Kingdom of Kestalor

The Kingdom of Kestalor, sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Celliden and Kingshill, was the largest of the contiguous Western Nations south of the Iadrian Blackbriar. The Kingdom's heartland was the lush Kingshill Valley, but the majority of its territory was made up of unforgiving, perpetually foggy wetlands and dense, gloomy forests. At its greatest extent, Kestalor stretched as far north as Attover, often warring with Iadria for control of the southern Blackbriar and Vremas Bay. To the south and east, the Kingdom contended with Vestus, Tenval and Palus, as well as the empires of Aldera and Vanadia. A harsh and unstable region, Kestalor was often embroiled in internal conflict, and its expansive coastline drew the Kingdom into many naval wars as well. Despite its tenuous situation, the Kingdom endured as a united entity for much of the late Fifth and early Sixth Ages, proving itself as a worthy military and naval force and major power in the Cult of Edos. By the mid-Sixth Age, however, Kestalor was buckling under the pressure of numerous conflicts, uprisings and heavy political infighting. In the aftermath of the Blackbriar War of 6A 309, Kestalor was forced to cede territory to Iadria and release its client states in Tenval and Vestus. The ruling House Shancer had produced a series of corrupt and weak monarchs, while the power of their sworn Lords and Earls increased. The military had never truly recovered from the Iadrian wars, growing ever more decentralized and loyal to minor nobles rather than the crown. Finally, the situation erupted when King Aldriven II Shancer was assassinated by his half-brother Lerein, leading to the onset of the destructive Celliden Civil War in 6A 603. Within four years, the increasingly desperate civil war had all but obliterated the remaining political and military order of the Kingdom, providing an opportunity for its neighbors to invade nearly unopposed. The final extinction of House Shancer and beginning of the War for Kestalor in 6A 607 finally spelled the end of the old Kingdom.