Summary
Veldmere is a grey-watered island nation far off of the central, northern coast of the Midland, its people descended from the ancient Vel, seafarers who settled the island nearly two thousand years ago and made a covenant with its forest-spirits, the Haltija, that shapes the land to this day.
It is a feudal kingdom without a king. The throne has been empty for a century, ever since King Tormun Veln attempted to bind the crown to cosmic Law itself and Chaos answered instead, in an event known as The Fall. His cursed bloodline exiled. His heir survives, somewhere in the wilds within the forests' edges, and calls themselves the Hollow King.
Power in Veldmere is divided three ways and none of them comfortably. The High Faith, a monotheistic religion of divine law, controls the spiritual life of most of the island and holds considerable sway both the peasantry and the nobility. The Veldic Dukes who hold onto what remains of the old kingdom. And the Druidic Circle, heirs to the old Halthorl tradition, speaks for the forests and the old ways, though fewer listen than once did.
The island itself is dense with history. The ruins of an ancient empire still dot the land, now becoming the home to denizens of the night. The Iron Roads cross the interior, though they are becoming more decayed each year. In the interior, Dwarves have begun warring with the host of a mighty Storm Giant jarl. Elves have found themselves pushed from their homes by the rising legions of chaos, and they blame the holdouts of Veldmere for this.
The Hollow King's agents are preparing to make a gambit for the throne in Sorvel, and few believe anyone else is ready to contend with them.
Geography
Kingsmere: a mighty central lake.
Oldwood: an immense primordial forest.
Fellridge: central mountain range that splits the isle west to east.
Drownlands: expanse of lowlands and bogs.
Barrowdowns: inland hills housing what remains of pre-empire relics.
Political Divisions
Veldmere was sorted into the following domains, prior to the fall: