Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Ghare

Introduction

Most maps of Bidestra start at the northern boundaries; they show the Middle Kingdoms and their northernmost borders, and beyond that, just whiteness. Many who grow up seeing such maps assume that the whole top of the world is one large expanse, a snowy cap. Tales of the olden times speak of the ‘roof of the world’ or ‘god’s spine’ or ‘the eternal wastes.’ So few of those stories talk about the nation that is there, the nation that saved the world, and continues to save it, with the relentless toil that is killing a god, and keeping it killed.

So few appreciate, and so few recognise the ferocious power of the land of Ghare.

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Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-foh-lah-rah-jah-pha-urd/

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Foh-lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd

There is a timeline of empires on Bidestra. There was the First Elves’ attempts to own it; there was the Tiefling Empire, if you believe in it. There was the empire of Fuszaint, the most recent one, in its miserable decline. But before Fuszaint, there was the first great Human Empire, the empire of the creatures known now as Ogres, Ogre-Magi, Hags and their ilk; it was the Empire of the Urd. What it was, though, is not as important as what remains of its greatest seat, its capital, its palaces; for they are gone now, torn apart by nature itself, stripped of its identity, and returned in safe pieces to the loam that they once polluted. This is what remains. This is the land that outlasts empires, the trees that do not need anyone to speak for them, and the great regrowing that must be done to restore the scarred land. This is Foh-Lah Rah-Jah-Pha-Urd.

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Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

https://cobrinseil.invincible.ink/nations-of-cobrinseil-honaj/

Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Honaj

Let me take you afar to a wonderous placeOf sunshine and flowers and sands,Where the land has a scar cut deep in its faceIt was broken, and yet it standsWhere water is bitterAnd honey is sweet,And the blade of the prince gleams brightDock your boat, come ashore,Have a drink, have one more!And begin your Honaji new life~!

Basic Island, by Mark Poole (Source)

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Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Winaleon (and Aazum)

It’s always a lovely day in Winaleon. The bees are buzzing, the fields are growing, the coin is flowing. Winaleon, Winaleon, beautiful Winaleon, with its golden days and its golden words. Winaleon is the safest place in the world, a land of gentle slopes and careful lawns, all tended and cared for, so that the children of Winaleon have so safe an upbringing that not even night itself dares touch them.

Winaleon is a land so perfect that the sun never sets on Winaleon.

Ever.

Art by Jeremy Paillotin, Shire Terrace (MTG)

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Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Xwera

Are you free?

I ask you this, I ask again, are you free?

If you live under a king, if you live for coin, if you live for a church, then are you ever truly free? You can be free to taste the boot above you, but are you free?

Can you take your weapon and your wits and walk into the wilds and make your own way, know your own self, and share in your spoils without anyone demanding or commanding how it should be done? Can you call yourself free when your own death isn’t even something you can trust, and where you might just fall because a guard or a thug or a brute took a liking to hurting you? Don’t you want the purity, the honesty, of knowing your death comes from the quarry you hunt, that you did something wrong, you slipped at the wrong time, that you weren’t as good as you thought you were, and that your death is something you deserve and that you chose?

Come to Xwera.

Be truly free.

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Nations of Cobrin’Seil: Fuszaint

Bidestra is a cradle and grave both of empires. Some are completely collapsed, gone beyond all signs or showing, like the Urd, or the First Elves, or the Tieflings. They stood tall and proud and asserted themselves rulers of the whole continent — but now, they are nothing but ancient statues in lost glades and the broken histories of deranged libraries. Only one Empire, in the history of Bidestra, has conquered the continent, and then, with wisdom and care, chose to withdraw, to become just another nation, and to maintain its place as first amongst equals, after bringing language, roads, medicine and currency to all corners of the continent, and only that Empire, the mighty Fuszainti Empire, can thank their current king for his choices two centuries past that led to this current glory.

Glory, glory, glory, to Fuszaint, and its ever-living, eternal Knights and King!

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The Nations of Bidestra

I pulled up the mic, and spoke of the contintent of Bidestra today. Then I transcribed what I spoke, and did my best to corrall that into a description of places I care about in my D&D world.

Also, this is a long one without much in the way of images. I imagine this as a script for a video that slowly rolls around the map, but I don’t have a map, so… readygo.

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https://press.invincible.ink/the-nations-of-bidestra/

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Cobrin’Seil Heritage: The Cwmdyri

In building out the continent of Bidestra, I found numerous places where either historically I had already placed ‘merfolk’ or ‘sea elves,’ or new places where such creatures made sense. I already have a Cobrin’Seil race of creepy, deep-sea monster people, known as the Hadalan, and I love them dearly, but they’re meant to fulfill the role of a spooky monster people. They’re not the friendly neighbourhood fish-folk, those are the terrifying fish-folk for freaks.

I needed something new to fill this space.

Some explanations first though:

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