The Heritage of Eredane

During the First Age, the ancient kingdoms of the elves in Erethor and the dwarves in the Kaladruns were the greatest civilizations of Aryth. The heartland was home to scattered clans of nomadic halflings and gnome river folk, but much of it was untamed wilderness.

Eredane was again invaded in the Second Age, this time by the conquering armies of Sarcosa, the Old Empire of Pelluria. The Sarcosan Empire was a great civilization of advanced knowledge and science. They brought steel swords, great war machines, and sophisticated warcraft to Eredane, and they were the first to introduce horses and mounted knights to the continent.

The Sarcosans battled the elves, cutting and burning deep into the fringes of Erethor. Settlers from the Old Empire poured into Eredane, and the Sarcosans built great cities along the southern coasts. They eventually made peace with the elves and began trading with Erethor and the Kaladruns, carving great roads across the newly tamed wilderness.

With their hold on the southern regions of Eredane secured, the Sarcosans turned their attention to the Dornish kings in the north. After years of war, the Dorns were finally beaten and the northland kings surrendered their crowns to the lords of the southern cities.

The Kingdom of Erenland

Despite their defeat, the Dorns’ might was not broken, and in time, they joined with the Sarcosan colonial lords to throw off the rule of the Old Empire. When a great imperial armada was destroyed at the island fortress of Stormhold, the Old Empire’s power in Eredane came to an end. The Dorns and the Sarcosan colonial lords created a unified kingdom called Erenland that ruled over the heartland of Eredane.

Rule of the Kingdom of Erenland was shared by great houses tracing their lineage to both the Sarcosan colonial aristocracy and the Dornish clans. The greatest cities of Erenland, including the capital, were always in the south. These were the civilized jewels of the kingdom, with fabulous palaces, monuments, and wondrous star towers dedicated to the Sarcosan religion.

The descendants of the Dorns, known as the Old Kings or the Northmen, held to their traditions as well. Their castles were simple stone keeps and holdfasts, and they continued to worship their ancestors in sacred circles of standing stones built millennia ago by the first Dornish settlers in Eredane.

The heartland of Erenland is dominated by the common folk who share a mixed Dorn and Sarcosan heritage. In the Third Age, they were farmers, herdsmen, and craftsmen and lived lives of simple prosperity and peace in their bountiful land.

The central plains are also home to scattered tribes of halfling nomadic hunters and herders. The halflings are a fey people descended from the elves of the southern jungles of Erethor, and they are renowned for their skill with leatherwork and with growing things, and for the great wolflike wogren the nomads ride on the hunt.

The River Eren winds through central and southern Erenland from the Sea of Pelluria all the way to the Kasmael Sea. This verdant river valley has been the homeland of the gnomes since the First Age. Their river barges sail up and down the Eren and their raft towns are scattered all along the river and the shores of the great lake the gnomes call the Goil.

The Great Forest of Erethor

In Erethor, the elven people are still ruled by Aradil, of the line of Shadiuil, who has held the throne in the great tree-city of Caradul for thousands of years.

Aradil is a sorceress without rival and ancient even by the standards of the long-lived elves. Some believe she is an immortal dragon or spirit manifested in mortal form, others say she is a god who fell from the celestial realm during the Sundering. To most, she is simply the Witch Queen of Erethor, an elemental and mysterious presence in the great forest, the beloved leader and protector of her people.

Erethor is divided historically and geographically into four great woods: the Veradeen in the north, the Caraheen in central Erethor, the Miraleen along the western coast, and the Aruun Jungle in the south. Each region is home to an elven culture that, while distinct from the others, nevertheless owes its allegiance to Aradil and the Elven Court.

The Caraheen is the heart of both the great forest and the elven nation, home to the great city of Caradul and the Witch Queen’s court. Its people, the wood elves, are among the greatest mages, artists, and scholars of Aryth, and it is in the Caraheen that the culture and civilization of Eredane reached its pinnacle.

The Veradeen straddles the northern waters of the Itheris and Gamaril rivers and lies in the shadow of the ancient Highhorn Mountains. This region and its people, called the snow elves, are on the frontlines of the Shadow’s assault on Erethor, as it is left to them to stem the tide of the orc hordes and their dark allies pouring down out of the mountains.

The Miraleen lies along the western coast of Eredane, where the Great Forest meets the Endless Ocean. The sea elves of the Miraleen build their dwellings in great mangrove forests and depend on the ocean for their fortune and prosperity. The fractured islands off the coast are also home to the ruins of an ancient elthedar civilization, including the fabled City of the Sea. Sea elf divers explore these ruins during low tides, but they are haunted by demons and foul monsters.

The people of the southern Aruun Jungle are sometimes called the “feral elves,” but their culture is as sophisticated as any in Erethor. The southern jungle is an often-harsh place that is infested with fell beasts and demons trapped on Aryth by the Sundering. The jungle elves have produced some of the most renowned druids and demon-fighters in Eredane. The halflings are thought to have descended from the elves of the Aruun, and many halfling refugees have fled to the jungle from central Erenland in front of the Shadow’s armies.

The Kaladrun Mountains

Eredane is flanked on the east by the great Kaladrun Mountains, an ancient range of soaring peaks and deep, rugged valleys. The Kaladruns are home to the scattered and often-contentious dwarven clans of Eredane. The dwarves have battled the orcs of the north for thousands of years, and for them, the war against the Shadow is an ancient struggle.

Foreign Lands

There are other lands beyond the Pale Ocean and the Kasmael Sea, but the people of Eredane had little knowledge of them before the Last Battle and now are almost completely ignorant of foreign shores. Both the Dorns and the Sarcosans settled Eredane from a continent called Pelluria in ancient days, and what little is known of that land comes from their records.