FAENAS

The Verdant Heartlands of the First Empire

Faenas is a broad, fertile region that once formed the beating heart of the First Empire. Its gentle climate, rich soils, and sprawling river systems made it the breadbasket of a continent, the cultural cradle of imperial civilization, and the seat of the Aureate Palace where emperors ruled for centuries. Even after the Empire’s fall, Faenas remains a land of abundance, crossroads, and layered history—its cities thriving atop the ruins of older eras, its people inheritors of both glory and fracture.

Though its successor states now compete for influence, Faenas is still defined by the same qualities that shaped its ancient rise: water, memory, and movement. Rivers bind it, roads connect it, and ruins remind all who live here that power, no matter how radiant, is never permanent.

Geography

Faenas is a land of gentle climates and fertile earth, where river valleys, temperate forests, and expansive plains create a tapestry of settlements and farmlands. Cities flourish along the waterways that carve through the region, their foundations built atop layers of history from empires long since dissolved. Vineyards climb sunlit slopes, and old trade roads wind through coppiced woods and between walled towns whose stones still bear the marks of earlier eras.

Although much of Faenas is cultivated, wilderness persists in deep forests, in swampy river deltas, and in the shadows of limestone foothills where forgotten ruins rest half-claimed by the land.

Major Natural Features

• Selukar River & Lake — the main artery of trade and agriculture.
• Meercroft Forest — vast woodland of old-growth trees and lingering myths.
• Veil Mountains — snow-capped northern barrier, feeding the plains with meltwater.
• Namék’s Ridge — rugged southern mountains dividing Faenas from Zareem.
• Dragonteeth Mountains — jagged eastern frontier.
• The Ornian Sea — an inland sea shaping maritime trade, culture, and old elvish power.
• The Cymric Isles — subtropical islands known for strange moonlit phenomena.

Political Landscape

Following the War of Sundering and the collapse of the First Empire, Faenas fractured into multiple successor states. Each inherits different aspects of imperial law, culture, and ambition:

• High Faenas — the scholarly, bureaucratic steward of imperial tradition.
• The Sapphire Dominion — wealthy and aristocratic, known for gemstones and refined courts.
• The League of River Princes — merchant-led city-states controlling river trade.

These realms cooperate uneasily, compete constantly, and occasionally war—each claiming to best represent the legacy of the Empire.

Cities and Settlements

Faenas hosts some of the most ancient and influential settlements in Arcasia:

• Nucester — former imperial capital; home to the Aureate Palace.
• Ambervale — crossroads of caravans, politics, and espionage.
• Northold — northern bastion at the foot of the Veil Mountains.
• Idrisburgh — old port city on the Ornian Sea, layered with multicultural history.
• Edosall — ruined elvish capital still clinging to life.
• Nulbarak — southern maritime gateway to Zareem.
• Medo-Zogan — frontier trade city and threshold of the deep desert.
• Quam-Pherish — once a garrison city, now a rugged border hub.
• Wolf Watch — tower-fortress guarding the Sukoku channel.
• Barastir — dwarven hold deep in the northern mountains.

Each serves as a microcosm of Fifth Age diversity, conflict, and opportunity.

Culture

Faenas is culturally varied yet unified by three longstanding traditions:

River Culture

Songs, festivals, and livelihoods revolve around the Selukar. Bargemen and ferry clans form old guilds with unusual political influence.

Imperial Memory

Even commoners speak of the Empire with reverent practicality:
“We build on what remains.”

Imperial architecture, law, and educational systems persist, though often adapted.

Frontier Heritage

Southern and western Faenas bear Zareemi influence—caravans, desert spices, mixed dialects, and a harder, dust-swept way of life.

Faenas is at once old and new, stable and fractured.

History

Faenas was:

• the birthplace of the First Empire
• home to the Dawnmaker Dynasty
• administrative center of the Aureate Palace
• the stage for the Kurai’s rise to power as elite imperial guardians
• the site of key battles during the War of Sundering
• the region where the Empire ultimately broke

To understand Faenas is to understand the Empire itself.

Modern Faenas in the Fifth Age

Today, Faenas is:

• agriculturally powerful
• politically fragmented
• culturally influential
• strategically essential

Its cities remain vibrant centers of commerce and learning.
Its ruins lure scholars and adventurers alike.
Its people navigate a complicated legacy of pride, loss, and renewal.

Faenas is no longer the unified heart of a world-spanning empire.
But its heart beats still—and all Arcasia feels its rhythm.