The territories of the lower and higher Unudria were always divided. The first one, rich in vegetation and with a strong fieldic influence, was rapidly populated by Elderkin tribes that the emerging Midboria would slowly assimilate. As for the second, it was a temperate desert with a relatively modest leyline connected to the Unusdral River and mostly occupied by nomads, primarily beastkin tribes.

In the last centuries of the first age, said tribes began to settle the riverbank permanently and were subsequently vassalized by Midboria. Meanwhile, the dwarves of what would later become the Guildhold of Barkenbar started to auction their first infrastructure projects, exploiting tribal rivalries to overprice their already magistral works. This granted the Guildhold a stable flow of income in the form of agricultural products, most of which were diverted to the colonization efforts in the Thunder Peaks.

With the opening of the first gate, the Proto-Unusdrelians saw a massive flow of Elderkin refugees, followed by the Forgotten armies mere months later. The forgotten forced the Elderkin to flee before being finally stopped by the alliance of the Red Mountains, the remains of the Midborian military, and the Lesserkin guerrillas halfway to Barkenbar. Together, they held the line for years thanks to the supplies and reinforcements sent through the Red Mountains. Finally, a massive offensive from the Thunder Peaks cut the forgotten’s logistics, collapsing the whole front. 

Still, by then, the whole of Unudria was in shambles, and the highland desert was nearly depopulated. In the following decades, some Midborian refugees who had their whole lives burnt to the ground by the corrupted forces found a new home in the newly available lands on the Unusdral’s banks. These new settlers rapidly began to subjugate the remnants of the native population and to offer them to Barkenbar as cheap labor for their projects. In exchange, the dwarves directed the reconstruction and expansion of the web of irrigation systems, roads, and channels that allowed the colonization and exploitation of the deserts. 

This massive infrastructural expansion relieved most of the logistical pressure of the Dwarven Highway’s construction and turned Unusdrel into Barkenbar’s breadbasket. Despite the new city-states being, culturally speaking, an extension of Midboria, the magocracy estimated the benefits of having the region as a buffer against the growing economic influence of the recently established Urd-Ferdurun to outweigh those of a direct annexation. Thus, Unusdrelians were left to develop on their own. 

The region would remain divided until the late 1280s SA, when decades of wars and strategic marriages saw the country unified, with patriarch Morrat Oteken Urd-Enkaen crowned the first Thane of Unusdrel.

Despite Unusdrel's neutrality, the War of the Dawn profoundly affected the Thaneruth. The Istunian invasion of Midborian territories east of the Unusdral caused panic among Unusdreli nobility. The army was immediately deployed to the Istunian frontier, while many young and ambitious noblemen volunteered to fight with the midborians. The Federation's unapologetically racist policies forced many locals to flee the region. Some chose to cross the river back to Midborian territory, while others decided to go south to Unusdrel. 

The Unusdrelis saw the potential influx of Elderkin workforce as an opportunity to grow the nation’s industrial and military might, so the richest Lesserkin majority districts across the country were populated by the Elderkin refugees. Most of the displaced were forced into the suburbs and slums of the cities. These areas grew overcrowded, causing poverty, violence, and crime to skyrocket, together with anti-Elderkin sentiments.

As the industries and economies of the Istunian Federation and the Kingdom of Turangar began to grow, the idea of an international railway connecting the northern and southern halves of West Ciradon obtained considerable support. Nonetheless, the exclusively Elderkin Unusdreli government was too green-tending to accept such a project. This incited the southern nation to open negotiations with certain Barkenbarian individuals and organizations that, if offered the right price, could be convinced to leverage their economic influence (both in the public and private sectors) in the Lesserkin's favor.

Meanwhile, convinced that the only way to accomplish their enterprise was if the Elderkin aristocrats were deposed by their lesser subjects, the Zutnaii began to move across the border distributing Monordist propaganda, smuggling weapons, and providing training to many peasants who, gaining new hope of a better future founded the “Unusdreli Lesserkin Liberation Movement”. When the local magisters learned about it, the ULLM had grown big and organized enough to rival the strength of a small dwellerdones’ garrison. 

