The Kingdom of Keoland

Older even than even the Great Kingdom in the Flanaess is ancient Keoland, mainspring of the Sheldomar Valley. The foundation of Keoland, represented the birth of the first postmigration human kingdom in the Flanaess. For nearly a millennium, the Keoish heartlands have spanned the lands from Gradsul at the Azure Coast to the Rushmoors in the north, between the great Sheldomar and Javan rivers in the east and west. These lands are some of the most provincial and bucolic in the Flanaess, having been largely untouched by war and conflict for centuries. The climate is customarily temperate year-round, and the soils of the central valleys are rich, allowing the kingdom to grow wheat, rye, and other grains in great abundance. The country has never been rich in terms of mineral wealth, and perhaps for that reason it has always conducted a brisk trade with its neighbors, to whom it supplies staples such as foodstuffs in return for hard coin.

The folk of the land can be friendly and generous, but they are primarily noted for their superstitious natures, particularly their wariness of foreigners. The people are a mixture of Suel and Oeridian bloodlines, well blended for the most part in the provinces of the nation, except in certain rarefied circles such as the nobility and other closed societies. Flan still exist in small pockets in the kingdom, no longer numerous in the heartlands and now driven to the peripheries of the valley. The common tongue is spoken here, but the primary dialect is called Keolandish. The speech of the common folk is highly recognizable for its accent.

For most of Keoland's history, the study of magic was banned to its citizenry, and its practice was restricted to secret societies and certain nobles. Little evidence is seen by the casual observer of powerful wizards' magic, as commoners fear those who practice spellcraft. Many priesthoods are present in the realm, though religion was never a dominant force in the kingdom, either.

Powers of the Land

Keoland is steeped in ancient tradition of its nobility. The key to understanding the nation as a whole lies in the study of the various factions that vie for power here.

The realm is a feudal monarchy with rulership that passes between two or more royal houses that are primarily descended from ancient Suel nobility with many Oeridians and some elves, gnomes, or halflings in Council. It is a true monarchy in that its kings rule for life and have great powers and authority at their disposal, but officially the government is a permanent regency. Ruled in the trust of the noble houses, the matter of succession has always resided in the Council of Niole Dra. This deliberative body, composed of the major nobility and heads of certain long-established guilds and societies in the kingdom, has the responsibility to authorize succession and oversee matters dealing with the nation's founding charter. It is the founding charter, penned some nine centuries ago, that ascribes rights and obligations on the part of all the citizenry of the country, whether lowborn or high.

The Throne of the Lion, as the office of the king is referred to in Keoland, is currently held by Kimbertos Skotti. The monarch is besieged by factions who constantly demand his attention, making changes or decisions often painfully slow in coming. Most of these petitioners are peers of the realm, who have varied and often conflicting self-interests.

Throne of the Lion

The reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Keoland sits upon the so-called Throne of the Lion. This office, the highest in the land, is charged with acting as the nation’s Chief Bureaucrat and Defender of the Realm. As such, the monarch is head of both the government and the military, though he lacks the power to levy taxes, a right reserved solely to the Council of Niole Dra. According to the founding charter of Keoland signed centuries ago by representatives of all the original noble houses, both Oeridian and Suel, it is the Council that approves all matters of succession to the throne. The monarchy is not strictly hereditary, but rather is a vested office. Once appointed, a king rules for life barring extreme infirmity or a rare vote of disenfranchisement by the nobility. While the ability to produce a qualified series of heirs often constitutes a dynasty, succession is not guaranteed and often passes between various royal houses. It has done so many times in the past, which has preserved a continuous line of Keoish rulers dating back to the first century of the migrations. Such controls have created the stability that has allowed Keoland to endure for centuries under relatively unbroken and benign leadership.

Council of Niole Dra

The Council of Niole Dra, referred to colloquially as the Court of the Land, is a gathering of the chief independent nobles of the realm, along with the heads of certain long-established guilds and secret societies. It is the Council, which gathers year-round in the capital (save during the four festival weeks), that approves royal succession, administers final disputes between independent nobles, levies taxes on the provinces, and ratifies changes to the Founding Charter of the Kingdom. This ancient document is a binding agreement on the conduct of both the nobility and citizenry of Keoland, ascribing both rights and obligations to all. It has been amended only on two occasions in nine centuries (requiring near total unanimity of the Council) and its provisions are generally considered sacrosanct. Most decisions are made based on the vote of a simple majority. The most important passages of the Founding Charter concern the election of a monarch. This occasion remains the most momentous and contentious in the land. While the royalty of the kingdom has been dominantly chosen from the amongst the small number of original Suel houses, Oeridian noblemen dominate the membership of the approximately 100 member Court of the Land. Therefore, these lords enjoy a privileged role as kingmakers, providing further check and balance to the power of the rulers of Keoland.

