World map of Ærizumoth, and map of the 6 Kingdoms
Image 1: Heightmap of Ærizumoth I drew by hand on GIMP. The full resolution heightmap can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVJss8ItsAKR-KXXE7C0heIDzAwpvOXc/view?usp=sharing
Image 2: Köppen map of Ærizumoth made with ExoPlaSim, using standard Köppen colors.
Image 3: True color map of Ærizumoth made with ExoPlaSim.
Image 4: Territory claimed by each of the 6 kingdoms, as well as the two city states mentioned.
Image 5: Main geographic regions of West Burbonia, as they are known to the locals.
The world Ærizumoth has a number of landmasses and seas. The Ornitholo ocean is so named because of the multitude of fantastical tropical birds that live in the dense jungles of its coasts. Ætheria, on the other hand, is a massive continent made up of a basin surrounded on almost all sides by the tallest range of mountains in the world; on the coastal side of those mountains are cloud forests eternally buried in fog, and on the other side are vast scorching deserts where temperatures often surpass 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
To the people of the 6 kingdoms of West Burbonia however, such landscapes are not known at all; at most they are fantastical legends told by sailers in Pristine Harbor, distorted by the great distances and many mouths through which the legends traveled to reach this side of the world. Even the Eastern section of their own continent is unknown to them; for a wall of impassible 16,000-foot mountains divides the continent in half.
The sea of Blingller to the West is the only escape from the 6 kingdoms. To the North and East are expanses of frozen mountains, to the South is the Great Desert. Although the Great Desert pales in comparison to the unearthly scorching deserts of Ætheria, no sane person from the kingdoms has ever traveled south of Vizinni, or at least, none who have have ever returned.
Vizinni City itself is not only the end of the known world, but prides itself in being the center of it. Lying deep within the Great Desert in the shadow of the great Mount Vizinni, a massive volcano that belches black smoke into the sky and rises 12,000 feet above the surrounding desert, the ancient city of Vizinni is by far the oldest and wealthiest within the 6 kingdoms. An unbroken dynasty of Dynasts has ruled for 3,000 years.
According to legend, the first Dynast was the winner of a civil war fought between the peoples who inhabited the one fertile valley in the area, which is nourished by springs from the mountain. One army was able to push the other out of the valley, where they perished of thirst in the endless sands. Vizinni was built with blood, and to this day, death does not come quickly to those who commit crimes on its soil or displease the Dynast — a 50-day regimen of unspeakable torture awaits them in the dungeons beneath the desert.
Old Money from Vizinni is invested in the other kingdoms, and has compounded over thousands of years. The best and brightest of the other kingdoms travel to Vizinni to study in its universities, which are easily the best in the known world. A Vizinni prince might loose the equivalent of 100 craftsmen's yearly wages in a single night of gambling in Paplau City and consider it a pleasant evening.
Long ago, there were 3 great kingdoms, but only the Dynastdom of Vizinni remains of them. 800 years ago, the ancient and powerful kingdoms of Burbon and the High Desert disappeared from the records, and it was so long ago that no one remembers why. Perhaps the reason is hidden away in one of Vizinni's ancient vaults, where the dry air of the Great Desert preserves countless thousand-year-old manuscripts in remarkable condition. In the Burbon Hills, the ruins of massive castles are slowly reclaimed by the earth. Man-eating bears roam the ruins, and witches are said to hide in the densely forested valleys. The few villagers that remain in the area have forgotten who they once were, or why their ancient kingdom fell.
South of the fallen Burbon kingdom, the ancient civilization that ruled the High Desert has been so forgotten that no one even remembers its name. The only inhabitants of the area live in a small town called Rehdeck, herding goats next to a small river that flows South and evaporates in the Great Desert. They say that east in the High Desert are lost caves with streets paved in gold, guarded by ancient demons and curses. It is believed that the High Desert kingdom became too greedy, and uncovered something that should have never been uncovered. Now all that remains is a wasteland of thirst and death.
North of Rehdeck, past the mountain range that rain shadows the High Desert, and south of the Burbon Hills is a great valley. A monumental bridge of white marble, a hundred feet wide, crosses the river, in some places carved with an ancient script that no one today can read. It is a monument to the alliance of the Burbon and High Desert kingdoms; to their vast wealth and power, marking the border between the two ancient kingdoms. On its south bank is a dirt road that leads to a treacherous mountain pass towards Rehdeck. On its north bank is a relatively well-maintained but ordinary road, looking crude compared to the bridge. Few live out here; the road is maintained according to the command of the Duke of Paplau in order to expand his territorial claims.
Paplau City itself is the largest city within the 6 kingdoms. The careful and elegant steam-driven inventions of the academics that inhabit Vizinni's universities have been bastardized into vast smoking factory machines, producing whatever the people of the kingdoms will buy. There are virtually no rules in Paplau City; it is known as the City of Sin. The wealthy party high in the towers and make business deals over wine. The poor are lent money to party as well, and then sold as indentured servants when they cannot pay their debts. The industrial waste from the factories is dumped into the Paplau River, and the peoples downstream who drink from it suffer horrific rates of cancer, most of them poor laborers and indentured servants who work the dusty fields of the Great Plain. In the wealthy city of Pristine Harbor, downstream of Paplau City, no one drinks from the river, but from the clear streams that flow from the foothills of the Coast Range.
