Editing Grim Hollow (section)

===Realms of Etharis===
As you can see from the map, Etharis is a pretty big place. Luckily, we're here to give you an breakdown of the various places of note on the map.

The '''Bürach Empire''' is the former ruling power of Etharis. An alliance of four provinces united by a divinely chosen emperor, Bürach has begun falling into ruination ever since the last emperor, the insane Leopold I, spread his insanity into the four gods whose powers once united and supported the empire, causing them to ultimately butcher each other in the name of proving which of them was the supreme god before Leopold was assassinated. Their madness and subsequent deaths have left powerful cultural and mystical scars on the lands they once championed. The provinces of  the Bürach Empire are:'
* ''Abendland:'' Literal and metaphorical center of the Bürach Empire, once devoted to Aurelia, Goddess of Healing, Hearth and Home. It was the Hearthkeepers, Aurelia's priesthood, who helped locate the god-touched individual - Indorius - who became the first Emperor of Bürach Empire, and they were the ones who decreed the Edict of Eternal Blood, which allowed only direct descendants of Emperor Indorius to rule. This included coaxing the marriage of cousins and siblings to preserve the purity of said blood, despite the misgivings of the rest of Bürachs, that ultimately led to the insanity of Emperor Leopold I. Even now, the Hearthkeepers stifle their people and try to keep them ignorant of the waning divine powers of their priests and the fading fecundity of the land itself, with hope of turning Abendland into an open [[theocracy]].
* ''Nordenland:'' Always home to planar gates and crossings, especially to the [[Feywild]], Nordenland is the traditional home of the [[mage]]s of Bürach, which made it a natural homeland for Ulmyr, God of Magic and Chaos. The fall of the empire has broken Nordenland into two halves; those of the East, who have thrown off all allegiance to the empire and returned to the old ways, and those of the West, who still consider themselves part of Bürach and eagerly adopt new technologies from their former allies. Civil war is brewing, especially as the forests become filled with monsters and evils.
* ''Rauland:'' Kingdom of the [[dwarves]] and [[gnome]]s, Rauland was dedicated to Galt, God of Order and Construction. During the dark days of the godly civil war, Galt became a brutal tyrant, [[Laduguer|demanding toil for the sake of toil and treating all lives as tools for the sake of production]]. Ironically, with their patron dead, the Raulanders have found their crafts are declining in potency, stripped of the divine blessing they enjoyed in the empire's heyday.
* ''Unterland:'' A warrior society who were devoted to Maligant, the God of War and Strategy; with their patron gone, the cult of Tormach, [[Khorne|Archdaemon of Wrath and Slaughter]], is spreading like wildfire to take his place.

The '''Ostoyan Empire''' was Bürachs' major rival, founded by people who fled from Unterland during the chaos of Bürachs' early years due to refusing to accept Emperor Indorius as their new leader. They founded their own nation, Ostoya, but when the finally stabilized Bürach came and demanded the Ostoyans swear subservience to their long-lost and little-loved kinsfolk, it led to war. That war only grew more desperate with the Darkfall; a mighty earthquake that opened chasms leading to an ancient city buried beneath the ground, one infested by the [[undead]]. So desperate were the Ostoyans to remove this "homegrown" threat that they sent an entire army down into the deep to fight a holding action, then collapsed the chasms leading to the surface, burying their own men alive in the process. But this only made things worse; a survivor found a strange shrine and prayed for vengeance, before returning to the surface as a [[vampire]] and spreading his plague through Ostoya's nobility. With the new [[necrocracy]] in place, the Ostoyans expelled the Bürach invaders. Now, Ostoya resides under a permanent shadow; the sky is forever choked with thick clouds (often pregnant with snow or heavy rain) and mist, blotting the light from the sun. Ironically, Ostoya has schismed once again, and is now divided into two provinces; ''Soma'', the [[vampire]]-ruled [[necrocracy]], and the [[magocracy]] of ''Raevo'', which refuses to bow to the undead. Even more ironically, their civil war is remarkably civil: both sides share a hatred of Bürach that outweighs their antipathy towards each other, and the two provinces will fight to aid each other in remaining independent of Bürach. Definite shades of [[Sylvania]].

