Menechit

Background

Menechit is on of several continents on the planet called Nova. Menechit is home to two large kingdoms, Dolovai in the north and Kyaine in the south.

Dolovai

Dolovai is a fairly mountainous country that is bisected by the imposing Amaran mountains, home to dragons and all other manner of monsters. Politically, it’s an amalgam of what used to be three different countries, until the other two were conquered by Dolovai about a thousand years ago. It’s ruled by the ven Sancte family, with Gerard and Georgina ven Sancte being the current king and queen.

The capital of Dolovai is called Three Hills, a large, old city built upon the fossil of a smaller, older and much more haunted city. The ven Sancte family rules from here, and here you will also find the Mage’s Academy, the First Church of the Blessed and the headquarters of the Dolovin Order of Knights.

Pelican Bay is Dolovai’s largest city and its most important port, a coastal city with a huge impact on trade and a long mythic history of housing saints. The other major northern port is White Cape, which serves as the usual landing point for ships sailing over from the empire in the west and also an access point to the far north. Merket is a small city that serves as a home to adventurers and quests, and is known to house two assassins’ guilds and numerous mercenary companies. In Merket, as in much of the north with the exception of White Cape, human slavery remains legal, a holdover from an older northern kingdom that was conquered ages ago. Merket is the former capital of the old northern kingdom of Porean (or Tenchere, depending on which history you read).

Dolovai is also home to a large forest on its western edge, home to witches and centaurs, and the longest stretches of the Saint’s River, the longest marine thoroughfare on the continent.

Kyaine

In southern Kyaine, the capital is Hawk’s Roost, a fortified city that served as a bastion for House DiGorre and others during a series of civil wars that make up the nation’s history. Backing onto the Shrike’s Lake, it’s defended by both land and water.

Kyaine is a combination of two former kingdoms that violently came to be one under a unified monarchy, but with many noble houses who don’t get along. House DiGorre recently fell to House Fyrhawk, a far southern noble house that has long been shut out of governance due to old feuds, but King Stephan’s hold on power was tenuous and he lost it upon the arrival of Hans DiFueure, the previous queen’s brother in law, who now rules as regent until his missing nieces can be found, but who clearly has political ambitions and alliances of his own.

Bright Harbour is the largest city in Kyaine and on all of Menechit, with a population of over a million people. It’s arguably the busiest port in the world and controls most of the continent’s commerce. Other major cities in Kyaine include Endwann, Josef’s Boon and Glassheart Castern.

The other major area of note in Kyaine–depending on who you ask–is the Fury Plateau. Called Ech’kent in the native Chez’n, it has a long history of resistance to Kyainese rule and is home to seemingly indefatigable sovereigntist movements. For a long time Ech’kent has been ruled by House Arkhewer, which was a concession to Kyainese rule using western terms to designate a leader from among their own people. House Arkhewer was overthrown recently by Solomon the Sorcerer King, who set up his territory in the plateau because it is isolated and strategically unimportant to Kyaine and therefore unlikely to be fought for–a supposition that was proven right. Lately, it seems like House Arkhewer has started to regain some power in Ech’kent, though a growing rebel faction exists that despises not only the Sorcerer King, but House Arkhewer’s involvement with him.

Geographically, the plateau is a plateau, mostly flat and without a lot of arable land. It is bisected by the Chavekma River and home to many gem and iron mines. The Roe Range, the mountains in which the plateau is situated, are home to a great many dragons, revered as deities in old plateau religion. When the Catechism, the main religion on Menechit, moved into the plateau, they built a monastery on Rh’eyltakak, a famous mountain, and renamed it Mount Saint Bernadette.

Culture

The main religion of Menechit is called the Catechism, a monotheistic religion centered around a deity understood to have come and banished demons from the world during an event called the Apocalypse, which was followed by the Catechism Wars in which the demons were defeated by the angelic armies. The Catechism is led by the High Presbyter, a political and spiritual figure who can influence kings and make proclamations about belief and doctrine from his or her seat in Three Hills. The Catechism’s beliefs are filled with saints and angels, not only their singular God fighting demons and the devil, in their endless quest to have humanity return to the fabled Gated Land, where they were created.

Menechit is home to may languages, though the main spoken languages of Dolovai and Kyaine are, respecitvely, Daolo and Kyn. Despite being neighboring tongues, Daolo and Kyn are very different from each other, as a result of cultural diffusion and very different outside influences during and after the Flame War. Sign language is also used frequently in both countries, both by the deaf and people who want to talk without others knowing. These are two entirely different and unrelated languages, the Dolovin version once again heavily influenced by outside languages during and after the Flame War. The people of Echh'kent typically speak their own native tongue, Chez'n, which they have kept up even after being absorbed into Kyaine.