Thane Trander Morthunen, fearing the evolution of anti-Elderkin sentiment into an all-out rebellion, ordered a campaign of mass arrests (some of which ended in the massacre of whole slums) all across the country’s Lesserkin majority areas, hoping that by detaining and executing the leaders and their main subordinates, the movement would lose coercion and dissolve. The ULLM responded with a series of terrorist attacks that cost the lives of multiple government officials and Midborian immigrants. This period of unrest would be remembered as “the Red-Firetide” for the disheartening number of casualties taken by both sides of the conflict.

The following month, government forces were overstretched by a guerrilla campaign they weren't trained to deal with. This led Unusdrel to pledge to Midboria and the Urd-Ferdurun for military support. Still, Barkenbarian individuals and organizations with considerable influence over Unusdrel insisted on a diplomatic resolution, to prevent the potential sabotage and destruction of the nation's agricultural infrastructure from which they imported a majority of the Guildholds' food (also the railway they agreed to support in exchange for a sizable fraction of the profits). 

They convinced their government to mediate the discussions,  proposing the establishment of an elected parliament as a compromise.

With the ULLM refusing to leave the arbitration in Elderkin hands and the Thaneruth refusing to recognize any lesserkin verdict, it was required for the joint mediation of Turangar, Genabhon, and Barkenbar for the two factions to accept a ceasefire agreement. In 2 of Firewane of 2947, representatives from all noble houses, the revels, and other lesser and Elderkin interest groups met in the southern palace of the capital city of Arbangodeg to parlay. Although the nobility, the clergy, and the high ranks of the military protested against reforming a system that had remained in place for hundreds of years, the combination of Barkenbarian soft power and promises of concessions to the Bourgeoisie and working classes by bribed and/or extorted politicians proved more influential than the self-interests of the aristocracy. The so-called “Firewane treaty” was ultimately approved, the state started a restructuring, and the first national election was planned.

With the reformation in march, it was possible to end the violence. Despite the government’s mostly successful effort to hunt down the terrorists, this respite allowed a few of the ULLM figureheads to hide or flee to Istunia, functionally dissolving the organization as planned by the Zutnaii, which helped the remaining ULLM loyalists to establish the theoretically unrelated “Unusdrely Monordist party”. After months of campaigning, on the 14th of Fellnight of that year, the first national election was held, with the Red Mountains supported “Party for Unusdreli unity” gaining majority and the elf Luramonet Gestaban becoming the first chancellor.

Despite the claims by the newly elected officials and the international press of the new government marking a new age in unusdrely history, the public saw almost no change to the status quo, with rampant corruption and systemic discrimination against lesser kin remaining as true as ever. Most people attributed this lack of proper change mostly to the highly experienced Elderkin aristocrats pushing back against the systemic reforms proposed by both the liberals and the monordists while implementing a propaganda campaign that attempted to cover it as “delirations of revanchist extremists”. While some of the rumors circulating through the streets were defamatory fabrications, others were just the tip of the iceberg; but, for the common citizen, the only concern was that with the passing months, the promises of change became weaker and weaker, while the Istunian ideas of Lesserkin revanchism became increasingly appealing. Especially thanks to the pamphlets and public speeches of Jykarus Gryen-tur, a charismatic minotaur lawyer who rapidly exploded in popularity among the lesser kin civilians he was part of. This growing influence made him the target of multiple assassination attempts by various political rivals and, by 12 of Highsun 2952, the government finally forced him and his family to flee to Istunia under a series of (questionably veridical) charges of terrorism.

This was the droop that spilled the glass, and half of Unusdrel erupted in flames when the whispers of doubt over the government’s legitimacy became open acts of rebellion against its authority; even some isolated attacks against auratheist churches mixed into a massive uprising that would pass into history as the Deepsnow Revolution. At first, Istunia denied any relation and hesitated to support the insurrection for fear of their international image. Still, after some harsh debates, it was decided to send support to the rebels, for a victorious revolution would mean one previously Midborian-aligned neighbor turned into a new ideological ally that could join their forces in the future.

