Ast'Aria

Separated from the Evermarch by the Icewall Mountains, Ast’Aria the polar opposite of its northern neighbor, a hot

and dry nation stretching along the southern coast of Esoa, heated but not granted rain by the sea to its south. Since time immemorial, Ast’Aria has been home to the desert elves, and ruled by the Almika Ast - the Queen of the Desert. Spared whatever cataclysm that claimed the elven empire that once spanned Esoa, the temples and libraries dotting the region are home to what little knowledge remains of that time. Although Ast’Aria is tentatively an ally of the Vllaistraean Empire, the desert elves are known for being isolationists and xenophobes, and prefer to remain untethered by the constraints of international politics. Ast'Aria is also known to be advanced in many respects to the rest of the world: both specifically and magically. Its capital city, Elyadell, is guarded from the harsh desert sun by a strange field of energy, granting its inhabitants a temperate climate. Ast’Aria’s relationship with Vllaistrae is largely predicated on trade; the lands of the desert elves are rich in mineral resources, and serve as the primary supplier for the Empire’s insatiable appetite for precious gems.

For the most part, all of Ast’Aria’s cities rest on the coast. While a trade and mining settlements can be found inland, the shifting sands of the Ast’Arian deserts has made interior development difficult, if not impossible. The primary mode of transportation inland is the warhawk; native and unique to Ast’Aria, warhawks are massive avian creatures with a wingspan ranging from twenty to thirty feet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ast’Aria is the only nation in Rhodenia whose military is primarily aerial in nature. Although significantly smaller than that of most nations, the Ast’Arian military has proven sufficiently threatening as to deter outsiders from an invasion; not once in the last five centuries has a foreign power attempted to set foot in Ast’Arian lands. The breeding, trading, and handling of Ast’Arian warhawks are tasks that primarily fall upon the nobility, and annual competitions are held among the aristocracy to demonstrate mastery of these arts.

Ast’Aria is the one nation in Rhodenia to boast its own tongue; where all others have adopted either Esoan or Amarusi Common as a national language, Ast’Arians continue to speak Elvish.