Paper Dungeons’ world: political powers

About realms and queens

In the last post, we talked about the Prophet’s Church, religion between dwarves and elves, and all matters of faith in Paper Dungeons’ world. Today we’ll explore the details of political struggles inside the continent of Ditomea.

Prepare yourself to know a history of belligerent nobles, cunning warriors and ambitious queens. 

The thousand realms era

After the Fall of the Volsco Empire, an age of instability began: every noble, militar chief and landlord claimed the right to rule land and men. Without the authority of the volsconian emperor, a great number of realms were founded in a short period of time.

In the beginning peace prevailed and bonds of friendship were created between the new kings and queens. 

This atmosphere of camaraderie was short-lived       

Ambitious leaders started to invade the neighboring kingdoms to increase their fortune. Peaceful places saw these belligerent movements and constructed walls, castles and fortresses to resist invaders. Every ruler prepared armies and many times pre-emptive strikes were made in the name of self-preservation

After two centuries the continent was living in a state of war of all against all and fear and fear dominated everyone’s heart.

The six kingdoms peace

Over time, the smaller realms were absorbed by their more powerful neighbors. After many battles, six domains emerged on the continent:

• Ostia – the most western realm; a rich place with great sailors, shipowners and sea conquerors. 
• Vantre – the leaders of this region proclaimed themselves heirs of the Volsco Empire and its traditions.
• Leonia – a kingdom blessed with great mineral wealth and that is home to the headquarters of the Prophet’s Church. 
• Ventima Federation – a group of merchant cities headed by Ventima, the cosmopolitan city of the south. 
• Dragons’ lair – a realm influenced by the elvish costumes and ruled by wizard kings descendents of the dragons.
• Broken Lands – a ruined land filled with monsters and nightmares, home of brave and fearless warriors led by the council of elders.

Despite the apparent peace, border disputes were common and war could break out at any moment.

Velda d’Leon, the Conquer

People who knew young Velda say that she was always a determined woman who was willing to conquer the world. She loved to read about history, geography and religion, a set of knowledge that helped her achieve her goals. Furthermore, sometimes the future queen would disappear for weeks to explore her domains disguised as a traveler.    

When Velda was crowned Queen of Leonia, she started to put her plan into operation. Using the faith, she accused the rulers of Vantre to worship the old gods of Volsco. Her army grew quickly with lots of faithful soldiers and she threw a massive attack against Vantre.

Feeling threatened by Velda’s Army, Ostia’s king sought magical support from the Necromancer of Estibra Tower… a tremendous mistake: now she had a pretext to attack her neighbor to “cleanse the land of shadow magic”.

Within a short time the queen had created an efficient and highly motivated war machine. Trapped enemies could either die with conviction or be incorporated into the ranks of Her Majesty’s army. In general, they chose the second option.

One after another, all the governments on the continent ended up submitting to the forces of Velda, the Conquer.

The Kingdom of Leonia

The successors of Velda d’Leon consolidated her legacy and had to face a challenge: how to keep the kingdom united?

Velda’s daughter, Elaina, the merciful, treated with kindness the rebels and enemies who rose up against her. Her enemies considered her a just and loving woman. This way of governing worked, but Queen Elaina was killed in an ambush by a group of nobles she had previously pardoned.

The current queen, Aldalia d’Leon, is more reminiscent of her grandmother: strong, ruthless, and capable of anything to maintain her family’s legacy. She made the merchants of Ventima bow down to Leonia, imposed conditions on the elders of the Broken Lands, and eliminated the opposition of the Northern Sea pirates. 

Now Aldalia needs to face the Long Night and a new and unknown challenge.

The Neighborhood of Leonia

The native dwarves of the continent are natural from the Grizzly Mountains, a chain of rocky, dangerous, and rich mountains in the north. Thousand years ago the dwarves founded a solid democratic system based on representatives elected by the clans and artisans

guilds. The stability of the Mountain Republic made the dwarves tremendously rich and powerful allies for human rulers of Low Lands.

Elves don’t have a formal government. In order to enable contacts and commerce, these masters of lunar magic built a stationary city, the gorgeous Mindartis, a perfect place to bring elves closer to other people of the continent. The other powers call the elven government the Free Cities of the Forests.

Travelers beyond the High Forest and the Sea of Sand tell stories of great kingdoms of jade and ivory, places of magic and power such as no person from Ditomea has ever seen.But confirmations about these distant lands are lacking.