Alexia

East of Odessa, Alexia is a relatively decentralized kingdom of proud plains people. It has a long-standing martial tradition with pole-arms, and is home to the Sentinel. A deeply religious people, Alexians take pride in their nation's unique relationship with the Church and the story of Alexandria.

Its political origins come from the halfblood revolts of Sidhe and the subsequent political breakdown there, which led to the region becoming home to dozens of independent city-states. Although the city states did band together in a loose alliance of protection, real political unity would not come until the Prophet's War, as both Odessa and Gildenhome spent a great deal of effort keeping the region as a decentralized buffer state. Even under unification, Alexia is easily the most decentralized power of the mainland and is ruled by a council of mayors from each of the city states, nominally headed by a Doge elected for two year terms. After unification, Alexia went through a Renaissance that lasted several centuries, driven by an explosion of wealth and population stemming from exploitation and deforestation of the elven forests.

For the past hundred and fifty years or so, however, Alexia has suffered one series of trials after another, although most have their origins in the Valley of Dust, an expanding silt desert where the elven forests once stood. The Valley of Dust, swallowing large sections of arable land, has led to major internal displacements, leading or contributing to refugee crises in Wydmoor Free City and Odessa, the latter having fought several military campaigns to stem the tide. As a result of the most recent campaign, Alexia is closely aligned (through economic ties, mostly debt, and military occupation) with Odessa as a de facto client state (a very recent situation that has still not been fully accepted by the populace).

In the west, Alexia is heavily urbanized, and its main power base rests in the hands of elected representatives from each city, overseen by a Doge chosen by those representatives from their number at regular intervals. In the east, however, Alexia is sparsely populated, mostly by brigands, refugees, and Servitors who have moved in to capitalize on the current chaos there,

Its citizens are very pious, and the Alexandrian church's hold in this area is particularly strong--for a continent that is almost completely Monotheistic, this is quite an achievement.

Kib Absold spent his first year of military service with an Odessan peacekeeping force here.