In Arbango, the second prince Tammar Sotujyew, who openly opposed reforming the government from the start, blamed the country's state on his father’s incompetence and the greed of foreigners. He claimed the thane and chancellor to be “Barkenbarian puppet rulers”, garnering support among the Elderkin, especially the military high ranks and his fellow WoD veterans, to overthrow them. Just weeks after the insurrection began, on the 21st of Firetide, the prince marched over the capital with a parade of other like-minded noblemen, their knights, and their garrisons. Still, their attempt to take control was short-lived, due to the Red Mountains immediately siding with the king and sending military aid that expelled both rebel groups from the eastern third of the nation.

With their forces in retreat, Tammar’s supporters fled west, where they pledged the Umrinor Cordiale for support so they could return Unusdrel to its former state. The Cordiale rapidly declined the request, instead siding with Tranders' regime, which the international community still considered the legitimate government. Still, Tammar's ideals resonated with the most hierarchist of the Elderkin across West Ciradon and the world, with some important pro-hierarchy political movements across the continent providing considerable donations.

For the Red Mountains and the Great Holds, Jykarus and Tammar’s promises of seizing their economic assets across the country to “return the people’s/nobility’s stolen property” respectively would mean a catastrophic financial and logistical loss. Additionally, the potential risk for the great highway, which Barkenbar had been proudly shown as the main display of their architectural heritage, risked terrible damage to their national pride and morale. Similarly, Istunia, Turangar, and Genabhon put copious economic investments (both public and private) into the railways’ construction, promoting it as a monument to progress and innovation. With the civil war risking its destruction before it could produce any benefits, many in positions of power feared the end of their political careers and a potential economic recession due to the loss of capital.

Without viable alternatives, a joint Turangarian-Genabhonian expeditionary force was sent to secure the integrity of the Istunia-Turangar railway. They immediately engaged in aerial skirmishes with dwarven air fleets, in which some areas of the railway ended up considerably damaged (not to mention the damage already made by Elderkin saboteurs). Turangar responded with a mix of long-range artillery and the first-ever deployment of their recently developed fighter/bomber planes. These last-generation weapons delivered warning shots around the highway, hoping the Barkenbarians would choose to parley for the safety of their ancestors' monument.

The dwarves accepted, and delegations met in a village where the railway rose over the highway. It took a whole day of debate and arguments. Still, in 30 of Firewane, a consensus was reached that would be known as the overbridge agreement: A neutral zone would be established around both structures where no army would engage, to protect them from collateral damage. Nonetheless, the mistrust between the two sides would cause both pathways to be heavily militarized to ensure that any damage to one would be paid by the other.

This unwritten treaty would immediately become one of the most controversial in recent history. Most dismissed it as a temporary solution, some celebrated it as a precedent for a new path of diplomacy and rationality, others called it a show of trusting foolishness, submissive cowardice, or even racial treason. The ERU and their supporters were particularly angry about negotiating with the Lesserkin and attempted to sabotage the railway anyway, but counterintelligence and espionage would foil their plans.

As of 2954, the three factions had entered a stalemate with the frontlines stabilizing and their supporters refusing to leave after everything already invested. With each passing day, Unusdrel prepares itself for a prolonged attrition conflict, not unlike the WoD; With each passing day, foreign observers look with morbid fascination, searching for clues about the future evolution of modern warfare; and with each passing day, millions of innocents suffer, flee and die for a conflict in a scale that the country has not seen in centuries.

Unusdrel is found in the region of High Unudria, which experiences an arid but temperate climate. Its surface is mostly flat, with a crescent of hills extending through its southern and easternmost lands. It’s dominated by the namesake desert, cut in half by the course of the Unusdral and the thriving ecosystem it supports with its leyline. Most of the Unusdral basin is consumed by a web of channels and aqueducts that extend from the river, and when possible, from a few additional subterranean sources to support farmlands and settlements.

Unusdrel was a centralized absolute monarchy divided between a mostly Lesserkin peasantry and an exclusively Elderkin nobility for most of its history. After the Unudrian refugee crisis and the spread of the Monord thought in the poorer areas, it attempted to reform itself into a parliamentary monarchy heavily inspired by the Elruth-Mareca commonwealth (due to both countries' similar demographics). Yet, the unapologetically superficial integration of lesserkin in the government, and the complete disregard of the reforms from the Elderkin in general, caused the new regime to lose credibility with its subjects.

