OCD.
And so it goes...
Just as a note? Lentils are tasty.
So, before Isabella took over, Aerie was atop a mountain towards the eastern end of Ketthel province. Which was the size of, oh, say Texas. When it suddenly cut off from the rest of the country, Ketthel's holdings got cut down sharply. The people they'd been trying to take over took objection to that, and started doing some taking back. Letasacia ended up losing a good 30 to 40% of its Ketthelan territory, quite aside from the part Isabella cut off, and has been trying to get it back ever since.
So, Letasacia's a decent-sized empire on the western coast of the continent of Manessah, which vaguely describes an irregular curve, concave around the ocean. Letasacia only has a small portion of the coast, at the center of the curve; then the coastline heads west, and its borders head east.
To the north, the coastline pulls far west, does interesting and undocumented things around the north pole, and loses all of our interest. Letasacia juts northward in two long finger-thrusts, the western one slightly the longer, then falls back further south and continues along to the east. To the south of the coastline, it curves sharply southeast around a densely green jungle, while the coast continues southwest for a bit. Just south of the equator, the coast turns in more or less west, and continues so far past the innermost curve of the more northerly coast.
The southwest corner of the coast holds the mouth of a large, very wet delta, and a marvel of a port city called 'Vara'. Vara was built by the Eannak, who in general inhabit that densely green jungle bordering Letasacia. Their inner workings are mysterious. But more on them later.
To the east of the Eannak, the jungle again gives way as Letasacia curves around, colonizing around to the southern coast. There's wasteland and desert-type area around here, because stripping jungleland for farming leads to things like the Oklahoma dust bowl, and there are mountainous issues around here. But about at the place where Letasacia hits the coast, it begins to curve much farther southward, into a very long peninsula, by which I mean from around the equator to nearly the antarctic circle. Very relatively thin, though. In a few thousand years, it'll start resembling an archipellago much more closely, but at the moment it's mostly the continuation of the north-south Kitari mountain range, and nearly all above water at even the highest tides. Letasacia's got holdings down along its northwestern coastline for a ways.
Most of the peninsula, though, is owned by the Keissat Empire. Keissat is relatively recent; it didn't exist at all, or at least not to anyone near Letasacia's knowledge, the last time there were Hawkfires in Ketthel. It's spread to meet Letasacia, though, and borders them from across the Aillon River that marks the western edge of the Kitari mountains all the way north almost to what's left of Ketthel, a few miles south of where the Aillon splits off a tributary called the Dola.
The Dola heads a bit east not too far south of Ketthel, and runs generally south-south-eastward from there. Along the Dola, from Ketthel stretching down a few hundred miles, live the Sikreth. They are Not Nice People. Not particularly a country, nor a kingdom, they tend to lack a truly organized system of government, but people do not take the Dola river. This, for Letasacia, is quite a pity, because beyond the Sikreth it cuts through a whole lot of territory that isn't really very well-protected. Keissat wouldn't half mind getting control of the Dola themselves.
Letasacia comes about halfway around Ketthel, along its western edge. What's left of Ketthel is surrounded by mountains on all sides, save its northeast border, where it's simply a sheer drop down a cliff to the Aillon. At its southernmost tip between Letasacia and Keissat, in the mountains for a stretch slightly smaller in square area than Ketthel itself (or slightly larger, depending on whose map you look at) lies what used to be the Ketthelan sector of Inaferre. It was a war ground a few different times, and parts of it have been lost by Letasacia a couple of times to border entities that don't exist any more, though it was officially incorporated into the province of Gamon as Letasacia scrambled to recoup its Ketthelan losses. A while back, Inaferre simply went rogue. They had been Ketthelan long enough to appreciate belonging to Letasacia and not want to rejoin their old countrymen, but they'd also been extremely close in geography to the Hawkfires long enough to not have much interest in coming under the jurisdiction of anyone else. They never had any large cities, being mainly a mining and logging area, and after a while they just stopped paying taxes to the Letasacian empire. Letasacia sent troops; they guerilla-annoyed them into leaving. Letasacia refused to send troops when the Sikreth came up along the Dola and hit the Aillon, which Inaferre borders on right along the forking; they guerilla-annoyed the Sikreth into staying on the other side of the river, too. They could be quashed, but they're not really that worth the effort. Plus it's that much more border that they don't have to be watching out for the Sikreth along, and Letasacian troops are mostly sort of creeped out by the Sikreth.
To the north, live the Zhaitannatel, a people not altogether unlike the Hawkfires first were, once upon a time. They come from a raiding and pillaging, hunter-gatherer sort of background; although they have a complex governmental and societal structure, their idea of territory is extremely fluid and subject to include areas where other people have settled with any kind of frequency. They're really the only people brave enough to venture into the mountains north of Ketthel, and even then, so not worth it.
Somewhere a bit to the east of the Ketthel border, the Zhaitannatel and Sikreth territories give way to the Plains of Toledero. The borders here are, as far as its inhabitants are concerned, very strictly deliniated, although incursions happen on a daily and unconcerned basis. Toledero's mostly inhabited by centaurs.
Um. Yeah, we have centaurs. Also, naga and harpies. Did I not mention that earlier?
And the dragons. Those're probably rather important...
Non-human OCD post will come along soon? Promise.
At any rate. Various facts about all of these peoples, and why we care, probably...Wednesday. Because tomorrow we have a five-hour-long opera. And, um...yeah. Not happening.
