The Kingdoms of the West are an area of ancient kingdoms located around the Sea of Ardor. Ranging from the cold pinewoods and snowy wastes of Boreah to the sandy dunes of Sijaal, every climate can be found in the Kingdoms of the West.

The mightiest of all Kingdoms of the West was Cambria, but it's ill-fated involvement in the Great Guildwar several centuries ago, and the recent attrocious Border War with the Alb of Eleiran reduced Cambria's power. Both Jharkor and Sijaal were former satelite states of Cambria, settled by Cambrian colonists more than a millennium ago, but their machinations during the Great Guildwar granted them their independece.

Eleiran is the mysterious realm of the Alb, a powerful and yet secretive people living in the great forested region beyond the Borderwall north of Cambria. Even before the recent war, relations between Cambria and Eleiran were troubled, though ancient tomes indicate that both realms once were allied. Now an uneasy truce exists between Cambria and Eleiran, yet the borderlands see a continuing clash of arms between Cambrian rangers and Albish forces.

Both Eleiran and Cambria are bordered to the east by Kharia, the Gharyak Highlands. The Gharyak are tribes of feral humanoids who have advanced to a primitive society and only the mighty Shieldwall protects Cambria from incursions from the east. The highlands of Kharia rise steeply from the surrounding steppes of Hirun and southern Cirdhulan. Warm currents flow underneath their surface, often close enough to turn the highland into swamp or marsh. Regularly the highlands are covered with ground mist when the warmth of the surface collides with the cold breath of the northern winds that constantly sweep the land. When the wind becomes too cold, the snow unbearable and the frost has destroyed even the last harvest, the Gharyak tribes turn west and plundering they begin to march upon Cambria and Eleiran.

To the south the sheer cliffs of Kharia rise from the steppes of Hirun, seemingly endless grasslands that stretch almost the entire span of the western kingdoms, from Cambria to the drylands north of the Badlands. Hirun is sparesly populated, only by some wandering tribes of Gharyak and the occasional warband of Khurrn who have fled from the constant battles against the dwarves in their subterranean settlements.

To the north Kharia borders on Cirdhulan, the Borderlands, a windswept region, dominated by the mighty river Quendir that runs from the Falls of Ardochrun far in the east to its mouth in Yrn where it meets the rough waves of the Gaelnesse, the Great Western Sea. Cirdhulan is a flat country, featuring only a few rugged hills and covered with a thick carpet of northland firs. Seldomly rises a thin tower of a lonely arch-wizard from the ground - it is here, where the powerful mages flee to deeply immerse themselves in their studies. In northern Cirdhulan rises the steep natural rock cliff that seperates the Kingdoms of the West from the northern kingdoms, like Boreah, the land of pale magic. Cirdhulan appears to be completely untouched by human civilization, only a few cities can be found in this rough land; yet during the winter of every year, the merchants of Tyrf spend a fortune on outfitting a team of skilled ice-slope runners who are determined on reaching the Falls of Ardochrun faster than their competitors in the Great Ice Race.

Maelvil is located south of Cirdhulan and east of Kharia and it is even more primal than both. The land is settled by the Maelvilians, a people divided into clans. They have not forgotten the ways of the past, they still hear the voices of the land and the whisper of the wind; they have remained in contact with the powers that ruled the land before the universe even thought of humans: the elements. It is here, in the cold plains of Maelvil that the last free elemental spirits can be found and it is also here, that the great elemental serpents, the great wyrms have fled from extinction.

Yrn is an ancient kingdom to the northwest of Eleiran, ruled by a strange half-race of Alb. They claim that theirs was the first Albish settlement on the continent and that they have stayed in tune with the original ways of the Alb. Although dominated by huge mountains - the greatest of them, Mount Æyr, even harbors the capital of Yrn - and deep enchanted forests, the people of Yrn love nothing more than the sea.

Southeast of Cambria and to the south of the Hirun Steppes lies Nethyiah, the land of mercantylers and guilds. Here the first merchant guilds were founded and from here they spread out across the Kingdoms of the West. Although city-states by nature, the cities of Nethyiah are controlled by the guilds; and it was this control that led to the Great Guildwar several centuries ago, when guild warred against guild for even greater control. Yet, when Cambria entered the war, the guilds quickly united to fend off the outside aggressor. After the war the guild council built a new city, devoted entirely to ruling the cities under guild control and under the name of the Court of Ardor, the Guilds of Lamaar are known today.

Further south, across the Straits of Jharkor, lies the mighty former colony of Cambria, that became independent after clever manipulations in the Great Guildwar: martial Jharkor. For ages the people of Jharkor have lived by the sword and hidden in the dry steppes and sandy deserts of Jharkor are the monasteries that have made the country so famous. For here study the Jharkorian Swordslingers, the finest and deadliest fighters in the Kingdoms of the West.

East of Jharkor, but still south of the Sea of Ardor lies Sijaal, the second Cambrian colony in the south, that gained independence in the aftermath of the Great Guildwar. Sijaal is a land dominated by deserts, wadis and dry steppes, but the splendor of its cities makes more than up for the desolation of the land. Sijaalian cities are a dream to behold, with walls of alabaster and jade and roofs of gleaming gold and copper, wide streets, canalization and irrigation. The greatest scientists of the western realms come from Sijaal and nowhere are the cities cleaner than here. Sijaal is the southern gate to the east, for coming through the Hijadh, the unforgiving dunes of the Great Khom'ar Desert and the bleak steppes of Jhaijaan, the caravans from the east finally arrive in Sijaal to display their wares in the bazaars of the realm.

The Badlands are a land of rugged canyons and dry mountains to the north of Sijaal. They form the eastern barrier to the Sea of Ardor and to the north they connect to the dryer parts of Hirun and southern Maelvil. It is a land of pirates and robber-barons, a haven for outcasts and a fortune-seeker's dream. Hidden underneath the Badlands are the underearth kindoms of the Dwarves, where they fight a never-ending battle against the dark races who threaten to destroy their city-realms. Located in the dry hills of the northern Badlands lies the city of Rakhaan, city of thieves, where every merchandise, legal or illegal, can be found.

Barjhan is a small realm without king, caliph or emperor; here the word of the strongest is law. Barjhan has only one settlement, the harbor city of Torjiah; a safe haven for the pirate fleet of Barjhan when they are not plundering the settlements of the southern coasts of the Great Western Sea.

Lharzha is a dark realm east of Maelvil, seperated by a rugged mountain range. Lharzha is dominated by a religious hierarchy, devoted to the Lharnian death-goddess. Little is known about the realm except that it welcomes no outsiders, who are hunted down and put to death by the savage Gharyak border legions of Lharzha.