Latveria

**Latveria** is the principal continent on which the story takes place. It is a sizable part of a larger landmass, cut off from the rest of it by mountains to the northwest and deserts to the southwest, with numerous outlying islands. Latveria is notable in that various explorers from Astellia, before it left the restraints of the surface, visited the continent, giving it a cultural link to Astellia that no other land has. It is host to a variety of cultures, nations, and ideologies, all vying for supremacy and power.

## History

The continent of Latveria has, over the millennia, been home to a variety of peoples. Unlike Astellia, it was not made to hold a holy, chosen people. Its people would define themselves. The earliest people organized themselves into warlike tribes, but eventually, civilizations formed.

The continent, before mass human migrations from the west, was mostly empty, although elven and beastmen had scattered societies all across. When humanity arrived, the natives were displaced mostly to the islands where they now reside.

The founding of Latveria's first human civilization over over 6,000 years ago marked the beginning of the Latverian Bronze Age (6,000 BV to 5,000 BV). During the Bronze Age, the tribes organized themselves into larger kingdoms and other such states, waging wars with organized armies and bronze spears. During this age, people began to grow more educated, discovering the curvature of the earth and forming complex cultures and social structures, which would serve as blueprints for later civilizations. It was also during this time that Astellian settlers, adventurers, and other such people visited Latveria, many of them going native and living amongst the Latverians, interbreeding with them. In fact, some languages (such as Julian, Parcenian, Saexnan (Commontongue), and Magnolionese stem from such settlers) However, when Astellia was lifted up from the earth and placed into the sky, the turbulent state the planet was left in would destroy the civilizations of the Latverian Bronze Age. The land would be torn apart by storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other such disasters.

Following that came the Age of Darkness. This was a period where the surviving peoples of Latveria who were lucky enough to survive the catastrophic Bronze Age Collapse lived in tribalism and darkness, devoid of civilization. However, not all knowledge was lost. 4,000 years of tribalism later, around 1,000 BV, civilizations began to reform. This began the Latverian Iron Age, called such because of the prevalence of iron swords in warfare. The new civilizations carved themselves out from war, once again creating complex cultures and the such, as well as discovering lost knowledge. By 600 BV, the turbulent Iron Age came to an end, as civilizations had grown stable enough to hold the borders they had established. One of the most prominent of these new civilizations was the mercantile and navally-based island Kingdom of Saexna. The Saexnans sent out colonists to the other islands, and are the ancestors of all other island peoples besides the Magnolionese.. In fact, the Saexnans held such influence during the Iron Age that their language, Saexnan, is also called Commontongue, and is the common language of business on the continent.

The period following the Latverian Iron Age was the Latverian Classical Age (600 BV to 0 AD). This age is mostly marked by the rise and fall of the Frost Empire. One of the islands the Saexnans colonized was the Frost Isle, with the people from it coming to be known as the Frost Islanders. They, over the 600 years their empire lasted, conquered vast swathes of land. The conquered the islands of Magnolion and Dea, as well as the Prosperous Isles. On the continent, the conquered the peoples known as the Julians, the Egalstrians, and the Parcenians. While it was the Saexnans that colonized the Frost Isle and spread the Saexnan language to the isles, it was the Frost Empire that brought it to the continent - by force. The Frost Empire and its Emperors ruled uncontested for 600 years, setting the groundwork for many of the ideologies and nations of the next era. However, the Empire would not last forever. A great conflict would end it. Eventually, two young men, wielding unbreakable weapons and powerful magics, nearly invincible in battle, rose to prominence. These two men were the brothers Paulus and Xenon, who claimed to be descended from the two gods of the Julia-Parcenis-Egalstria region: Macarus and Merody (linguistic corruptions of Makari and Merodii). These two, started what became known as The Glorious Revolution, and were named the Sons of Heaven. The two brothers led the revolutionaries to victory after victory, to triumph after triumph, liberating almost the whole continent, until one day, the two were captured in battle and crucified. The Frost Emperor thought to demoralize the revolutionaries, however, he emboldened them. They fought harder than ever, and eventually drove the Frost Islanders off the continent. With the victory of the revolutionaries, three kingdoms were born: the Kingdom of Julia, the Kingdom of Egalstria, and the Kingdom of Parcenis. All calendars in these nations were changed to fit around the deaths of Xenon and Paulus, and they officially organized their beliefs into a single church: The Astellianist Church. The Frost Empire would never recover, losing all of its other islands until it was just left with its home island. Among the Astellianists, a new calendar was created. All years before the death of Paulus and Xenon and the victory in the Revolution would be labeled BV, or "Before Victory". All after would be labeled AD, or "After Death".

The current period of history (Glorious Revolution onwards) has lasted for 867 years, and all has been relitively calm at the start. However, in 200 AD, the Great Schism occured. The concept of monotheism, or a belief in one god, sweeped the land, and into the Astellianist Church. A divide formed over which god was the one true god, Macarus or Merody. The Julians and Parcenians believed that Macarus was the one true god, whilst the Egalstrians believed that Merody was the one true goddess, and also rejected the divinity of Paulus and Xenon. So, the church split into two churches: The Church of Macarus and the Church of Merody. The Church of Macarus was headed by the Pontifex Maximus in Julia, while the Church of Merody was led by the High Priest in Egalstria. Only 50 years later, Julia's monarchy fell to a man named Philip Argeas. Argeas and the other nobles reformed the country into the very first republic, with a balance between order and meritocracy. The result was the opposite of what most monarchists expected. They expected the republic to crash and burn, but it thrived. Philip Argeas, who has been declared Consul of Julia, began the long process of subduing the tribes north of Julia. Successive consuls would do the same, until by 600 AD, the north had b: The Foederatieen fully pacified: The Foederati. In the south, horsemen from the far west invaded, conquering the desert kingdoms of southwestern Latveria and with intent to expand further, which began a long war with Luciferia, resulting in the kings building a massive wall. to keep them out. In Magnolion, after the fall of the Frost Empire, and influenced by the Astellian Church, they founded their own religion and their own monarchy. They formed a small empire, focusing not on expansion, but on wealth, and they believed their royal family to be divine, church and state being one and the same. However, now a military despot, called a Shogun, runs the country.

In the year 867, the only major change to the map was the conquest of Raetia by the Julian Republic.

## Prominent Countries

The Julian Republic

The Kingdom of Egalstria

The Kingdom of Parcenis

The Empire of Magnolion

The Kingdom of Saexna

The Kingdom of Luciferia

The Arsalani Empire