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Large military kingdom on the western end of the Sartoran Continent, on the subcontinent called Halia.
Capital: Choreid Dhelerei
Language: Marloven
Ruler: Senrid Montredaun-An, 4735-
For the past four centuries its kings have also studied dark magic until Senrid Montredaun-An became King. One of their traditional laws is that you don't cross their Kings and live. [1] It is a very military oriented kingdom.[2] Choreid Dhelerei is a large city made of peachy colored stone [3], they do not mark the streets to make it confusing to any invading armies, though as yet no one has invaded this kingdom since the Marlovens themselves came to the area.
Huge, a city within a city, lacking only enough garden space to feed everyone. There is a kitchen garden, but that is mainly for herbs and subsidiary foods, as the population is enormous. The castle farm lies eastward toward the hills.
The castle itself has been added to over the centuries, first after the Marlovans took it from the Iascans and beefed up security, and gradually over the years. The royal castle has expanded into the norther end of the city, forcing the city to expand southward.
Within the castle, it was largely bare for a very long time--Marlovens spent far more time outside than indoors. But gradually over the centuries there have been changes. The throne room has gone from a bare stone hall with a stone dais at one end, and banners along the walls, to this description of what CJ saw when she pretended to be Senrid's cousin Ndand:
''Ancient banners alternated with newer ones high on the vaulted walls, many of them tattered and spattered nastily with old brown bloodstains. Below each was mounted a sword, sometimes a sword and a crown*, the polished metal glimmering with baleful red highlights like a beating heart in the inescapable torchlight. The dimensions of the vast room, the heavy black stone and steel and gold all were meant to intimidate, and it worked. The throne was a great thing, mostly highly polished blackwood gilt with finely worked gold, with some dark blue gems set into the carving along the top in a pattern of galloping horses. The black and gold were the same colors as the great screaming eagle banner, gold on black, hung high behind the throne: the flag of Marloven Hess, emblem of ages of bloody war.''
The most profound effort to change the castle was made by the single Colendi queen, Lasva Lirendi, who was married to Ivandred. She tried to open spaces and adjust others, mainly to no avail, but one change she made that stuck: she had the long stone walls in the residence (third story) plastered over, and reliefs of running horses and raptors worked in subtle shades of sand and gray. These were extremely popular, to the extent that this motif was carried elsewhere in the castle.
[*]Those are not crowns but helms, but otherwise it suffices.
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