North-Eastern El-Shorrai before the Second age and the coming of Gwynne.

Arcaeden is the name given to the broad region to the Northeast of the continent of El-Shorrai. It is bordered to the South by the River Glavnon and Llangwood Forest, to the North and Northwest by the Avasete Mountains and the realm of the Winterkings, and to the East by the Great Atlean Sea. It covers a span of approximately 10,000 square miles, and has about 1,000 miles of coastline. Its highest peak is Cor Morthwyl, the Hammerhorn. Its climate is mostly temperate, except in the North where the winters are cold and cruel.

The indigenous peoples of Arcaeden were originally Nomadic. After coming down from the Northlands, they spread across the area, forming many disparate tribes. Over the next several hundred years many of them settled beside major rivers and lakes, near the floodplains and dells found in the middle of the region, in or near the Llangwood Forest, or in the highlands of Avasete. These disparate groups spent this time warring and trading and praying to queer pagan gods.

• In central and southern of Arcaeden, much of the terrain is lightly forested woodland, with rolling hills and broad valleys. This caused problems for the tribes that settled this area, as the valleys typically turned into floodplains in the winter, and the mud brick houses they originally built would be washed completely away. Over time, they countered this by strategically building several large structures atop some of the larger hills, once they discovered the solid granite underneath. They continued to populate the valleys though, eventually utilizing aqueducts and irrigation canals to redirect the worst of the floods away from their villages. The River Greenwater was created this way. Mills were built with horizontal water wheels at first, that vertical ones after the invention of the gear. The used the resulting energy primarily for flour and lumber production.

The Riverlanders wore clothes of wool and leather, and fashioned spiked sandals to help them traverse the marshes. Flour was their primary crop, as it was easy to grow and took far less time and effort than the rice fields that their southern neighbors were planting.

They believed in the God of Storms, to whom they prayed and gave sacrifice so he wouldn’t flood the land in his anger. They also believed in a female raven deity, Maereghan, who represented wisdom and foresight and was able to fly above the floods. They prayed to Maereghan in the abstract belief that she was able to carry whole populations on her back and save them from storms. They were among the earlier cultures to develop a writing system, carving into lacquered wood and soft rocks with harder rocks, possibly obsidian, which they would have gotten from the North or West, where underground volcanic activity had occurred in the past.  Their earliest writings tell us that near the end of the first age a hero named Geirmund united a hundred tribes and built the Castle Ardunost, establishing his clan of Geirmundings and ruling for the next 35 years until his death.

• To the North, in Alcehorn, Avasete, and parts of what is now Dresdayn:

glaciation had occurred in the mountains, but at the time it was too dry for it to have occurred at lower elevations. In the lower areas, there are many valleys as you move south, a taiga mostly covered in larch forests or large outcroppings of limestone that over time formed the many caves of the region.

The tribes here were more inclined to war than their southern neighbors.  Those living in the highlands discovered large deposits of granite and mudstone and used the former to erect castles of impressive size for the time. They wore furs of wolves or bears, and sometimes the giant elk that used to be widespread in the area, although they also used these elk as steeds. These Northmen were also the first to discover bronze smelting by accident, since arsenic is an impurity sometimes found naturally in copper. Some time later, they began intentionally mixing tin into their copper for a stronger and more durable bronze alloy. With their obvious advantage over the stone, bone, and wooden weapons of the lowland residents, they often attacked and wiped out several tribes entirely, forcing the residents to retreat for safer territory. They were unable to prevent the spread of bronze smelting technology to the south however, and before long most tribes were using bronze to forge various weapons as well as early body armor. The Northern tribes fought amongst themselves frequently, and became a grim, hard people. These people are probably descended from Huw and the first men, who escaped the Aldren Genocide and settled in the extreme Northeast, before coming down from the northern ranges to make permanent settlements.

• The Southeastern portion of Arcaeden is dominated by the Llangwood, a temperate rainforest spanning over 1,000 square miles. The soil here is very fertile, and various deciduous trees are the predominant type of flora. The River Glavnon runs northwest to southeast, widening just north of the forest to form the Wydemere, which narrows again and rushes straight through the heart of the forest, where several tributaries join up with it from the north. The tribes that settled here built dwellings into the thick redwood trees found all over the forest. Combined with the other, smaller trees, the dense forest had a canopy that shielded the floor from most of the Sun’s light. As a result, the inhabitants of the forest developed reclusively, since they had plenty of fresh water and food to sustain them. It is worth saying that these people had a strong sense of community and defended fiercely against invaders who would think to march on the forest or sail up the Glavnon.

Their religion was one of polytheistic shamanism, and one deity they worshipped in common with their midland neighbors was the female raven Maereghan, though they called her Morrigu. Worship of Morrigu was simple, but had somewhat darker connotations. They believed that Morrigu was an aspect of a trickster deity, and that if they trusted her to ferry them above the storms, she would fly to her eyrie and eat them. Some of their mentality no doubt came as a direct result of their living conditions. The Llangwood was a higher elevation than that of central and eastern Arcaeden, so floods were actually less of a problem for them. Odd then, that they adapted the belief in the aspect of the raven. They associated ravens with death and carrion and disease, and their shamans led large ritual sacrifices to the Morrigu.

Author’s note: This region takes up only one area of the continent of Elzhor-hai, and approximately 600 years later when the story takes place, there are fully fledged Kingdoms in Arcaeden: Alva, Fyde, Rookmoor, Dresdayn, and several others. I imagined this particular area as being primarily analogous to Wales, at least in terms of terrain and climate. The etymologies of many names in the area come from a combination of old and middle Welsh, and from some Norse cultures (The latter is because Arcaeden borders a Norselike country to the North). There are several other realms far larger than Arcaeden, whose culture and history I am slowly but surely developing. The Arkawa immigrating to Urs in 138 A.L. for example, have aesthetics reminiscent of feudal japan, using layered lacquered wood as armor and iron masks to frighten their enemies. They grow rice as opposed to wheat and have a distinct cultural identity that will clash with their neighbors. I envisioned them with more advanced steam technology that none of the other countries have on this continent, to play with with the archetypal medieval fantasy. Political, religious, and philosophical differences will be a main theme of the story.