Valorim
Valorim is the largest of the four known continents on the surface of Ermarian, and the most recent one to be settled (see Discovery and Conquest of Valorim).
Factbook
Geography
Size
The area of Valorim is estimated to be 1.5 million square miles. The distance between the city of Krizsan and Blackcrag Fortress is a week's hard riding for an Imperial courier, and the whole continent spans approximately 1500 miles from its southernmost tip to the isthmus that connects it to Pralgad.
Location
Valorim lies immediately southward of Pralgad, and is connected to the latter via an isthmus. This isthmus, a narrow, rocky mountain range that only just reaches above sea level, is quite hard to cross, and indeed most traffic between the two continents is by ship.
Climate
The continent lies around 40° north of the Equator, has temperate weather and mild winters in the north, and close to mediterranean climate in the south. The west coast of the continent has frequent rain and strong winds (especially the Isle of Bigail, which is not shielded by mountain ranges from the open sea).
Population
Valorim is the home of nearly 10 million humans at Present Day, though this number is swiftly growing. Further, there are estimated to be slightly over 250,000 Nephilim. Humans, unlike Nephilim, are not native to the continent, and most inhabitants are second to third generation settlers. The peace that has come with the end of the Plagues and with the Reconciliation has resulted in a boom of immigration, where more than a hundred thousand people arrive from the other, more populated continents every year (and from Avernum). The population size could well double within a few decades.
The centers of great population density are mainly in and around Tinraya Keep, in Footracer Province.
Government
Administration
Valorim, alternatively called a backwater and a frontier, is one of the remotest corners of the Empire in terms of administration (Aizo is farther away, but its infrastructure is much more established). As such, even in the days of tyrannical Emperors it has always been reigned less by imperial decree than by bureaucracy. This bureaucracy involves a partitioning of the continent into several large provinces, each governed by the mayor of the provincial capital. The mayors each enjoy near autonomous rule, though they convene in irregular intervals as a joint council. They each answer to an Empire liaison, who ranks below the mayor, but who is in (more or less) regular rapport with the Emperor.
The smaller towns of a province are governed by their own mayors, but these are appointed by the mayor of the capital and thus owe all their authority to him or her.
Provinces
Valorim is divided into six provinces, five on the mainland and one island. These are:
Capitals
In the same order, these are the provincial capitals:
Military
The mayors do not have the authority to form or lead an army. They do have control of a city guard (not limited in size), which cannot act outside the provincial borders.
Military authority is held solely by the Generals and Dervishes of the Empire, who in turn answer to the Empire liaison or directly to the Emperor, but not to the mayor - frequently to the latter's frustration.
However, the mayor has the power to employ small groups of adventurers or mercenaries to take care of problems - these adventurers technically cannot take their business beyond the provincial borders either, but unlike with the city guard, this is practically unenforcable.
History
See the article Discovery and Conquest of Valorim from our History of Ermarian series.