Turncoat verse

The three nations of Koth, Ellador and Tigonne coexist on the Madara peninsula. They have intermingled culturally and economiclly for centuries. Madara is surrounded on most sides by the Pantu sea, and bordered in the northwest by the forbidding Antelix mountains. Trade with outside nations comes mostly oversea.  

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  The world of Turncoat Chronicle is a low-fantasy setting with no magic, and religiously agnostic. Most of the world building revolves around the three nations sharing the Madara peninsula, with their shared but still distinct cultures, dialects, religious customs, and highly entwined economies. Over the centuries, the borders between the nations have shifted back and forth, and during times of peace marriage across the border is not uncommon.   The climate of Madara is temperate, with rainy winters and dry, hot summers. Farther north in the mountains of Ellador, the winters are colder, and at high altitudes there is some snowfall. The flora and fauna is, on the whole, Mediterranean or southern European in nature. The level of technology resembles the late middle ages or early Renaissance, except when noted otherwise.   Madaran society is strongly stratified by both birth and wealth, although there is some mobility between the classes, which generally happens over several generations. There is a growing middle class of merchants and artisans, of which the wealthiest and most successful are usually members of relevant guilds. Guilds admit new members, but still privilege established families and businesses financially and politically. Several of the oldest trade families maintain ties to their countries of origin, while still being socially and politically active in their home countries.   Koth and Tigonne are both monarchies with an elaborate system of aristocracy. The most powerful noble houses are centuries old. Ellador is a concord of several major trade guilds ruled by a trade council of the most powerful merchant families. Councilors are chosen by their families and the premier is elected by the councilors. The great land-owning families still style themselves aristocrats, but have been intermarrying with guild families for generations.   Royal and noble family lines are valued, but adoption is legally equivalent to producing a blood heir. Marriages are formed as much for financial or political alliance as to produce heirs. By tradition, adoption usually happens within the constraints of social class, and is more common among families who are affluent with respect to their own class. Because of intermarriage, and the influence of Ellador's international trade ports, especially urban Madaran society is racially diverse and often mixed.   For the past generation, relations between the three nations have been mostly peaceful, with the exception of the occasional border skirmish. Hereditary position holders often remain in power to old age, and retire, handing down their positions to their heirs while still alive. Dynasties are long, with the recent exception of the Suthian dynasty of Koth, which was established only twenty years ago, by violence.