The Old Regime

Deep glacial valleys, high mountains and frosty plateaus are found throughout the region. Most of the area now called the "Old Regime" is on a rugged peninsula northwest of the Disjoined Duchies, but there are several large islands that also fall into the same cultural and geologic bubble.

There is plenty of iron in the mountains here, but only a special kind of ore, found nowhere else, could make the famed Imperial Steel. This green-grey alloy is able to cut or smash through almost any substance, breaking shields and hacking down gates. Only adamantine is stronger, but that metal is so rare it would be impossible to make more than a few dozen weapons from it. In contrast, many warriors of the Empire carried blades and hammers of Imperial Steel, or wore it as armor in their conquests. In modern days, the process of refining the ore is largely forgotten, though some say it required the sacrifice of mortal souls, making it taboo to own Imperial Steel in most of Estier. Of course, people heap all kinds of rumors and curses on the Evil Empire, and they can't all be true. Or can they?

Brutally cold winters and chilly summers. The wind off the sea feeds huge blizzards in the mountains, which build colossal glaciers.

Many of the creatures of the Old Regime are more primeval in appearance and difficult to catch or tame. In the pine forests of the mountains, dire bears hunt for salmon and ambush the huge elk or boar. There are hardy wild horses on the grassy highlands, running from dire wolves. The sea has orcas, squid, baleen whales and all of the smaller fish they eat.

The Iron Peaks are still rich in all kinds of metal and ore.

They say the Empire of the Iron Peaks was born when dark elemental spirits corrupted the humans and halflings who lived in the mountains and fjords. They also say the Evil Empire was born when the humans and halflings corrupted the natural world around them. Either way, this foul symbiosis built the scattered tribes into one mighty force, until they swept down from the hills and conquered the Disjoined Duchies. The Empire served their elemental allies with sacrifices and positions of honor, but they also forced many spirits into service - damming a river, to release it when they needed a task completed. They held other realms under their control in much the same way, supporting puppet rulers and governors while using the threat of violence or magical disasters to keep the common people in check.
One command that was strictly enforced was not to leave the continent. Some powerful earth elemental (perhaps since ascended to demigod status) had forbidden the Empire of the Iron Peaks and its subjects from seeing other shores. The Empire's fall and subsequent lifting of this ban was perhaps a cause for such a large wave of emigration and colonization in the Post-Empire Era.
The Disjoined Duchies have kept a vengeful watch on their neighbors to the north since the Empire was defeated. It is likely that eyes in Alfheim are also following events in the Old Regime, with their own purpose in mind. Currently there are a handful of political entities that show no signs of reuniting: Tharlemar, the old and decadent capital city, where rumors of an Imperial heir flutter like dead leaves. Steel Union, a mountainous democracy where humans walk the streets with giants, their spirit-blooded cousins. The triple alliance of Gamvik, Morvik and Zinbaragz, whose halfling sailors raid and plunder all winter when they can't grow food. And Khorbizon, a nation of dwarves and humans who suffered under the Empire but turned to vampirism in order to have some upward mobility.