Eastern Petty Kingdoms
the Eastern Free Cities
The Eastern Petty Kingdoms, often simply called the Petty Kingdoms, is the common nomenclature for the region of Novyum east of Lake Roic, between the Straboria River in the north, and the Dumidan River at its south end. This region of the Heartlands of Ethae has suffered greatly in the century long Novyum Civil War. The lands west of Roic, though no less embroiled in the civil war, seem to have found a stability. The western nations are larger with defined borders. A cold war of political maneuvers and an occasional border skirmish has become the norm. In the east it is a far different social climate.
The lands that now make up the Petty Kingdoms was once large swaths of farmlands and forest. Villages dotted the landscape, politically clustered into several petty kingdoms. With the decline of the United Kingdoms of Novyum, order was shattered in the Heartlands. The kingdoms that once reigned over the east vanished quickly, leaving a power vacuum. Warlords and bandits thrived. Villages burned, trade-routes were plundered and vanished. The Novya of the eastern Heartlands suffered, villages and towns fought alone to survive. Farmers establish themselves, only to have their crops burned or stolen. They move to a new town, to find the same. It was a wonder anyone remained in the region.
Sadly, little has changed over the decades. Chaos still reigns. However, the last decade has seen mercenary guilds converge on the region. These Corps have started taking over what's left of the towns and villages. Their leaders seeing an opportunity to become land holders. They rebuilt and established themselves, forming something of a city-state. Many of these will try to expand, either through trade and political maneuvering, or by outright violent attacks. The city-state becomes a kingdom. Somewhere else in the region another kingdom rises, they fight and one or both crumbles away. A repeated cycle. Each that rise seem to have the goal of growing and establishing a long-term nation on the east. Each with the hope to take the entire Petty Kingdom region as their own. The leader who does, becomes a king.
Most predict that there will never be stability in the region, these petty kingdoms rise and fall constantly.
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