A Closer Look at Tyrus: breakdown by dukedom

It is with great pleasure that we present to you a breakdown of Tyrus by dukedom. As the campaigns take shape and unfold, we will add to this section to reflect changes in our world.

As always, allow this thread to inspire you in your character concept. Each dukedom has much to offer and will help give your character as well as our campaign setting a certain style and flavor all its own.

The Nerevard Alliance

Duke: Taspar Lorsam (14 Human Fighter)
Emissary: Tithian Demejis (12 Aasimar Paladin)

Capital: Fortress City of Tith

Key Cities: Port Nerevard, located off the southern coast, is Nerevard's center of trade, while Rothontas stands as the home of one of the largest naval armadas in southern Tyrus. Tith itself serves as the largest non-dwarven mining outpost on the shard(the Order monitors Tith carefully to ensure the damage to the surrounding area is minimal)

Alliances: Valhaeda stands as its strongest supporter. Nerevard also has uneasy trade alliances with all of the other dukedoms except for Cyd and, most recently, Yaavik.

Order Involvement: Heavy. Order Emissaries are entrenched in every political aspect of the dukedom. Religious devotion to the Pantheon of Light is unwavering.

Reason Influence: Very Light. The Movement is beginning to take hold in certain philosophical circles, but the Order is too heavily relied on in this dukedom for Reason to really have any impact.

Environment: Nerevard is typically mild and temperate, fed by the cool rains off of the mountains.

Economy: Nerevard benefits greatly from its two port cities on either end of the corridor of mountains (in which existed great smelting furnaces, sources of much pollution in Nerevard prior to the Order,) as well as its mining capital. It is considered one of the wealthiest dukedoms on the shard.

Points of Interest: Nerevard is renowned as a center of scholarship, known for it's large library of ancient knowledge and magical lore. Is it unofficially regarded as a center of study for the Order.

Culture: Nerevard is a wealthy and intellectual society, its great cities filled with scholars from all over Tyrus. It is a place of peace and a place of learning, where members of all races can gather in the quest for knowledge and understanding of the Pantheon of Light.

Key Races: The dukedom is predominantly inhabited by Humans, Elves, and Gnomes. Gnomes have recently become the public face of the Movement of Reason in Nerevard, and a large movement of Elves have since taken it upon themselves to defend the Order and the Pantheon in times of philosophical debate; arguments have been heated, but have thus far been non-violent. Halflings, Dwarves, and Half-Elves can be found occupying the dukedom, as well.

The Valhaeda Convenant

Duke: Lyedyn Belorm, Tenth High Guardian of the Order (16 Aasimar Paladin)
Emissary: The Trinity Council

Capital: Asemera, City of Light

Key Cities: Say'sero, a military fortification which sits on the eastern border, is very singular in its purpose- watch the Cyd Empire. Dysin, which rests on the coast, is the major hub for food distribution leaving the dukedom.

Alliances: Valhaeda has an alliance with every dukedom in some fashion with the exception of Cyd and Yaavik.

Order Involvement: Very Heavy. The Order claims the dukedom as their own, and controls its every aspect.

Reason Influence: Negligible. Those who live in Valhaeda are too dedicated to their faith to listen to such nonsense.

Environment: The most fertile clime of any of the dukedoms, Valhaeda consits largely of rolling plains. Their summers are warm and humid, their winters mild. While cold, the Whispering Mountains which surround Asemera are tranquil and are rarely prone to blizzards or severe weather.

Economy: Valhaeda is well-known for its fertile lands and its monopoly on food for the rest of the shard during leaner seasons. Because of its surplus off foodstores, the dukedom has become quite properous.

Points of Interest: Home of the Order. The city-state is also renowned for both its army and navy. The area was once untamed and savage prior to the first High Guardian's pilgrimage.

Culture: Valhaeda is a place of high intellectual society, the center of the Order, and of order itself. Under the Order, Valhaeda serves as a guiding light to all of Tyrus.

Key Races: Valhaeda is an exotic blend of of all peace-aspiring races, with the Aasimar dominating the Order.

The Forest Kingdom of Tolderand

Duke: Polwaren Asyeright (10/8 Elf Ranger/Druid)
Emissary: Dugodo Tandar (12 Aasimar Cleric)

Capital: Eremir, City of Mists

Key Cities: Ealeakimu serves as a center for the arcane in Tolderand.

Alliances: Tolderand keeps an unsteady trade alliance with most of the dukedoms. It is also the only dukedom with a relatively strong connection to Cyd.

Order Involvement: Moderate. There is some Order activity in the cities, but the Elves have keep the Guardians well away from the forests despite protest from Valhaeda.

Reason Influence: Mild. Some of the younger generation of elves have brought the Movement back to Tolderand with them, and Gnomes preaching Reason have begun to show up in Eremir and surrounding towns. The Elves have suffered them for the time being.

Environment: Dank, dark, and thickly forested with ancient trees, Tolderand is a land of mystery shrouded in mists. Eremir itself is a prosperous but dreary city, situated on the forests edge.

Economy: Tolderand thrives on its trade and study of magic. Though Nerevard discovered the secrets of the arcane, Tolderand has since become the leaders of magical study and items in Tyrus.

Points of Interest: It is rumored that deep within the forests of Tolderand, there are ancient elemental beings known as Genasi. There are also whispers of ancient Dragons spawned from the chaotic energies of the Myll which lurk in the darkness of the forest.

Culture: The Elvish races established in Tolerand have a well-developed culture steeped in tradition centered on the lore of the forest. During the rise of the Order, the nature of this culture split, with the more traditional Elves staying in the depths of the forest while the younger, high-spirited Elves left Tolderand to pursue fortunes in Valhaeda and Nerevard.

