Kingdom of Keoland The World of Greyhawk & The World of Greyhawk Wiki The current year for our World of Greyhawk campaign is set during 579CY. Inspired By Gary Gygax

Keoland or the Kingdom of Keoland, is one of the oldest kingdoms in the Flanaess. Older even than Aerdy in the Flanaess is ancient Keoland, mainspring of the Sheldomar Valley. The foundation of Keoland represented the birth of the first postmigration human kingdom in the Flanaess.

For nearly a millennium, the Keoish heartlands have spanned the lands from Gradsul at the Azure Coast to the Rushmoors in the north, between the great Sheldomar and Javan rivers in the east and west. These lands are some of the most provincial and bucolic in the Flanaess, having been largely untouched by war and conflict for centuries. The climate is customarily temperate year-round and the soils of the central valleys are rich, allowing the kingdom to grow wheat, rye, and other grains in great abundance. The country has never been rich in terms of mineral wealth, and perhaps for that reason it has always conducted a brisk trade with its neighbors, to whom it supplies staples such as foodstuffs in return for hard coin. The folk of the land can be friendly and generous, but they were primarily noted for their superstitious natures, particularly their wariness of foreigners.

The people were a mixture of Suel and Oeridian bloodlines, well blended for the most part in the provinces of the nation, except in certain rarefied circles such as the nobility and other closed societies. Flan still exist in small pockets in the kingdom, no longer numerous in the heartlands and driven to the peripheries of the valley. The common tongue was spoken there, but the primary dialect was called Keolandish. The speech of the common folk is highly recognizable for its accent.

Long ago, the lands which now form Keoland were part of an ancient human Flan empire. Surviving evidence from this era includes tomb paintings and statues, which give clues as to how these people looked and dressed. They used bronze weapons, and rode chariots in battle. Their society also included demihuman races unknown to modern Keoland.

Keoland has a temperate climate year-round. It consists of a great deal of mostly flat, arable land. The most notable exceptions are the Good Hills in the northwest, and the Dreadwood forest in the south. There are no notable mountains within Keoland's borders. Most of the kingdom is surrounded by rivers which divide it from other nations, but only the southeast of the nation is adjacent to the sea.

Keoland is the largest kingdom in the Sheldomar Valley. Its current borders are primarily defined in the east by the Sheldomar River; in the south by the Azure Sea; in the north by the Lort River and Rushmoors, and to the west by the Javan River, although the County of Cryllor extends across that river where it is bounded by mountains and hills.

Keoland is surrounded on most sides by nations whose lands once formed its provinces. To the north lies the Gran March; to the east the Duchy of Ulek, County of Ulek and Principality of Ulek; to the south the Hold of the Sea Princes; to the southwest the Yeomanry; and to the west Sterich.

As of 579 CY, the population of Keoland totaled some 1,800,000 persons. Three quarters of the Keoish citizenry are humans, chiefly of mixed Suloise and Oeridian heritage, with a minority of Flan. Elves make up 8%, with six-tenths of those Sylvan elves, and four-tenths high elves, many in the Dreadwood forest. Gnomes are 6%, primarily inhabiting the Good Hills.

Halflings, primarily lightfoot halflings, are 5% of the population, half-elves 2%, and dwarves 1%. The remaining 1% of the population is made up of other races. In recent history, a significant number of high elves and mountain dwarves fled to Keoland during the invasion of Geoff and Sterich. Many of these mountain dwarves resettled in the Good Hills, as did many gnomes originally from the Stark Mounds. The most common alignments in Keoland are lawful good, neutral good, neutral, lawful neutral, and chaotic good.

The most popular deities among the Keoish are Heironeous, Phaulkon, Saint Cuthbert, Fharlanghn, Ehlonna, Lydia, Osprem, Zilchus, Kord, Xerbo, Norebo, Olidammara, the Seldarine, and Trithereon. Additionally, nearly every deity of the Flanaess has at least some small following somewhere in Keoland. Atroa, Delleb, and Sotillion also have a following here, with Sotillion's largest temple located in Niole Dra. Rao is worshiped in the western Flanaess, and has a temple in Keoland.

The Founding Charter of the Kingdom technically forbids establishment of organized religion, a move originally intended to prevent religious conflict within the ethnically diverse founding cultures of Keoland. Despite this, the government of Keoland have never actively attempted to suppress religion, and worship of gods is as popular as in any other realm of the Flanaess. However, the religious groups have little influence on politics.

Notable Viscounties
• Viscounty of Salinmoor