In Five Element Continents, there was five royal empires and one alliance governed most of it. Northwood empire located in the north of the continent, Eastfire empire located in the far east, Southdesert empire located in the far south, Ironclad Empire located in the south west and Westlake empire located in the north west. The Central Plain was governed by the Magic Alliance.
It was known to both common peoples and cultivators that there was five element energy of nature in the world, namely wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each of the empires took one of the nature element energy as their basis of reliance. It showed that for each royal family member, they would have more affinity to the corresponding element energy.
Each of the empire also had specific training dedicated for their element energy. This practice had been carried for hundreds of years and established a strong system of cultivation.
Thus, it was very unlikely that there were any opposition power strong enough to contend for rebellion in each empire. Although between each empires, competition was tough and small skirmished happened all the time, real big war between two empire had not happened in hundreds of years. The Magic Alliance which was the strongest faction on the continent was there to monitor power balance between the five empires. In the name of a peace keeper of the continent, the Magic Alliance had also received enormous amount of resources from the empires yearly. With hundreds of years accumulation, resources collected from the royal empires of the continent made the Magic Alliances a giant faction that watched all over the continent.
Few hundred years ago, Central Plain became the ancient battlefield area for the Great War. It happened when the royal empires of the continents were waging war for supremacy. At that times, not all of the empires practiced mage path cultivation, thus the continent divided into two major factions.
There was no actual winner during the Great War, since each of the faction took devastating damages that could not be recovered until today. Since then, few most powerful mage that survived the war banded together and build the Magic Alliance and controlled the central pain to prevent the Great War happening again. That was the history book of the Academy said.
5 royal empires and 1 magic alliance, this was 6 leviathans that controlled the entire Five Element Continent and commanded most authoritative power on the continent.
As the tradition of the continent, it was common to name the royal family of certain empire or kingdom by their own family name. It showed prestige to the royal family and to their descendants. A family name carried an enormous prestige to each bearer. By using name only, it was common practice for royal family members to obtain a preferential treatment wherever their descendant went.
Northwood Empire was an empire with wood element as their basis. They occupied the northern most area of Five Element Continent. Northwood Empire was a vast empire, it covered 191 million square kilometer area. In the northern and eastern part, it had a coast lines to the North Sea. On the southern side, it had ancient forest and ancient mountain line as the Empire's borders.
The Southern Ancient Forest bordered the Empire with the Central Plain Magic Alliance's area. The Ancient Forest spanned for 44.000 km in length, started from the Westlake to the Eastfire's Mountain. The Ancient Forest separated Northwood with Central Plain.
Southern Ancient Mountain separated Northwood Empire with Eastfire Empire. It spanned for 18000 km between the southern part of Northwood and northern part of Eastfire. The Southern Ancient Mountain met with Southern Ancient Forest exactly in the southern border of the Rivermountain Kingdom.
On the western part, another Ancient Forest line separated the Northwood with the Westlake Empire. It spanned only 11000 km in length, lesser than the Southern Ancient Forest. Although the Western Ancient Forest was not as long as the Southern Ancient Forest, it had wider area. The Western Ancient Forest spanned 6000km width compared to the thin Southern Ancient Forest with only 2000km in width.
Both Ancient Forests was different with the normal forest. Vegetation and animal on the ancient forest existed and developed differently with some of them even gained intelligence and able to performed element energy cultivation and manipulation.
Other than above two ancient forests, most of the Northwood Empire area was occupied by forest area. Although it was not as old as the Ancient Forests, many magical beast could be found roamed in the forest. Most of the Kingdom's Capitals and Cities built with high city wall on the Empire for security reason.
A massive river separated the Empire almost exactly on the center line with three main river's branch to the sea. Two river main branches went to the North Sea and one river main branch went to East Sea. People of the Northwood Empire called this massive river as Ancient Wood River. The river originated from Central Plain. It passed through Southern Ancient Forest and flowed north to the Northwood Empire.
Northwood Capital City was located beside Ancient Wood River's main branch. Most of the vassal kingdoms were also located their capital city on the riverside. In actual, The Ancient Wood River became the main transportation mean not only for the Northwood Empire but also for other Empires. The Ancient Wood River which was flowed through the continent like a spider's web was vital for the main transportation line for the Continent.
Northwood Empire had 15 vassal kingdoms, with 14 kingdoms were located on the mainland of the continent. The other 1 kingdom was an islands kingdom located on the North Sea. The vassal kingdom required to pledge loyalty to the empire and payed tribute to Northwood Empire on yearly basis.
Unlike Empires, which was not differentiated clearly between stronger one and the weaker one, the vassal kingdoms of each Empire had to have strict hierarchy in term of the Kingdom's strength.
These vassal kingdoms divided to became three different classes by the Empire. A class one kingdom should have minimum one cultivator on Advanced Saint Mage level. For class two kingdoms, it should have a backing of at least one Advanced True Mage level. For the lowest level kingdom, no strength requirement was required by the Empire.
For each of the kingdom, they had the right to challenge the higher class kingdom. Whichever kingdom won the challenge, the winner might get the status of the higher class kingdom.
Thus although requirement of the class one and class two kingdom were not difficult to obtained but it was a common knowledge for the power working on the background of each kingdom were several times more powerful than shown on the surfaces.
Rivermountain was one of Northwood Empire's vassal kingdoms. It was located in the south region of the Empire. Rivermountain was a class 2 kingdom. One of the Ancient Wood River's branches passed through this kingdom. In the center of Rivermountain Kingdom area, the Ancient Wood River branched out to become two separate branches. People of Rivermountain called this river as Northwood River.
The Royal Capital of the Rivermountain located exactly on the river's branching out. The location was the most strategic area in the whole kingdom region. On the northern part of the kingdom, a border line shared with a class 3 Woodforest Kingdom. On the eastern border part, Rivermountain shared a border with a class 2 Southforest Kingdom. Some borders on the eastern part are open wilderness without any kingdom ruling the area.
On the western border laid a class 2 Westernforest Kingdom. On the southern border, Rivermountain had the Southern Ancient Forest and Ancient Mountain as its border. These mountains were part of ancient mountain line separating Northwood Empire with Eastfire Empire.
Rivermountain was the only kingdom in the Northwood Empire possessed a mountainous border on its region. Alongside with the river flowed through the region, the ancestor of the kingdom named the kingdom as Rivermountain.
An empire consisted of several vassal kingdoms. Similar to that, each kingdom consisted of several dukedoms. An empire would be led by an Emperor, a kingdom would be led by a King and lastly a dukedom would be led by a Duke.
A dukedom was the lowest independent nobility grade which was inheritable to the descendant known by the continent. There was no more other noble position on the continent only than the three above. The governing system of the Northwood Empire was autonomous nobility. Which mean a duke would be free to govern his dukedom without any interference from the kingdom.
Similar to that, the King would have privilege to govern his kingdom without interference from the Empire. But loyalty from the vassal should be shown by providing yearly tribute and answering to summoning call from higher nobility.
Rivermountain Kingdom itself was divided into one Royal Capital region and 6 Dukedom regions. The Royal capital was the only region that directly under royal kingdom family governance. Rivermountain's Capital located in the middle of the kingdom. It was built on the branching of the Northwood River. Because Northwood River was the main transportation mean for the empire, Rivermountain's Capital City became a bustling city with 2 million residents on it.
As a capital of the kingdom, the economic and cultural development of the Royal Capital reached the highest on the kingdom. It became the center of education, politic, business and culture for the kingdom.