Kelimaria

Kelimaria is a large, mostly low-lying region in southwestern Orithea, stretching for over a thousand miles from east to west. It is the land of the Kelims or Kelimar people. To the northwest it is bounded by the rugged hill country of Elacreon’s plateau; to the northeast by the scarped vantagelands on the edge of the high Suagir steppe; to the southwest by the Sea of Faerod; and to the south by Lake Lhodogir and the deep Tigerstone Rift valley around it. In the east, the Kelimarian lowlands dip down even lower into the Druune Basin and the land of Ojaum around the Sunken Sea.

The Kelimarian plain (also called the Plain of Tharsus) is naturally covered by thick, verdant coniferous forest, well-watered by an extensive rainy season each year and the many rivers that flow across the plain; in many areas, it can be considered a temperate or subtropical rainforest. The fertile soil and ample rainfall make for ideal farming conditions, so over the millennia, large parts of the woodlands have been cleared by the Kelimarians for agricultural purposes. A traveler through the region will pass through expanses of thick forest alternating with belts of cultivated fields or pasturelands spreading out from the towns and cities of the Kelims. In areas where the rolling plain does rise up into ranges of hills, the slopes may be terraced with orchards and rice paddies around hilltop villages, but often the hilly areas are less populated and thus still mostly covered with forest.

Many of the deepest forests are also said to hide settlements of wood-elves and wild-elves who have dwelt there since long before mankind came to Kelimaria; the locals know and fear these areas, and will not trespass in them or attempt to clear them for farming. Kelimaria also has a substantial population of halflings, who mostly live in their own communities interspersed with those of the Kelims (though some do live among the humans).

The many large rivers that wind across the Plain of Tharsus have historically provided the main modes of trade and travel in Kelimaria, since moving up and down them is much easier than traversing the often densely forested countryside. The major cities of Kelimaria, and most of its population, are therefore concentrated in several corridors centered on these rivers. The biggest and most important are, from west to east, the Shau, Voegon, Toross, and Aitrus rivers.

Politically, the region is still reeling in the aftermath of Gol Garga’s invasions, which pushed deep into Kelimarian territory and caused considerable damage. The chaos of the orcish attack led to the collapse of the three-century-old Kelimarian Sultanate (the sultan Olugar IX and his heir-apparent Rouam of Yarat were both killed on the battlefield in 1247 CV) and the reassertion of sovereignty by a patchwork of local rulers all desperate to muster their own resources for their own defense. Further tumult and bloodshed ensued as the orcs continued to run rampant in much of Kelimaria from 1248-1250 CV, before the bulk of the horde moved east towards Dranuria.

Kelimaria today is still recovering from these terrible years, and seems to have reverted to the political arrangement which has existed in the interim periods between previous sultanates: Several different emirates and kingdoms (some large, some small, some little more than independent city-states) in an uneasy equilibrium. The most noteworthy of these states include the emirates of Elacreon, Athigash, and Uzmaen; the kingdoms of Athalesh and Qathrib; the geographically small but wealthy and influential state of Lashimwara; and Balura, traditonally an emirate but recently declared a kingdom.

It remains to be seen whether the leaders of these various states will fall to warring with each other as they have in the past without the central authority of the sultan to constrain them. So far they have mostly been preoccupied with rebuilding and recuperation, and (especially in the south) fortifying themselves in light of the reality that Vastemar is gone and Kelimaria now lies just beyond the new frontiers of orcdom.

Rouam of Yarat’s nephew, Rouam the Younger, has just asserted a plausible claim to the Topaz Throne, and there is talk (some of it hopeful) that the Banuviri Sultanate may soon be re-established under him. Certainly many believe that only through unification under a restored sultan will the Kelimarian lands be able to defend their southern marches and fulfil the new role forced upon them, that of a bulwark against the orcish menace. But there are rumors that competing claims from other relatives of Olugar IX or Rouam of Yarat may soon be forthcoming; if a succession dispute emerges, or if some among the now-sovereign Kelimarian rulers resist subordination to a new sultan, the region could easily slide back into the chaos of warring states that has sometimes marked past intervals between sultanates.

Significant cities in Kelimaria include Yhimir (the traditional sultanic capital on the Shau River, and the location of the Topaz Throne), Ghalentos, Tarrek, XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX, and XXXXXXXX.