The Middle Lands. (Firefly meets Fantasy)

What is this middle lands I keep posting about?

The middle kingdom is my personal campaign setting. My main inspiration is firefly. I wanted to replicate the feel of that world.The oppressive central power and the hard life of the frontier.

The middle lands is a huge continent with a string of islands on both sides. In the earliest written history of the middle lands there was peace. To the north was the land of men. A small but growing empire. To the east, The forest domain of the elven homeland. To the south west was the wild lands, hard and savage. The savage lands always rumbling with the war drums of the many barbarian tribes. To the south was the mountain domain of the Dwarf kings. The center mass of the middle lands was wilderness. Miles of wild and untamed expanse. While each race traded with the others and diplomatic relations were good each race stayed to its own.

The fledgling human kingdom expanded and grew quickly. Pushing back the wilderness and expanding into the lands promised to other races in many peace accords. The human lands became over crowded and fractured. Three distinct kingdoms emerged from the growing human expanse.
The eastern push made its way through the elven lands. In a rush to expand and build an elven ancestral tree was destroyed. An act that brought war to the eastern human kingdom.

In the first war the elves were no match in numbers to the human kingdom. The elves rallied the tribes. And the humans came together under the banner of one human army. In a series of retaliatory strikes each side took great losses. The elves were slowly pushed back. The magic of the elven sages was no match for the cold steel and determination of the human invaders. Their ancestral lands cleared and destroyed. Humans used the push into the elven lands as a chance to expand and grow. Spreading out and homesteading.


Over time the lands of human kind has made its way to the boarders of land claimed by other races of the middle lands. While there have been minor skirmishes nothing has brought the kind of bloodshed the elven war brought.


The old northern empire called for heads of state of all the splintered factions of men to meet in the north. To call for consolidation with in the human lands. To name the northern kingdom as head of the vast human world. Creating a strong human empire under a single banner. When the offer was refused the heads of state were executed and the northern empires armies massed and marched on its neighbors one by one.


The resistance, especially those in the south west who allied with the barbarians against the empire held out as long as they could. But they were no match for the war machine the north had created.


The modern era is the direct result of the history of the Old empire. Elves are mistrusted and second class citizens at best. Magic is regulated and controlled. Its use is blamed for the empires losses in the elven war.

The central power of the empire is in the north. Its power, influence and splendor all resides in the north. Although the outer lands fly the flag of the empire its control is not as strong far out into the "frontier".

While the north sees its self as bringing peace and prosperity to the land. The rest of the world sees it a an oppressive and over bearing overlord.  Those that fought the empire in the great war are now distrusted and rejected in the core cities. And most of them would have it no other way. Most would rather eek out an existence in the rough frontier than live under the yoke of oppression.