Malthusia

Malthusia is a long peninsula extending east into the Winding Sea. It is predominately a high, warm land, with richly fertile valleys perfect for the cultivation of grapes, wheat, and olives. Its wild corners host jackals, lions, and rocs, but ancient stone cities with high, columned temples with soaring domes fill the narrow coastlines and valleys. Malthusia is rich with contrasts: the dry heat and the rich farmlands; the material dangers and the religious fervor.

Before the dawn of the Malthusian Empire, Malthusia was made up of seven regions, each associated with a specific clan, and each led by a First, an elected title that later became a hereditary position. Aside from warring with the Balthusians and the orcs of Ehlonna, Malthusians were not naturally a warlike culture, though they always seemed to have ambitions of empire, and when a young Karkosan slave, Xero, worked his way to a generalship, empire became attainable. With the exception of the conquest of Lower Khandor, the Malthusians took over lands by settling amongst native peoples and trading, insinuating power through presence and capability. Once the empire began to collapse, though, Malthusians from old families made a mass exodus back to Malthusia; the only remnants of the imminence of Malthusia are the streets they paved, the cities they built, and the widespread trade routes they forged.

In Northward, individuals of Malthusian extraction from imperial times are hard to tell apart from anyone else, and nearly everyone can claim some relation to them. Much of the system of government they established, as well as their religion and three streets they built, stand as living testaments to the might of Malthusia in Northward. Traders from Malthusia are regularly sighted in ports and on the coasts, sometimes even traveling along inland routes, settling from time to time in the new kingdoms in Northward. Coinage from Malthusia is nearly identical to the coins minted in Northward, just with different motifs, and are referred to by the same names given to Northward currency. Oils, wines, books, spices, and fiber goods make the long journey north from Malthusia regularly.