Having explain the process of making the map in the previous post, I can devote this and future posts to describing the world it depicts
As I've mentioned, I don't yet have a title for the world, but I'm thinking of working in the word "cal," which I've settled on as meaning "earth" in the language of Vasile, which becomes becomes somewhat the language of academia later, as the (later) Kingdom of the South becomes the preeminent power in the future. Yes, I am working on constructed languages for this world, though at best I think they'll be naming languages. I won't go into major depth with grammar and all that.
At the start of the first novel, the world has a technological and, in certain areas, cultural similarity to Europe on the eve of the Columbus voyage in 1492. The countries which border the sea have ships capable of fairly long voyages, and the people of the world, even the Rukans and Golden Coast cities on opposite sides, are at least aware of each others existence even if they don't have frequent contact. The continent to the South, known in those times as the Untamed Lands, have been visited, but infrequently, by explorers from the Empire of the South (that's the subject of a later novel). Nobody has yet made any efforts to settle the continent or explore its interior, as it is covered in dense jungles and its rivers are not easily navigable.
There is something of a cold war going on at the time between the Empire of Athanon with its buffer allies and an alliance of southern states known as the Red Alliance. The Kingdom of Carabagh is the de facto leader of the alliance. They are the largest and most populous of the alliance states and have the most to worry about, bordering the Imperial client state of Deneria. This situation is only exacerbated by the fact that Deneria and Carabagh have been antagonistic toward each other for centuries, back when the city of Athanon was a still a nomadic camp. The Empire of the South also illicitly supports the Red Alliance in order to preserve their own interests in the south where it has colonies. The cities of the Golden Coast, as well as the small states of Togaz and Afall, are decidedly neutral, though individuals and factions in these places have offered assistance to one side or the other depending on which serve their interests better. The citizenry of Togaz, for example, tend to lean toward the Alliance due to their cultural affinity with the Valkaz Republic, an Alliance state. The Rukan Empire is completely neutral, and most of its people aren't even aware of the conflict.
Next post I might go into more detail about the major states and regions.
A quick note: You may have noticed that I have deserts at two very different latitudes. Well, the Kahi Desert isn't a desert in the truest sense. It is a flat, cold expanse of largely permafrost that gets a reasonable amount of precipitation, but it nearly always falls as snow. When snow isn't falling, much of the moisture in the air presents itself as fog. Not a desert, but because it is flat and gets little actual rain, that's what the Vasileans took to calling it.
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