I'll add in some information about the kingdoms. I've written up two of the main ones and I'll post them here as well.
"The Sanctum Imperium
Sanctum Imperium is a monarchy headed by the immortal God-king Deus. Many centuries ago, before most of the current nations were even conceived in thought tribes warred back and forth against each other moving borders and creating flash in the pan kingdoms. The religions of the Imperium and Asfaric Sultanates were not even in infancy yet, and the world was split between the followers of the Elders, a pantheon of deities that covered a wide variety of tasks, attributes, and emotions led by a warrior-mage Wotan, and the druids that saw the universe as one long tapestry that everyone was a part of the weave of life in.
Deus was a follower of Wotan and war-chief of a tribe of Golden Elves in the area that was known as the Darklands. Deus led his tribe to great power among the competing tribes in the Darklands and by the time he had come into his 300th year of life he had united the warring tribes of the Golden Elves and Moon Elves into the first kingdom of the Darklands and won great favor with Wotan, but the elders are always at odds and Laugaz lowest of the Elders seethed with jealousy towards the mortal whom had won such favor with their leader.
Laugaz plotted against Deus and convinced several of the Dwarvish tribes of Asgeir to lead their longships to the shores of the Darklands. Thus it was that the war between Dwarf and Elf had began for the first time. The war lasted many years with neither side able to make a decisive blow against the other, having to retreat for various reasons either food, weather, or simply a need for reinforcements before landing the killing blow. The Dwarves led their campaigns with such determination that Wotan began to suspect that this was not a decision of their current high-jarl and was being manipulated by someone else.
Wotan consulted with the Elder of divination and strategy Vindler who confirmed his suspicions that Laugaz had his hand in manipulating these events. As such Wotan had decided to deliver his punishment for Laugaz and test for Deus at the same time, when next the Dwarves and Elves met in battle, Wotan had captured Laugaz and cast him from Valhalla into the battle and used his divine powers to prevent Laugaz from escaping. During this battle Deus pushed the Dwarves into retreat, but Laugaz was unable to take flight from the battlefield. Deus challenged the bitter God to a duel to pay for his treachery.
The battle lasted for hours as the mortal pushed against the immortal, neither moving the other from their position until Dwarvish reinforcements made their way back to the battlefield. Laugaz saw his victory at hand and tried to lure Deus back into the oncoming Dwarvish army when Wotan not wanting this duel interrupted before coming to conclusion called down a thunderstorm of such power that the sound of the first thunder cracking was heard all the way from the Darklands to the sand dunes of Asfar. The lightning took Laugaz by surprise and disrupted his concentration, Deus saw his spot and sank his sword into the deities neck, slaying him.
Mortal had slain immortal, the God exploded into a flash of light enveloping Deus, and when the light subsided Wotan, the Dwarves, and the Elves saw a mortal formed into immortal. Deus absorbed Laugaz essence and had entered the realm of immortal power. Both sides of armies withdrew from the battle at the awe-inspiring sight and Wotan took to the field in person. He offered Deus a position among the Elders but Deus declined, stating his place was to lead his people. As such Deus led the Elves back into the Darklands and ascended the highest mountain and formed a throne out of it. He then decided to name his kingdom the Sanctum Imperium, the Elders were no longer the path of the Elves, rather it was Deus that would lead them in unity to fulfill a higher purpose.
Asgeir
One of the oldest kingdoms, if one could call it as such, Asgeir is the homeland of the Dwarves. Led currently by high-jarl Eirik and comprised of lesser holds led by jarls under his authority. Ever since the fall of Laugaz there has been unrest both in Asgeir and Valhalla, it was not unknown to the Dwarves or the Elders for one of the immortal to fall in battle, but it was however unprecedented for one to fall to a mortal. It also accorded to a prophecy that stated that the end of the world would be set in motion by the death of an immortal at the hands of a mortal.
