Over a thousand years ago, an empire of unbelievable power spanned multiple realities called the Compact. Its core members, the Draka Dwarves and Passes Elves of Halruin, used magic and technology to import riches and slaves from across the multiverses by using the power of bio-transference to steal life energy from subject races. 

When the slave species of humans, hobgoblins, and orcs revolted, a bitter war raged across the planet till the Draka dwarves used weapons so powerful they fractured the dimensional boundaries. In the cataclysmic aftermath, society across the planet fell into a dark age of legends and mythos. 

After 500 years, new kingdoms rose over the great inland sea which strangely mirrored earth's own past.

WestMarch is filled with humans, half-elves, and elves. They are a militarist culture where one's actions speak larger than one's words. Their nobles and leaders are expected to lead from the front by getting their hands dirty.  In WestMarch society, Results matter more than following any rulebooks. 

Critics in Eastmarch say “Westmarch is morally corrupt”.  A famous response to this from the WestMarch chancellor after the annexation of the border region of SouthMarch: “Corrupt or Righteous? It matters little when my army destroyed their army and thus, ended the war.”

WestMarch is closely allied with the elves of the Citadel of Light, but as WestMarch becomes more powerful, the Citadel’s power wanes.

Elves of the Citadel of Light: The Passes ( High ) elves are the high magic users and ancestors of the elves who once ruled the world with the Draka dwarves during the compact.

 Under their near-immortal witch queen,  Elris the White, the passes elves have taken the long view by slowly transforming the great slave rebellion into a tragedy for the world by funding bards, storytellers, and historians to rewrite the past. 

Many of the common folk consider the elves of the Citadel as a force for good with its churches and clerics spreading peace through its motto “The past brings peace to the future”.

For scholars, free thinkers, and many governments across Halruin, the elves of the Passes are a dangerous force that is not to be trusted.

EastMarch is a large and rich land that thrives on industry and trade. Its population is made up of all races and is one of the most open societies under the royal leadership of its young king and queen.

EastMarch traditionally has supported the more progressive elements in the other kingdoms but is only now taking a more active position due to the civil war in CenterMarch.

CenterMarch is an island state in the middle of the great inner sea. It was once a power across the lands, but after centuries of poor leadership, it is now the “sick man of the marches”.

To add to its problems, Its society broke into many different factions when many of its generals revolted against the progressive young Queen Victoria. Now advisors and material from all the other regional powers are rushing to aid their own interests as the kingdom becomes a plaything for regional power politics.

SouthMarch is a land caught in a prison of tradition and while it has kept over 700 years of stability for its people, it has fallen behind the rest of the marches in wealth, magic, and technology.

It's great Hobgoblin generals have led its armies to victory for the Human empress of the heavens for hundreds of years. That was until 10 years ago when it lost its mineral-rich border region to a mechanized WestMarch force that destroyed a SouthMarch army 5 times its number. 

Now SouthMarch has sent tentative trade delegations to EastMarch, NorthMarch, and the Draka Dwarves as it tries to ready itself against the always-hungry WestMarch forces.

NorthMarch is the only land not ruled by royalty, as the Orcs and Humans overthrew its ruling elites twenty years ago in the great “liberation of the masses”. It is a closed society under the party chairman, the great orc leader “Jasar the feared”. The military is vast but poorly equipped. It is hoped that a recent trade deal with the Draka Dwarves will rectify this situation as advisors and material support arrive from the far north

The Draka Dwarves of the Far North.  Called the Draka (Oathbounded) by their own peoples, the Draka are a very conservative technologically advanced society that prides itself on “Tradition, Oaths, Foundation”.

The Draka have kept to the shadows for most of the last thousand years till recently started to take a more active role in the lands around the inner sea.