Atresh

Atresh is a region well to the north-northeast of Asuria, most widely known for its wine and linen exports. Central Atresh is made up of several small kingdoms, while both eastern and western lands are controlled by larger neighbouring powers, each of which sees the other as their primary rival. The kingdoms of central Artresh are used as a buffer zone, limiting direct war between the two major powers, who content themselves with politicking that leads to a background hum of low intensity warfare between the central kingdoms.   Historically, Atresh was a region bordering the Asurian empire at the height of its power. Considered barbaric by the Asurians, it was a confederation of independent cities with a mutual defense pact. Asurian attempts at conquest never succeeded, as they maintained a belief that they could carve away territory a bit at a time. While this strategy worked elsewhere, each time it was employed in Atresh, it provoked an impressive counterinvasion by the rest of the Atreshi confederation that liberated any stolen territory, annihilating Asurian legions in the process. Eventually, this ended in a watchful peace, with the Empire warily watching what they had learned was a potent military power right on their border and the Atreshi never forgetting the previous invasions.   During the fall of the Asurian Empire, a sizable number of Atreshi warriors joined in the war in Asuria to destroy the last emperor, Kalshazzak Aesymnetes, and his undead legions. Among those warriors was Rhille the Swift, one of the eight survivors of those who defeated Kalshazzak himself and sealed him away in the Battle of Caestor. She and a group of Atreshi followers built the city of Caelester on the ruins of Caestor, to keep watch over the sealed Emperor forevermore.