When talking about the Northern kingdoms the term “empire and the five kingdoms” can’t be ignored. It is a general term for the Sacro Imperio and those nations under its more or less strong influence. The kingdoms associated with the empire are separated on one hand in the Northern kingdoms Seathornia, Sucellie, and Waldbergen which are culturally influenced by the empire. On the other hand there also are the two Southern kingdoms that are not only culturally but also politically strongly dependent on the empire.

Seathornia is the Westernmost of the three Northern kingdoms. It is located on a peninsula in the sea and borders Sucellie in the South. The origin of the country’s name lies in the fact that the peninsula appears like a thorn in the side of the sea, as which it is also interpreted in the founding myth.

Seathornia’s capital is Thuneriver, located in the Mideast of the country. The Kings of Seathornia reign over their kingdom from a castle which is located at the banks of the river Thune, thus giving the settlement forming around the royal castle its name.

The second most important city after the capital is doubtlessly Eastport, a major port and trade city at the East coast of Seathornia. It is one of the major trading hubs in the Northern kingdoms and as such internationally accepted. Another town with at least a lot of prestige is Gorgewell, capital of the duchy with the same name in the Midlands of Seathornia known for its deep but narrow gorges where rivers are flowing through..

There are also a lot of normal towns in the kingdom, two examples of which would be Oakham and Whitbury in the country’s Southwest. Two typical villages are Heathton and Cliffwood in the North of Seathornia.

Seathornia is, as the rest of the Northern kingdoms too, full of various myths and legends. One of them tells of an ancient abandoned graveyard in the midst of the woods somewhere in the country’s Midlands. But it is unknown if such places really do exist or if they are just stories after all.

What is known, though, is that humans are not the only intelligent inhabitants of the country. Seathornia is full of magical beings, most of which have a humanoid appearance. The largest group of those is known under the term “fairy”, a word that denotes a variety of humanoid beings not only in Seathornia but also in Sucellie. In Seathornia it is most commonly used for tiny winged beings, albeit not exclusively.

Some types of fairies can only be found in certain parts of Seathornia. Among them are the tylwyth teg, gorgeous fairy creatures living underground or underwater in the West of Seathornia, or beings such as a pixy or a spriggan. The former is a tiny fairy creature with a tendency to archness and nocturnal rides, the latter another tiny fairy creature that works as a bodyguard for pixies or as a guard of hidden treasures. Both can be found in the county’s Southwest.

Other fairies can be found in all of Seathornia. Some of them are dangerous to humans such as the baobhan-sith, an attractive fairy woman sucking young men dry of blood at night, or the ganconer, an equally attractive fairy man who feeds on the life essence of young women. The most famous fairy creature, however, although hardly ever seen, is the elf. It is a gorgeous fairy creature primarily inhabiting forests and generally known as a talented archer. The elves also have a big city hidden in the forest, Elfame, located in Northeastern Seathornia.

Other magical beings are rather close to humans and their settlements, such as the church grim, a calf-sized black dog spirit that guards graveyards on behalf of the gods, or the dullahan, a ghost of a headless horseman.

Quite ambiguous is the urisk, a half humanoid, half goatish household spirit and water sprite found in the North of Seathornia.

Others are rather dangerous, such as man-eating water horses. Two distinct species are known in Seathornia, one being the kelpie living in rivers, the other the each-uisge living in lakes. Both are said to be able to use the human language and to take human shape.

Another man-eating creature of Seathornia is the ogre, an ugly gigantic monster, that can occasionally be found not only in Seathornia but also Sucellie and the Sacro Imperio.

This leads us to the second of the Northern kingdoms. Sucellie is the second Northern kingdom. It borders Waldbergen in the East, the Sacro Imperio in the South, and Seathornia in the Northwest, touching the sea in the West and in the North. Its capital is Couron, located in the Northeast of the country. According to the founding myth its royal family is said to be descendants of the pagan god Sucelle.

The border to the Sacro Imperio is located in a mountain range. One of its highest mountains is Mont Neigeur. It is said that at the foot of this mountain there once was a village known as Fontaineclaire which was destroyed by an avalanche though. The mountains in the South of Sucellie, especially Mont Neigeur, are commonly inhabited by a kind of fairy known as fée alpestre, a gorgeous mountain fairy seen as the guardian of alpine flowers, ibexes, and chamois.

Two other examples of humanoid magical beings in Sucellie found all over the country are the lutin, a diminutive household spirit, and the follet, a stable or household spirit that offers its services for board and lodge.

Occasionally the country is terrorized by the vouivre, a gigantic fire-spitting winged snake with a shining gem on its forehead.

As the Sacro Imperio was already mentioned before we shall shortly look at it or at least at its relevant border regions. The Sacro Imperio is the empire known from the often used term with the five kingdoms and is the mightiest nation on the continent. It uses a system of slavery and has declared the church of the Almighty its state religion, with the Almighty being the only deity worshipped. As such is the case it literally calls itself the holy empire.

