In the beginning, Alo made the gods, and the gods made the world. This is about all there is to say on the subject; the world is there, and people live in it. The scholars may wonder why, and the priests may try to tell them, but the peasants and merchants are happy enough to know these two facts and continue their everyday lives.
The Known World, on the other hand, is somewhat smaller than the world, and an entirely different matter. It consists of everything that was ever drawn on a map. Since it was drawn there, borders could be entered. Borders, in turn, implied that some parts of the known world belonged to some people, and others not. This made some people envious of others, and they set out to change said borders. Thus, the Empire came into being. It started out as the kingdom known as Durrin, which had iron mines and ambitious rulers. Marland was the first neighbouring kingdom that was conquered, and others soon followed. The phase of expansion lasted for three hundred years. Afterwards, new provinces followed on occasion, but at some point or another, all of the Known World, consisting of no less than two continents, saw the flag of Durrin flying above the cities and castles, though at no point in history, the Empire managed to control all of both continents at the same time. This phase of relative stagnation was lasted about another 300 years. In the history books, it ended when three provinces on the eastern continent rebelled, simultaneously and successfully. These days, the Empire (officially His Majesties Durrin Empire) still spans most of Agellera, the western continent, but the provinces have gained more and more freedom over the decades and centuries as the Emperors bought the loyalty of their remaining subjects with ever new promises and treaties while they were busy fighting some rebellion elsewhere.
Marland has now been a part of the empire for most of a millennium. It is probably the only province that has never considered rebelling, since its position has many benefits; scholars from the Academies have somewhat improved life quality, resources and tools are readily available there has not been a famine in decades, since food is distributed between all provinces when necessary, and wars are fought far, far away at the borders. In any case, while Durrin was a nation of warriors, Marland has always been one of peasants, content to do their work while everybody else was fussing about something important going on in the world. The more adventurous young men go to the Academies, if they can afford it, or to the army if they can’t. Those who stay at home take a certain pride in the fact that they were the first province of the Empire and have almost convinced themselves that they could have started their own empire, had they but wanted to.
The southern, richer, parts of Marland have brought forth a number of merchant dynasties whose name was well known in the world during their time. Some were said to have the ear of the emperor, and others practically owned the throne he sat on, but eventually, they all declined again, and these days, there is no single dominant family in the kingdom. The south is also where the castles and courts of most nobles can be found. While the north is also ruled by them, most who can afford it and who like the company have estated in the warmer climate, closer to the cities.
In the northern parts, there are deep, dark forests that dominate the landscape along with fields that have been ripped from the forest in unending work by the farmers and woodcutters. Marland is technically not the northernmost province and borders Taberia, but even in northern Marland, the population is spread thin. Scholars are a relatively rare sight here, and people still believe in the old folk tales. People live in small villages of about fifty souls, with a single smith, someone who knows how to brew beer and one person who has learned a little something about healing herbs. Children usually learn their parent’s craft, and some never move further than twenty miles from the place of their birth. Strangers are usually not too well received here, unless they are traders, who are also playing the part of newspapers, bringing information and gossip from village to village. The fiefs of the nobles up here may be big enough to take days or weeks to travel through, so they are hard to control. The safest way of travelling are the Imperial Roads, which are patrolled very regularly by soldiers and therefore considered safe. The smaller roads are troubled by small groups of bandits, who often earn hardly more than they need to survive. The forests of northern Marland are also the setting of many a strange tale, speaking of monsters and heroes, and have indeed swallowed up many a soul without every spitting out the bones. Whether this is due werewolves hunting there or the aforementioned brigands, only the trees know.
Mistwood is a large, dark forest on the northern border between Marland and Taberia. It does not really belong to either kingdom. When rulers of the countries want to brag about the huge resources of their lands they often mention the enormous forest with its tall straight trees that would do for any ship or palace, but when it comes to talk about troubling news and mysterious accidents it is always something that has happened on the dark woods on the other side of the border instead of the own country.
In the villages near Mistwood languages of both Marland [Finnish] and Taberia [English] are commonly spoken and many of the inhabitants are in fact bilingual. The name Mistwood is Taberian, in the tongue of Marland the region is called Rajametsä, meaning literally “the border forest”.
The kings and nobles are for the most part content with their position and would not change it for independence if offered. They would, of course, never admit as much to the emperor or their people. If they did the former, they would lose a valuable bargaining chip, and if they did the latter, they might cause discontent with their lack of ambition and vision in ruling the country. The court is relatively small, and many a lord has had to travel abroad to find a bride he was not related to. The noble families are very old and proud of their lineage.
To outsiders, Marland often seems like a sleeping country. It was about to wake when it was conquered so many years ago, having been united under a single ruler shortly before, but has since been placed in a comfortable bed, given a warm blanket and told that sleeping in is all right. Still, it should by no means be mistaken for dead; the land has huge resources and a large population, mostly living in villages and cities in the southern part, and if it should wake, it could easily become one of the most powerful provinces of the Empire.