The Nations of Nirendia So Far (Book 3)

The Age of Magic focuses on events on a world called Nirendia, but really, we’ve only seen the innerworkings of two of the 27 active kingdoms that I’m aware of so far. Let’s go over the various sovereign nations that you’ll see by the end of Book 3, The Dragon Prince, which finally releases at the end of this month.

What Nations are in the Surdel Region?

The main sovereign people here are of course the humans of the Kingdom of Surdel, but within the map we see here are four nations north of the Small Sea (and I’m lumping the orc groups into one nation because when you leave orcs to their own devices they fracture into their own groups all the time until Bloodhand comes back to reclaim his territory). The oldest nation here is the Etyria Empire, home of the dark elves and Prince Jayden’s royal family. It’s at least 50,000 years old, but because of the demon invasion below Surdel, only one city remains: Uxmal. The area covered by the Nomintaur Forest is the domain of the wood elves under King Calenanna and defended by the fierce Captain Liritmear. Technically, the paladins at Mount Godun are an autonomous nation that has been denied its citizenship to the Kingdom of Surdel due to events at the dark elven city of Xhonia some 500 years ago.

What Nations are in the Visanth Region?

The Visanth Region is dominated by The Visanth Empire. Two thousand years ago, it was actually called the Visanth Kingdom, but the Rasalased family renamed its holdings the Visanth Empire after it conquered several neighboring kingdoms along the west coast of the Great Ocean and made them into vassal states. You haven’t seen these states yet, but the Visanth Empire has long been interested in expanding its holdings, including ambitions on Surdel, with raids into the Surdel mainland with increasing frequency over the past few hundred years.

Up until 1,000 years ago, a dark elven nation also existed within the confines of the region now dominated by the Visanth Empire. Whereas the northern dark elven empire was decimated by demons, the dark elven nation of Harenyadae (“Southern Shadow” in the Elven Tongue) was destroyed by the Visanth Empire in a surprise attack west of Scythica. According to the histories in Visanth, the dark elves attacked the Visanthi people. However, several tomes in the Kingarth Library mention that homed pigeons had been sent to the south from the Etyria Empire repeatedly requesting aid after the fall of Shamat 2,000 years ago and the disappearance of Selenor the Seer, who was presumed to have died at Shamat.

The Eytria Empire condemned the action and claimed the massacred people were a relief force of men, women, and children to help with the fight against the demons in the north. The Visanth Empire didn’t believe in demons and instead sensed weakness. They slaughtered the inhabitants of Suwenga and Kristil within five months of the battle. The pikemen then assaulted Halispata and Zeligawna before moving north to take out Velenztu and Vaerua. During the siege of Zeligawna, a group of human sympathizers from Corellin protested the actions, claiming the dark elves were good neighbors and traders. The army broke up the protests and sent the sympathizers into the southern desert, where they were labeled rebels and separatists by the Visanth Empire under the name “Crelloni”, itself a jumbling of the name of the Corellin protestors. Because of its remoteness, Gelzvani didn’t fall until 2 years after the battle of Scythica. The last embassy of the Etyria Empire closed in Scythica shortly after the fall of Gelzvani, and no dark elf has been seen in the Visanth Empire since (over 1,000 years).

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to lay out some of the history of the series so far and the people who populate it. Maybe I’ll follow this up with some recaps of the histories that you can read about so far in the series. In truth, the history that will be told in this series goes back to the creation of the fantasy universe, back when Mekadesh was born, many billions of years ago. But we’ll also dive into the time of Sven (10,000-15,000 years ago), and the first contact between Selenor the Seer and Mekadesh (20,000 years ago). The majority of the series will concentrate on this more recent period (20,000 years ago until now), but several important artifacts (e.g., The Eye of Maddox and the Arm of Maddox) arrived on Nirendia several million years ago, forming the craters you can see in Surdel just north of the Small Sea and forming the valley where all of the nations of Surdel thrive.

All part of the arc of the series! More to come. Stay tuned!