Note

There are four main Kingdoms in the world in which this story takes place: Shioa, Kotauru, Hasarii, and Arasya. Arasya, the largest of the four, is divided into five smaller Kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, the Eastern Kingdom, the Western Kingdom, and finally, the Central Kingdom. Overall, monarchs rule the Central Kingdom, and the monarch must be crowned as a king or a queen before they can take the throne and rule. The heirs become eligible to take the throne once they are fifteen years of age. Because of their youth, each heir acquires two protectors: a knight and a sorcerer or sorceress. The legitimate heir, or the first heir in line for the throne, acquires his or her protectors when he or she turns thirteen. The remaining heirs, if any, each acquire their protectors when they turn fifteen. At the age of sixteen, each heir must choose a companion and when the heir turns seventeen, take their choice companion as their husband or wife.
                The remaining four Arasyian Kingdoms are ruled by lords and ladies, or by monarchs. The monarchs, however, cannot be crowned as a king or a queen and must remain as a prince or a princess, unless they marry into the Royal Family of the Central Kingdom. An heir of the Royal Family, however, can choose abdicate the throne in order to marry someone that is not from or related to the ruling family of one of the Arasyian Kingdoms, or someone that is not from or related to the ruling family of any of the other Kingdoms.
                The other three main Kingdoms are also ruled by monarchies. To the north of Arasya lies Shioa, the oldest of the four Kingdoms that is also ruled by a kings and queens. One of the closer Kingdoms to Arasya, Shioan and Arasyian cultures are very similar, and even share some of the same rituals and ideas. For more than ten centuries, the two Kingdoms have resided peacefully with one another and have become extremely powerful allies.
                To the west of Arasya is Kotauru, the second youngest of the Kingdoms, the youngest being Arasya. Kotauru has mainly been lead by powerful emperors, and very rarely by empresses. Its people and rulers are somewhat reluctant to take in the ideas of the other Kingdoms, and are deeply rooted in their own traditions and ideas. Kotauru is a peninsula, surrounded on its northern, western, and southern sides by water. In the northern part of the Kingdom is a range of mountains, rivers flowing through them and serving as a waterway to and from the oceans.
                Finally, to the southeast of Arasya is Hasarii, the second oldest of the four Kingdoms. Ruled also by kings and queens, Hasarii is mainly a vast desert, but in some parts contains tropical forests. The Kingdom has yet to find a truly good ruler, usually having a weak and kind ruler, or a strong and cruel one. Because of this, Hasarii has had few treaties with the other Kingdoms and, for the most part, has not been involved in wars.
                                                                         ~