Kingdoms of River and Hill

The Kingdoms of River and Hill form the southern-most peninsula of Archaea. The name serves to refer to the entire peninsula, despite the fact that the settlements are not exclusively or even predominantly composed of Kingdoms. The land itself is rugged, grading from craggy granite peaks which border the Whitespine Mountains, down to gentle rolling hills at the southern end of the peninsula. The mountain rivers and streams all branch together to feed into a fertile central valley dominated by the Katal River, also known as the Blueblood.

The northern reaches of the peninsula are peopled by a patchwork of fractious petty kingdoms, mountain clans, and tribes, who squabble over scant resources and largely non-arable land. At the southern extremity lies the Merchant City of Kataleon, the most prosperous settlement on the continent. It holds sway over the fertile valley land surrounding the river Katal, and most of the southern hills. In recent years, the mountain clans have been united under the banner of King Silvertree, in an attempt to rebuff the encroachment of the wealthy Katalish.

Geography
The peninsula which houses the Kingdoms of River and HIll is largely defined by the rugged nature of its terrain. Its northern border is formed by the Whitespines, which transition steadily from craggy mountain peaks, to central granite highlands, then onward to southern foothills and rolling hilly plains. The center of the peninsula is a massive and fertile river basin watered by the deep and powerful Katal River. Many northerners refer to the river as the Blueblood, named for the Lizardfolk blood spilled into its mountain tributaries each time a Lizard War ignites.

A series of cartel-operated river towns and farming estates are strung along the length of the Katal, with the great city of Kataleon itself straddling the river delta at its mouth.

Ancient History
In the years before the Great Desolation of the Lament, the hilly southern peninsula was home to an independent patchwork of human tribes, brigands, raiders, and Arkhenite exiles. The region was long considered an uncivilized hinterland to the great human Kingdoms of Arkhenatelan, and remained so until those Kingdoms fell. Some fragmentary records suggest that the Hill Tribes were originally started by offshoots of a more generalized human migration originating in the East, escaping from under the eaves of the Lychwood upon the collapse of the Old Kingdom.

After the Desolation
With the golden lands of the West turned to glass, the Hill Tribes became the new center of human civilization. It was a title that would not last long. After the Crusades spent themselves upon the black walls of Arkhen, a group of merchants convened in Lazar. With all hopes of restoring the desert extinguished, they reasoned that their location amidst a blasted wasteland held no promise for the future. As such, they gathered a fleet of merchants and colonists and headed south from the city. The emigration was beset by colossal predators of the Adwenian deeps, and it was a much diminished fleet which limped into the mouth of the river Katal. There they marked the end of their wanderings, and the beginning of their new settlement, Kataleon.

The Modern Era
After the founding of Kataleon, the merchants shrewdly set about building the city into a commercial hub. They took advantage of the city's location at the crossroads of the continent and made themselves an insuperable stopping-point for maritime trade. Ships full of surplus meat and produce sailed up to Lazar, and returned with riches of gold and ancient artifacts, which could then be traded with the Dokkani or peoples of the Far East. Their shipping lanes snaked along the southern coast of Archaea, bringing exotic goods from the East back to local markets. And as the prosperity flowed into the city, the merchants became increasingly organized, and increasingly involved in the bureaucracy and governance of the burgeoning city. These merchant groups solidified into massive guilds with competing ambitions to dominate the best trade and acquisition contracts. These struggles grew alongside the city's wealth, until the point that they nearly erupted into a civil war. With mercenary companies organizing into regiments throughout the city, an emergency meeting was called amongst the greatest merchant guilds, who remained in parley for nearly a month of grueling negotiations. When they emerged, it was with a new city-state constitution and a ruling body formed by a great merchant cartel, and a Board of Eight staffed by leaders from the most prominent guilds. If anything, the new organization propelled the city to greater heights of wealth and power, allowing it a legal framework to spread its influence up the river valleys and into the heart of the peninsula, where the greatest abundance of natural resources could be found.

This expansion of mercantile concerns was accomplished by companies of armed mercenaries procured with the cartel's near limitless wealth, who strongarmed locals off of locations deemed strategic for the City's economic aims. This brazen expansion stirred ire in the northern mountain clans, who watched their borders warily. For, even as Kataleon grew, so did the clans, many of whom traded their natural resources with the merchants. The patchwork tribes consolidated, dominant chiefs conquering vassals and forging Kingdoms, who then sold their resources for southern riches. The Merchants, however, chafed at this arrangement--far better to harvest the resources directly and widen the profit margin. They only needed access to the fertile river valleys of the central peninsula. To this aim, they begin playing the Kingdoms off of one another, strategically funding rival kings to weaken their targets, and then marching in with mercenaries and colonists. As the years advanced, so did the Katalish, until only the northernmost (and most barren) regions remained free of their control. The surviving kingdoms bubbled with resentment for the "southron interlopers" who had stolen their ancestral holds. However, they were never able to muster a united resistance until the ascension of King Silvertree.

