The Subcontinent of Est

Est is the relatively small subcontinent directly east of the Five Cities.  It is dominated by the Wild Plains and the Bluestone Kingdoms - two very different regions both in geography and culture.

Wild Plains

Stretching from Sentinel in the west to the Mithril Hills in the east, the Wild Plains is a region of sparsely populated open grassland roughly evenly divided between nomadic tribes of orcs and humans.  The largest permanent settlement here is Law Rock - a huge granite outcrop upon which an ancient stone circle hosts occasional meetings whenever tribes wish to challenge each other over hunting grounds or inter-tribal law.  The area around Law Rock is always full of tents - though the actual people present vary from month to month.

Bluestone Kingdoms

An old and conservative human culture, Bluestone is actually a collection of independent feudal territories united under the Bluestone Accord for mutual protection against the Orcs and Ogres to the north and the raiders to the south.  The terrain is mainly mountains and old forest except where trees have been cleared for farmland.   The people have a strict feudal caste system that glorifies Knights and Wizards above all others, though the nobility worship Gyros and Philia the peasantry prefer to follow the Druids in praising Genera.

Mithril Hills

Originally from the Colonne Mountains, the huge mithril vein found under these hills drew most of the Dwarvern population here, and the Orc tribe's sacking of Dorik-Ha sealed the relocation.  The Dwarves have grown rich on the trade in mithril and other rare ores but it has not been without cost - they are constantly at war with the Ogres whose territory they've encroached upon and raiders from the Orcs and Humans of the wild plains occasionally test their western settlements.  With the Bluestone Kingdoms they maintain a pact of non-aggression but no real connection except via trade.

Stormborn Coast Raiders

These barbaric human marauders delight in plaguing both the Bluestone Kingdoms and the Five Cities with frequent attacks.  They emerge en mass from the unruly seas around their villages in fleets of small but fast longships to raid more peaceful coastal settlements for food, gold and slaves.   Though somewhat more advanced than the Wild Plains tribes the Stornborn delight in bloodletting and chaos and their culture values only martial prowess and seamanship.  They are occasionally led by Sea Hags or powerful evil sorcerers but most often their chiefs are the strongest and most vicious among them.

Ogreblight Coast

The Ogreblight is a region infested with ogres, giants and their kin.  The incursion of the Dwarves into the Mithril Hills drove even more of them into the region and now the population is at bursting point.  The largest population is in the stinking cesspit of Ogremar in what was once a beautiful stretch of coastal forest but the ogres are everywhere - including on the nearby Isle of Ruins where population pressure forced a few hardy souls to found a new village called Furrlod (Far Island in the ogre tongue).  Interestingly, the ruined city for which the island is named is built to a large scale and the quality of the remaining architecture suggests the region's ogres weren't always so primitive and uncouth as they are now.