Aea, The Final Lands of Kin

"*Hark, and heed my words - we step into a new era, and where do we stand within it? We stand as masters and leaders, the new era's prophets, spearheading the new beginning for all kin! Lo', to the river, stand barbarians who seek to stop our triumphant march to a new legacy..*"
—The beginning of Kador's speech at the River Buryk, in his Campaign into Naros
"*We are the Firstborn, we are the Chosen Folk of Blessed Ator, of the Mother Herself. Take pride in that, my son; for we are eternal, and for as long as Ator lives the Narosi shall remain.*"
—Brava sil-Ukulagar, first Barakud, or Black-King, of the Narosi

Far to the west, on the edge of Paedelos touching the great Thyraic Ocean, there stands a mighty land as ancient and storied as the fabled lands of the East. In the modern era, it hosts what remains of the true children of the Mother. The Kin from the East may have burned in the days of ash and celestial fire, but the men of the West stood defiant - truthfully, their lands were little more than a backwater prior to the Godswar, and this is attributed as to why they were not glassed and rendered inhospitable like in the East. It laid covered in a vast array of tribes, petty Kingdoms, and fledgling realms. Through this disunity Aea gained the nickname of 'The Land of the Crownless', it's people derided as 'Crownlings', those who ever seek after Crowns yet will never have them for long, forced to fight and die for warlords.

War was, and still is, a constant for this continent.

No Empire ruled forever, no petty Kingdom lasted for perhaps more than a couple hundred years, and as quickly as a family would unite a region they would be swept away by the tide of time and all would return to what it once was; warlords, blood, and chaos. The only realms that seemed to escape this constant cycle were lands that united around a unifying fiction - the Narosi had their White Tower, the belief that their national founder Brava would reincarnate into every Barakud that ruled them. The Myric had the Red-Gold University, ruled over by immortal Magi who would forevermore unite the realm of Myr, and surprisingly still hold it to this day. And the Hjalikaner, descendants of the proud Udrani, rally around the Allmoot and the High-King, who is elected from among the ruling Clans. Other realms often held these unifying icons, mythos and ancient tradition - and yet, invariably, through war and decimation from other realms did these fall away.

Aea is unique for it's constant war, the cycle of renewal and destruction. The East generally saw great united Empires that ruled over cities that sprawled for leagues, they had vast royal families that would rule for centuries upon centuries. Even in the earliest years Naros and Hjalikan had found themselves enraptured by this cycle. Each in turn broken by their own national hero - Brava sil-Ukulagar and Yorik Godsblood respectively.

When the East fell the birthplace of Kin finally took centerstage. Mostly united underneath the Kadorzul, Kador's Realm, erected by the escaped Esani slave it was named after, and the Barakud-av-Naros'aayaak, Black-Crown of the Chosen People, they turned their united strength against one another for a time. The decisive Battle of the Buryk ended aspirations of the Black-Kingdom falling underneath the Kadorzul, and Brava established a defiant and independent spirit for the Narosi people. Unity came to Aea with a price, however, for not a short time after did the Godswar come. It burnt scores of the continent away, and much of the proper battling on the mortal plane was done on Aea's soil. The Aeans would triumph in the end, but at great cost.

Kador died to his power-hungry son in the final hours of the Godswar, Brava had gutted himself on the altar to create the White Tower, Yorik died fighting Coldblade. The Kadorzul would march on for another millennia, before falling in on itself - and Naros would live on to the modern day, put under by it's own pride.

*So the wheel turns, the world continues on - and proud Aea burns once more. Naros'aayaak rova-de Varuum.*