The Isle of the Mighty in the Cyrston Sea is a huge island running two-fifths of the length of the sea, or slightly over a hundred Brehon Miles. Its about fifty Westing Great Yards wide (its traditional to measure north to south in Brehon, and west to east in Westing due to Brehon being in the North, and Westing in the West. This has nothing to do with various Brehonite kings and Westing kings executing mapmakers who did otherwise. Well, okay, that might have influenced some people.)

English Mile: All other measurements are measured by the English Mile and by the English Inch. These ‘English’ measurements are not used in the world of Tellus.
Dayhorse: The distance a lightly encumbered horse with a skilled rider can go in a day on a road. This is roughly twenty English miles.
Brehon Miles: 110% of an English Mile
Westing Great Yards: 85% of an English Mile
Louzanne Hill Miles: 70-75% of an English Mile
Merchant’s Mile: 120% of an English Mile.
Archer’s Fling: 25% of an English mile.

High Foot: 18 English Inches
An Arm: 30 English Inches
King’s Step: This varies from 8 to 14 English inches depending on who is the current King in Westing.
Louzanne Push Step: 5 English inches.
Merchant’s Measure: 10 English inches.

Thumb: 2 English inches
Apple half: 3-4 English inches. Its usually determined by cutting an apple in half, and counting how many times you can rotate the apple as you ‘march it down’. Thus ‘this board is 18 and a half apple halves.’ would mean the board was between 54 and 72 English inches long with a 2-3 additional variance due to the ‘half apple halve’.

There are seven dominant areas of the Isle.

Westing–This is a large peninsula that extends out fifteen Great Yards and is thirty Brehon miles north to south. Westing is the land of the grape, and cattle. It has many small valleys running down to the sea with creeks and rivers filling them. Each valley is held by a different king, and some valleys have more than one king.

Brehon–This is the northernmost tip of the country. Fishing, and some sheep-farming is common here. Some of the locals are pirates.

‘Behind Brehon’ is a bit southerly and inland, and receives little attention or care except from the small farmers and tiny kings who live there. Its less socially advanced than other regions with inferior farming equipment.

Marchsea–On the East/Northern coast live the remants of the Kings of Might. A thousand years ago, these brutes ruled the whole Isle and had outposts in many of the nations surrounding the Isle. But their harshness spawned rebellion, and their own moral decay turned them from warlords into pleasure seekers who could not deal with the anger their actions created. They were driven to their last fortresses, and left to them as a defense against the newly risen raiders from the North end of the Crystron Sea. They have spent the last thousand years squabbling among themselves. Some favor restoring the old harsh ways, some favor becoming complete dissolutes, others favor becoming inventively sadistic so as to combine harshness and dissolution. But they mostly fight each other, rage at each other, and teach any Dernaki Raiders from the sea that they still have a sting.

Louzanne Hills–The hill-land is a difficult country more suited to sheep than other forms of agriculture. However, its many kings always want to grow wealth, and are full of dreams of terracing hills, or somehow creating cash crops. These dreams fail vastly more often than not as raiders, brigands, and general lack of cooperation and incompetence take their toll.

The Great Fens–The home of brigands, and independent men. There are a few kings in this land. Some are pirates, and others are heads of great families. There is little fighting amongst themselves as the land is harsh enough with its swamps to keep the peace. And those with warlike intentions can join a brigand band and raid the exterior lands.

Southland–Below the Great Fens is a wide area of warmth and farmland. Its also the most common area for battle as this great prize is of worth, and small kings come from all over to try to take what the local kings have. And the local kings are invariably when not being invaded, trying to expand their lands at the expense of their neighbours.

The last census was taken in 805 After the Scouring. (Marchsea people render this 810 After the Fall for the date when their great capital, Du San Ried was burned. The Scouring refers to the great pogrom nationwide where anyone with any ties to the Marchsea were harried or executed. This took five years of phenomenal cruelty.)

The Great Census by Vineir the Learned, Great Magi and Adviser to the Westing Kings yielded 1,287 kings in the Isle of the Mighty. In the two hundred and nine years since then (which makes this 1014 Scouring) this number has only increased.

The dominant religion is the worship of the Great One. He is contended to be the King, the Hero, and the Piercing Presence in his faces. He created the world by his Law which he as King spoke and inscribes on the Tablets of Glory and in each person’s heart. He as Hero came to Earth and demonstrated that He could live up to them, and then offers to one and all the entrance to Glory provided they admit they cannot. But once they do, the Piercing Presence is free to work in their lives, and bring them comfort, and kindness, but also knowledge of duty, and punishment for failure.

It is commonly acknowledged that open evildoers have less of a hard time than the good who turn evil. This is explained by the justice of the Presence who cares not to cane the wicked, but only canes the just who stray.

The primary sins are Pride (particularly Pride which claims entrance to Glory on one’s own merits); Lack of Generosity; Cowardice; Excessive Ambition; Dishonesty; Unfair Dealing (this is probably the trickiest one to adjucticate); Dishonorable Behavior; and Not Respecting the Roles of a Person (this covers insulting a craftsman at his trade, and sleeping with a someone not your spouse, and a lot else).

There is a priestly hierarchy. But it is relatively flat with only three layers separating the village priest from the Wise In Council. Traditionally, the Wise Council meets every three years in Westing. The Wise In Council try among other things to limit the epidemic wars and actual epidemics in the land by the use of Holy Days where war is forbidden, and by the use of the Texts of the Great One which reveal fairly advanced sanitation and medical techniques (latrines, quarantine for disease, checking for rashes after quarantine, boiling water, and washing hands in running water are all required in the Holy Texts.)

Celibacy is not a requirement of the priest, although it along with vows of poverty are allowed. Celibacy for others is generally frowned upon. One is expected to get married.

====This is part of the War Wizard stuff I was talking over with MJ and Wodium…