Cities[]
Blue Mound: A city in southwest Meneluinin, west of Crailston and south of Quarrystone. The inn there is made of pinkish brick and run by a family of half-orcs, orcs and humans.
Crailston: A small city in the southwest portion of Meneluinin, Crailston is known for its wind, which is used to power all manner of magical contrivances, many of which help people farm the very excellent land. Sailing on the local lake is a popular pastime, and people come from all over the Nations to do it. The main street is 10th Street, and no one is sure one happened to Streets 1-8. The An Romba is an inn here.
Khelekhurro: Far north of St. Benedict-Navarre is the shipping hub cluster of Khelekhurro, full of industry and a major import-export location, as it is located on the Great Lake. The name of the city is "ice storm," and it's apt. Kelekhurro is the largest city "Up North," with excellent hunting, fishing and hiking opportunities. Just to its west there's a small settlement of orcs, who were repopulated there after they were forcibly removed from the site where Khelekhurro was later built. Most of the orcs in the area are integrated with the Meneluininese culture, but Khelekhurro orcs are more likely to have retained elements of their original tribal culture than any other.
Maninaata: To the south of St. Ben-Navarre is Meneluinin's hub of technology and research, which is particularly strong in the area of divine magic and healing. Maninaata means "what is it?" which was originally a proofer's mark on the first map of the area mistakenly retained in the published version, but the city's inhabitants have embraced the name as a byword for their research and scientific efforts.
Navarre: The largest city in Meneluinin, Navarre is a place of art, high and low culture and many thriving businesses, many of which are built on the back of Navarre's sister-city (and rival) across the river, St. Benedict.
Quarrystone: A city in southwest Meneluinin, north of Blue Mound.
St. Benedict: The capital city of Meneluinin, it is also its second-largest city and a hub of industry. It has a long-standing rivalry with Navarre and is located only a little ways from the border to its east and the barbaric nation of Rafangia.
Customs and Character[]
The nearly land-locked country of Meneluinin is known for its flatness and its many, beautiful lakes. In the south, the thick black soil is perfect for raising all manner of crops, and in the north, timber and mining are the major industries.
Meneluinin is ruled by King Daae, who is relatively new on the throne since his father's peaceful abdication and retirement. Daae is assisted by the Assembly, consisting of 21 elected officials from all around the nation, and the Council, a smaller body of officials chosen by the King but approved by the Assembly. The Council has precedence over the Assembly, but the King trumps both groups. Daae is human, with a few drops of elven blood, and has long been a widower.
Meneluininese are known for being polite, phlegmatic and helpful. Maybe a little too helpful-shopkeepers have been known to offer robbers the change in the tip jar. Nonetheless, the people of Meneluinin are fierce in combat and loyal to a fault, with a very strong tradition of hospitality. They like to feed people "a little lunch," (meaning "we will feed you until you beg for mercy") and most religious services are followed by coffee and maybe a nice pastry. Hotdish--a hot casserole consisting of meat, noodles or rice and an optional vegetable--is the favorite national meal, and there are literally hundreds and maybe thousands of varieties.
Meneluinin has largely been peaceful for at least a thousand years, and enjoys a stable border with the Wildlands, partly because of the kinship between the northern Meneluininese and the Wildlands druids. By dint of preparation and careful diplomacy, Meneluinin has managed to repel all the eastern Tarkishian city-states that have tried to invade--which is to say, unfortunately, all of them. Meneluinin guards its eastern and western borders carefully, but is generally less attentive to the northern border with the Wilds and the southern border with Solitaire.
Laws are generally enforced on a city-by-city basis, with the wide stretches of countryside nearly lawless, partly because of the independence of the Meneluininese and partly because, frankly, there have been budget cuts.
The People[]
Humans, elves and half-elves are the most common races in the country, but orcs and half-orcs form a sizable minority, as they occupied the land (organized in loose tribal alliances) before the others came and hedged them out. Some halflings have immigrated from the west, and some gnomes from the east, but the population of small-sized people remains, er. Small.
Just about everyone speaks and reads Common, with Elven being a usual second language. A sizeable minority also speak or write Draconic, which is often used for record-keeping because its meanings don't shift much through the ages. Aquan and Sylvan are favored language in the north, and people of Orcish descent are making efforts to preserve their culture, including the language, after it was nearly annihilated in the early days of the human-elvish settlement thousands of years ago.