Just as a note? Lentils are tasty.
So, before Isabella took over, Aerie was atop a mountain towards the eastern end of Ketthel province. Which was the size of, oh, say Texas. When it suddenly cut off from the rest of the country, Ketthel's holdings got cut down sharply. The people they'd been trying to take over took objection to that, and started doing some taking back. Letasacia ended up losing a good 30 to 40% of its Ketthelan territory, quite aside from the part Isabella cut off, and has been trying to get it back ever since.
So, Letasacia's a decent-sized empire on the western coast of the continent of Manessah, which vaguely describes an irregular curve, concave around the ocean. Letasacia only has a small portion of the coast, at the center of the curve; then the coastline heads west, and its borders head east.
To the north, the coastline pulls far west, does interesting and undocumented things around the north pole, and loses all of our interest. Letasacia juts northward in two long finger-thrusts, the western one slightly the longer, then falls back further south and continues along to the east. To the south of the coastline, it curves sharply southeast around a densely green jungle, while the coast continues southwest for a bit. Just south of the equator, the coast turns in more or less west, and continues so far past the innermost curve of the more northerly coast.
The southwest corner of the coast holds the mouth of a large, very wet delta, and a marvel of a port city called 'Vara'. Vara was built by the Eannak, who in general inhabit that densely green jungle bordering Letasacia. Their inner workings are mysterious. But more on them later.
To the east of the Eannak, the jungle again gives way as Letasacia curves around, colonizing around to the southern coast. There's wasteland and desert-type area around here, because stripping jungleland for farming leads to things like the Oklahoma dust bowl, and there are mountainous issues around here. But about at the place where Letasacia hits the coast, it begins to curve much farther southward, into a very long peninsula, by which I mean from around the equator to nearly the antarctic circle. Very relatively thin, though. In a few thousand years, it'll start resembling an archipellago much more closely, but at the moment it's mostly the continuation of the north-south Kitari mountain range, and nearly all above water at even the highest tides. Letasacia's got holdings down along its northwestern coastline for a ways.
Most of the peninsula, though, is owned by the Keissat Empire. Keissat is relatively recent; it didn't exist at all, or at least not to anyone near Letasacia's knowledge, the last time there were Hawkfires in Ketthel. It's spread to meet Letasacia, though, and borders them from across the Aillon River that marks the western edge of the Kitari mountains all the way north almost to what's left of Ketthel, a few miles south of where the Aillon splits off a tributary called the Dola.
The Dola heads a bit east not too far south of Ketthel, and runs generally south-south-eastward from there. Along the Dola, from Ketthel stretching down a few hundred miles, live the Sikreth. They are Not Nice People. Not particularly a country, nor a kingdom, they tend to lack a truly organized system of government, but people do not take the Dola river. This, for Letasacia, is quite a pity, because beyond the Sikreth it cuts through a whole lot of territory that isn't really very well-protected. Keissat wouldn't half mind getting control of the Dola themselves.
Letasacia comes about halfway around Ketthel, along its western edge. What's left of Ketthel is surrounded by mountains on all sides, save its northeast border, where it's simply a sheer drop down a cliff to the Aillon. At its southernmost tip between Letasacia and Keissat, in the mountains for a stretch slightly smaller in square area than Ketthel itself (or slightly larger, depending on whose map you look at) lies what used to be the Ketthelan sector of Inaferre. It was a war ground a few different times, and parts of it have been lost by Letasacia a couple of times to border entities that don't exist any more, though it was officially incorporated into the province of Gamon as Letasacia scrambled to recoup its Ketthelan losses. A while back, Inaferre simply went rogue. They had been Ketthelan long enough to appreciate belonging to Letasacia and not want to rejoin their old countrymen, but they'd also been extremely close in geography to the Hawkfires long enough to not have much interest in coming under the jurisdiction of anyone else. They never had any large cities, being mainly a mining and logging area, and after a while they just stopped paying taxes to the Letasacian empire. Letasacia sent troops; they guerilla-annoyed them into leaving. Letasacia refused to send troops when the Sikreth came up along the Dola and hit the Aillon, which Inaferre borders on right along the forking; they guerilla-annoyed the Sikreth into staying on the other side of the river, too. They could be quashed, but they're not really that worth the effort. Plus it's that much more border that they don't have to be watching out for the Sikreth along, and Letasacian troops are mostly sort of creeped out by the Sikreth.
To the north, live the Zhaitannatel, a people not altogether unlike the Hawkfires first were, once upon a time. They come from a raiding and pillaging, hunter-gatherer sort of background; although they have a complex governmental and societal structure, their idea of territory is extremely fluid and subject to include areas where other people have settled with any kind of frequency. They're really the only people brave enough to venture into the mountains north of Ketthel, and even then, so not worth it.
Somewhere a bit to the east of the Ketthel border, the Zhaitannatel and Sikreth territories give way to the Plains of Toledero. The borders here are, as far as its inhabitants are concerned, very strictly deliniated, although incursions happen on a daily and unconcerned basis. Toledero's mostly inhabited by centaurs.
Um. Yeah, we have centaurs. Also, naga and harpies. Did I not mention that earlier?
And the dragons. Those're probably rather important...
Non-human OCD post will come along soon? Promise.
At any rate. Various facts about all of these peoples, and why we care, probably...Wednesday. Because tomorrow we have a five-hour-long opera. And, um...yeah. Not happening.