Days of sailing has finally led you to the famous Port of Gradsul. You grab your belongings, walk onto the busy pier and no sooner have you reached the nearby warehouses, or a man, dressed as a foreigner like you but sporting a very typical Gradsulian swashbuckling hat, hails you. “You seem new friend, just arrived I imagine, nay? You are in luck. For a few silvers, I’ll tell you where you have set your weary feet on land.”
General overview
You might be surprised that Keoland, in the great valley of Sheldomar, is actually older even than Aerdy in the eastern Flanaess. The foundation of Keoland represented the birth of the first postmigration human kingdom in the Flanaess. For nearly a millennium, the Keoish heartlands have spanned the lands from Gradsul, here at the Azure Coast, to the Rushmoors in the north, between the great Sheldomar and Javan rivers in the east and west. These lands are some of the most provincial and rural you will find in the Flanaess, having been largely untouched by war or conflict for centuries. Isn’t that something?
You’ll find the climate quite agreeable, customarily temperate year-round, and the soils of the central valleys are rich, allowing the kingdom to grow wheat, rye, and other grains in great abundance. Should you be wanting to start a farming business. The country has never really been rich in terms of mineral wealth, and perhaps for that reason it has always conducted a brisk trade with its neighbours, to whom it supplies staples such as foodstuffs in return for hard coin. Hence, the reason of this great port you stand in now for being here.
“The people?”
The folk of the land can be friendly and generous, but tread carefully, as they are primarily noted for their superstitious natures, particularly towards foreigners. The people here are a mixture of highly cultured Suel Houses and peaceful Oeridian bloodlines known as the Keogh. They are well-blended in the provinces of the nation, except in certain exclusive circles such as the nobility and other closed societies. You might be surprised to hear that there are even still some Flan settlements in the kingdom, no longer numerous in the heartlands but mostly living at the peripheries of the valley. I once read that the flan used to have a great kingdom here and even though they are a minority now, they did have a considerable influence on the current culture though. Since the Valley has hardly seen any war within its borders, this mixture of cultures developed into a deep culture that has achieved great things throughout history.
Do you like to mingle?
Well, you’ll find conversation easy to understand as the common tongue is spoken here, but the primary dialect is called Keolandish, a highly recognizable accent. You’ll stick out as a sore thumb not speaking it. Keep that in mind.
“What faith do you follow friend?”
Be at ease, many priesthoods are present in this realm but religion was never a dominant force in the kingdom, and people generally respect each other’s religious inclination.
Southern terrains
Azure sea
Turn around friend and take a last look at the marvel that is - The Azure Sea!
It connects the Sea of Gearnat in the north with the Jeklea Bay to the southwest and the Densac Gulf to the south. Here in Keoland, two great rivers - The Javan and the Sheldomar - run into the Great Blue. You have been lucky arriving here unharmed friend. Local pirates from the Sea Princes and the numerous sea monsters which abound within and upon the Azure make travel upon its glorious waves dangerous – and that is on a good day.
IF you intend to leave the same way, do not be disheartened though, because in spite of the dangers, trading upon the Azure has been both prolific and profitable for centuries and every nation bordering the sea is engaged in it. Finding a trading ship will not be difficult at all. I myself am keen on crossing the Azure, for I have heard that many common and uncommon aquatic species make their home below the sea. Now, would that not be a sight to behold?
Gradsul: (pop. 49,400)
Take it all in traveller, the fashionable city of Gradsul, at the mouth of the great Sheldomar river, is famous across the world and is the largest seaport on the Azure Sea. It has always been in the possession of the nobles of an ancient Suel House known as the Rhola, who founded the city almost a thousand years ago following their migrations. They gave it the name Gradsul, because it literally means “Haven of the Suel” in their ancient tongue, and many surviving Suel families, escaping devastation in their homeland, were drawn to this settlement.
The Duchy of Gradsul and its city has remained Keoland’s most cosmopolitan and prosperous region. This may well be due to the Rholans being resourceful, forthright, domineering, and even covetous. It is well-known within Keoland that this house’s lust for conquest equals their naval pursuits, and are known to sponsor viable projects of exploration year-round. The main duty of the Duke of Gradsul is to provide security to any mercantile vessel along the Azure Coast and protect the mouth of the Sheldomar River, the entrance to the heartlands. He fills big shoes, that’s for certain.
The city proper is divided into several distinct districts of individual character and utility. There is an expansive harbour, shops of all kinds, especially in fashion, and, being the gateway to traders from as far away as the Aerdi Coast and the Densac Gulf, has massive open markets catering to a specific commodity. Look over there, You haven’t seen those around where you come from mmmm, it is in Gradsul you will encounter more than one Olman working the wharfs.
I notice you carry several books. You’re not a wizard are you?
No, no, you are very welcome here. We live in the modern world now. Keoland’s arcane society was once under the harsh rule of the ‘The National Academy of Wizardry’, up until 300 years ago they regulated nearly all magic in the nation and granted licenses to practice. The practice of magic was a scarce and tightly controlled commodity. This was the by-product of a people harried from their homeland by magical catastrophes and beset for decades by power-mad sorcerers. They acted swiftly against any who would gather such power in the kingdom, branding them as witches, which included foreign mages. Lawless wizards eventually took to calling themselves free mages. It were tough times.
