Ensor

The Kingdom of Ensor

Allegiance	Independent
Capital	Imbryck
Sovereign	King Loren II Esterweald
Demonym	Ensorian
Official Language	Ilexi, Ruvic
Official Religion	Kalentism
Currency	wafer/dusky/albie
Native Heritages	Ilexi

The Kingdom of Ensor in Ruvera

The Kingdom of Ensor is a long, and relatively narrow country lying in the far southwestern extent of Ruvera, in what is known as the Ensorian Peninsula. Spanning the extent between the Adelantean and Great Stormy Sea but cut off from the rest of the continent by the towering peaks of the High Hinterlands, Ensor features a curiously mixed culture of landward isolation and maritime connection.

Geography & Climate

Ensor takes up the occupied portion of the Ensorian peninsula, located at the southwestern end of Ruvera past the extensive mountain ranges of the High Hinterlands. Ensor is a long and narrow country defined by its relationship to the storied River Meander, which arises in the heights of the Hinterlands and passes more or less through the middle of the kingdom, before eventually flowing out into the Adelantean via Imber Bay. The Meander is for most of its length a broad, placid waterway with a moderate west-to-east flow that makes transport from "upper" to "lower" Ensor relatively fast and easy, while not ruling out traffic against the current in the opposite direction. Consequently, though the distances between the northwest and southeast corners of the kingdom are great, the river serves to bind together the extreme ends of the realm, both geographically and culturally.

Generally speaking, Ensor is more elevated and mountainous in the north and west, and lower and flatter in the south and east. The Highmoor is a land of tall hills that rise into mountains as they converge with the Hinterlands, while Aurindell mixes the lowest range of the mountains with the wild lake country of Aurin's Necklace and the rolling middle reaches of the Meander. The weather in the mountains tends to be cool and damp, particularly in the western reaches of the Highmoor where storms frequently roll in off the Great Stormy Sea. The long arm of Courant, lower and more sheltered, features somewhat more temperate weather, and its stony but verdant hills provide some of the best grazing the in realm. Southsward, at the far end of the Meander bordering the Adelantean, is the pleasantest land of all, typically warm in the summer and fairly mild in the winter, being somewhat less plagued by the fierce storms and heavy fogs that characterize the Misty Coast nearby.

The most unusual -- and, from most people's point of view, ill favored -- part of the kingdom is encompassed by the region known as the Mistmarches, which make up the country's southernmost reaches. Only thinly populated compared to the rest of the realm, the Mistmarches boast no large cities and are chiefly made up of a patchwork of fens, moors, and wild tangles of forest that all seem uniquely calculated to hinder widespread cultivation and the softer touches of civilization. Even the coast is relatively inhospitable, being for the most part too craggy and storm-plagued to provide good harborage to ships. Strangest and most unsettling of all is the border which the Mistmarches guard -- a long wall of shifting mist that sets off the mysterious and unexplored land known as the Misty Reaches.

Religion

Despite their modern Kalentian views most Ensormen still half-consciously think of themselves as the children of the River Meander, named for the pagan goddess Meandra who was once widely worshipped as a somewhat unpredictable but overall benevolent and motherly deity.

Regions

Ensor is divided into five regions, which function as archdioceses within the hierarchy of the Kalentic Church of Ensor:

• Southsward, the cultured and temperate heartland of the kingdom, home to the capital city of Imbryck.
• Aurindell, the long middle reaches of the River Meander, filled with craggy fells, rich fields, rushing streams, picturesque ruins, and the hardy families that dwell amidst them.
• The Mistmarches, Ensor's southern hinterland, a lush but boggy land with a mystery on its border.
• Courant, a hilly pastoral peninsula filled with the influential descendents of a long-ago conquered race.
• Highmoor, the mountainous, moor-swept backwater of Ensor, home to free-spirited clans and ancient houses.

Points of Interest

Aurin's Necklace The Bentmoor Cape of Roses Drakemere Lake

Imber Bay Finnyck Bay Foggy Fens Isle of Ashes

Isle of Sighs Kintairie Isles Misty Coast Trinham Isle