NEW VOSTOKA HISTORY -- Part II "The Expanse"

 PREFACE: So HERE is the big ol' thing i've been working on, its not finished but ive decided to start posting it in chunks! A series of maps and lore regarding the 700+ history of my DnD setting, New Vostoka! So enjoy each part as I post them!

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     Following this first 117 year long interlude of warfare, a third Interval - called the Expanse - ensued, wherein the Four Kingdoms, now built from the surviving remnants of the obliterated ancient factions, dispersed from the predominantly decimated territories the Old Monarchy and began to resettle the ruined continent over the course of roughly a century and a half. An entire planet of refugees, clinging to their civil traditions and fading memory of the advanced hegemonic culture they once belonged to, scoured the world for resources - originally pursuing the technology they once wielded for dominance, which now eluded them. 

     Ravaged cities, empty monoliths, and inaccessible vaults of historic artifacts were gradually forgotten in the pursuit of reliable sources of sustenance and the means to fortify and defend them. The stirring of new sprawling civilizations evolved around these enclaves, along with two other foundations - religion and technology. The dominant forces that emerged from this period were unique to each race, now historically referred to as the Ancient Migrants: 

• The Tetrya, who valued the intrinsic nature of the arcane forces which governed reality, established a blood lineage of mages, priests, and scholars who yet sought the treasures of before the Catalyst - believing that their ancestors within the Old Monarchy sparked the ancient war by ascending to godhood [becoming The Euclideans]. They developed a rich empire stretching from the burning Ashen Peninsula, north in the Stolward Isle, and westward beyond the sea into the central Osriek [Xoros].
• Inversely, the Khelod embraced their inclination toward innovation and mechanization, abandoning the old forgotten traditions of their forefathers and forging forward - relying on agriculture, exploration, mining, and invention for social stability. During this time, they harnessed the “old gifts” of Alchemy, which slowly came to define their burgeoning society and gave rise to the pantheon of Philosopher gods - including the Diarchs, and its domineering Reverential Order.
• The Cyotek committed to the widely held conviction that this world was a form of purgatory - a test by their Goddess meant to assess the capability of their race. They became fiercely isolationist in their movements, settling isles and distant mountains, erecting temples and amassing the legionary Houses with which they’d soon wage their crusades to win the favor of Kun-Solis. They became the most navally adept of the Vostokans, and colonized an empire along the coasts of the entire Crystal Sea.
• The Ro’Thkai fell to infighting among their clans, vying for dominance as survival and hierarchy was the core of their society; they thrived off the salvaged resources and technology of other races and yearned to subjugate; during this time they encountered and enslaved the Grae-kin for their own designs, and constantly skirmished within - and even beyond - the confines of their borders.
• The Vermkin are said to have “emerged” at this time, having avoided the entirety of the Dark Age and its Ruinous War by thriving in massive underground biomes from where they evidently originated. They were met with universal scorn and distrust, as their civilization leeched off what came from “above”, and they hoarded ancient technology of the Old Monarchy. Several attempts to exterminate them were met with varying degrees of failure.
• The Dregkin, encountered in small insular communities throughout the Stalriek, were considered to be the nomadic, savage remnants of the Ancient Leviathans - massive intelligent beasts which roamed Vostoka with impunity throughout the Dark Age until they were hunted to extinction by the Archaic Order [the precursor to the Triumvicarum]. As such, they continued to face persecution and slaughter as their ancestral homelands continued to shrink under the Expanse.

     The Expanse was not without violence. There were annexations, civil unrest, revolutions, and the borders and states of sovereignty - particularly within the Ro’Thkai Domain - were constantly in flux. The Four Kingdoms maintained their spheres of influence, through both diplomatic means [giving rise to trade routes and cooperation throughout the Neutral Nations] and through armed force; militaries formed and clashed over crucial lands, resources, and over steadily evolving ideologies. 

     During the Expanse, numerous events radically altered the geopolitical landscape and shaped the coming Age: The ancient-artifacts-rich Nation of Kharne was colonized and annexed between the kingdoms of the Khelod and the Cyotek, both with aspirations of building lasting empires. Ro’Thkai clans surged northward, and the entirety of the Domain was eroded over time into a volatile collection of warring states, vying for control over the Oasis of Karrik [where the Karrikan faith was born] as well as the temperate valleys of modern-day Karrik’s Maw and her descending river “tears”. Within the growing borders of the Khelod Union, semi-autonomous Commonwealths and hundreds of administrative diocese, parishes, and principalities were carved among the reigning Guild Barons - resulting in a Feudalist power structure between their lineages and the now well established Reverent Order of the Diarchs - creating the Dominion of the Greater Reverent, [or merely The Reverent Dominion]. The Tetryan Enclave also began to confederate as the Infernyn subrace - accustomed to the hellish conditions of the Ashen Peninsula - formed the administrative Infernyn Emirate, while emigration efforts in the Osriek gave rise to an entire swath of colonies. Similar efforts were made by the Cyotek along the western shores of the untamed continent, while control over the Crystal Sea became a point of contention among the Noble Houses, who faltered in their unity. In the waning years of the century, the Kolarch Republic formed from the mingling populations of Tetrya and Khelod north of Sorvigrad, resulting in a short war of independence which would eventually explode into an outright global religious schism involving several powers.