Cultures on Aurea

Despite attempts at cultural hegemony by The Great Empire in the Third Age of Man, Aurea remains an extremely diverse continent dominated by disparate human cultures in the east struggling to emerge from the fall of the Empire and the Dark Times, the Valtaani conquerors in the northeast, warring orcish nomads wandering unclaimed land in the west and the ancient, isolationist elves of the Drallian Peninsula.

The dominant cultures on Aurea are:

Aurean: Once a part of the Imperial provinces of Aescalapea and Milosia, the Aurean people now also include the nations of Treva and Vistria. During the Third Age of Man, the Aureans suffered greatly under a series of oppressive governors of House Gabinius and then under the rulership of Magister Rukala during the rule of Lucius "the Heretic". At the dawn of the Fourth Age, the Aureans erupted in a revolution that lead to the establishment of the break-away states of Treva in the fertile, northern plains and Vistria in the foothills of the Antasian Mountains. Despite (or perhaps because of) centuries of tyranny in the past, Aureans are a fiercely independent people today. They are still known as legendary sea-farers and the people have been slowly rebuilding their once-great navy to defend the waters of the Aurean Sea against invaders and pirates. Among the city-states of Aescalapea, powerful and wealthy merchant families are on the rise, sponsoring a new age of art, science and invention unlike any in previous Ages. Milosia expresses its independence through its militarization, with a relatively weak civil governor appointed by the military heirarchy.