As such Wotan has retreated from his typical prominent position in helping shape the affairs of the jarldoms and welfare of the Asgeirian people as he contemplated on how to prevent the destruction of the world. Meanwhile high-jarl Ræder who had conspired with Laugaz in hopes of being awarded power grew spiteful towards Wotan as he first denied him the gifts of the Elders that he deserved and then to add insult to injury withdrew his regular bounties as he contemplated prophecies and cryptic warnings. Ræder was not alone, the Dwarves of Asgeir had long relied on the Elders to provide bounties during the long winters so that they would not need to raid all summer to survive, and now that had stopped. In addition to the timing of it stopping when one of the Elders was slain, some Dwarves began to think that their deities were not as powerful or benevolent as they had once believed.
Ræder capitalizing on the emotions of the hungry Dwarves and the distraction of the Elders rallied as many of the Dwarves that were resentful towards the Elders as he could, he sent out spies and scouts to find any that had been favored by the Elders. Eventually this proved fruitful as he discovered the location of a gateway that could take them to the plane of Valhalla from a witch who had once been favored by Vindler after long hours of torture.
As Ræder prepared his army to march on Valhalla, intending to take the bounty of the Elders by force, the giants from the even further northern reaches of Asgeir marched down from their camps. The Giants, mortal descendants of Elders that had taken mortals, joined forces with Dwarves that remained faithful to the Elders and were led by jarl Eirik had hoped that Ræder would have come to his senses before conflict was necessary, but they had no choice but to sorrowfully march into combat against their half-kin.
As the battle had taken full-swing, the Giants and faithful Dwarves led by Eirik against the Dwarves led by Ræder in their fight for the gateway to Valhalla, most of the Elders eyes were still on the prophecy of the end times and how to deal with it, but Tyr the Elder of justice was unable to standby the wanton kin-slaying taking place below the gates of Valhalla and descended to attempt to mediate a truce between the two sides.
Tyr promised that they would balance their attentions between the end times and the bounties of their children so as to maintain peace but Ræder was drawn by too much greed at this point to be reasoned with. Every word of the Elder drove him further into fury and pushed him to hack away at the enemy harder. Tyr being unable to placate the rage of Ræder knew that the only way to end this conflict without the death of nearly half of the children of Asgeir would be to kill Ræder but knew that had one of the Elder openly raised their hand at this moment it would push more of their children to fight. As such, Tyr saw the valor of Eirik in battle and proposed that the best of the faithful fight the best of the faithless to decide who was worthy of leading the Asgeirian people.
Ræder who had thought he was undefeatable accepted the challenge and met Eirik in battle. Eirik was given a belt that gave him the strength of the father of Giants as a gift from the Giants before the battle for his role in defending them during the battle of Valhalla and Tyr had given him his hammer of thunder. Meanwhile Ræder was provided with weapons by a mysterious force that appeared before him the day before the battle, it was something he had never seen before. The creature that brought him the weapon looked similar to the serpentfolk of Sezz’Sarak but its face had protrusions of bone from the skull and long tentacles flowing from where a mouth would have been. He gifted Ræder with a mechanical rod that had many shapes and uses that could be changed at the press of a button and then disappeared.
The next morn Ræder rode out to meet Eirik in combat, attempting to use the strange rod to gain the upper hand on Eirik. Trying to paralyze him, drain his life, set him aflame, anything he could do to come out as the victor of the struggle, while Eirik fought with the ferocity of the father of Giants, the battle was close but Eirik won out when he threw the hammer after being knocked down during the battle as a last ditch effort. The hammer struck Ræder with enough force to create a thunderclap and burst open the Dwarfs head.
Eirik having won the battle for the faithful Dwarves and the old high-jarl having died, Eirik was elected to replace him and lead the Dwarves. Tyr stuck to his promise regardless and promised that Ostara would go back to her gardens to provide bounty to the Dwarves for the winters, but that they still need to prepare for the end times.
Now the Dwarves prepare their armies and longships, ready to be sent in all directions to Montemilar, The Sanctum Imperium, Stark Insel, and Novgorod in hopes of finding enough supplies to keep their jarldom afloat while the Elders seek the long-term preservation of their world and people."
