Coera

Here are a few drawings I did for the Towers of the Gods setting before it was co-opted into Coera.

Bornhelm - Ruled by Saul, Asrian's firstborn son
Bornhelm (Saul, Asrian’s first-born son, Paladin/Wizard)
Bornhelm conducts an annual war against the Goblin Nations to the north. When the ice thaws in the pass above Rothmead’s Keep, goblins and their kin pour out over the foothills and plains in search of a foothold within the Ando Empire. Often they are able to maintain settlements for up to ten or fifteen years, but eventually Saul and his Breach Defenders clean up the land.
Bornhelm was the first of the Towers, built over an exisitng castle city on the Northernmost shore of the Green Sea, and is the most eclectic of the group. It is in a constant state of renovation and rebuilding.
A clan of friendly Delvers are one of the more notable client kindoms within Saul's lands - they keep storng ties to their brothers in the north who hold the tunnels beneath the mountains against the horde.

Rothmead Keep
Just north and east of Bornhelm, Rothmead Keep’s godking, Terrin the Red, is a client king of Saul’s.
Though he is a bit of a barbarian and a gloryhound, Terrin is reliable and loyal, and a fierce ally against the North. He allows Saul the freedom to devote attention to the other towers around the sea.

Morning’s Keep (Tyr Acham)
The second of the towers, on the southern edge of the sea, was built as a counterpart to Bornhelm. The tower was given to Acham, Asrian's third child and second son, and was last known to be ruled by Acham's daughter, Feora. Whoever rules now is exceptionally reclusive.

Hadelm
At the lips of the Great Sea, Hadelm is a trade port, and is both haven and police of the pirates. Ungar Mormellion, Marshall of the Sea, has been in the Old Chair for only about 170 years, making him the youngest of the Tower keepers.
The people of Hadelm are, in general, a proud breed with a distinctively swarthy accent, and can be found scattered amongst the other Towers and port towns - whereever their ships can bear them.

Tyr Moel L'Asrian
The Last of the towers, Tyr Moel L'Asrian was built for the delight of Asrian, his youngest daughter, Enthess, The Witch-Queen, the Spider, the Owl. Enthess' tower is build on a peninsula sticking out into the sea, and never suffered any serious threat, so Enthess never had any experience with war, and was easily led into corruption and a lust for power, and started expanding her control over other towers.

Tyr Congar, "ruled" by Ello Houdri, and Tyr Kebi, "ruled" by MyaJanna, Asrian's great-niece, are both the pawns of Enthess. Where Enthess is on the southern end of the the western shore, Tyr Congar sits where Enthess' peninsula meets the western shore, and Tyr Kebi is north of that, closer to Rothmead Keep.

Tyr Fosse
A Tower on the south-eastern shore, threatened oversea by Tyr Moel L’Asrian. The Tower is a Center of Culture and contains the Library of Garza. Alternatively seeking protection from Plour Enour and Tyr Moselle, Bronwyn hui Yordell, the Librarian of Garza, plays a dangerous game that will eventually see her tower a client of one of the three.

Tyr Moselle
This tower lies on the Eastern Shore south of Hadelm, and is ruled by the famed ranger, Randell cui Ithyrikie

Plour Enour (Tyr Issout)
Tyr Issout, as a human land, fell to the desert millennia ago. The people were dispersed, and the tower was turned into a large tenement. The city was eventually absorbed by the En’Oui, a race of desert “elves”. The tower was incorporated into their already vast system of desert complexes. They maintain ties with Tyr Fosse, and have a rivalry with Tyr Moselle.
Plour Enour is not led by an individual, but by the Upper Council.


Tyr Houel
The last tower is unlike the others. It lies not on the shore of the Green Sea, but within it, on the island of Erca. Perpetually shrouded in mists, it is seen by none except in the grand meeting room, from the inside only, when the Tower Keepers are called to meet. The Island is the retreat of Asrian, and is the the home of his Lieb Tirantur - the Balancers, the Sea Walkers.