Born the lord of a modest keep in the mountains, Silvertree spent his youth aggressively absorbing the surrounding kingdoms and cementing a reputation as a relentless warlord. By his middle years, the Silvertree fiefdom was accounted the strongest military presence of the Northern peaks. Taking advantage of his reputation for strength, Silvertree negotiated the gathering of the remaining Northern Kingdoms to his banner in an alliance designed to offset the encroachment of Kataleon. Shortly after the alliance gathered, a failed Katalish assassination attempt upon Lord Silvertree galvanized his forces into raising him as High King of the united army set to roll down on the southern valleys. The army, formed of hardened veterans from the Lizard Wars, dwarfed the mecenary companies left in Katalish employ--many of whom were weakened and thinned out by defectors heading to Lazar to answer the Call for a New Crusade.

The New Desolation
At the advent of the New Desolation and Ignotean's ascension, King Silvertree was in the midst of his march south

toward the Katalish-controlled valleys. Intercepted by a timely warning, he was able to turn his army aside to see to the defense of the Whitespine Mountains against the forces of the daemons and undead. He is currently reaching out to Kataleon to bury centuries of bad blood and form a defensive pact until this threat has been addressed, but the situation in Kataleon has rapidly changed as well.

Under the threat of a northern invasion the Katalish began to riot, ousting the Cartel in a week of fire and madness, which only calmed once more when another, harsher organization stepped into their place to take control of the city. The Black Bodkin Triad's reasons for emerging from the city's criminal underbelly are unknown, but the city is now grasped tightly in its fist.

Settlements

 * Kataleon - A merchant city-state formed by Lazarene emigrants, this city is the most prosperous on the continent--thanks to its location and extensive trading contacts. The city's culture is a blending of the exotic: undercurrents of the Lazarene are accented by bits and pieces from the lands across the sea, brought in on trading vessels. These are tempered by a more direct connection to the Hill Kingdoms of the north, whose infusions of local culture have served to balance the foreign influences.

Civilizations

 * The Hill Kingdoms - Once a mish-mash of barbaric tribes and lawless folk, the peoples of the highlands gradually developed into a patchwork of small kingdoms perched in hilltop keeps. Mostly shepherds and farmers, these kingdoms have long led an embattled existence. The mountain kings jockeyed amongst themselves for power and farmland, only interrupted every five to ten years to fend off an invasion of Lizardfolk storming over the Whitespines. Playing off their fractious nature, Kataleon has slowly driven the Kingdoms back to the most inhospitable fringes of the peninsula, a fact deeply resented in the North. It was not until King Silvertree that the Kingdoms and clans had ever united under one banner. With Silvertree at the helm, the Kingdoms marched against the Katalish holdings, only to be brought up short by an invasion of daemons through the Khazrai Pass.
 * The Katalish - A city-state on the Adwenian Ocean, founded by refugee merchants from Lazar. The city grew under the stewardship of its merchant guilds, which eventually formed into a Cartel governing body with the creation of a legal Constitution. The city's culture is dominated by Lazarene and Hillfolk influences, with accents of the exotic brought in with foreign trade vessels. In recent years, the Katalish mercenary armies have thinned considerably, due to the City of Lazar offering great enticements for mercenaries to join their Crusades. At the threat of a Northern invasion, the City of Kataleon took panic and broke out in riots. The riots were quelled by a criminal organization known as the Black Bodkin Triad, who deposed the Merchant Cartel and took over rulership of the city, on promises that they could keep the Northmen at bay.

Notable NPCs

 * King Eldred Silvertree - A charismatic mountain king in his middle years, he spent his youth conquering neighboring kingdoms he deemed too friendly to the Katalish merchant interests and consolidating their holdings into his own. He was gathering an alliance of prominent Mountain Kings and Chiefs when he was attacked by an assassin in the night. He used the incident to whip up a frenzy against the Katalish, the momentum of which resulted in his being named the first ever High King of the Mountains. The Army of the United Mountain Kingdoms was on its way south when intercepted by a timely warning of the events in Lazar, prompting Silvertree to turn his focus towards unifying a defense against the oncoming daemon threat.
 * Lord Flint - A lord under King Silvertree, commander of the scouting forces for the unified army. Veteran of the Battle of Galen's Harrow, where his rearguard fended off the first questing strike force of Ignotean's armies.
 * Calum - A young scout in Lord Flint's Army. Overly serious about his duties.
 * Tan - Deceased. A grizzled veteran from Calum's unit. Rather laid back, with a deceptively nimble sword-arm.
 * Zidane - A youthful messenger from Calum's unit. Originally from the Nederian Frontier lands near the Lychwood. Left to join Lord Flint's army under mysterious circumstances.
 * Gavin Belmont, Knight of Bell's Bower - One of King Silvertree's Knights Errant. Helped clear the lich from Lord Tristram's keep.
 * Sir John Albard, aka "Roaring John Albard" - A knight in King Silvertree's army. His keep briefly served as a base of operations for the army encampment.