A Summary of The Old World.

To understand the current, crisis in Jaradia you must understand the political and religious system that governs the so called "Old World".  This term, coined by the original Jaradian colonists, refers to multiple continental landmasses to the north and east of Jaradia.  Each containing a variety of cultures, religions and races, most are heavily industrialized and are where the bulk of organized society currently resides. The names of these continents were under a constant state of flux during the last two centuries, as the Old World nations fought among themselves for dominance and power, but at the moment the names of these regions are Tamnia, Alexhope, and Soun.

Tamnia

Tamnia, was at one time a lush grassland, mixed with small forests. It has since been made barren with over farming, city building, and several years of constant warfare.  It is the site of  nearly 50 different countries, and the center of power for the Temple of Hemyawyn. It is a place of nearly constant twilight, such is the air pollution, massive cities and grand gothic citadels. Most of the population lives in large community halls, and work in the great factories, that produce all manner of goods, and equipment for trade and construction.  It is a brutal, depressing and dreary place, that is the source for many newcomers to Jaradia.

The governments of these countries often view the Jaradian countries, as children not fit for the game of kings.  Often disdainful or outright hostile towards men who went from factory manager to leader of their own small kingdom in the span of a few years.  Though usually the Tamnians are too busy attempting to expand quarterly profits to care a whole awful lot about these sorts of things.

Alexhope

Named after Alexander Isan,  Alexhope, is a varied landscape of mountians, forests, and lakes.  Long ago during one of the many wars in Tamnia, Alexander and his servants families, along with other noble merchant houses fled the burning fields and war torn cities to go to the Northeast, into the bleak Nommne Mountains, several months later, he and the survivors came out on the opposite slopes,  finding hundreds of thousands of acres of untapped woodland.    

Nearly three centuries later, Alexhope is a place of massive wood walled cities, separated by hundreds of logging camps in the deep green forests.  The continent's inhabitants are largely peaceful,  but what war's do break out often times utilize large mob formations of men wielding axes, swords or small firearms, such is the terrain of the region that traditional Pike and Shotte tactics become a detriment. Alexhopes northerly climate means that its stuck in a eternal autumn, with the temperature rarely ever rising above 65 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The primary export of the region is lumber and dye, but the primary imports are grain and fresh fruits, though some areas of the forests have been cleared away for agricultural concerns, the soil is not conducive to growing crops or raising livestock,  keeping the population of the countries in Alexhope relatively low in comparison to Tamnia and Soun. 

Soun

By far the most fertile region, Soun is a land where the rivers running through Tamnia and Alexhope from the Nommne and Greatcap mountain ranges intertwine and dump into the ocean, meaning the vast floodplains of the Great Soun Valley is overflowing with an abundance of nutrient rich soil.  It is here that the food for virtually the entire Old World is grown,  and as a result the people of Soun are fabulously wealthy, the palaces of the Sultans, Barons and Emperors here are the envy of the known world, and many people live happy, comfortable lives in the humid sun bathed plains.  

The Sounians are generally not warlike, as they rely on their total monopoly of agriculture to get their way in most disagreements, and as a result most countries have small (though very well equipped) standing armies.