Overview
Elunador is a vast taiga empire of dark forests, long winters, and wide distances. It is ruled from Nurwin, but in practice the realm behaves like a patchwork of provinces—each with its own habits, tolls, and “winter law.”
Elunador is a river empire. In warm months, barges and towpaths carry people and goods for hundreds of miles. In winter, the rivers become ice-roads—fast, silent, and dangerous. In spring, they become traps.
What it looks and feels like
- Land: endless spruce and pine, peat bogs, low ridgelines, frozen lakes, sudden clearings of wind-twisted birch.
- Seasons: winter is not just cold; it is logistics—storage, fuel, travel rules, and hard choices.
- Roads: many “roads” are actually river routes, winter tracks, and marked safe-grounds between shelters.
- Night: auroras are common enough to be familiar, strange enough to still be read as omens.
People of Elunador
Elunador’s identity is the uneasy harmony of three dominant cultures:
- Kharzai(dwarven): builders, contract-keepers, winterproof infrastructure.
- Lúmari(elf): courts, records, rites, legitimacy.
- Velorian(elf): merchants, river traffic, festivals, diplomacy.
Mixed families exist, but many towns still lean strongly toward one culture’s customs.
Rivers and travel spines
If you travel in Elunador, you travel by water—or by what water becomes.
- Elunase River: the heart-route between Nurwin and Fellorhil.
- Mylatlet River: the industrial corridor around Bilgabhur.
- Olsarith River: a northern artery that reaches Fetherius, the ice-port.
- Naharb River: headwaters and hunting frontier; the river begins near Gathel.
Notable places
- Nurwin — imperial capital; patronage, permits, paper power.
- Fellorhil — great river market-city; fairs, guild rivalries.
- Bilgabhur — contract-forge city; tolls, depots, heavy craft.
- Fetherius — ice-port and customs choke point; sea winds and strict rules.
- Nylmar — mercantile hub; news, fashion, introductions.
- Gathel — hunting frontier at the Naharb headwaters; survival law and unsettling folklore.
Customs outsiders notice
- Winter law: rules change when the snow comes—who may travel, where fires can be lit, when songs are allowed, what must be stored.
- Hospitality with limits: shelter is sacred… but so is the storehouse tally.
- Permits and favors: papers matter in cities; in the frontier, favors and witnesses matter more.
Common sayings
- “A promise is warm. Break it, and you’ll feel the cold.”
- “The river is a road—until it decides it isn’t.”
- “Don’t spend tomorrow’s fire today.”