Bhreac Veryan
The most important city to the history of The Four Part Land, Bhreac Veryan is the axis around which all the other major players spin themselves. The largest of the cities and the most militarist, it sits astride the primary trading route of the continent, and uses the network of roads as a playground for its armies. Despite the size, Bhreac Veryan sits atop an oasis in a barren wasteland, surrounded only by a few other oasis-homed towns and subsidiary villages. Once, its reach extended all the way to the peninsular city of Niam Liad, where Hymerodraeth Heula, the Veryan empire, maintained a second capitol, but forced reliance on outside troops and the length that information had to travel combined to slowly weaken the grip that Hymerodraeth Heula had on its most southerly lands, until rich merchants and corrupt generals drove an uprising of the common man against their northern lords, shattering the power base that Veryan relied upon.
The government of Bhreac Veryan fell, and in that chaos, Tri-Hauwcerton escaped from their grasp. An army marched to restore the empire, but fell prey to hunger, and a cold winter, and perished upon the gates of Tri-Hauwcerton. Another army perished in a peninsular campaign to restore Niam Liad to Hymerodraeth Heula, and with those deaths, the empire shattered, each small country seeking to free itself from the clutches of the tyrants that ruled over them.
Almost all of the countries that now exist owe their lives to the shattering of Hymerodraeth Heula, for only a few cannot trace their lineage to that time, but to times earlier. The economy of Bhreac Veryan broke when their empire collapsed, and had to spend many years recovering, first through taxation on the trade route, and then through engaging in trade themselves, with the specially worked glass and hides that are considered amongst the standards of fashion across the land. Now, their economy might be the strongest, although it is propped up by government-sponsored banditry on the caravans of other nations.
Since the death of the empire, there has been a roving series of military governors, each bent on recapturing certain aspects of the land around Bhreac Veryan. Some have succeeded more than others, but much of the land has been lost to the lesser kingdoms, who have taken up residence in the more difficult to reach terrain, and harass and worry the caravans that pass beneath. For many, it has been seen as the slow death of a once great civilization, but for the Veryans themselves, they look at this as a trial that has to be overcome, and that they will regain what has come to be known as the birthright of the empire: all of the kingdoms within The Four Part Land.