Civilizations of the World

Throughout the millennia, kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen across the surface of Ondorwis. In the year of the Common Era 616, the nations of man reign ascendant upon the surface of the world, having largely usurped the dominions of the various elder races.

## The Living Powers

The Living Powers, for the purposes of this list, are the nations still in prominence, living, breathing and growing. Though some prosper whilst others decline, they are neither dead nor ruined.

### The Empire of Andvar

The mightiest of nations on the continent of Arvinder, the Empire of Andvar was forged six centuries ago by Darius the Conqueror, son of Saint Kryxus, who scoured the continent of the dragon scourge. Vast, populous, and wealthy, Andvar is a multiethnic civilization whose birth defined the Common Era. Ruled from Dragonfall by the Emperors of House Vardyn, the Empire has struggled for long centuries to build ties between the patchwork nations it bound together. Old traditions still linger, but the land is united by the Common Law, the Common Speech, and a Common Faith. Nevertheless, it remains open. There is no land more readily accepting of foreign ideas, foreign peoples, or foreign goods.

### Rhatnheim

Rhatnheim sits in the north of Arvinder, and is a huge but thinly peopled land. Both the people and the landscape are harsh and unforgiving. The Faith of the Old Gods holds sway, and outsiders are rarely welcomed. It has been over a century since the jarls of Rhatnheim gathered at a kingsmoot to choose a High King, and so, they squabble amongst themselves, and remain largely isolated from the rest of the continent.

### Kingdom of Orgonia

The most ancient of the modern human nations, Orgonia has stood in some form or another for over a thousand years. Ruled from the capitol city of Vallagor, it is steeped in ancient traditions which espouse martial prowess, chivalric virtue, and the rigidity of social birthright. The authority of Orgonia's king and its nobles over their fiefdoms is largely unchecked. While tradition's grip is strong, no land is more mistrustful of change and foreign influence as Orgonia.

### Kingdom of Arrateo

Main Article: Kingdom of Arrateo

Once the second most powerful nation on the continent of Arvinder, and master of its southern coast, Arrateo is greatly diminished from its status a century before. Thanks to the tyranny and arrogance of King Charles III, the Arratean monarchy lost over half its lands and was forced to sign a constitution which formed the Council of Lords, and yielded to that august body much of the crown's authority.

### Republic of Ventos

Once part of the Kingdom of Arrateo, the Republic of Ventos successfully rebelled against King Ferdinand's tyranny, and gave rise to one of the few bastions of democratic thinking on the continent of Arvinder. Ventos is a merchant republic, and one of the rising powers of the continent, with a culture emphasizing trade and innovation. Ventos's main claim to fame is its powerful navy, which protects its trade and ensures its dominance on the Alderic Sea.

### Kingdom of Malcador

Malcador was once a feudal state like many others, with a nobility obsessed with honor and martial prowess. After a devastating war ravaged the country and saw much of the nobility dead, King Alfonzo I squandered his gold and plunged the crown into debt on frivolous and ostentatious reconstructions, namely, remodeling the royal castle and constructing several new palaces for himself in the ruins of houses that had been extinguished. To repay the crown's debts, King Alfonzo began selling lands and titles to the highest bidder, resulting in innumerable merchants rising to nobility, and coming to outnumber the old aristocracy. As a result, the modern nobles of Malcador value wealth and trade far more than the feudal aristocrats of other nations, andhave managed to raise Malcador to heights of prosperity (and decadence) it never knew before.

### Kingdom of Caidya

The Kingdom of Caidya was once part of the larger nation of Arrateo, and was one of the first regions to rise against the tyrannical King Charles III, declaring independence from its parent nation. For the century or so it has existed, Caidya has lived in fear that Arrateo might one day invade and strip it of its sovereignty, and as a result, the Caidyan kings have cultivated a strong system of alliances with their neighbors (the most notable of which is with Tirenze, which was also once part of Arrateo) and spent decades constructing fortresses along their eastern borders.

### Kingdom of Tirenze

Once a Duchy within the Kingdom of Arrateo, Tirenze was the first to attain independence from its tyrant monarch, Charles III, which they gained through force of arms. The Tireenes take great pride in the fact that it was they who lit the spark of revolution against the Arrateans, and are a fierce, independent people. Tireene nobles are less prone to openly abusing their subjects than in other places, for the peasantry are far more truculent and easy to spur to revolt than elsewhere. Tirenze is also closely allied with Caidya, who rose against Arrateo as well.

### Draelish Voivodate

One of the lands which composed the old Druskevi Tsardom, Draeland spent much of the post-collapse period seething with conflict between feuding warlords. Unlike neighboring Zyabak, no one such warlord was able to garner a significant military advantage over the others, and after years of conflict, they formed into a loose confederation of states known as the Draelish Voivodate. Rather than set a new dynasty on a throne above the rest, the voivodes of Draeland established a system where one among their number would be elected to primacy over the others, to keep the peace and mediate disputes, and to lead them in war should ever it be necessary, This ruler is known as the Voivode of Voivodes, and serves until death, upon which time a replacement is elected from among the other voivodes. Draelish citizens as a result tend to identify more with their local regions than as a wider nation, but still tend to come together when faced with outside threats.

### Tsardom of Zyabak

The Tsardom of Zyabak is the mightiest nation in western Arvinder. Ruled by the ancient tsar Ivan Zelanski (often called Ivan the Everliving for his extreme age and robust health), Zyabak is a land of proud, hardy, and industrious people. Possessed of one of the few centralized standing armies in Arvinder, Zyabak's strong military traditions date back to the dawn of the Zelanski dynasty, which conquered a large swath of the collapsing Druskevi Tsardom. There are few nations on Arvinder who can match the nationalistic zeal of the Zyabaki, whose pride in their country and its military makes them one of the most unified peoples on the continent.

### Tsardom of Crovia

The Tsardom of Crovia is a Tsardom in only name, for in truth it is a merchant oligarchy and has been for the past century and a half. While it was once a true Tsardom, the title is now only a figurehead of a fading nation, chosen by the Oligarchs to represent Crovia. While Crovia is a relatively fertile nation with plentiful resources at its disposal, it is the great city of Tabor which is its greatest asset. Tabor is a nexus of trade for Arvinder and the greatest city of the entire Druskevi people and their most valued. Now however Crovia only controls Tabor, the Zyabaki invaders have taken all but the great city and now sit at the capital of Crovia, the fledgling nation’s doom certain.