The Human Kingdoms
The Human Kingdoms
The novels of the Dragonshadowed Series take place primarily in the human kingdoms within Valdain. While the other races are as important as humans, these stories are set in a specific culture and country in which humans are the dominant race. As writer and author, it is my intention that the protagonists will venture into places in which the cultures of other races will take precedence. Those books are plotted to occur in the future, and to be published as permitted by my time spent writing.
Readers of the Dragonshadowed novels and novella may remember references to the kingdoms of the other races, or can locate these areas on the main map. Blogs on the culture and civilization of the other blessed races will follow, and perhaps background regarding the goblinoids.
Humans in my stories are clustered throughout a northern continent loosely modeled after a mirror-image of Europe and around the basin of the Rashaic Sea – like the Mediterranean of our world. Some 1,000 years in the past, the Aquilian Empire established control around that sea, including all of Valdain. Most of the human lands became part of the empire or were client states.
A series of disasters struck about 600 years past. The most devastating event occurred when the archmage, Karaka, styled himself as the new Dark Lord. He amassed power in a small independent country north of the empire. After many successes, he was flattered into thinking he could dominate the greatest of the flame dragons, Angalgamar. He woke the dragon, and in the battle that followed, the archmage and most of his minions were destroyed. But the dragon wasn’t finished.
Enraged, the dragon embarked on a campaign of vengeance, determined that no one would wake or challenge his supremacy ever again. He ravaged the surrounding kingdoms, flattened the archmage citadel at Domagaf, and raged eastward to destroy and subjugate everything in his path. Kingdoms burned to ashes and melted to glass in his wake. The slow decline of the old empire accelerated into total collapse as the dragon approached the heartland. For unknown reasons, but apparently satisfied, he retreated to his mountain fastness in the far north, east of Glordonia. The place he stopped is known as ‘Dragonhold.’
As the dragon rampaged, a great wall of ice advanced from the arctic and crushed the far northern kingdoms before retreating upon reaching the northern edge of the Dragonspine Mountains.
Southeast of the Dragonspine Mountains, zealots of a death god released a horrific plague, convinced that everything must end. In a way, they were correct, in that they and all their followers were exterminated.
The aftermath of these events destroyed the Aquilian Empire and wiped out most humans. The northern continent was scarred and empty. Monsters and other predators moved into the empty territories, and the goblin races spawned and multiplied.
But humans are a stubborn and prolific race. They’ve begun to regain their ancient lands and are slowly pushing back the monsters and goblins to regain their ancient glory. Surviving pockets of humanity have prospered, and built diverse civilizations wherever each has taken root.
As an overview, there are many different human cultures outside of Valdain. Each country is modeled on the people of a real-world ancient area, modified by the effects of magic. Chiardim is Celtic, Norsaga and Variag are Norse, Aquilia is Roman, Cymbria is Greek, Hescmarc is Mongol, Glordonia is late Western European, and Nova Valdain is eastern European frontier.
The remainder of this blog will concentrate on Valdain, which is closest to the Dark Ages or early Medieval period as existed in Britain at about 700 - 800 A.D. This is the time in which the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain to fight against the Romano-Britain inhabitants. The Age of King Arthur.
The humans of the Valdainian kingdoms are solidly based on historical research. I consult The Middle Ages: Everyday Life in Mediaeval Europe by Jeffrey L. Singman, In Search of the Dark Ages by Michael Wood, The Quest for Arthur’s Britain edited by Geoffrey Ashe, and King Arthur’s Place in Prehistory by W. A. Cummins. For specific cultural information, I recommend The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris and Celts by Martin J. Dougherty. Military matters are referenced to Post-Roman Kingdoms by Raffaele D’Amato and Andrea Salimbeti, Armies of Anglo-Saxon England by Gabrielle Esposito and most importantly, King Arthur’s Wars by Jim Storr.
The human lands of Valdain are dominated by four great kingdoms: Rhydychen (the black), Powys (the red), Gododdin (the green), and Gywnedd (the grey). The colors associated with each great kingdom refer to the main battle color of their banners, and the general scale color of their territorial dragon clans.
Valdain also hosts an ever-changing array of minor kingdoms.
In the beginning, Aquilian explorers were the first humans to contact the fey races of Valdain, known as the Cymru to this day. The Cymru fought a losing battle against encroaching goblin nations who used poisonous iron. They invited the humans to aid them, as humans could use iron and employed better weapons and tactics than the goblins.
Aquilian armies were followed by settlers, and the humans pushed the goblins back in a series of campaigns over years.
Another wave of humans arrived as refugees from the southern edge of the Rashaic Sea, dislocated by climatic change. The extensive forests of the south were destroyed when harvested for ship building, and the land became desert. This influx of settlers were distinguished by their dark hair, at odds with the blonde manes of the earlier folk. Strife occurred between the two groups. The blonde inhabitants were pushed northward into harsher lands while the dark-haired folk increased their numbers in more favorable climes.
When the Aquilian empire fell, the people of Valdain lost central authority and the unifying power that they’d known for centuries. Garrison soldiers were withdrawn, trade stopped, luxury goods and coin vanished, and civilization crumbled. Anyone with a strong arm and the ability to lead gathered power, becoming warlords. Successful warlords conquered cities and greater territories, to eventually establish dynasties and rule countries.
The most powerful of these new kingdoms was Rhydychen, extending tyrannical control over all of western Valdain. Like the ancient empire and the dark lord before, their rulers demanded more. Civil war erupted when two members of the royal family discovered a pair of enchanted items, each capable of dominating one of the dragon clans. The result was the destruction of the kingdom as the dragons fought, and both controlling jewels were lost. Rhydychen remained in the south, while the new kingdoms of Powys and Votadini merged to become Powys in the northwest.
In present times, the people and kingdoms of Valdain are turbulent and wracked with constant warfare from without and within. The strong dominate, and the weak seek to remain unnoticed while eking out their existence. All of the ground-bound inhabitants live under the indifferent scrutiny of the mighty dragon clans.