North of the Great Desert is the Great Plain, containing the Dukedom of Paplau, the Empire of Mogol, and the Polity of Chittyville. A vast network of navigable rivers runs throughout the plain, transporting barges of grain towards the port city of Pristine Harbor, where the grain is transported on desert caravans towards Vizinni or on ships out to the distant Curolean Archipelago or beyond, returning with gold and silver. The Empire of Mogol is the number one grain exporter in the kingdoms, claiming the entire southern section of the plains in their kingdom. Towards the Great Desert, the plains become hot and dusty, and sandstorms from the desert sometimes blow north and turn the sky red. Millions of laborers work the vast expanse of irrigated fields, many of them enslaved or indentured, or simply desperate; a vast agricultural underclass of sweating peasants breaking their backs in the fields. The King of Mogol doesn't care, because as long as the money keeps coming in, he can live in his palace and party with socialites in the casinos of Paplau City. Although the Dukedom of Paplau is famous for its lawlessness, airships, and steampunk factories, it is also a major grain exporter, second only to the Kingdom of Mogol.
The people of the Polity of Chittyville pride themselves in their superior morality. They judge the excesses of Paplau City the way that Utah Mormons judge California, and not without reason. The other kingdoms caricature them as provincial, overly religious farmers who spend their days milking cows and making cheese, and who are far below the average in intelligence, to put it kindly. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The Polity's climate in the northern part of the Great Plain lends itself to a simpler existence. While the Mogolian southern part of the plain is hot and dusty and semiarid, the northern part is pleasant, cool and humid, with fog and rain instead of dust storms. On our own Earth we could similarly compare the climate of Oklahoma with the climate of England. Life in the land of Chittyville runs as a slow pace, and they are known for the quality of their cheeses, but the Polity is also the 3rd most important grain exporter, as one of the 3 kingdoms with a grain surplus. Life in the Polity is good as long as you are heterosexual, go to church every Sunday, and don't stand out too much. If you don't fit in, there are plenty of bizarre and arbitrary laws and punishments that are used to keep people in line. One of the most infamous aspects of Chittyville are the predatory hotels that often rob travelers and bury their bodies in ditches, but since the hotel owners pay taxes and go to church, and locals are never harmed, everyone turns a blind eye to that. In Paplau, famous for its lawlessness but also its world-class hospitality, hoteliers would never dream of doing such a thing to their guests.
West of the Polity of Chittyville is the Kingdom of Vester, the rainiest of the 6 kingdoms. Due to its maritime location, summers are cooler than Chittyville and winters are warmer. The northern part of the low lying Coast Range mountains lie within the kingdom, and the temperate rainforests on the windward side of the Coast Range produce the best known timber in the world. All the ships in the 6 kingdoms are built of Vestervillian timber, and many buildings throughout the other kingdoms are built of it as well. There is also a vibrant fishing economy on the coast, and in the city state of Combden that lies north of Vester. On the other hand, it rains almost every day of the year, and due to the hyperoceanic climate, residents wear jackets year round, even in the summer. North of the kingdom of Vester in the Northwestern plains, as they are called, there are few people outside of the independent city of Combden, and the land is constantly overcast and full of cold rain that blows sideways because of the constant wind, with freezing rain in winter. On our Earth, the climate of the NW plains could be compared to the Faroe Islands. The few thousand who live there herd sheep and fish from the stormy waters of the Sea of Blingller.
South of the Kingdom of Vester, the climate of the coastal area between the Sea of Blingller and the Coast range grows increasingly pleasant and Mediterranean. Over the thousand miles between the city of Vesterville and city of Pristine Harbour, the foothills gradually transition from dense temperate rainforest to vineyards and olive groves. This area is densely populated but without major cities, and the average person is relatively privileged and cosmopolitan compared to the the other kingdoms. The southern two-thirds of the long coastal area on the windward side of the Coast Range, and the city of Pristine Harbour, which has the best natural port in the continent and sits at the mouth of the great river, make up the Empire of Loumithilæ. Most of the Kingdom has a Mediterranean climate, and in the southernmost parts there are palm trees and beach resorts on the coast of the Sea of Blingller. Continuing south past the great river, the climate dries out and becomes desert as one crosses the border from Loumithilæ to the Dynastdom of Vizinni. Certainly, the best kingdom to be born into as an average person is the empire of Loumithilæ. The people there consider themselves more refined than the more brutish kingdoms, often campaigning for social reform, thinking of themselves as very progressive, and then going home to eat bread made from grain farmed by Mogolian slaves. Climatologically, the most similar places on earth to the Empire of Loumithilæ are coastal California and Italy.
The fine wines that lubricate business deals between elites in Paplau are all made in Loumithilæ, and all the grain barges heading to distant lands pass by the city of Pristine Harbor. Pristine Harbor is entangled financially with Vizinni, with a strong navy funded by Vizinni and waving the flag of Vizinni, but made up mostly of people from Loumithilæ. Scores of upper-middle class Loumithilæleans study hard to get into Vizinni universities, where they invent technology that ends up being used in Paplau factories. Vast shipbuilding yards in Pristine Harbor build ships that fly Vizinni's flag, made of timber from Vester. Young people from all the kingdoms fantasize about living in Pristine Harbor, the most cosmopolitan of all the cities in the known world. The cheapest form of transport is on ship through the mass navigable rivers that all combine into the Great River, and on the north bank of that river where it enters the sea is Pristine Harbor. Navy captains flying the flags of Vizinni-owned armies or Mogol-owned corporations transport grain across the sea of Blingller and return to dine in Pristine Harbor, enjoying Chittyville-made cheese and Loumithilæ-made wine while flirting with women and telling them stories they heard from the locals of distant lands; rumors about tropical seas where large birds with elaborate plumage fly overhead, or tall tales of massive deserts with temperatures as hot as an oven.