Due to this and other minor factors, Unusdrel was broken into three main ideological factions, each proclaiming itself as the legitimate government and claiming authority over the whole country. In practice, they are simply warlord-ships with economies centered on subsistence farming and military production, which show varying degrees of autonomy from their foreign supporters

Originating from the Party for Unusdreli Unity (moderated center in the hierarchy-equality and the green-grey axes), which was the dominant party in government at the start of the civil war, it is led by Chancellor Luramonet Gestaban and Thane Trander Morthunen Urd-Enkaen. After the violence from the radicalized MRU and ERU, Gestaban’s promises to keep law and order until the country could return to the status quo before the Deepsnow revolution brought a considerable amount of popular support under it.

This faction's powers are theoretically divided between a parliament, an executive branch, and a supreme court, which the king easily influences by appointing the judges. Nonetheless, since the start of the conflict, King Orkran has received emergency powers that effectively turned him into a dictator (although in practice, he has become barely more than Getabans’ puppet).

The TU has the strongest claim as the legitimate government of Unusdrel, and it has always been presented as such by itself and the Umridel Cordiale at large. Nonetheless, most recognize that since the civil war started, it has functionally become an economic colony of the Urd-Ferdurun, not too dissimilar from the Red Steppe Mandate. This is evident, seeing their notoriously resource-based and extractive economy, in which nearly all assets, including the land needed for subsistence farming, are directly or indirectly owned by the Urd-Ferdurun or its private citizens.

Formed by the Unusdreli Monordist party and the more radical elements of the Lesserkin democratic party, it's a Lesserkin revanchist and gray faction headed by Jykarus Gryen-Tur. It intends to establish a new regime based on a variation of the Monord thought known as pan-mortalist monordism, which applies the core principles of the original ideology to the whole of the lesserkin, unlike the more anthropocentric Istunian doctrine. The MRU has immediate ambitions of heavily industrializing the country and leaving the elven agricultural doctrines behind in favor of human practices of industrialized monoculture, both being partially realized with help from the Istunian federation. Such radical changes are expected to cause a notorious weakening of the local Leyline and thus raise feral opposition from the Elderkin minority of a reunified Unusdrel, for what's been proposed campaigns of mass deportations to Midboria and similar nations (although “more extreme measures” have never been discarded).

In the beginning, the MRU was solely supported by Istunia, mostly due to its suspected links to the aggressive terrorist organization of the Unusdreli Lesserkin Liberation Movement. Still, the combined efforts of Chancellor Gryen-Tur and influential figures of the Istunian government to improve relations with the 5th column managed to secure the organization’s support by showing the Thaneruth as a corrupt Elderkin puppet whose victory would only serve the Red Mountain’s interests, and by extension those of the Cordiale. Nonetheless, this campaign didn’t reach the same results in the kingdom of Sov, whose rivalry with Istunia has made it remain neutral in the conflict.

Founded by a revolt of radical conservatives, it’s an absolutist, green extremist, Elderkin hierarchist faction headed by Prince Tammar Sotujyew Urd-Ekaen and supported by ideologically similar regimes and movements across Tyrrell. It intends to turn Unusdrel into a magocracy heavily modeled after the Midborian state, nationalizing all economic assets from the Red Mountains to put them under the control of the Magisters, and heavily aligning with the Umrinor Cordiale. Unlike the original system, where lesserkin were allowed to own property and could move with relative autonomy, the ERU openly calls for the enslavement of the lesserkin population.

The Umrinor Cordiale officially condemns the ERU and denies its legitimacy due to the blatant stealing of foreign assets committed against citizens of some of its member states. Still, thanks to their effort to depict themselves as “brave defenders of Elderkin tradition”, they secured considerable support from multiple hierarchical and green governments and organizations. Still, this support is way less than that of their rivals.

The ERU has needed to rely on more illicit methods to maintain its economy. For this reason, a considerable amount of its available farmland has been used to grow narcotics like illusory berries and opium, which are then sold to international black markets for much more than common crops.

