Windamere

The Kingdom of Windamere is hundreds of years old. Your characters do not know much beyond its origin: refugees fleeing the madness of the Khan's Empire, somewhere to the northwest. A man named Arando led the refugees, as a scroll discovered in Thozanga's archives attests. He was the legendary first king of the small, struggling domain.  The Kingdom's god is Markik, but also honored is Markik's  brother Orozan, the patron of the old Imperium of Gaporten. The Imperium remains a legend of peace and order now buried in the sands of time. Orozan is a beggar god, and by law no poor person may be abused or refused aid, within reason.

The kingdom today does well and its citizens enjoy rights rarely found elsewhere. Slavery is illegal, a precendent Arando established, and nearly 40% of the populace can read at some level.

Recent Events

King Dallarus ruled from Castle Cypher in the center of the kingdom. He was a just ruler and fought off a Khanish incursion in his younger days but was grievously wounded. King Dallarus grew old and increasingly feeble, though his mind was as sharp as a Champion's blade. His only living child, Arana, is in her twenties and assumed the throne after her father's death, following her rescue from The Mad Sorcerer Essidar. She, a Queen, was aided by a circle of Champions of Markik.

Her marriage to the mage Cronus Chamberlain, of Misborn blood, enraged citizens. She married for love, a love long kept in the shadows. Ashes of the Pogram against Mages were stirred, and the Barons arrived at the Castle with their armies, to talk her out of it. Instead, she abdicated and placed Baron Gicrolen on the throne, and she in turn became Baroness of Koralar, which had been leaderless. An uncomfortable truce followed, and both the Khan and eyes from The Place Not Named were greedy for things to go badly.

Zinrar

with a permanent population of 2,000, Zinrar has become a small walled town over the centuries. It is the most important settlement on the road between Castle Cypher to the north and Nelonif to the south. 20' walls and 30' towers were the work of nearly a century and have not seen any attacks since the Bad Times when the Khan tried to wipe out the new Windamerean realm. Today, farmsteads, not scaling ladders full of Khannish scum, press up against the walls.

The settlement clusters around a market square and the streets have all been cobbled. On weekly market days Zinrar throngs with 5,000 or more local farmers and artisans. The Eagle, Zinrar's best kept inn and tavern, is on the square and Hellic, a veteran of the cavalry, runs it. 

Off the square The Copper Cup, a more modest but well run hostel and tavern, turns away no beggar. Kel, the owner, wears the mendicant's bowl of Orozan's cult around his neck. Nearby Robert the Provisioner charges higher-than-market prices for some of the best goods to be had for travelers at The Traveler's Friend. "Patronized by the Marshalls!" a sign inside proclaims.

Between the square and the northern wall is the Battle Mound. It is the most sacred spot in all of Windamere, as it was on this low hill that a group of refugees routed a Khanish force and founded what would eventually become the kingdom.

Baron Llyr, a Cousin of King Dallarus, is town lord. His simple and unadorned keep hosts the small Temple of Markik and lies just west of the Battle Mound. Llyr leads a muster of 200 footmen, 200 archers, and, from the wealthier families, a squadron of 50 cavalry. There is a barracks here for The King's Dragoons, and a hospice run by the Priests of Markik. The town guard is led by a former soldier, Lt. Anthor, and a guard assignment in Zinrar used to be the way a farmer earned  a few extra coppers, but since the incursion during the kidnapping of Princess Arana, the Baron rotates 50 of his best men through guard duties. The old guardsmen remain as a reserve or, as they say, arrow-fodder.  Since the troubles they are getting better training.

Marshalls of The Realm have an office here, but the Marshalls rarely have very little business in such a sedate part of the Kingdom. They patrol the borders, with eyes, ears, woodcraft, and bows at the ready.

Nelonif

Is a key trading center, a sturdy triangular walled city with a port on the river "below the walls." It has a permanent population of 15,000 and many itinerants. Market days here double the population. Foreigners come in riverboats up the long, dangerous river. There is a slum district bordering the river port, policed as much as possible by the Guard. Baron Halar and him family have ruled the place for many generations.

Higilodon

The largest city of the Kingdom and the other river port, ruled by Baron Gicrolen, the King's first cousin and heir after the Princess. When Arana abdicated, he and Baroness Jerlyn ascendeed the throne as King and Queen. She is a potent mage, a fact known to insiders but kept secret from a fearful populace.

Their eldest son, Theodric, now rules fairly but extends an amount of license to residents not found elsewhere in Windamere. The city can be rowdy at times, given the large population of visitors from downriver as well as from Simar.

Being further from the Khan, Higilodon has not been raided as much and has expanded to 50,000 permanent residents. First-time visitors are amazed by the city's many canals, used for local transport of goods and people, as well as its built-up architecture. Most structures inside the walls have five stories.  A large settlement has spilled outside the walls into the farmsteads beyond, each on its own small island. As the town grows, new canals are cut and a large moat separates the city from troubles beyond. By law, outer buildings are reinforced and set up for archers to use the roofs in times of trouble.

The Red Dragon Inn, so sprawling it occupies an entire small island, has been run for decades by Darron and his adopted daughter, Alexa. Both are a bit mysterious and rumor has it not to cross either of them, at the risk of "going downstream," local slang for being murdered and dumped into the canals.

Koralar

Arana is Baroness now, with her Baron-Consort, Cronus. The local population are not happy with the mage and Misborn, but he keeps a low profile.  The former Thaumaturge Royale, Pol of Many Colours, resides here when not out looking for old books or helping to watch the borders.

One of three frontier cities, each with a population of 7,000,  that watches over the Khan's Empire and denies him passage into Windamere or along its southern river. Led by Baron Chaldorin until his untimely death a few years back, now a council of citizens runs the town for the Kingdom, as the Baron died without issue and a widower.

Feldspar

Where the northern river enters the Inland Sea, mountains tumble down from the north and are a source of rich mining rights. The Simari pay Windamere to mine here, and the town itself has a mining-camp feeling. Simari cannon point to sea, and no Khansmen have run the gauntlet since their arrival. Baron Prang is as flinty as the stones of the mountains, yet many say that his heart was long ago broken when King Dallarus' future queen refused his proposal in order to marry the far older Dallarus. Prang is childless but has an adopted son, Loren.

Damark

Named for the hero, allegedly a Khannish Baron who rebelled and freed his slaves after Markik appeared to him. He then fought to the death against the Khan's forces as Arando and the refugees made their way south, this town was built at the site where the great warrior himself fell. He is entombed in the Temple of Markik there. Baron Halbert, Damark's distant descendant, rules this oldest of Windamere's forts, though today the Khan's incursions have come more from the coast, in an attempt to force the rivers.

Ximo

This coastal fort watches the middle ground between the two rivers, so Khannish intruders cannot march overland. It is the primary base for Marshalls in the region. Khannish traders call here in secret, a trade that could cost them their lives if The Empire discovered, though popular rumor has it that Khannish Baron Demadris covers up for these merchants in exchange for a share of their profits and first options on any goods hauled back. Baron Falcos and his family have led the town for centuries.  The town as a few Northmen who have migrated south and embraced Windamerean ways. The population is 12,000.