Korvis

Twenty-five years to the day after its founding,
Kærn Kronus disappeared without a trace. Its people and its High King went with
it, and for over five hundred years, the disappearance of the entire kærn was
the greatest mystery on Ceilar. During the cataclysmic Worldquake, it
reappeared without explanation, just as suddenly as it had vanished.

From
the perspective of the residents of the kærn, one year had passed. It had been
a year trapped in another realm, a hell-scape under constant siege from demonic
forces just beyond the wall. Kronus' wisdom in maintaining a reserve and the
strength of his knights and warriors were all that had kept the citizenry safe
in a nightmare world of burning rain and distant howls that chilled the bone.

But
for all his heroism, the High King had suffered for his time away. The
perceived failure of his goddess to answer his demands and return his city to
its rightful place was compounded by the sudden arrival of an avatar of the
young goddess Catira, who promised the king both the identity of the being that
abducted his city and a glorious return to Kæryn in exchange for his worship.
Desperate and without other avenues, Kronus swore himself to the Lady of
Vengeance.

The
goddess revealed to the King that it was the goddess Arwin herself who had
banished him from his kingdom in an attempt to teach him humility, and that his
lieutenant Kel had claimed his throne in her name during his absence. He spoke
an oath against both of those who had wronged him, promising to his new goddess
that he would have his vengeance if she would simply return him to his kingdom.

Little
did Kronus know, however, that the young deity had traveled backwards in time
to recruit him, and that she only had to power to return him to the world after
the Second Dragon War and her own ascension to godhood. And so, upon returning,
Kronus soon found that he was long robbed of his vengeance against Kel, and
that his kingdom had relegated their once High King to the stuff of legend.

Kronus
struck out first by moving against Kærn Kinder, which sat just to the east
across Lake Kharas. He then drove north to conquer the nearby town of New Sear
in southern Seawn to protect his forces from Searian interference from behind
the lines of his war for vengeance. Looking east across the mountains, he soon
found allies in the Ancelyn, and turned his eyes west towards his old kingdom.

The
War of Vengeance was long and hard-fought, but ultimately Kronus was defeated.
He sued for peace, declaring the independence of his new kingdom and biding his
time for a better opportunity to seek his vengeance. He renamed his kærns as
kantrevs, from the Old Searian word for "castle," and solidified his
power base in east-central Ceilar. He would war against Kæryn again, eventually
costing him his life, but his new kingdom would survive him.

The
lands of Korvis (KOHR vis) extend from Kantrev Killar to the north to the
northern reaches of Lake Kharas and into the western hills bordering the Bay of
Sear. While its rulership continues to worship Catira and Caradoc, the majority
of its citizenry are not an evil people, but likewise not a particularly good
one. They do, however, have a great respect for the law of their lands.

Geographically
the smallest of the human kingdoms on Ceilar, Korvis is primarily a land of
forests, mountains, and water, with a region of plains to the west. It has few
enemies within its borders, having subsumed or enslaved the majority of the
ogres and orcs of the mountains and cleared the Sidh from the Elmwatch Forest.
Korvis' greatest enemies from within are its own noble houses, which are
constantly engaging in secret little wars to gain power and favor in the eyes
of the king.

In
addition to humans, some dwarves, and a very few members of the other allied
races, Korvis is also the birthplace of the tiefling race. It is by the
proclamation of Dukaid I, Kronus's own son, that the creatures were first
allowed to live, and they now have become a regular -- if somewhat unnerving --
sight in the kantrevs of Korvis, many rising to positions of authority within
the kingdom's hierarchy until almost the entire nation is influenced by them,
if not entirely under their control.

Recently, however, it has been revealed
the Dukaid is, in fact, a half-fiend or cambon, born of a dark union between
Kronus I and a succubus that he had knowingly taken as his queen. It is his
influence, and in some cases his actual breeding, that resulted in the birth of
this new tiefling race. This discovery has cause agreat deal of civil unrest,
resulting in Dukaid having to maintain his stalemate with Kæryn while trying to
prevent a rebellion within his own borders.