Akebu-llan

Akebu-llan is a sealocked terra firma continent marked by very large forested biomes situated mostly near its edges, and by the second largest desert on Navagar known as the Dead Dunes that dominates its centrux, surrounded and contained by the massive Walls of Momorsis, and magickally sealed and guarded by the local deities known as the Saintly Trine. Though often imagined as cruel environments housing similarly cruel cultures, these biomes have been "tamed" for millennia by the local peoples--who possess the heart, wit, and grit to continue persevering, and from this determination sprang many civilisations and empires across the otherwise inhospitable land, each with their own highly sophisticated cultures.
Akebu-llan is rendered sealocked by the Snake Channel, with Diru to the north, Hazim to the west, Kamayapa on the southwest, and the Belmith Ocean to the south and east. The Salimese chain of islands dot the nearby Belmith waters, and a few larger islands lay south. A significant localised region of the Snake Channel known as Emhisan, found south and east of Akebu-llan, is home to local merdoms collectively self-identified as Minnoi, a case of a group of myrmidonian polities refusing to be called by a metonym and demonym due to historical-cultural issues (they would have been called Emhisants).
The continent was one of the Three Suns alongside Kamayapa and Hazim during the War against the Shinrya Empire. It remained a member through the Four Suns when Diru was included, and was especially essential to the latter because of nearby Akeban countries allowing refugees and escaped slaves from Diru and further up Sakoshina hide and settle in their places under fierce guard by highly competent armies, the general discouragement effect of the Dead Dunes, and the vigilance of the Saintly Trine.
Prior to this War, Akebu-llan was the chief opponent against the Shinrya in their claiming of Hazim, as the Akeban states involved also desired ownership of the landmass, as did the Kamayan udishar (pillar states) involved in the conflict. When the Shinrya proved far more threatening to stability in their own lands, both Akeban and Kamayan states, as well as the native Hazimites, formed the Three Suns alliance. Akeban states, especially those in the northeastern, west, and southwest regions, have since seen surges in population of mixed races and polyethnic people.
Meanwhile, on the eastern regions where Akebans have had first contact with Acatharians, people of mixed Akeban and Acatharian blood, in particular the blood of a Serran or of any major colonial powers, have been disadvantaged by taboos placed by the Serrans to eliminate "racial and genetic impurity", as well as taboos of many local peoples. In some of the Salimese Islands, mixed people with any blood or even just appearance of a "Serran" or "coloniser" (fair-skinned and/or tall, both traits which differ in definition from group to group) are considered untouchables both by the locals and colonials. In both instances, the mistreatment drives mixed people with Serran blood to migrate to Acathar for better quality of life; rarely do they manage to travel to the more tolerant western regions of Akebu-llan due to strong opposition on the way there, and the Dead Dunes themselves. All of these have worked to discourage interracial consummation with Acatharians, though the taboos have gradually lifted through the centuries.
Intermixing with Minnoi myrmidons has been highly discouraged as well from time to time due to the unusual, strict laws of many Minnoi states, which declare that anyone who comes to the sea through Akeban soil is unworthy of sexual attraction. This has not stopped the curiosity known as the Prince/ss of Pearls, the famous sex-shifter of legend identified as being the "impossible" offspring of a Taiahati fisher and a runaway Minnoi prince.
Inspired by the udishar of Kamayapa, Akebu-llan in modern centuries has adopted the term "Sun Pillar States" to refer to the monarchdoms near and in the Dead Dunes. The label is intended to help relief groups identify which among the desert states may be in crisis or dire need, owing to the harsh unpredictability of the Dead Dunes. Through specialised structures with a similar principle to mile-long aqueducts, aid is hoped to arrive through the deadly desert much faster than conventional methods of relief. Through other methods and techniques applied to Sun Pillar States, the desertification of nearby regions and the status of the Dead Dunes itself are hoped to be better monitored, easing efforts of the Saintly Trine in focusing their magicks on sealing the Dunes.