The Wandering Coast
The northernmost region of the continent of Arena — the coast facing Realmgard — is known as the Wandering Coast, either in reference to the many rivers winding across the landscape, or because of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of its inhabitants.
The northernmost region of the continent of Arena — the coast facing Realmgard — is known as the Wandering Coast, either in reference to the many rivers winding across the landscape, or because of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of its inhabitants.
Thanks to its numerous rivers, the Wandering Coast is notably more fertile than other regions of the continent of Arena — generally but not entirely inaccurately understood by the average Realmgardian to be one unending desert.
In fact, the name “Arena” — properly pronounced ‘a-ray-nah’ — means ‘sand’ in the Elven language.
Due to its close proximity to Realmgard, there have been cultural and commercial contacts between Realmgard and the Wandering Coast for thousands of years. Most significantly, the goddess Malketa was first worshipped on the ancient Wandering Coast, but has been widely adopted across Realmgard and her worshipped has endured throughout the continent since the period of the Elven Empire.
The Melkartite Kingdom situated on the Wandering Coast was the nascent Elven Empire’s first great rival, with the two ultimately unified peacefully through the marriage of the Melkartite Queen Anath and the Elven Emperor Acanthus.
For centuries, the Wandering Coast would be a crucially important territory of the Elven Empire, until the region was able to assert its independence from the Empire, not only breaking free from Imperial rule, but also conquering the bulk of the former Imperial territories on the Sea’s Edge.
Just as the ancient Melkartite Empire was a major naval power, the modern Wandering Coast is infamous for pirate activity, with the wars between the emerging Pelayan Kingdom and the Tanithite Kingdom which formerly ruled over both the Sea’s Edge and the Wandering Coast directing many of these pirate raids at Pelayan territory.
Pirates from the Wandering Coast are documented to have struck not only all across the southern coasts of Realmgard — in Pelayo, Torres, Natalias, and Gallicantu — and even as far afield as Hrimfax. These attacks have, however, diminished in frequency in recent centuries, with many of the pirates of the Wandering Coast being welcomed by Realmgard’s pirates into the Brotherhood of the Coasts and serving as privateers sanctioned by various states across both Realmgard and the Wandering Coast itself.
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