When Enthess (named for the Enthess of Pol's story), daughter of Asrian, ruler of Tyr Moel L'Asrian, known as the Owl, fell from the grace of her father on Erca, her advisor was the crone Jazrael. Jazrael counciled her in the ways of treachery, deceit, and esoteric knowledge, and delivered to her allies among the elves. Jazrael was, in fact, Lil's possession.

When the coalition led by Enthess defeated the alliance of her brother, Saul, keeper of Bornhelm, and her father in Tyr Houel, Jazrael twisted her hooks in Enthess and convinced her that as her father was withdrawn on the Island of Erca, so too would she be, but as the new Empress of Ando, she needed to sit in a position of power on the mainland. Jazrael would maintain the figure of Tyr Houel, and complete its retreat into the mists.

Of course, Lil's intention in taking Tyr Houel was to confiscate a base from which to launch her own conquest of Ando, and the world around. All too easily, Jazrael faded from the thoughts of Enthess, and Tyr Houel faded from the minds of the world, even though its Apex room was still used as a meeting point for the Tower Keepers.

Lil abandoned the corpse of Jazrael in favor of the nubile young body of the Jezebel, which Enthess discovered only years later when she came seeking her advisor to discover why the magic sustaining her immortality was unraveling. By this time, Jezebel had made the secrets of Asrian her own, and now commanded the dread Lieb Tirantur, though they were a dark and twisted shadow of the dreadnoughts they had already been. Tyr Houel was renamed Bil'Obal, and Jezebel had convinced the Builders to begin new construction on the tower, turning it into an automated city larger even than Plour Enour. The new tower was so large that the island of Erca beneath it was slowing sinking into the sea, and the lower levels of the tower had begun to flood. Lil's response to this was to build more, which perpetuated the cycle.

Enthess discovered the birth of a vast army of Lil's Get and Necrotic slaves in the birthing, but Jezebel's treachery was complete, and Enthess herself was made a slave and literal puppet of Lil. Enthess' body remained for some time a shell that lay in state when not needed, to be animated by Lil when she needed her mouth. Enthess' spirit was slowly tortured and devoured within the Jezebel, and as a game, she let her have partial control from time to time over the Jezebel's body to beg for mercy.

The first great city on Coera, the first true city where men lived off the excess of the landscape around them, where their primary occupation was not farming or shepherding or gathering, was the city of Babal. Their primary occupation was war, and their Jezebel was the reincarnation of Lil.

Built on the foundations laid by the Delvers, the Underworlders, and populated by agrarian clans united against plains horsemen, Babal developed over the course of a millenia from a town of several hundred (there were many such towns) to a metropolis of millions. When Lil was first reincarnated, no-one even suspected that it was possible, and no-one thought it was worth preparing for. When the clansmen united against the horsemen, no-one thought it was more than another political ripple in the currents of rapidly changing human politics. When the town became a city and moved to the rock of Babal, watchers took note of the development, and wondered how long such a thing could sustain itself. When the Jezebel, Lady of the city, did not die or even age over the course of many lifetimes (a typical lifetime being 250 years or so), there was great worry, especially as Babal now sustained itself and even grew strictly by conquest and tribute. Magic and knowledge of underworld passages allowed the warriors of Babal to hit towns and villages hundreds of leagues away and return to their own city in one week. Advanced technology provided by the Jezebel made them unstoppable.

When it became clear that Babal was not to be overthrown by conventional means, even with the aid of the elf-gods, Adam and Eva intervened with their sons Cain and Able. But Lil, ever the crafty one, seduced Cain and convinced him to kill Able. While Cain never joined Lil's cause, he was cast to the wilds and succeeded by Seth. Eva would not see another of her sons fall to naivete, however, so she enlisted another of his brothers as his mentor. But since there were none experienced beside Cain, Eva pulled a brother from a future time to mentor Seth.

While Seth proved capable of unseating the Jezebel at Babal, he was not able to decorporate her, only disperse her city by removing human's ability to understand the language of heaven. The city quickly dissolved when no man could speak to another, and Lil slinked away to her spiderhole.

It was Enoch, son of Eva, who succeeded Seth as the ruler of Tseon - city on the hill that was Babal - and led it to a period of prosperity that lasted nearly a millenia, balancing Lil's rule.