Backround
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
This section is meant to be viewed only by those who have already read the epic Branchwater and are looking to expand their knowledge of Esrael.
After the Anahalmist defeated God, they banished nearly every human from the First Continent. They created three new continents for the humans to live on, in case the sinister council of seven ever found a use for the punative race. A small group of humans landed on the continent of Esrael, and founded the Water Kingdom. Eager to begin rebuilding their society, the priests built a temple in a large forest on the northern half of the continent. They named the forest Mithildril, though as the years went by, the language changed, as all do, and the forest was renamed Mithildrin.
From this temple, the priests began to dilligently exercise the gift that God had given all humans; the ability to create life. The lifeforce on Esrael resided in its rivers and its soil, and from the well of the temple, the priests created mantliks, creatures with extended life spans to serve as guardians to the humans. But from the soil came something to counter the mantliks.
Not long after the the humans had begun creating mantliks, a race of large, scaled, lizard-like creatures emerged from the caves and the underground of Esrael, and terrorized the humans. It was a long time before a way was found to survive against the creatures, and when it was, a prominent mantlik female named Karessa took it upon herself to save the kingdom. More can be learned of this story by reading the novel Branchwater.
After the second generation of humans were born on Esrael, they noticed that their magical prowess was beginning to fade. One priest, Saugamin, became paranoid of losing his powers altogether, and began performing secret rituals, against the will of those participating, in which he'd attempt to extract the victim's magical energy for himself. He met with limited success, and was eventually discovered and banished from the kingdom.
Saugamin, along with a small group of sympathizers, travelled south across the River Godavri and founded kingdom of Murklund, where they continued obsessing over their waning magical power. The Water Kingdom became Branchwater over the years, and the two kingdoms had very little to do with each other for the majority of the coming centuries.
It was only after the First Army appeared south of the Branchwater castle town, and were later defeated, did Branchwater and Murklund really begin interacting with each other for the first time in seven hundred years. That story takes place in the as-of-yet unpublished novel Edgewood.