Liefin (the Neo-Elvish Empire)

Founded by warriors from the Kingdom of Anadeale who were set up in the west as a buffer state against the frequent orcish hordes that occasionally decimated the Elvish Princedoms. The Liefin Empire grew in power and control. Its emperors once controlled an area stretching from the Elvish borders to the east to the Dumn Mountains to the west and the north sea to the inner sea in the south. Their empire consisted of everything that was Byzodium, Aefendar, and the Western Realm.

A war against a mysterious rival empire from the west pitted their armies, and their priests against each other. The war had several stages with Liefin in retreat then Liefin in ascendance. Towards the end of the last conflict great prophets from each side cast powerful prophesies, declaring that their empires would triumph, and that their armies were eternal and would never die. In the strange way of prophesies, both came true. Encounters with the Western Zodic empire became less frequent, until they stopped all together. Then came the dead.

Armies of the living dead swept from the west, in what is now the deadlands (known in Liefin as the desolation), as the land itself died. Liefin was rocked and its control everywhere began to collapse as it tried to salvage the west, feeding the armies of the dead with their fallen. Barbarians swept out of the east and conquered the what is now the western realm, setting up the Vallarian Kindgom. Aefendar broke away and declared itself an independent Kingdom in order to protect itself from conscription.

What is left is a small territory containing all the grand cities of the east. Leifin is the most populous power. Ruled by the emperor, head of the Unity Church, Liefin exports trade and religions across the world, maintaining a network of Mesreen (trade caravans) and spies in every nation in the east. Many still dream of regaining the former glory of their past, others are more concerned with keeping the heartlands stable and protected from foreign predation.