Primary language: Kaveran
Primary religion: Church of the Four — churches in Kavera operate independently by law, without a central structure, after power struggles between a centralized church and the government led to a civil war several decades ago.
Government: Established in its current form after the war, Kavera has a panel of regional representatives seated in Vertal. Representatives are democratically elected on a local level. Currently there are 5 on the panel, representing Vertal, Prisa, the southeastern mountain region, the northern region, and the central/western region.
Geography: Kavera has a temperate climate with cold winters and warm summers across most of its fairly large area. There are mountainous regions in the northwest and southeast. It borders Yanwei to the north.
Cities and Regions of Note
Vertal
A port city at the southern end of Kavera, and the national capital. The world headquarters of the Benevolent Union are located here.
Prisa
Kavera’s cultural capital, influenced in some ways by Murio’s role in Nessiny. Kavera’s largest and oldest university is located here, along with several other schools. It also houses a large enclave of Nessinian expatriates and their descendants, most of whom are former nobles whose clans were forced out of power.
Southeast Region
Mountainous and still rural, the southeastern region of Kavera is rich in mines for iron and other metals. Coal mining is banned by Eytran practice, as coal is made up of living things, but the area also has a fair bit of it in the ground. Mining is closely tied to earthbreaking, as earthbreakers scout for minerals and secure the structure of mines, so there is a greater concentration of earthbreakers in southeastern hill country than most other areas of Kavera. The area will soon push technological development forward with the invention of the steam engine, but we’re not quite to that point yet…
Laketon
Located at the northeastern edge of Kavera, near the border with Yanwei, on a large lake. Surrounded by cattle grazing land, Laketon began as a trading post and became a modest but thriving city still closely tied to the cattle and dairy industries.
Due to a need for ranch workers at a particular point in history when Laketon was growing rapidly, there was an influx of Furoni immigrants whose descendants still make up a strong community within Laketon. There is also more connection and commerce with Yanwei than in most other parts of the country; most long-time Laketon residents know at least a little Yanweian, and ranchers in Yanwei train their apprentices in Kaveran to get an advantage in the market.
Wildern
Located at the northwestern edge of Kavera, in the foothills and mountains bordering Yanwei. Wildern evolved out of a group of logging camps, establishing a town and then a small but flourishing city. Wildern’s expansion toward city status is a recent development in the timeline of the story. This was influenced in no small part by the Benevolent Union and particularly one of its agents, Aines Shora, who pushed for the extension of a shipping canal to reach Wildern, then built the city’s first secular hospital. That helped to accelerate the diversification of industry that was already happening in the city, adding a large number of teachers and medical personnel to a city that had once been dominated by the logging industry and those who supported it.
Wildern is extremely hilly and still quite forested, with a great number of street trees and a large wooded park/preserve on its eastern edge.
Recently in the events of the story, the pass through the mountains into Yanwei was widened and improved, which will likely lead to Wildern becoming the seat of more international trade.
Great Western Road
The Great Western Road, the largest and most-developed contiguous road in Kavera, stitches together the farming communities of the western region from Prisa northward to Wildern. It is frequently used by traders moving goods from the wheat-growing region to other parts of Kavera and beyond, and by the two Golden Caravans.