D'hennex
D'hennex is widely known as the Southern Continent, given that it is the southernmost inhabitable continent. However, it bears many other unique factors, and a most unique history, and is not served well by such a simplistic nickname. For example, whereas Cardinal and Alaris are both countries and continents, D'hennex is only the latter. Numerous countries exist in the regions of D'hennex, often warring over their ever-shifting borders. As well, multiple races are native to the land -- not only Humans, but Elves and the undead.
Contents
Territories
The Human Lands
A long time ago, the human lands were united under the banner of An-Yneaith, a kingdom that covered a significant portion of the continent. That name is still remembered today, and many are the claimants to the High Kingship of An-Yneaith, attempting to cloak themselves in lost glory in their petty wars. That kingdom broke apart under the internal stresses brought about by the failing of the dynasty of High Kings, and the external pressures of war with the undead and automata of Alaris. Now, many disparate regions make up the sum of the human lands.
- (Country design: This is your opportunity to get involved. We invite you to design a country for inclusion in the human lands of D'hennex. To do so, create a wikipage with the name of your country, and link it here, on this page. When you feel its ready to be reviewed, let the staff know. If we like it and think it fits in well, we'll mark it down as a country, fully included in Alt's world. Until that happens, your country doesn't officially exist, IC. In exchange for the work you've put in, we'll reward you with the ability to make one or more important characters in the country (possibly static or non-comp), and a significant voice in the development and future storyline of that country and the human lands. It is permitted to work in teams, if you wish to collaborate with someone on a single territory.)
Territories Pending
Territories Accepted
The Alaran Outpost
On the northeastern coast of the continent of D'hennex, Alaris still manages to maintain a small outpost. With strong walls and their technologically-advanced weapons, they have managed to keep this toehold despite the hatred of pretty much everyone else on the continent.
Empirical Industries has negotiated their way into setting up a small facility here, enabling them to initiate portal service to D'hennex. Due to the dangerous nature of the continent (particularly for those foolish enough to attempt to enter the elven forest), before anyone is permitted to enter a portal from Cardinal to D'hennex, their portal passcard must bear a mark indicating that they have attended a lecture on the dangers and customs of the continent and local human groups, passed a short test, and signed a waiver relieving Empirical Industries of any responsibility for their safety. Power wielders are not exempt from this requirement.
The Elven Lands
The elves, after being attacked in the Mechanikkar invasion, have withdrawn into their forested homelands. The isolationist and xenophobic factions in the elven courts were always strong, and this lent them the political capital they needed. They now kill all who would intrude on their privacy, no questions asked.
(The Elven lands are not currently open to play, pending the development of the Elven race.)
The Drovinian Reaches
The Drovinian Reaches (or, more colloquially, Drovinia), are a land of the walking dead. The centuries of warfare between man and undead have filled these swampy lands with corpses and vengeful spirits enough for the needs of the necromantic masters of the land. The only thing that prevents the undead from swamping the entire continent is the fact that they are as ununited as the human lands themselves. The undead lords fight each other endlessly, seeking to wrest controls of various points of power, mass graves, and ancient artifacts. None will suffer to be an equal or inferior with the others, and so, all fight for supreme mastery over Drovinia and its undead hordes.
There are five major rulers of Drovinia -- they bear the title of Kalar. They rule vast swathes of the undead lands, with numerous lieutenants ruling sub-regions under them. The Kalars are as follows:
- Kalar Baen, a powerful undead knight
- Kalar Rythor, an ancient lich-king
- Kalar Ebayeth, an undead Sorceress
- Kalar Haseth, A Legion Wraith
- Kalar ?
Due to their territories being the most northern, and due to their involvement in the last major undead/human war, Kalars Baen and Rythor are the most commonly known Kalars among the humans of D'hennex. Few even know the names of the other three, unless they have dedicated much time and study to learning of these enemies of all living beings.
- (Country design: As with the human lands, we are also accepting territories for the undead lands. The offers are exactly the same in execution and reward. Territories should specify which Kalar they are subserviant to. Additionally, with the exceptions of Baen and Rythor, Kalars must be approved by staff in the same general fashion as territories are.)
Territories Pending
Territories Accepted
None.
History of D'hennex
The southern land started out as a barbaric place, with warring tribes, similar to what it is today except more nomadic than feudal. Amongst the humans were also powerful undead knights and wizards, many of whom began to take their own small kingdoms with their power.
