world, with there being a proper government, and solid social structures in place. The south of Choia is mostly made up of forts and castles built to defend the main trade capital of the world against the Haugrfolk. The Bariayandu also help protecting the seas against the Haugrfolk. The Choians mostly wear white cloth that doesen’t cover a lot of skin. Because of the hot climate in choia, most people also wear a “Bane”, a hat that helps cool the body by using water magic to create a thin film of water around the skin.
Central East: Where Khulagian warrior monks pray;
The Khulagians are a very religious civilization. They strongly believe in their god and most of their interests revolve around religion. They are a rather aggressive civilization, they recently made Bariayandu their vassal. A part of Bariayandu originally belonged to Choia, but the Bariayandu were increasingly unhappy about religious differences between the Bariayans and the Choians. The Bariayans were influenced by the Khulagians to eventually fight their way out of the Choian governance. The Khulagians use special monk fighters in wartime, which secretively supported the Bariayandus in the war against Choia. They didn’t want an open war against the Choia because the Choia control all the trade routes the Khulagians use. Also, an alliance between the Wifanians and the Choias would have been viable, since they wouldn’t want the Khulagian controlling the trade route between them. The Khulagians are rather cowardly in general, they mostly fight using secretive tactics behind enemy lines. The Khulagians dress in black robes with white headbands. Their heads are completely covered, and their warrior monks sometimes have a greenish glow in their pupils, when they are particularly calm.
