My TES DND campaign, thoughts?

[Varla_Mage]

Hello all!

I run a TES DND campaign, set in the First Era, 716, and I have made a lot of material to expand the lore and bring the sitting to life. In this thread I am less interested in talking about the DND aspect of the campaign and more about the lore and setting. I really wanted to share what has brought me and my players a lot of joy this past year or so. I have a few maps for you, some vary in small details, sorry for that.

(cannot for the life of me figure out how to add images so use your imagination until I do lol)

So, the campaign begins takes place in a Tamriel which has seen many changes, a central one being the disappearance of the Dwemer 16 years ago. The rise of the Dunmer people of Resdayn to a major power, under the leadership of their god-kings, the Tribunal has thrown geopolitics off. The Great Houses, having pledged their support for Almsivi, inherit a peace, progress, and prosperity unknown throughout history. Many see the increasing development and strength of the Eastern elves as a threat. In response to this threat, the Colovian West was reintegrated into the Alessian Empire under a treaty which official recognized the Imperial Cult and Alessian Order as separate but equal in power united under the line of Alessia, Paravant. The resurgence has seen the Empire strike Northwest towards the Iliac Bay and Southeast into Blackmarsh, intending to reclaim lost lands and glory.

Meanwhile in Skyrim, the old gods of Shor, Kyne, and the like are worshipped and both Alessian Doctrines and Imperial Cult are either outlawed (in the east) or looked upon with much skepticism albeit lesser so every year (the west). High King Jord the Wounded, may have gotten respect for his saving of the Nordic armies as they fled from the Dunmer in defeat, but his adoption of foreign divines and cults, as well as his halting of the Winter Raids, which usually bring much geld and glory to the nine holds, has made him many rivals. While his people cry for war against the Dark Elves, he looks West, wanting to reclaim the Northmen Kingdoms, "the Western Moot", which many see as a way to sure up his own power against the dissenting Eastern Jarls. The Sons and Daughters of Skyrim chaff under the recent defeat to the Dunmer in the War of the First Council and many within the High Kingdom yearn for a revenant war to reclaim their national honor. They yearn for the days of men worthy to wear the Jagged Crown, now lost to time. Still, the Crown of Verity seems as though it would suit better another man's brow. Calls for a new moot abound, but who would take the Throne? The northern lands of Skyrim are still weakened from the civil wars that saw the end of the Nordic Empire. Is there another charismatic leader who could equal the line of Ysgramor or legendary Ash-King, Wulfharth? Until such a man steps up, the holds are held in a loose, tension field Pact, with the High King's power is weakest it's been in centuries and the East and West Holds cultures continue to diverge.

To the West, the Direnni have all but been kicked out of High Rock. The Breton nobility and their more savage pure-blooded Nedic peasantry have taken the reigns of state and formed many small petty kingdoms in the South and West, while up North, the Northmen rule over Nord, Breton, and Reachmen alike. These kingdoms war and raid each other often, prompting many Breton lords to revisit a relationship with their former Direnni patrons under the 'Iliac League', causing a rebellion in Glenumbra, championed by the Witch-King of the countryside. And of course, the Orcs of Orsinium guard their walls and venture out for raids, as do the Bjoulsae river tribes who patrol the lands between High Rock and Volenfell. Speaking of which, Volenfell's sands and rocks are coated in the blood of many great Empires and savage tribes. The power vacuum formed from the Dwemer's vanishing has lead to the Nedic tribes, Perena, Duraki, Ket-Keptu, to fall to Colovian Conquest. The Emperor's Red Legions even have had great success against Clan Direnni and Corelanya's City states along the Coast, but these threats are overshadowed by the growing horde of Iron-Orcs and Flint-Tooth Goblins, who threaten a war against all.

Then we speak of Alinor, who is still stuck in its isolationist ways having seen the Loss of the Aldmer's dominion over the continent in Era's past, and their cousins in Valenwood, who's Green Kingdom, under the Camoran Dynasty, continue to hold the fragile peace between Elf, beastfolk (centaur, imga, wood-orc, etc.), and nature's creatures, according to the Green-Pact. Next door, Elsweyr is not yet called by this name, as the Cat-lands of Anequina and Pelletine stand as twins, so similar and so different, just as the moons they rely on. The Manedom of Pelletine, having been installed after the Alessian Defeat of Darloc Brae, is but a client state to the Empire that provides exotic goods to those that will pay up north. The Sugar clans are lead by the Mane and transition their power according to the position of the Moons. But the Bandari clans and raiders of Anequina owe no allegience to the 'puppet cat' and live disunited and chaotic as Nirni intended! They love stealing these goods and wears as they pass through their dunes and deserts, some say they are paid off to do so by the rivals of the Empire, but only the sands know...

Still Eastward we go, across the Topal Bay, to the swampy, Elven land of Barsaebia, which is where those Ayleids who long ago reviled Daedra worship alongside their ancestors, Auriel, Trinimac, etc., and fought a war against the all but extinct Narfinsalite Ayleids, who drove them to these harsh lands. While it is advanced like most other Altmeri societies, the Barsaebia is only limited by the harsh land and by their bellicose neighbors. The Argonian tribes are always encroaching on their clay, trying to reclaim the lost swamps and exact revenge on the people who once enslaved them (like the Dunmer eh?) and the Horwali Pirates harass all shipping in the region, but the greatest threat is from the Empire. Once a vassal state to the Alessian Empire under Emperor Belharza, the Barsaebics have drifted farther and farther from them as the Alessian Order grew and posed an ever increasing threat to them. During the time of Rislav Larich and the Colovian rebellions, the Barsaebic Kinlords quietly threw off Imperial rule and heard little in reply from the Imperials, but those times have past. For now the Wardrums and trumpets sound as the Empire invades the swamps of the Western Blackmarsh to reconquer their old vassal. Some say it is a slaughter in waiting, while others say the voices of the Colovians and the pragmatic and cunning Emperor Castrius Paravant, will keep in check the most zealous sects of the Order.

While war rages in the western part of the region, most of Blackmarsh is unexplored and chaotic. Many tribes of Argonians, the Patru, Sarpa, Naga, Aghaceph, etc. all fight each other in skirmishes over their tracts of swamplands and they also do so against the other native inhabitants, such as the Lilmothiit who live on the Southern Coast, the Horwali pirates who live on the East coast along the bay, and the ever present House Dres slavers, who often work with the northern 'Turn-Scale' tribes to bring in evermore reptilian Chattel. But none are hated more by the lizards than the silver-skinned men, the Kothringi, who mostly have come to reside in the lands of the Barsaebic Ayleids, defending the swampy borderlands against the lizard incursions for their Elven-Confederates. The lizards and silver-folk both are said to dispise each other but do enjoy the others flesh, some more cooked than others... And one can not forget about the Yespest, an upstart tribe of Nedes, living south of Barsaebia, who have built a kingdom of their own with the help of their elven neighbors (whom they've taken cultural inspiration from), who turn a blind eye to their worship of Sanguine, so long as trade from Akavir continues through them.

This is mostly what I've come up with. Please feel free to critique, ask questions, etc. I love what I've made and just keep making more. I have articles and other things and although I have added a lot, I have tried to keep things lore friendly or atleast within the spirit of the existing TES lore.

PS the campaign has started in Barsaebia.