The Depsnow revolution was a chaotic mess of unorganized political and social movements. It naturally devolved into anarchy, forcing people to gravitate to any group they believed could keep them safe and fed until proper governmental structures could be reestablished. Although the three main factions assimilated or crushed many of these organizations in their respective spheres of influence, their control is still functionally limited to strategically and economically valuable territories. A considerable land area in Unusdrel is controlled by dozens of comunes, militias, guilds, and other organizations varying in size from a dozen civilians defending their neighborhoods to alliances numbering thousands of relatively well-trained personnel controlling individual towns. The biggest being the Democratic Republic of Unusdrel and the Alliance of Mildon.

The Republic was originally founded as the Lesserkin Democratic Party, an industrialist party founded by those disenchanted by the authoritarian doctrines of the Monordists. While the Alliance originates from the organized crime families from the city it is named after, cooperating to protect their interests as the rule of law dwindled.

Lacking proper support beyond the republic's few foreign volunteers, they subsist thanks to the Thaneruth and the Monordists, who provide them with military gear to fight the ERU’s slave raids.

The public created the term “Peace Line”, referring to a web of neutral zones established by the Overbridge accord to protect the dwarven highway and the Istunia-Turangar rail line; it alludes to their superficial resemblance to leylins when shown on a map. Later, this protection would extend to installations and personnel from international humanitarian organizations like the Green Shield. These areas are still extremely militarized to prevent sabotage, vandalism, terror attacks, and contraband (although many inspectors will ignore inconsistencies in the manifests for the right price).

This agreement is maintained through a delicate balance of power named by a Turangarian general as “suicidal pact policy”, in which both sides restrain themselves from attacking by the knowledge that, while they have the means to destroy their rivals easily, they would retaliate in kind. This is a new and unprecedented idea that many fear could become increasingly more prominent as the arms race between humanity and the elderkin births more and more destructive technologies.

As a war-torn nation, most Urzundreli technology is obtained as foreign aid. It normally consists of great quantities of already proven military equipment, usually obsolete weapons, mostly human and dwarven, and sometimes, small numbers of last-generation equipment sent for real combat testing. Meanwhile, much civilian technology and infrastructure have been destroyed by the war, forcing many to become dependent on donations and charity.

The TU and the ERU are both reliant on Second Age equipment. The Red Mountains actively keep the Thaneruth an agrarian economy, ensuring its industry is limited to resource extraction and refining. Meanwhile, the ERU condemns any advanced non-magical technology as disgusting and dangerous. On the contrary, the MRU has developed some localized industries centered on military production while prosecuting magic users.

Unusdrely culture originated from the imposition of the midborian language, religion, and traditions over the conquered Kottur tribes of the desert. Those tribes, in exchange, shared their oral traditions, craftsmanship, and aesthetics with their new overlords. Likewise, generations of uninterrupted Barkenbarian influence, and being ruled by a dynasty of Barkenbarian ancestry, introduced various elements of the Red Mountains culture, especially the reverence for craftsmanship and engineering, visible across the multiple architectural elements designed to emphasize the natural beauty of the forest-like plantations and the Unudria River.

The country's unwanted participation in the Gate Wars gave Unusdrelians a deep martial tradition, although it began to prioritize pomp over prowess by the Third Age. Young noblemen are still required to serve in the military to inherit. Literature shows this tradition with the poetic epics written about each generation's greatest warriors and generals.

Since the start of the civil war, the MRU and the ERU have been actively rewriting history to adapt to their respective narratives, with important epics being changed, censored, or directly burned. Likewise, relics and other historical artifacts are hidden by those who want to protect them, disappear into black markets, or are simply destroyed. The monordists have also begun a campaign of persecution of the followers of the Auratheist faith, claiming it to be nothing more than a tool of elderkin control, while replacing the traditional elven agriculture, deeply ingrained into elven identity, with industrial monocultures.

Despite this grim picture, most of the country's history and traditions are still preserved by the Thaneruth and the growing refugee diasporas established across many countries of West Ciradon.

The armies of the Thaneruth, the Monordists, and the Realm consist of volunteers fighting for their preferred governments. Law enforcement is mostly done by civilian militias reinforced by small defensive battalions of the main armies. The other factions must rely solely on militias, doing their best to police their communities while trying to fight off external threats with whatever weaponry they can obtain.

Additionally, no organization in Unusdrel has the resources or expertise to maintain and operate an air force, so the main 3 count on limited air support from their allies.

• Unusdrel was created by Arturo J. Notari.