Bosen
Located in the south of the Empire, Bosen is mostly mountainous and extreme hill country at its center, and temperate lands near the coast. Much of the civilized coastline consists of fishing villages, and the southernmost city, Water’s Edge, handles most of the fishing trade and supply to the mountains, as well as to the Reviak Hold beyond the Pale Spires. There is a small rainforest in the tip of the peninsula, called the “Horn of Bosen,” but this area is largely uninhabited by civilized peoples. The hills and mountains at the heart of the province, for which Bosen earns its name, are also difficult terrain to inhabit, but still the Bosen mountains are home to the province’s largest Djenndan population while Elmecians occupy the coasts and lowlands. Long ago these lands were claimed by the Ais’lun nobles of Schelk, but the remote nature of the hill country was of little resource value, so those claims were never rigidly enforced. As a result, the Bosen Highlands have become a haven of isolation and intrigue for many disparate citizens of the Empire. Since Bosen became an established part of the Empire following the Bosen Liberation in 435, many Djenndan have moved into the most central hills, but the outlying populations remain mostly Elmecians whose families have inhabited these lands for longer than Thelea has existed.
During the Empire’s eastern expansion in the First Age, a group calling themselves the Council of Bosen proclaimed their sovereignty and staged a coup. When the Empire’s forces were spread thin in the east, the Bosen military sailed to the coasts of Reviak and conquered the Pale Spires, an impressive landscape of coastal cliffs and inland plateaus. Few citizens of the Empire lived there, but those who did were unified under the banner of the black lion—the Reviak Monarchy. To hold back civil war, Supreme Regent Inekauli Wan ordered the remaining Reviak Guard to withdraw and deemed the region around the Pale Spires as the “Reviak Hold.” Inekauli granted status to the Council of Bosen to fly their own banners inside Reviak Hold, so long as they agreed to pledge their cause to that of the Empire. The Council of Bosen agreed as it suited them toward the end of the First Age, creating a lasting tension between the peoples of Reviak and Bosen, but holding back what would be a bloody conflict. Bosen is now unified under the banner of Pale Spires, and the Bosen military contributes several formidable legions of warriors to the Empire.
