7 Kings of the Forest

1-The Oak King

The Oak King has put a lot of money into having one of the world's largest navies, to protect his merchant ships from pirates and other navies and put other Kingdoms and Queendoms off invading his large island country by sea, and trade has brought a lot of prosperity to his Kingdom. Those who are non noble by birth, but who are able and willing to join his Navy, have at least a middling chance of reaching commissioned rank up to Captain or even higher. A nobleman who was given a high rank in the Navy merely because of his nationality, might end up accidently wrecking a mighty warship that costs a great deal of money. Whilst there are pockets of poverty in his country most of his people are doing alright and he is a popular and a successful monarch.

2-The Yew King

The Yew King uses poison against his most hated foes but only incredibly rarely, incredibly secretly, and as a tool of statecraft, unlike the Manchineel King who likes to be feared and known as a poisoner. His soldiers have secret military stockpiles of poisoned weapons , but the Yew King has a no first use policy on using them. If he does poison one of his subjects, he has them given an ornate funeral so that the person is not seen as one of his foes.

3-The Fir King

The Fir King is a ruler of a country in the far north, where in the winter the military forts have thick walls of ice. With rainy springs and autumns, and freezing temperatures in winter, only in summer could an invader get very far. He treats most of his subjects well, but is harsh towards criminals, forcing them to do hard labour. He is remarkably open about most things, and shuns assassinations and the use of poison as the Wrong Thing To Do.

4-The Elm King

The kingdom of the Elm King is struggling at the moment with a deadly plague that is such a big problem that the borders have been sealed to prevent the contagion from spreading any further. Until then his kingdom made a lot of money making and exporting fine furniture for the elites of the nearby kingdoms, but now it is only known as a place of death and disease. This upsets the Elm King a great deal, as he is not a cruel man and wants his subjects to prosper.

5-The Apple King

The Apple King has plenty of apple orchards in his kingdom. These provide plenty of jobs, provide food that is given for free during famines, and ensure thriving apple juice and hard cider industries. He is a popular monarch as a result because of this, and exports apples to all the neighbouring countries, bringing in more money to the Treasury as a result. Once, in the distant past, when the apple harvests failed people were sacrificed to the gods in wicker men that were set on fire, but it is extremely unlikely that such a thing goes on even on the out of the way islands.

6-The Manchineel King

The Manchineel King has a terrifying habit of poisoning people that he doesn’t like, rather then having them formally tried and executed or subjecting them to some lesser punishment. His soldiers make use of poisoned arrows and other poisoned weapons, and are well armoured as they fear the same kinds of weapons being used against them. This makes his country incredibly hard to conquer , and although he is hardly the most popular of monarchs, most of his subjects would still prefer being ruled by him then being conquered by someone else. His soldiers also know that they would be unlikely to be taken prisoner because of the weapons that they use, so they will fight very hard in combat, which makes his army incredibly dangerous.

7-The Sequoia King

The ancestors of the Sequoia King were aggressive military geniuses who conquered a huge empire and made a great success of it. Whilst the present King is much less warlike than his predecessors, he still levies high taxes to maintain the strongest armed forces on the planet. Despite the taxation, his country has relatively few miserable poor people, a strong work ethic and economy, and a strong sense of national pride. Many people try to immigrate, both legally and illegally as well.