Kaeryn

The wild, southern regions of Ceilar were long
feared uninhabitable by the noble houses of Seawn. Time and again, explorers
had been sent south to either disappear forever or return with stories of
ogres, giants, and the dominion of orcs and hobgoblins.

After
two and a half centuries of failed attempts to tame the wilderness, a young
paladin, Kronus of Arwin, had a vision that his goddess wished him to enter the
Wilderlands and build a new abbey in her name. Gathering together a force of
paladins, rangers, and other explorers and adventurers, Kronus did what was
long thought impossible... the founding of a new human settlement south of the
Searian border.

Because
the colony needed stronger fortifications than those to the north, and because
of the young paladin's willingness to buy into his own legend, he named the
settlement using the Old Searian word for fortress accompanied by his own name:
Kærn Kronus. Using the location as a forward base, Kronus continued to lead his
growing army deeper into the south, founding more kærns along the way, striking
as far south as the modern location of the Great Wall of the Cabal.

Separated
from Searian rule, Kronus established a paladin-king for each of these new
territories, with himself as the High King of Kærn Kronus. And within twenty
years of the establishment of the first advanced base, the kingdom of Kæryn
(KAYR een) was formed. However, that first kærn and the first High King would
soon become one of the new nation's greatest mysteries. Twenty-five years to
the day from its naming, Kærn Kronus, its High King, and all of its citizens
disappeared without a trace.

The
first king named by Kronus, his chief lieutenant Kel, was named High King until
such time as the first fortress could be reclaimed and its king reinstated. It
was over five-hundred years, however, before Kronus would return. By that time,
his legacy and his authority had faded into myth, and the homecoming of the
High King was a violent one.

The
kingdom of Kæryn stretches from the eastern shores of the Inner Sea to the
western banks of Lake Kharas. The river Gale and its Bridge Keep mark the
kingdom's northernmost point, and the ruins of the Great Wall of the Cabal
serve as its southern border. The nation's capital, Kærn Kel, overlooks the Inner
Sea north of the Whitefang Mire.

Once
a land of brambles and thick forests, the claiming of Kæryn turned it into a
region of tree-speckled plains and tall grasses. The orcs and giants were
pushed into the mountains of the east and beyond, and the hobgoblins south into
what remained of the Wilderlands, save for the Whitefang tribe that
successfully held and continues to reside in the Whitefang Mire more or less
peacefully.

While
occasionally, goblins from the north, orcs from the west, or hobgoblins from
beyond the southern wall will find their way into its borders to cause havoc,
the region is more or less kept free of humanoid threats. The biggest danger in
Kæryn comes from its larger inhabitants.

A
realm of questing knights and adventuring paladins, the kingdom seems to be a
magnet for monstrosities, from manticores and gorgon to bulettes and dragons.
The mountains to the east are home to lingering populations of giants,
including frost giants that hibernate beneath their surface during the warmer
months. Kæryn is also pock-marked with holes and monoliths leading to
underground ruins from a civilization that was long lost when the Sear was at
the heights of its power.

While
the theocracy can be a little "just" and self-righteous at times, its
willingness to put its armies at risk for others has garnered it quite a few
allies. Since the Third Incursion of Kaos, however, many of those alliances
have become tested. The Kæri kings, having seen their goddess survive a war
through which many older gods died, became even more zealous in their belief
that their theocracy is especially blessed. Since then, the armies of Kæryn
have been more focused on their enemies to the east, Korvis and the Ancelyn
elves, and less so on aiding their neighbors in times of crisis.

This
has caused a bit of a schism with the Searians of the north, who as the
progenitors of the Kæri have long been their most staunch allies. That alliance
has served the kingdom well, especially since the return of Kantrev nee-Kærn
Kronus and the founding of the kingdom of Korvis to its northeast, but in
recent years the focuses of the two nations have grown more inward even as
their people have grown further apart.

The
long-standing alliance between the Kæri and Barak-Alorak has practically disappeared
with the sealing of the Ædar cities after the Third Incursion of Kaos. The near
disappearance of the Sidh races of the Faerie Isles has lost the Kæryn another
of their most reliable allies, as has the devastation that tore through Wilder
and left it known as the Troubled Lands. Finally, the reluctance of the kings
to allow the Warriors of the Broken Tribes to relocate inside of their borders
has weakened what was once a strong bond with their former enemies.

So
now, Kæryn stands more or less alone in its fight against Korvis, resulting in
a stalemate that has lingered for centuries. The recent discovery that the High
King of the kantrevs is actually a half-fiend, however, has only strengthened
their determination to defeat their enemy and reunite the nation with its lost
kærns. For Kæryn, it has truly become the holy crusade that they always claimed
it to be, and the High King has sworn to see the "devil" deposed.

That
attitude does not sit well with all Kæri, however. The southern Kærns, always a
bit more liberal than their northern brethren, have begun to question the
wisdom of such zealotry. True, Arwin survived the Godfall, but she might have
helped prevent terrible destruction and perhaps even the fall of some gods had
she been able to ignore Caracdoc's challenge and focus her people's attention
on the greater threat of Az.

Kærn
Karn, which has never had a paladin on its throne, and Kærn Korinna, with its
Sidhborne rulers, both opened their gates to refugees of the free-thinking
Wilder and their grasslands to their former enemies among the Broken Tribes
after the fall of the Crimson Tower, and while they have not turned away from
Arwin, they have begun to speak openly against the rigidity of the High King's
theocratic views.

Now, former allies and enemies alike,
turn their eyes towards Kæryn to see just how far this division within the
kingdoms will grow. There are even whispers of Korvin agitators secreting
themselves within the kærns, manipulating the theocracy and its citizens closer
to the precipice of civil war, hungering to take advantage of any weakness in
the stability of the once great nation.