The '''Charneault Kingdom''' is a magical forest realm, the last stronghold of the [[elves]] and also home to a spiritual and honorable [[human]] culture who had found peace with their elven neighbors - thanks to the enforcing might of the [[Primal Spirits|nature spirits]] that reside here. But the Pact of the Sacred Land has been soured by the Dark Elves; an anti-human cult which attempted to use black magic to subvert the relationship the elves had long enjoyed with the nature spirits from that of equals to that of master and servant - whilst a human [[knight]], the valiant Ser Guilherm le Preux, managed to prevent the rite from fully taking place, Charneault has been tainted by the Dark Elves' actions. The magical mists that have always inundated Charneault now sometimes take on a dark coloration, throwing the spirits in turmoil, whilst Dark Elf sorcerers leading monsters and bewitched dark knights have begun to launch attacks against the human population of the land from their new base in the dead city of Tol Kerdywel, the prison of an elven princess turned foul [[lich]]. In return, the humans of Charneault are falling into disarry; the farmers dare not enter their fields when the Mist approaches, leading to shortages, and the king's order to swell the ranks of the various [[knight]]ly orders for which Charneault is famed has led to increased rivalry between those orders and their followers. And all the while, anti-elf sentiment is swelling in the minds of humanity...

The '''Valikan Clans''' of '''Grarjord''' are the [[Viking]]-like inhabitants of the [[elemental]]-haunted frozen northlands of Etharis, a region said to have once been ruled by [[Archomental|godlike elementals]] that warred with each other. Of these, the most fearsome was Gormadraug, the Great Prismatic Wyrm; a [[dragon]]-shaped [[elemental]] who was the master of "coldfire" - a white-blue flame that freezes instead of burns, consumes water, and can only be extinguished with fire and heat. Although reputedly slain by a band of seven heroes well over a thousand years ago, Gormadraug still shapes Grarjord's future. Over fifty years ago, a [[druid]]ic cult arose, the Prismatic Circle, who decreed that the Valikan must feed Gormadraug's spirit with bloodshed to keep him docile. This has led to a schims in Valikan society, dividing Grarjord into two provinces; ''Thrull'', a [[druid]]ic [[theocracy]] where the Prismatic Circle rules and raiding, slavery and human sacrifice are the order of the day, and ''Kandar'', which rejects the Prismatic Circle's rules and seeks strength through alliances and trade with the more fertile lands to the south. Making things worse is the rival Cult of the Wyrm, druids who seek to use the blood sacrifice of humans and elementals to ''awaken'' Gormadraug, and the mysterious appearance of outbreaks of coldfire, which sweep in deadly anti-blazes across the northland and leave behind only frozen wastes.

The '''Castinellan Provinces''' are a harsh, windswept peninsula, split down their center by an irregular mountain spine. These three provinces - ''Toletum'', ''Faro'' and ''Therpena'' - have long warred with each other, and only recently been united by a [[theocracy]] dedicated to the worship of Empyreus. Traditional homeland of the [[dragonborn]], the new priest-kings seek to tamper the warlike and vengeful nature of their people by first redirecting their attention outward in holy wars and crusades. It is also the birthplace of the Arcanist Inquisition, which seeks to control and limit the use of magic - ostensibly because Empyreus herself had told Montego Valieda, the first priest-king and Unifier of Castinellan, that magic was a curse that endangered its wielders and their associates alike.

'''Morencia''' is a powerful mercantile city-state occupies a series of small islands in a large lagoon, which is virtually impossible thanks to the magic-spawned mists that shroud the complex maze of reefs and sandbanks surrounding the city. Ruled over by the Augustine Trading Company, which has achieved this by absorbing the Banker's Guild and thus made mere puppets of the so-called Supreme Council, Morencia desires only to prosper, and is constantly targeted by the Castinellan Provinces as their first conquest.

'''Liesech''' is a city-state that lies to the north of the Charneault Kingdom and south of the Bürach Empire, the latter which now controls it, fighting an impossible battle to stave off the consumption of the city by the sea itself. Especially because of the mysterious god-thing, possibly a [[kraken]], known as the Filth Grazer, and the dreaded Weeping Pox.