The River Kingdoms



Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Capital: None

Ruler: Various

Government: Numerous structures, including total anarchy

Government
There is no central government in the River Kingdoms, save a loose affiliation of city-states called the Outlaw Council which meets annually in Daggermark. The amount of different kingdoms that form this council is in constant flux as kingdom are often destroyed, conquered or new kingdoms formed. Beyond the council, each city is ruled by its own smaller council or despot, and the warfare between the nations makes the Outlaw Council often little more than a technicality. Civil war is another common threat to stable government, with assassination and betrayal a simple fact of life in these tumultuous kingdoms. The most vicious of these civil wars occur when powerful lords who have been paid vast sums to act as mercenaries in distant wars return to find their kingdom taken from them. The only thing that can ever unite the various River Kingdoms is a serious threat from their neighboring nations, even then every single lord vies to be in charge of whatever ramshackle army is assembled to thwart the outsiders. The organization of these rare conglomerate armies are almost as chaotic as the kingdoms themselves with each petty lord trying to out do his rival with feats of battlefield heroism. Outside of the realm of politics and war, the River Kingdoms are also bound together by the River Freedoms, six tenets they universally hold as close to laws as one will find in the lawless land.

History
In ancient times, the land encompassing much of the River Kingdoms was a type of hunting reserve for the elves of Kyonin, known as Telvurin. The modern history of the River Kingdoms is almost impossible to keep track of; each year contains enough war, conquest, death and destruction and betrayal to fill an entire book. With such events occurring so frequently few bother trying to keep track of the comings and goings of the petty tyrants and their small kingdoms. The only events in the history of the River Kingdoms that have a noticeable effect on the outside world is when one of the kingdoms becomes big and stable enough to be considered a nation in its own right. This is quite a rare occurrence as most kingdoms fall to infighting and treachery long before they become that powerful, the only two nations that have formed this way are Numeria which was once considered just an other series of squabbling tribes and Razmiran which was conquered by the arcane might of the living God Razmir.