Gadirea

After Poseidonea, the mountain kingdom of Gadirea is the strongest and steadiest in the empire, having kept much of its First Age power. Its colonies then spread widely, and their traces remain in Alba, Iber, Galecea, Aragana and nearby lands.

It runs along the northeastern coast, with Poseidonea to the south, the River Oceanus east and northeast, and Mnesea to the west, with the Atlas range as the frontier that mostly isolates it. Its eastern slopes yield platinum, gold, silver, tin, iron and copper, plus lapis lazuli, amethysts, emeralds, sapphires and rubies, wealth that makes it the empire's Second Kingdom. Its population ranks second among the ten kingdoms, yet only two of its cities are large: inland Kabir, the capital, which commands a key crossroads and the only road into Mnesea, and Cardigiawn on the Bay of Dyved, the sole port, which is nearly useless in the northeast winter winds. Much of the trade in its sought-after minerals therefore passes through Atlantis.

Gadireans blend Atlantean and Mediterranean looks, mostly bronze-skinned and dark-haired, and a large foreign community keeps the mixing going. The cold mountains call for heavy clothes: furs of bear, deer, ram and griffon, long thick linen tunics and heavy cotton robes. The king is said to descend from Gadieros, a son of Poseidon, but foreign blood has made the claim thin, and it is now only a point of local pride.