Northern Kingdoms

A fractured realm where human dominance was won by fire, now held together by fragile treaties and constant war.

The Northern Kingdoms are the fragmented human states in the north of the unnamed Continent, where human colonists arrived about five hundred years before the events of the stories. Following a series of wars against elves and dwarves, humans became the dominant race, pushing non-human races into small ghettos or wilderness regions. This political landscape is defined by its lack of unity; unlike the monolithic Nilfgaard Empire to the south, the North consists of fractured states perpetually at odds with one another. The saga unfolds in the aftermath of a major war between these Northern Kingdoms and the expanding Nilfgaard Empire, with a second conflict igniting midway through the narrative.

Quick Facts

Primary rivals: Nilfgaard Empire

Lore & Background

The history of the Northern Kingdoms is rooted in conflict and displacement. Several thousand years before the stories, elves from overseas settled the Continent, where they encountered gnomes and dwarves; after a war between the elves and dwarves, the dwarves retreated into the mountains and the elves settled in the plains and forests. Human colonists arrived about five hundred years before the events in the stories, igniting a series of wars that the humans won.

The non-human races, now considered second-class citizens, often live in small ghettos within human settlements or in wilderness regions that humans have not yet explored; werewolves and vampires appeared after a magical event known as the Conjunction of the Spheres. During the centuries preceding the stories, most of the Continent's southern regions were taken over by the Nilfgaard Empire, while the north belongs to the fragmented Northern Kingdoms.

The Northern Kingdoms consist of Aedirn, Cidaris, Cintra, the Hengfors League, Kaedwen, Kerack, Kovir and Poviss, Lyria and Rivia, Redania, Temeria and Verden, along with several minor duchies and principalities such as Bremervoord or Ellander.

Reader's Guide

Travelers or scholars studying the Northern Kingdoms must understand that this region is not a single entity but a collection of sovereign states often locked in conflict. The political structure is best described as fragmented feudal monarchies, where kings and queens frequently prioritize their own borders and succession rights over regional stability. The human presence here is dominant but precarious; they live alongside a suppressed population of non-humans who are either confined to ghettos or pushed into the wilds. The saga is set after the first war between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms, and a second war begins in the middle of the series.