But that time has gone now, and what’s more, the branch here in Gradsul is unusually weak due to the truly fashionable guild called – The Sea mages. The city has always been a haven for independent mages of Keoland, being under the protection of the Dukes. This has led to the growing influence of the Sea mages who aid the fleet as well as merchant vessels, protect the coast and keeping the Scarlet Brotherhood and their Sea Prince conspirators in check. If you ‘are’ a wizard it will be of interest to you that the most powerful mage in the city, and a sponsor of the Sea Mages Guild, is the Archmage Drawmij himself.
Oh, and beware of the infamous thieves guild.
Dreadwood
If you take the Forest Road out west, you’ll walk into a substantial forest. It stretches across the southernmost provinces of Keoland, just north of the Hool Marshes of the lower Javan River. The forest is called Dreadwood and it stretches some 250 miles, from the southern Good Hills in the west to the coast of the Azure Sea in the east. Together, the Dreadwood forest and the Hool marshes serve as a formidable natural barrier separating Keoland from the lands of the Sea Princes.
Dreadwood itself is thus the second barrier people and monsters face and there is a long history of struggle within the Dreadwood as well. A royal grant cedes control of most of the forest to a sovereign and isolationist nation of wood elves. Even though Keoland named the Dreadwood a protectorate, and on paper the elven nation administers and protect it on behalf of the crown, the elves never really acknowledged that. Keoland has never sought to push its claim or enter forcibly into the precincts of the elves and the elves have been similarly reasonable.
Large-scale efforts have been mounted by the elven inhabitants, in concert with Keoish troops, to clear the woods of evil creatures, but time and again the enemy retreats into hidden places and beyond into the trackless Hool Marshes, to return when the companies of woodsmen and elves retire. It is suspected that the Sea Princes are in collusion with certain bandits and humanoid bands who creep through the Dreadwood on their way to raid Keoland and the Yeomanry.
The wood is also home to the Great Druidess of the Sheldomar Valley, who is an ally to the cause of the Wood Elves and protects the mysterious and ancient ruins that lay hidden deep within the more isolated regions of the Dreadwood. The Great Druid also oversees the limited logging on the fringes of Dreadwood.
IF you are fool enough to cross the forest, I can tell you there are no roads besides the single track, open to commerce and travel, aptly named the Dreadwood Road. It has as its northern terminus the mixed human and elven town of Silglen, in the Barony of Grayhill. The small barony is often described as an enchanted place, for it is a crossroads of human, elven and gnomish cultures. It was in Grayhill, nearly nine centuries ago, that human and elven emissaries first met and exchanged words of peace under a starlit sky. The southern terminus is at the town of Burle that lies within the forlorn Viscounty of Salinmoor, just north of Saltmarsh. There is the Coast road that runs from Gradsul on the fringe of Dreadwood and stops at every seaside town, all the way to the whaling town of Redshore and Salinmoor’s capital Seaton. If you want to hide from someone, this is the coast to head to. Everyone has a secret over there.
I won’t tell you not to cross the deep forest of dreadwood, but think again after this – a great wyrm of green scales supposedly lies sleeping in Dreadwood. To wake it … well.
Hool river and marshes
Hool Marshes you ask? Well, in the south-western end of the realm, north of the Javan River, beyond the Dreadwood, lay a small part of the Hool marshes claimed by Keoland - the ‘Hool Marsh Protectorate’ and the ‘Viscounty of Salinmoor’.
Most of the marches, however, lay in the hold of the Sea princes. The broad, slow flowing, Hool River with its swampy banks, drains from Lake Spendlowe in the Sea Princes’ far southern Duchy of Berghof, but is made impossible to find by the enormous Hool Marsh. The great marsh provides an outlet to the Azure Sea for both the Long Javan and Hool rivers.
The area is infested with every natural danger you can imagine: animal predators, sinkholes and diseases of all sorts are prevalent in these wetlands. The marshes are also home to various monsters because of its sheltering properties, such as lizard folk and Bullywug. Only desperate people flee into the Hool, and Keoish forces have to constantly patrol the northern edges of the Hool Marshes in an effort to keep the kingdom free from incursions by the swamp's unwelcome residents.
West terrains
Javan river
Keoland’s borders are all rivers and if you get to the northern tip of Dreadwood, you can take passage on a ship and sail on the longest river in the whole of the Flanaess - The Javan. Its headwaters are high in the Barrier Peaks, flowing through the Valley of the Mage, the Dim Forest, Oytwood, skirting the Rushmoors, through the Good Hills, bordering the Dreadwood and forming the border of the Yeomanry League, until it finally flows into the Hool marshes. It is, however, not navigable by large vessels beyond Cryllor.
