Tyresia

Tyresia is the largest of the original six kingdoms in the Lands of Man. It is bordered to the east by a long, meandering coast along the Whalesong Waters, to the north by the Windhand Peaks and the Tyresian Woods, to the west by the upper part of the Longspine Mountains, and to the Blacksand Desert to the south. It is a land of plains and hills divided by minor rivers and ancient volcanic fissure. Tyresia is said to be the cradle of human civilization, and hosts the capital of the Silvertree Empire.

Geography

Tyresia is mostly rich farmland, with the soil full of fertilizing minerals, the wide volcanic fissures creating sheltering micro-climates, and the Tyresian Woods all lending themselves to a variety of consistent cultivation. The long coastline has sheltering coves where natural fisheries sprang up, and the melting snow contributes to long, slow rivers nourishing the landscape. The plains themselves play host to a number of different species, but the most common, and the most valuable, is the horse.

People

Culturally, before unification, Tyresia was full of countless tribes, each with nearly unique languages and customs, which lives on today in the several heavily accented common dialects in the region. Halflings had entered Tyresia early on through the Windy Pass from Northland, and were heavily mixed into Tyresian cultures well before it became a kingdom. Dwarves travelled freely through the lands, and were considered natural citizens of the plains.

For the most part, Tyresians are a dark-haired, dark-eyed people, with olive-toned skin, though with enough looking, you can find examples of all sorts of human phenotypical divergence in some isolated valleys. They come in all heights, though they skew towards being shorter and more slight.

Tyresians were in no way an egalitarian culture. To be a woman in Tyresia was to be a second-class citizen. The only trouble dwarves ever had in Tyresia, before the Arrival, was the reactions to their treating female dwarves as leaders of their communities. Today, Tyresia is still where women have it the hardest. Despite the flourishing culture there, men are held up as ideal humans, and women, even the ones with great hereditary power and wealth, are considered lower than a male orc.

Culture

Tyresian culture is one built on rivalry and artistry. The best painters and sculptors are Tyresian, or have studied with the greats in Tyresia. These strange little communities began building rivalries with one another over time, and that grew to magnificent heights as the Church of Pelor began growing as well, and would commission masters to decorate their places of worship. There are entire villages dedicated to the production of statuary and paintings now, for all over the empire.

Within this culture of rivalry grew the vendetta. Sleights are unforgiven in Tyresia unless they are settled, and that can mean through systemized physical combat or sacrifice. This is acted out in the Tyresian dramas, and in hippodromes or ampitheaterss, but a Tyresian killing another in the streets is not unknown, and vendettas are passed down generation to generation.