In the mountains of the Northern Sacro Imperio there is a little shepherd village known as Pascolomonte. It is the site of the subterranean headquarters of the assassin organization Night Dagger, a famous and nefarious organization active in the empire and the five kingdoms.

The last of the Northern kingdoms and the only one yet to describe is Waldbergen, the Easternmost of the three Northern kingdoms. It borders Sucellie in the West, the Sacro Imperio in the South, the deepest forest in the East, and the sea in the North. Its capital, Herrburg, is located in the Midwest of the country whose name literally originates in the fact that it is has a lot of forests (Waldbergian: Wälder, sg. Wald) and mountains (Waldbergian: Berge). The Southern border is formed by a continuation of the same mountain range already separating Sucellie and the empire.

While Herrburg is the most important of all cities in Waldbergen politically and culturally, others are of more importance economically. The port town Watthaven in the country’s Northwest is Waldbergen’s gate to the world and an important trading hub, although its importance pales compared to Seathornia’s Eastport.

Dulnitz, however, is a prosperous mining town in the East of Waldbergen, not far from the deepest forest, and the capital of the county, now governorship of the same name. The miners responsible for Dulnitz’s prosperity live in Zwergendorf, a miner settlement near Dulnitz called Dvergastadr by its inhabitants living there in exile. Every inhabitant of Zwergendorf is a dwarf, a diminutive humanoid earth sprite from the high North, known to be especially skilled in mining and blacksmithing.

Another similar humanoid magical being found only in the East of Waldbergen is the skarbnik, a big mountain sprite that inhabits the interior of the mountains.

More common in Waldbergen is the kobold though, a diminutive household spirit that can be found all over the country but shouldn’t be confused with the likewise humanoid šotek, a diminutive household spirit that can only be found in the Southeast of Waldbergen.

A very special kind of creature is the alp, also known as nachtmahr, for it is basically a human who has the often inherited ability enabling his soul to leave his sleeping body in variable shapes. Its downside, however, is that an alp in this form compulsively brings its fellow human beings nightmares. Nachtmahrs can only be found in Waldbergen.

Already partly outside the realm of Waldbergen is the vodník, a humanoid water sprite that lives in the rivers and lakes of Eastern Waldbergen and in the deepest forest. It inhabits crystal palaces and drowns people to acquire their souls.

The deepest forest bordering Waldbergen to the East is a nearly boundless woodland unspoiled by humans. It is a natural treasure trove, for the most unusual plants are growing there. The most famous among them is the blue flower neversore, known in the Waldbergian language as blaue Blume Nimmerweh, a rare medicinal herb that helps against all kinds of pain. Also quite useful is the springwort, a plant with the power to open all locks, doors, and obstacles. The irrkraut, however, is a nasty fern with spores causing confusion to wayfarers so that they hopelessly go astray.

The deepest forest also is inhabited by all kinds of magical beings. One of them is the buschweibchen, a supposedly extinct kind of humanoid female wood sprite known to be an expert in healing arts.

The reason why buschweibchens are thought to be extinct is the wild hunt, a host of demons and ghosts hunting them and other wood sprites at night in the deepest forest. The leader of this host is the wild huntsman Wode, a fallen god who also abducts and impregnates women.

There also is a chance to see a will-o’-the-wisp in the deepest forest. This is a fire spirit, namely a soul of a child who died namelessly. It can also be found in all Northern kingdoms, albeit comparatively rarely.

Further East of the deepest forest, there already lies the territory of the grand duchies, a land the inhabitants of the Northern kingdoms now nearly nothing about. Quite famous though is the domovoy, a diminutive humanoid household spirit found in the grand duchies. Better known, however, is the vampire, a bloodsucking undead who originally comes from the grand duchies but has long since spread far and wide in the empire and the five kingdoms.

Nonetheless the inhabitants of the Northern kingdoms still have heard from far off places and their curious fauna or locals. A being from far off that sometimes may find its ways to the markets of the Northern Kingdoms is the blá-góma, an inexpressibly ugly fish from the Northern Sea that is considered to be inedible. The panotian, a humanoid being with big ears from far-off parts of the world in the Northeast, is comparably rarer to be seen if not for the slave markets of the empire.

A mysterious region also is the far-off parts of the world in the hot South. There, so it is said, one can encounter a blemmy, a humanoid headless being with its face on its chest, or a himantopode, a humanoid being with thin, strap-like limbs that moves wriggling like a snake. It is said that ebony trees grow in the land of the himantopodes.

A creature nobody had ever heard about though is the xingxing, a monkey creature from the farthest East that is capable of learning the human language.

Finally there also are beings from another completely different realm of existence such as demons from hell. Mentionable is the incubus whose kind is known to steal the life essence of women through intercourse. Other famous demons are known individually by their name such as Marchosias, a winged wolf demon capable of spitting fire, and Vine, a lion demon who knows hidden things and secrets as well as the past, the present, and the future.

This concludes the description of the Northern kingdoms.