Heralds

Ceremony and complex ritual are strong characteristics of Keoish culture. The maintenance and chronicling of such traditions is the province of the heralds. Most heralds serve varied roles in the kingdom. They are known to act as historians, couriers, ambassadors, conciglieri, courtesans, stewards, and even spies between the noble houses of Keoland. Their unique position, sandwiched between the nobility and the free classes, gives the heralds a modicum of power and influence. Most heralds, whether serving a noble house or not, also consider themselves part of a grand fraternity, the so-called Brotherhood of Harbingers. Heralds generally treat each other with respect and equanimity, though longstanding feuds are not uncommon. High Heralds, often sharing blood ties with the nobility they serve, are rare and specially empowered representatives. They can act as the virtual voices of their respective lords and often sit in Council in Niole Dra to act as proxies.

Watchers

The only major national knighthood represented in Keoland is the Watchers. The Knights of the Watch are most common in the northern quarters of the kingdom, as they are based in the Gran March and share many roots with the Neheli. Many can still be found in the service of the Throne of the Lion, or various independent nobles. Hugo of Geoff, related distantly to the nobility of Keoland, is the putative leader of the order. However, a branch of the Watchers known as the Malgari, or “Darkwatch,” are found only in Keoland and are primarily active in the duchy of Dorlin and the northern provinces. The Margrave of Mandismoor is believed to be a highly placed servant of the Darkwatch. In general, Watchers are concerned with the defense of the kingdom from external threats and influences, particularly the Baklunish, though the Knights of the Hart are considerable rivals as well.

Priesthoods

The role played by priesthoods in the Kingdom of Keoland differs from that typical of other realms of the Flanaess, particularly those nations influenced by the march of the Great Kingdom. Establishment of any faith is forbidden in the founding charter of Keoland. This was an early exhortation by the Neheli and a recognition by the founders of the kingdom that religion often fosters division and conflict between disparate peoples. Given the diverse coalition of Suel, Oeridian, and demihuman clans that formed the early kingdom, it was decided early on to exclude this element from civic life. While this proscription has generally been observed, religion has by no means been suppressed in Keoland, and many faiths have flourished in the kingdom over the course of the last nine centuries. Almost all the gods of the Flanaess are represented here to one degree or another, though the political influence of any one is modest at best. Most of the nobility consider themselves above anything but the most token propitiation of deities, while the superstition and provinciality of the common folk prevents much proselytization.

Magic

The practice of magic was a scarce and tightly controlled commodity in the early days of Keoland. This was the byproduct of a people harried from their homelands by magical catastrophes and beset for decades by power-mad sorcerers. For centuries after the kingdom’s founding, magecraft was limited to the nobility and their appointed seers. This included the semi-independent Silent Ones of the Lonely Tower, who oversaw all training and guarded magical secrets closely. They acted swiftly against any who would gather such power in the kingdom. All other practitioners were considered witches and treated as such by a wary peasantry. This included foreign mages, who were not long tolerated in Keoland. Such prohibitions were eventually lifted three centuries ago, during the reign of Tavish the Great, when Keoland emerged as a conquering power in the region. An academy of magic was established in Niole Dra to train and regulate wizards, a practice already common among rivals such as Furyondy and Aerdy. Mages who were not members of this academy, nor established nobility, were still considered illicit, but the fervor to eliminate such “witches” eroded as Keoland mixed with other cultures during its imperialist phase. Lawless wizards eventually took to calling themselves freemages. Only in cosmopolitan Gradsul, where they act under the protection and support of Duke Luschan and the Archmage Drawmij, do freemages gather together as a guild (calling themselves the Sea Mages), often hiring themselves out to ship captains for travel and exploration.

Merchants

From the point of view of the Keoish, most particularly its noble and peasant classes, the kingdom is the hub of a great wheel. Niole Dra is its heart, the center of civilization in the Sheldomar Valley. The capital is surrounded by the fertile provinces of the realm that extend to the frontiers of the kingdom. Across these borders lay former client states of varying obligation to the Throne of the Lion and beyond them are uncultured and often hostile foreign powers. Bridging these worlds has been the role of the mercantile class, who form the bulk of the middle class and have a much more cosmopolitan outlook. Merchants and traders, who typically gather together in large merchant houses, explore the reaches of the Flanaess by land and sea. They bring back wonders to the kingdom, which is rich in staples but poor in exotica. Various merchant guilds, representing the interests of the houses, form a very powerful political faction in Keoland. They often press their concerns with the Court of the Land to much effect. While the lords of Niole Dra often take a more introverted view, the guilds are not often ignored for, in addition to the farmers, they are the lifeblood of the nation.