Thaleniel: This sprawling metropolis is home to human, half-elf, halfling, elf, dwarf, and gnome. The center of the city gradually rises on a hill, and at the top sits the great fortress of Thaleniel, home to the royal Andreat family. There King Thadeus the Benevolent rules justly and firmly over his lands, from Axton to Port Elam, from Brakton to Highwatch. Nearly all live happily under his rule, enjoying peace and security about their daily lives. The shining city is the center for trade in the kingdom, and nearly anything (even the unsavory) can be found for a price.
Brenan’s Crossing: Named after the fabled hero who held the bridge alone from an army of kobolds centuries ago, this stone bridge and the neighboring castle monitors and controls the river traffic of the Emester River. The simple townsfolk live under the protection of the garrison, who vigilantly watch the plains and forest for threats to the kingdom, large and small. Each year on the summer solstice, a great celebration commemorates the legend of Brenan the Berserker.
Armaag’s Plains: A fierce, fire-breathing dragon wanders this vast, barren wasteland. It is speculated that the tribes of kobolds to the north revere this dreadful wyrm.
Axton: A small lumbering town at the edge of the Kingdom of Vyren, most of the townsfolk spend their livelihoods chopping and delivering lumber down the Emester River. While the people seem quaint, all of them are watchful for kobolds on the warpath, and are ready to enact a flight to Brenan’s Crossing should the threat arise. Some half-elves hail Axton as home, for its proximity to the home of the wood-elves, Carenthir Forest.
Carenthir Forest: Long before the lands of Vyren were united under the Andreat sceptre, elves lived in vast northern forest. It is known that those who travel too far into the old wood are warned to turn back -and those that persist are never seen again. Still, the long-living elfkind are known to mingle in the small towns close to their home: Axton, Deeproot, and Brakton.
Deeproot: A small town on the edge of the Carenthir Forest. Deeproot is home to excellent huntsmen and craftsmen, and the townsfolk typically travel annually to Thaleniel to sell their wooden crafts, grown foods, and animal pelts.
Brakton: Named for the brackish but drinkable water that flows from the Dax River, Brakton rests on the northeastern corner of the kingdom of Vyren. While no great scholars hail from Brakton, many seek after their herbalists and shaman for cures to ailments of all kinds. These naturalist healers claim that their water, while bitter, can spur miraculous recovery. The town is accustomed to watch for and defend against the occasional gang of goblins, who live in the Bloomrot Marshes to the east.
Bloomrot Marshes: Travelers through these stinking swamplands are warned to watch for goblins, and other foul creatures. These marshes extend east and north into the Urthog Hills.
Urthog Hills: Little is known about these distant northern hills, save that it is the home of giants. Grotesque tales from the oral traditions of the Urlghain clan elders tell of towering, club-wielding oafs carrying away man and livestock alike, to meet terrible ends at their sadistic and hungry hands.
Castle Bitterfont: The patrols of this castle usually intercept and deter raids from the marshland goblins or the thuggish giants from the northern Urthog Hills. The keep stands over a natural spring that produces a bitter water. This castle was built and maintained by the southern highlanders centuries ago, and their ancestors continue that tradition in service of the king.
Urlghain Highlands: (pronounced: ur-line) The last of the native folk to accept Andreat rule centuries ago, the Urlghain highlanders are perhaps best known as loud, burly, and uneducated. Despite their potential for pariah, these stubborn backwoods folk are proud of their heritage and strange traditions that harken long before the the Vyren lands were united under one crown. To their credit, most highlanders stand well over six feet tall with broad, muscular shoulders, and their warriors are historically praised as giant-slayers.
Greysight Vale: These lowlands are home to farmers and ranchers. Every year, a thick autumn fog rolls in and lingers until the frost lifts in early spring. Travelers through the fog tell tales of wispy figures in the mist, ghosts from battles long past.
Redstone Keep: Masoned from the redstone brought from the southern Baldrin Heights, this single tower watches over sprawling farmland. In addition, many of the king’s cavalry stable here and use the open land to train new recruits in horsemanship.
Spindlewood: Few venture into this eerie forest, infested with spiders grown to unusual size. Fables whisper of old secrets of wondrous value lie hidden and guarded deep within the web-tangled wood, but the few adventurers that escaped the Spindlewood alive tell of impossible mazes, sticky traps, and gigantic, venomous spiders.
Port Elam: A more wretched pit of scum and villainy you will not find. Protected by the stone bluffs of Baldrin Heights, this bay is the center for sea trade of the Kingdom of Vyren. The kingdom cannot boast as a naval power -there seems to be enough warships to deter piracy in the bay, but little more than that.
Clearwater: A small fishing community that shares the King’s Lake with Thaleniel. The families that live there have done so long before the royal Andreat family assumed regency, and tend to be superstitious.
Highwatch: Carved out from the mountainside, Highwatch is the newest fortress to the Kingdom of Vyren. Built under the advisement of dwarven masons, this great castle is boasted to be impregnable, and for one hundred years, has defended that claim superbly. The garrison vigilantly patrols the West Emestar River and surrounding foothills for the orc raiders that seek to plunder Clearwater or the lowland farmers.
Korgrut Empire: Little is known about these lands, and in truth, perhaps there is little
to know, except that tribes of orcs cover these lands, and that they squabble with each other more than their neighbors. Still, the numerous tribes send disorganized raiding parties into the Kingdom of Vyren for plunder, though seldom succeed due to the stalwart efforts of Highwatch and Redstone Keep.
