The Northern Kingdoms

The northern kingdoms are usually considered part of the Liefin sphere.

Their origins are in the elven era, when the elves bred native human tribes for characteristics of beauty and strength. The human slave stocks were eventually established in their own kingdoms and used to create a buffer zone between the elves and the hordes of orcs that regularly streamed out of the west.

Anadeale

Anadeale was first, this nation maintains close cultural links to the elves, and their royal family has elven blood. From Anadeale was spawned the kingdom of Nogorond, the Shield of the east, and Aefendar the shield of the west.

Aefendar

Aefendar, the shield of the west was first established to protect the elven lands from the hordes of Orcs that raided out of the west, consuming and destroying everything before them. From Aefendar heroes the first Liefin settlers and emperors were born, and it had always been an important province of that neo-elven empire. After the partial collapse of Liefin, Aefendar broke away asserting its independence rather than seeing its strength wasted in a futile attempt to reclaim the deadlands or invade the seemingly unstoppable Vallarians. They did halt the Vallarian expansion in the north establishing the modern borders of both polities.

They are jealous of their independence, but also deeply entrenched in Liefin politics and dominated by Liefin culture. They frequently quarrel and war with Byzodium, maintaining friendly diplomatic relationships with the Elves and the Kingdom.

Nogorond

Nogorond was established to protect the Elves in the east and contain a great evil in the north. This evil was a pit to the planes of the outsider hordes. A great temple and defensive works was built up around this rift, named the Temple of Evil. The knights of Nogorond are an order supported by the crown and dedicated to containing the evil of the temple, manning its fortifications whose purpose is not to keep enemies out, but to hold them in.

The Knights are weakening, the order is failing, and many fear they will soon be too few to man the temple walls. Many knights advocate an assault on the temple, a last charge of glory to destroy the threat forever, or die in a flash of glory rather than a slow decay.

Nogorond most recently helped to liberate the Elves from the deprivations of the Old Kingdom of Mithrine. They briefly occupied Mithrine on behalf of the elves, but were pushed back during the reconquest. They were the front lines of the normally cold war between the Elves and New Kingdom of Mithrine until that nation gained peace by destroying the Kingdom and becoming a vassal Dukedom of the Eastern Realm.