Pler

Pler is home to a continental empire. The great northern empire actually straddles the subtropical zone in the southern hemisphere but as humanity largely does not inhabit the northern hemisphere the name is appropriate.   After a cataclysmic war some four hundred years ago where humanity was driven to near extinction, the Empire is the only human nation to retain some of the glory of pre-war days. It is stable, prosperous with a wealthy upper class.   To the south, are the blacklands. Vast plains of black sand interwoven by whitewater streams that can change course within moments.   In the Antarctic circle, where the permafrost thickens and the coast ices over are the clanlands. Inhabited by a tough, proud people that refuse to let the environment drive them from their ancestral home. Their culture is dominated by survival and maintaining a viable population. It was they that suffered most in the wars.   In the equatorial regions, there are the Haven islands. An archipelago of tropical islands that thrives on trade but it plagued by pirates and slavers from the uncharted waters of the northern hemisphere. The beaches of the Haven islands are empty unless guards are present. The Empire has recently offered aid and taken a princess of the nation into the imperial palace to secure this agreement. Some fear this may be an expansionist gambit to dominate the spice trade.   It is whispered that the Augs used to live in the northern hemisphere before they were defeated. The monstrous creatures near annihilated humanity and it was only when the Empire joined the fray that they were pushed back but not before clanland settlements were sacked and the people of the Blacklands wiped out.