One tribe, the tribe of the Emerald Dragon, rose to power under the leadership of Chieftain Anrai Brugh, who was a charismatic and powerful man. Brugh united several other tribes under his banner and gathered a host of powered warriors, securing for himself a large domain, expanding it through diplomacy when possible and through violence when diplomacy failed. Eventually, Brugh drove the undead lords into the southern marshes and united the continent under his rule, declaring himself King of An-Yneaith, an old southern word that translates into Emerald Dragon, to reflect his tribal heritage.
The southern continent used to be known simply as An-Yneaith, after the kingdom that united the entire land. The elves had their own name for the land, but they stayed in their forests and generally let the humans have their fun. The southern part of the continent has always been marshlands though, and difficult to establish cities and castles as are common throughout northern An-Yneaith, and as such was generally left unoccupied by human and elven forces, instead being left to the undead lords that had fled after Brugh's rise to power.
Many, many generations passed, with the Emerald Dragon continuing to fly over most of the continent, although several tribes that lived near the borders of the original An-Yneaith territory spoke of secession or rebellion. These quarrels disappeared, though, when the undead lords of the southern marshes suddenly marched upon the human lands, a host of skeletons and zombies trampling over the unprepared border tribes. The then-current king, Saoidhe Brugh Ain, raised a host of warriors and managed to drive the undead back into the marshes, but this time he sought to destroy them once and for all, rather than allowing them to simply escape as they had generations ago.
The Army of An-Yneaith marched through the marshes, finding nothing for miles, until a black tower became visible in the distance. Assuming this to be the stronghold of the undead (in reality, it was merely one of five such strongholds; this one was controlled by a powerful undead knight that called itself Kalar Baen), King Ain sent his army against the tower, determined to crush it into nothingness.
Instead, a swarm of undead rose from the surrounding lands, annihilating the Emerald Dragon soldiers. King Ain himself managed to escape, sending pleas for help by magic to faraway lands, as he feared Kalar Baen's forces would move again northward - which they soon did, crushing the nearly defenseless humans.
Alaris answered by unloading a transport of automatons, led by three Mechanikkars - a class similar to the prison Overseers of today, with massive control of the automaton forces of the Alaran military. With the help of these Mechanikkars, King Ain was able to fend off Kalar Baen's forces, but when another of the undead lords - Kalar Rythor, an ancient lich-king - joined Kalar Baen's forces, the war ground to a stalemate, and eventually both human and undead forces simply withdrew into their respective kingdoms.
Although the Mechanikkars and their forces had been decimated - the southern marshes were now littered with machinery and automaton junk - they had orders from Alaris to attempt to subjugate An-Yneaith, that Alaris might take the vast natural resources available to the land. The Mechanikkars hadn't counted on the magical prowess of King Ain's advisors, however, and combined with help from several elven detachments - as the automatons had marched into the forests as well as through the plains and hills of the human lands - King Ain was able to destroy the automaton force and send the Mechanikkars fleeing back across the sea. However, King Ain himself was mortally wounded in a battle with the Mechanikkars themselves - powerful psions all - and he passed away within the month, despite the administrations provided by both wizard advisors and tribal shaman.
Left in disarray, as King Ain had no clear successor - he had never married - the kingdom was plunged into turmoil, as several tribes immediately broke free, disappointed in the failure of An-Yneaith forces to protect them from the undead and determined to create their own defenses, eventually forming into feudal territories that warred with one another. The remnants of An-Yneaith itself retained several still-functional automatons, and eventually the advisors cracked the locks and protections around them and found themselves able to command the machines, which is likely the only reason An-Yneaith itself still stands today, albeit as a shadow of its former self.
The elves have again retreated into their forests, but they now kill any who enter, and occasionally even strike out at neighboring tribes, angered over the Mechanikkar invasion of their sacred groves, the blame for which they placed squarely on the late King Ain and his human subjects as a whole.
The undead have been silent, but southern fiefdoms have seen strange things in the marshes - massive flashes of some sickly green light, and strange disappearances of the wrecked automatons that once littered the entire marsh. Kalars Baen and Rythor have not moved since the last conflict, and the other three Kalars have been silent for even longer, begging the question of when the undead will march again.
