the other kingdom

introduction to the kingdoms of Iliad

This world was made long ago , divided by the people who lived there , and since then has rotted  along with its inhabitants. The only respite to the chaos were the lands of the fae where their people lived in peace , trusting in their ruling family to provide them with endless happiness and sustenance. The fae lands were ruled by a royal family with the ability to shape raw elemental power. Its children were able to tell truth from lies, they could wear the faces of others , ignite flames from their hands , bend water to their will, sculpt ice like butter and raise the earth and its plants just as easily. Its members , though immortal , would stay on the throne for a thousand years or so , and then , when their heirs came to the age of their powers ,pass the throne to them. Like a baton , the throne passed down from generation to generation. Their lands sworn off to the humans by the enchanted forest - there the elder fae and other half breeds and monsters would roam in an animal like state , killing any prey they desired .Their lands were plentiful and open for trade. They cared little for the human people beyond their forest and their petty squabbles. Their lifelines gave them a sort of arrogance by which they found the humans to be beneath them. Even when entire kingdoms were sacked and remade by cruel kings and unforgiving empires , the fae did not intervene.

Beyond this forest , at this point in time , one would find the human lands , misery and disease strived here. Its capital was Fennyl , and here lay a huge castle inhabited by its present royalty. There lay little power in the mortal lands , for the humans in this story are weak , manipulative cunning little beasts. Just as the fae left them , you would too. Their land was corrupted , unlike the flourishing lands of the fae , there was not enough to go around and so the people were mostly starved. Like all hierarchical societies , there was lords and ladies , courts run by the more cunning members of society that learned how to climb the ladder for power long ago. There were the hidden parts of this society too , the courtiers and assassins and secret societies that followed cult like religions. But enough of the humans for now.

Further north of the human lands bordered by treacherous ravines and crevices was the mountains. Here lived the mountain folk. Simple people that saw the corruption that we see in the human lands. Their people were strong and clever , able to live in the harshest of climates. Here there were tribes of its people who would nest along the mountain passages. But they did not squabble like the rest of their kind. They lived in a democratic society. There was an emperor and empress but they preferred to let their people decide for themselves , they were reelected every new generation to keep the peace of course.

But there isn't much to say of them , their roles come later.

Now to the east part of the continent lay the hunting grounds. These could be seen , in some respect , as being even more dangerous than the fae forest. Its monsters not beasts but beings , more commonly known as witches. Of course this was not their home , but here the witches would come to prey on silly humans that had strayed too far. Even worse , half breed children would be left here at their age of maturity to be slaves and act as sacrifice to the witches (for half breeds no matter their power , were seen as abominations to all). The witches were split into a few clans , there were the dragon riders , their army of sorts , the most vicious of them all. The dragon riders had armor under their skin , nails made of iron and the senses of a hundred humans. They could smell a human from miles away , which was why it was no surprise that they had ventured closer to the human lands. Then there were the blood casters , using the carcass from their latest kill , these witches would form cantations thanking the gods for their making and giving them luck for the next kill too. They also had the power to pull the blood from humans so that the witches could store it in bottles like wine. Lastly , there were the male witches. Now you may think that all witches are female but that is not the case. These male witches were prizes to the females and never were allowed to leave the witch lands. They were made for breeding and raising the young until they could fight or cast. But they were the least integral to the witches survival. Only the highest of the witches would be gifted with a male witch to form a witchling. All the other witches laid with human men , and then after , they would kill them and drink their blood. Do remember this , witches are much further from being human than fae.

Between the witchlands , the islands and the continent , lay the mermaid sea. Here sirens and mermaids alike would cluster to lure pirates and sailors to their deaths. They would drag them down to the depths of the sea and watch them drown slowly. In some cases mermaids and sirens keep these pirates and turn them into mermen , but this happens very little. The reason for that being that they don't usually find themselves not being hungry...

Lastly in this land , we find the pirate islands. Pirates in this story aren't what you might think. They are human , but many are blessed by the gods of the sea. Gifted with the powers of battle , these few warriors become the pirate lords ruling over all the sea living far longer than humans do (but not as long as the fae) . Yet again , few of these blessed humans exist. But once in a while , the sea finds itself picking a new pirate , man or woman , destined to lead a new crew.

The only real communications that each land had between each other was trade. other than that , there was nothing to unite them together in most cases.