THE FRANCONIAN CONFEDERATION

The Franconian Confederation (referred to hereafter as "Franconia") is
a collection of seven principalities lying to the west of
Steinhall. West of Franconia is the kingdom of Alfheim, a large Elvish
kingdom. Franconia's seven principalities are Aldaran, Eldith,
Ilthmere, Franconia, Tuscany, Genua, and Los Cristobel (see map).
These principalities have formed their current confederation about 150
years ago. For the most part, the seven principalities are pretty
independent, and have their own laws and customs.

GOVERNMENT: The running of the confederation is done by the Council
of Seven. This Council consists of the "princes" (or the closest
approximation thereto) of the seven areas. There is a nominal king,
chosen by the Seven from among their number (i.e. one of the Seven
is the King). The king doesn't have much more real power than an
"ordinary" member of the Council; he is pretty much a spokesperson
for the confederation in dealings with other kingdoms. The present
king (Allesandro Zarna), as well as the previous one (his father
Rafeal) were the Dukes of Franconia (the principality), and thus
the current royal seat is the city of Franconi. 

THE FRANCONIAN PRINCIPALITIES:

There are three distinct cultures in Franconia. The largest is the
population of the eastern principalities--Franconia, Genua, Tuscany,
and Los Cristobel. If the Steinhallanders are basically German, these
guys are basically Italian. They are, for the most part, dark-haired
and dark-eyed, with an olive complexion, although a fair amount of
mixing-in of Ilthmeri and Elvish blood is evident among the
population, and manifests itself in light hair and eyes, and in
leaner, slighter builds among some of the people. In the distant past,
these four duchies were a unified kingdom, but that kingdom suffered a
huge civil war about 300 years ago, and broke into four separate
countries. For whatever reason (lack of originality on my part, most
likely), the dominant religion of these guys is the Norse religion,
although their interpretations of doctrine are often different from
those of the Steinhall church.

Franconia, Tuscany, and Genua are still all very
similar. They're built on the typical Medeivaloid model with Dukes,
Lords, and whatnot. It's not such an enlightened place as
Steinhall. Women are not nearly as liberated there as they are in
Steinhall, especially among the nobility (typical Old Times repression
of women's rights, etc). Among the nobility, men are warriors, and
women have babies.

Los Cristobel has evolved somewhat differently in the years since
the civil war. It is a rather corrupt republic. The main governing
body is the Senate, members  of which are elected every seven years
by land-owning citizens. The "prince" is appointed by the Senate. A
huge amount of power is held by the civil bureacracy, among whom
bribery is a way of life. Both of its seaports, Mossisli and Los
Cristobel (the capital) are world-famous "hives of scum and
villiany." 

ILTHMERE:

North of the Franconian areas is Ilthmere. The people who live here
are of a completely different racial type from the Franconians.  The
Ilthmeri are the last descendants of the people who lived on this
continent before the Franconians or Steinhallanders appeared. Their
land is mostly hills, forests, and mountains (lots of lumbering and
mining!). While they follow the Nordic gods (Odin et al) along with
everybody else in the region, they also observe the rites of the Old
Gods (can be modelled after the Celtic Gods). Many an Ilthmeri
philosopher and/or priest has whiled away the hours debating whether
the Old Gods and the Nordic Gods are different manifestations of the
same beings, or whether they are separate groups of entities. Up in
the mountains, one can find Lake Issel.  On a craggy island in the
center of this lake is Caer Issel, a mysterious monastary/mage
tower/fortress/whatever--it's hard to say because the Ilthmeri are
quite insular and mysterious themselves.  (At least, so it seems to
this poor scholar.) Ilthmere is a feudal society, ruled by a prince
(although the Ilthmeri call him their "king"). The capital is Illaern.

ALDARAN

East of Ilthmere lies the Elvish principality of Aldaran. Its society
is very similar to that of the large Elvish kingdom, Alfheim, and the
two have close ties of the cultural, political, and economic
varieties. Why Aldaran chose to join itself with the mostly-human
Franconian Confederacy instead of Alfheim is not well-understood by
this scholar, and to figure it out would involve more delving into the
history and religion of the Western Elves than this scholar is willing
to commit herself to at present. It should be noted that there is a
decent-sized human population in Aldaran (of the Ilthmeri racial
type), and that this human population is fairly well-integrated into
the society (as well as can be expected, considering the disparity in
life spans between the two races).

ELDITH

The last, and strangest, principality of Franconia is Eldith. Here,
the three cultures that make up the Franconian confederacy have met
and mingled to such an extent that they've formed something distinct
from any of them. (eg the average lifespan of a native Eldith human is
130 years, and they maintain their youth much longer than Eastern
humans, due to the mixture of Elvish and human blood over the course
of centuries.) This region also has close ties with Alfheim, although
not as close as Aldaran's.