Key Races:
Cities- Elves, with a smattering of the occasional Human, Gnome, or Halfling
Forest- Elves, primarily. Older beings such as Genasi and dragons.

The Cyd Empire

Duke: Umv Pilir (16 Dwarf Barbarian)
Emissary:None

Capital: Dordruk, the City in the Mountain

Key Cities: None; Cyd is massive, its tunnels and caverns networking the whole dukedom.

Alliances: Cyd is an isolated dukedom, and typically swears off any offers of alliance. They do, however, have an unsteady trade alliance with Tolderand and Yaavik.

Order Involvement: None. Quaess has forbidden Kian's puppets entrance into the dukedom under penalty of death.

Reason Influence: Mild. The movement is small, but slowly growing. Most dwarves swear off such philosophy out of dedication to Quaess.

Environment: Cyd has always been of a harsh, cold climate. The land is rocky and ideal for mining, but not for much else. Cyd is largely uninhabited, save for the city of Dordruk.

Environment: Cyd thrives on its mining trade. The adamantine, gemstones, mithral, and overabundance of common ore found within its depths are vital to the Empire's wealth.

Points of Interest: Its mineral wealth and abundance of precious metals and gems, as well as its great forges.

Culture: The culture of Cyd is largely a warlike one, their combat prowess honed by the harsh climate. The Dwarves of Dordruk are a savage breed, fiercely protective of their city and its wealth, well trained in the arts of bloodshed. Outside of Dordruk's walls are tribes of Gnolls and Half-Orcs, equally fierce, but more desperate without the protection of the city walls. Hard-working but isolated villages of Orogs attempt to compete with the Dwarvish monopoly.

Key Races:
City: Dwarves
Outskirts:Orogs, Orcs, Half-Orcs, Gnolls

The Yaavikan Dynasty

Duke: Uoso Del'thery III (14 Human Thief)
Emissary: None

Capital: Ytrewq, City of Gold

Key Cities: Ightusk sits on the western border and serves as a major trade center for the majority of Tyrus, receiving a great deal of Lyona's imports as well as being the only open market for dwarven goods from Cyd; the prices of dwarven goods are outrageously inflated in every other dukedom.

Alliances: Valhaeda and Nerevard have enforced an embargo on Yaavik, but all other dukedoms engage in open trade with the dukedom despite Order protest.

Order Involvement: None. Yaavik has forced out all Order influence in favor of the Movement of Reason.

Reason Influence: Very Heavy. The Pantheon of Light has been forsaken by the whole of the dukedom, and Order influence has been rejected in favor of self-sufficiency. Magic has recently been outlawed.

Environment: A vast expanse of arid desert, Yaavik is largely desolate. Most major towns rest along the edges of the Iary River.

Economy: Yaavik thrives primarily on trade. It is the hub from which 90% of land trade in Tyrus originates. Because of this, the Dynasty is outrageously wealthy.

Points of Interest: Monopoly over trade East and West between Valhaeda and Lyona as well as North and South between Cyd and Nerevard makes Yaavik famous for its prosperity and exotic goods. Yaavik is also notorious for being the first dukedom to formally renounce the Order in favor of the Movement of Reason.

Culture: A wealthy, jaded people, toughened to leather under the sun. Yaavikians are noted for being untrustworthy and over-ambitious. Also noted for its mercinaries, the best trained in the world.

Key Races:
City: Humans, half-orcs, Dwarves, halflings, Gnomes.
Fringes: Wandering tribes of Goblins, and scattered settlements of Orog, providing escorts for any wishing to cross the desert.

The Lyonan Commonwealth

Duke: Tanan Curyro (13 Half-Elf Bard)
Emissary: Ranlye Eldis (8 Aasimar Cleric)

Capital: Corbad, City of Winds

Key Cities: Asroth, which sits along the Lyonan coast, is a capital unto its own right: it is a center of debauchery and lawlessness. Pirates and mercenary sailors often frequent Asroth with reckless abandon, and only the most courageous or most foolish of sailors dock there if they have other choices. Rothiss, which is nestled deep in the Kalakel Mountains, serves primarily as an outpost for cutthroats and thieves.

Alliances: Lyona maintains a casual alliance with the other dukedoms, though tension between Lyona and Valhaeda has grown some in light of the Movement of Reason beginning to take hold in some coastal towns.

Order Involvement: Light. Emissaries have been implaced in the Lyonan government, but most suggestions are dismissed by the Duke; each city or town is allowed to govern its people however it sees fit.

Reason Influence: Moderate. The Movement of Reason has begun to spread throughout Lyona as sailors return to its cities with word of the newly discovered philosophy. The concept has begun to take hold because, quite simply, divine worship doesn't get you paid.

Environment: Hot, humid, and windy, with a prolonged rainy season for winter. An unnatural coldness has crept into the mountains in the North, covering them in snow. Many speculate this to be a result of chaotic Myll energies in the nearby Mists, but some claim that Denntor has claimed the area as his domain.

Economy: While Yaavik controls the flow of trade on land, Lyona claims dominion over sea trade. Government-funded piracy also contributes to Lyona's, and specifically Duke Tanan's, somewhat questionable wealth.

Points of Interest: Its wealth of off-shore luxuries, as well as its far-ranging pirates and strong navy.

Culture: Lyona is largely regarded as a free or uninhibited culture, with a very loose and uninvolved rulership. Outcasts of many different races mingle here, hoping to find their fortune on the unfriendly seas. A large percentage of the population consists of humble fishing folk.

Key Races: Lyona is a melting pot of cultures, but the dukedom is home to primarily Humans, Halflings, Elves, Half-Elves, and Gnomes. The neighboring islands, shrouded by the Boundary Mists, are home to the Kobold.