Dinaketh

Dinaketh is a tropical region with a reputation for being un-conquerable by outside powers. Compared to its surrounding regions, Dinaketh is unusually warm, humid, and difficult to live in: it has enormous swamplands, steep mountains, abundant insect-borne diseases, and floods every spring and summer. The people are not exactly welcoming either, as they are heavily armed, well trained, and have adapted much of their lifestyle around perpetual guerilla warfare. Outsiders are viewed with suspicion and trade is seen as an unfortunate necessity. Abandoned outposts constructed by Orthodox Desmian or Halikvar occupiers dot the landscape like the gravestones of would-be conquerors. Ishkibal himself has worked to make this land a cemetery of empires, and so it has become. 
Most visitors stick to the coastlines, where they are tolerated and may even be welcomed on occasion. To those who stick to the ports, Dinaketh appears to be a fairly normal place (if a little isolationist) with kingdoms and cities and temples. The countryside tells a very different story: families regularly migrate as armed units, often visiting their own isolated bunkers from time to time, villages are openly militarized, and the entire countryside seems ready to set their homes ablaze to head into the hills at the drop of a hat. The kingdoms here struggle to assert their authority over their populations, and live with the constant fear of peasant revolts if they ever tax slightly too much. But it is a small price to pay for safety from foreign invasion, so the royals simply accept their lower revenue and carry on. 
The incredible decentralization of the kingdoms here has worked wonders against foreign militaries, but some whisper of a creeping danger that haunts the wilds that even the local warbands cannot easily fight. Strange mages have long taken hold in the hinterlands of Dinaketh to harvest the dead left behind by the failed occupations. These mages have become so skilled in their craft at transforming the dead into monstrosities that they have attracted necromancers from around the world to their ranks. No one knows where or how they operate, but centuries of ignoring (or even working with) these necromancers to fight invading powers has left them far more powerful than any other necromantic clique in the world. Now the people of the region have begun to fear them - and their elusiveness and mystery has only deepened that fear.

Geography

The Northern coast of Dinaketh extends some 320 miles, and the Southern coast some 340 miles. The Northern interior is a large tropical flatland (which extends around 110 miles inland) that is relatively easier to traverse, while the South is pressed against a large mountain range that makes any kind of travel difficult. 
The Pelenbek mountains insulate the central wilds from travel or settlement. These mountains average 4000 to 5000 feet above sea level, though the highest is 9,000. The height of these mountains aren't their danger, but their steepness and quantity are. 
The Eastern part of Dinaketh is incredibly humid and covered in small lakes and rivers. The largest of these lakes is the famous lake Dinak, which is 18 by 11 miles across. Lake Dinak is famous for its red-pink soil, freshwater shrimp, its numerous shoreline flamingos, and its deep underwater caves.

Fauna & Flora

Small buffalo, tigers, tusked deer, elephants, wild dogs, monkeys, tree kangeroos, quoll (marsupial carnivores), and komodo dragons can all be found here.

Natural Resources

Iron, gold, and gems have all been found in the central mountains and are mined by the local prism communities. Sugar, cotton, rice, tea, tobacco, agave, Flowyrms, and sweet fruit are actively grown here by small-holders as well.

History

Prior to 1000 ME, Dinaketh was a mostly peaceful region more concerned with fighting mosquitos than invaders. The religion of Ishkibism arrived along the trade routes in the 200s ME as a vehicle for doctors, crops, medicine, and mosquito netting. The coast thrived for centuries through peace and commerce. And then, in the late 1100s, Orthodox Desmianism arrived. They came as pirates, slavers, and destroyers who kidnapped dryads for sacrifice and turned communities against each other. The kingdoms of Dinaketh began to collapse into chaos, but the temple of Ishkibal worked to try and keep order. The Desmians struggled to properly follow up on their initial successes and by 1230, militant Ishkibism had restored stability and species-harmony to the land. The new order was far more militaristic, disciplined, and demanding than the old ways, but it calmed the fear that the Desmians had brought.
The next attack was from the West: a Halikvar invasion from distant Samvara. The Halikvar swept in with concentrated force to conquer, not to raid, and the kingdoms of Dinaketh struggled to unify in time. The Halikvar primarily held onto the Northern coast and several key settlements, but otherwise left most governance to a series of weak puppet regimes. This is when the guerilla fighting began in the countryside (and it basically has not stopped since). It is during this first war against the Halikvar that a mysterious creature arrived: a Solar (or something in the shape of a solar) from the far East that called itself 'Eternal'. This 'Eternal' was the first necromancer to inhabit Dinaketh, and thrived in the chaos of the land. 
The Halikvar were driven out of the interior in 1295, but the Northern coast remained under Halikvar control until an Orthodox Desmian invasion arrived in 1305. The following is a play by play of the major invasions and periods of history

• 1310 another Halikvar invasion
• 1325 - 1380 Ishkibite free states
• 1380 More Halikvar
• 1400 Orthodox invasion and Halikvar invasion at the same time
• 1412 Orthodox invade again
• 1414 - 1520 Ishkibites in control, Dinaketh invades Orthodox holdings in Azera
• 1520 - 1650 Ishkibite free states
• 1650 Orthodox invade again, driven out by 1652
• 1680 Halikvar invade again, driven out by 1681
• 1699 Halikvar invade again, driven out by 1701
• 1701 - 1710 Halikvar and Siashi raids
• 1710 hurricanes devastate everyone
• 1720-1722 Orthodox raids and invasion
• 1780-1783 Orthodox raids and invasion
• 1805 peace with the local Orthodox kingdoms
• 1805 - 1983 peace
• 1983 Orthodox raids and invasion, fails
• 1985 - 2000 Dinaketh kingdoms rally to drive out Halikvar to the West

Tourism

Most visitors to Dinaketh keep to the ports and to a select few settlements. The few tourists who visit generally come looking for the curious wildlife or the natural beauty of Lake Dinak, and special visitor's lodges exist to keep these groups comfortable and safe. Those who wander beyond the designated zones are no longer protected by the local monarchs, and are free game for any vigilantes who happen to consider them possible spies or missionaries. 
This isn't to say that foreigners are killed on sight, only that a rumor of missionary activity or espionage can get a foreign intruder killed. Those who keep their religion and ideology to themselves, do not pry, and observe guest-host etiquette are probably not going to face any danger from local vigilantes, but enough careless wanderers have died here to give it a nasty reputation in the tourism industry. Those few who persist in traveling here have reported a very generous and community-focused atmosphere and a culture of hospitality, where money is largely reserved for major purchases and good food and drink is generally shared with all who ask. The sweetened tea, kept in cooled underground cellars, is quite the visitor's delight in fact.

Type

Region

Location under

Izekra