====== Imperial Heartlands ======
The Imperial Heartlands, more commonly called simply the Heartlands, are a relatively densely settled region in [[geography:sekhaa:start#southern Sekhaa]], consisting mostly of the lower elevations of the watersheds of the [[geography:sekhaa:river:Sahvarr]] and the [[geography:sekhaa:river:Oresh]]. Though the boundaries are not precise, it is generally held that the region is defined by the [[geography:sekhaa:marine:Gulf of Shaad]] to the west, the foothills of the [[geography:sekhaa:region:Spine of Sirdanth]] on the northwest, the [[geography:sekhaa:marine:Denoric Gulf]] and [[geography:sekhaa:marine:Windward Sea]] to the north, the [[geography:sekhaa:region:Sibakh Hills]] and [[geography:sekhaa:region:Haatar Range]] to the east, and [[geography:ocean:uvuuns_reach|Uvuun's Reach]] to the south. The region is generally considered part of the [[geography:sekhaa:region:Cerulean Tangle]] and those parts of it not intensively used by [[takma:|takmar]] are mostly rainforest, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_forest|cloud forest]], and wetlands.

The Heartlands are so named because this region was the core of the [[geopolitical:Empire:]] that once dominated southern and southwestern Sekhaa and the near [[geography:sekhaa:region:Brightness]]. Since the fall of the Empire, the political landscape has consisted of a fragmented patchwork of city-states with both intense mutual rivalries and a strong sense of their common history and past greatness. [[ethnicity:heartlander|Heartlanders]] tend to be perceived by other ethnicities as self-important and parochial, acting as if the Heartlands were still the center of the world and everyone else quaint provincials as best and barbarians at worst.

{{tag>wip}}