Religion doesn’t know boundaries in Adylheim, it interacts with daily life at every level. The fiefdoms all worship the same gods, however religious structures are not necessarily the same from fiefdom to fiefdom. There is no single dogma or cult which stretches across all of Adylheim defining religion throughout. It’s all a series of disparate gods being followed by different people, the most powerful person around is the High Priest of Luxor in Arameia, who commands that entire fiefdom.

For the most part, religion works on a tit-for-tat principle. In return for prayer and sacrifices in their honour, the Gods are often willing to grant their followers aid in small ways. It may not amount to anything more than a stroke of luck or a subtle nudge in the right direction. In truth, the Gods rarely reveal themselves to their followers except in the form of visions and dreams.

The world is made from the bodies of dead gods destroyed in a giant battle which brought the current gods to the forefront. (Dragonkin lore says the only reason the Gods won was because the Dragons chose their side to help.)

The Gods populate the world while the Dragons find their place. The first Dragon War is an immense cataclysm rending the world to pieces causing continents to shift and tear. The Gods understand the true burden of their power as they look on the world around them. They help rebuild the world, but have since stopped directly manifesting as it may tear the webs of reality itself. Items from before the first Dragon War are generally referred to as Prelapsarian.

The second Dragon War is much more of a cold war than the first one and is defined by short, intense clashes, often causing mountain chains to rise and similar. Following the second Dragon War the dragons mainly leave the world.

Adylheim is a loose confederacy of seven fiefdoms with no one fiefdom having risen to a greater level of power than any of the others. The northern fiefdoms are characterized by rugged terrain, which grows flatter in the southern areas. Each fiefdom is held by a noble of some manner who is continually striving to expand his domain at the expense of others. Given that Adylheim is encapsulated by hostile terrain this is a zero sum game, with each expansion at the cost of a neighbour.

Statistics and Information

The main staple of Adylheim is grain. The peasants who make up the majority of the population do not really care all that much for who owns the land and only really complain when increased taxes are moved their way. Taxes are generally paid in produce, which is converted into money in nearby cities.

Cities can generally be found in three sizes. Small cities have populations less than 2,000, and medium sized cities have populations between 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants. Large cities have populations which exceed 10,000 citizens. The largest city in Adylheim is Aram, which contains almost up to 100,000 inhabitants. Cities require a steady influx of people from the rural areas to join them in order to maintain their size. This is due to the high mortality rates and poor birth rates.

Adylheim consists of a series of small kingdoms and fiefdoms that have banded together in a very loose alliance against outside forces. They are hilly or flat, but generally good land, mostly covered by woods and farmland. Adylheim consist of several small fiefdoms that are all independent of each other, though they use the same currency and speak the same language. Adylheim is mainly populated by humans, though other races exist on the fringes and often visit the major cities. These fiefdoms exist in ever changing alliances and borders. The peasants, which form the majority of the populace, rarely pay attention to the power struggles, unless there is active fighting nearby. The only real difference to them is who is charging them taxes and how much they are charging. Peasant revolts have caused several would-be conquerors from building their armies too large.

To the North of Adylheim is the Northern Lands, these are generally fairly hostile, with tall mountains and small, isolated valleys. It’s all but impossible and very inadvisable to try to cross the mountains without a guide as the passes often freeze up and the paths seem to change every season. Human barbarians and Ursidaen populate these mountains and often field border raids on Adylheim, though they have rarely staged anything like an efficient invasion. The Northern Lands lack anything approaching cities; there are no fortresses or castles, merely small villages and farms dotted here and there throughout the valleys. This mountain range is known as the Ribs and stretches east and towards the south, passing beyond the swamps to the east.

The basics of the economy is agrarian along the lines of a medieval economy. Taxes are collected by kings and nobles mainly in produce, which is turned into coin through trade in cities and abroad. The economy and state of the countries pretty much rest on the harvest; if it's a bad year for the farmers, it’s a bad year for everyone.

While there are several different kingdoms, they employ the same coins. Although there are some differences, the coins are more or less interchangeable.