Good Hills
The river crosses a range of rolling highlands called Good Hills, it marks the eastern provinces of Keoland and channels the Javan River which creates very fertile valleys within the hills. I heard the hills themselves are supposed to be rich with gold and gem deposits. The Good Hills used to be home to mainly gnomes caves and halfling hamlets but when Sterich was overrun by giants, dwarves and humans fled here in 584 CY. Although Sterich was eventually liberated in 588 CY, many have remained here after the liberation of the March of Sterich.
North terrains
Flen
Should you follow the Impressive Javan river all the way north you will cross the County of Flen, a heavily fortified area that was a vital defensive wall against the humanoids that overran Sterich. The capitol, the bastion of the west and third most populous city in Keoland, Flen is a sight to behold. It was the staging area for the counterattack against the giants and humanoids flowing out of the Crystalmist mountains. Standing on the great first wall you can see the massive lightbeacon of Godakin Keep on the River Javan, built solely to alert the city of Flen of attack.
Moving even further north, you would stand in front of the most significant feature in the North, the Rushmoors. These expansive moors mark the northern border of Keoland and is claimed by the Gran March. These wetlands are slowly receding as determined efforts are made to drain them and claim the fertile land for farming, while at the same time farmers in the west cultivate the tall, thick grasses.
But it is filled with various monsters and stories are told, in the taverns of the north, that the wetland was once the centre of a land called the ‘Occluded Empire’ and it still hides the infamous Rotted Tower of the powerful archmage (Vecna) that ruled over said empire. True or not, it is a very dangerous place my friend, stay well clear of it.
East terrains
Axewood
From those dangerous moors you can head east and take a ship from Shiboleth or Lortenford at the joining of the Lort River and the Majestic Sheldomar river, the obvious boundary between Keoland and the three Ulek states in the east. It is broad, at certain points nearly half a mile wide, and magnificent, with large vessels easily able to reach the capital Niole Dra from Gradsul. The river will take you south and before you realise it, there will be ancient forest on both banks as it splits Axewood in two, the eastern half in the Duchy of Ulek and the western half in Keoland. Axewood is special, as stories abound that it holds a portal to the Fey realm. Imagine that! Not surprisingly, it has thus largely been untouched during the Suloise-Oeridian invasion of the Flanaess. To this day, the Keoish are careful to cut down trees only from the peripheries of the wood. Lest they anger the forest.
When you leave axewood you can stop at the capital of the Barony of axewood Linnoden, a very pleasant and rural city, and further down, the royal capital of Niole Dra, home to the Lion Throne.
Niole Dra (pop. 25,000)
If I can advise you in any way, I would implore you to get off the boat and see this marvellous city. During the early Suel migrations, and only a decade after the founding of Gradsul, the Seers of the powerful Suel House of Nehili founded Niole Dra, which is ancient Suloise for “Old Dragon”, thinking about that it is strange the throne is not called the Dragon Throne. Anyway, only decades later it became the capital of a United Kingdom and up to this day, it remains the capitol and seat of royal power for Keoland. In fact, it is the oldest known centre of government in the Flanaess.
It is very much a colourful and cosmopolitan metropolis with a mixture of cultures living in more than a dozen quarters and districts, none separated by walls but separated by fantastic hanging gardens. The architectural style brings together the best of Suel and Oeridian influences with soaring towers and open squares with plants and trees in the streets. You know, the city has not been besieged once in the past nine centuries, which might explain why it has only token walls and simple fortifications and hints at the marvel of the royal gardens which has gone untouched for that whole time. It and the city as a whole is a marvel to behold. All of these refinements contribute to the attitude of its residents, which is often described by outsiders as serene, slumberous, and even decadent.
Though the public markets of Niole Dra are busy, the politics of the court are the real traffic and trade of the city. Keoland is a true monarchy in that its kings’ rule for life, and have great powers and authority at their disposal, but officially the government is a permanent regency. Ruled in the trust of the noble houses, the matter of succession has always resided in the Council of Niole Dra.
This deliberative body, composed of the major nobility and heads of certain long-established guilds and societies in the kingdom, has the responsibility to authorize succession and oversee matters dealing with the nation’s founding charter. It is the founding charter, penned some nine centuries ago, that ascribes rights and obligations on the part of all the citizenry of the country, whether lowborn or high. The Lion Throne, as the office of the king is referred to in Keoland, is currently held by Kimbertos Skotti.
While over a hundred nobles or their representatives maintain offices in the capital, King Skotti himself dislikes the city and can most often be found at his retreat near Linnoden. He is rumoured to have been a successful ranger and prefers nature above the city. He probably learned the craft from the few Flan still living in Keoland.
Silver Wood
Beyond the Capital, the Sheldomar river skirts Silver Wood, which ironically holds no actual silver but harbours pure primal forest, some trees going back a thousand years. Silver Wood may have once stretched west until the Good Hills but the Oeridian and Suel invaders have destroyed much during their time here. The Sheldomar would take you all the way back to this coastal city my friend.
What lay in between all these boundaries of water? Besides some mysterious places I have no knowledge over, there are farmlands, fields for herding, sleepy villages and busy market towns.
It is good living here If you are looking to take root.
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