Anarthis is it's international name, meaning "southern lands" in Hartheran. Natively and elsewhere it is called Bordan/ Bourdahn/ Bhourdan (various local pronunciations). Also Hirèrk (arch.)

Eastern region of the Anasthias continent. After the Torthien Crisis that threatened a continent-wide war, Anarthis was defined as:, traditionally all lands south of the Gulf of Narill, east of the Dun Jaen mountains, and north of the river Roul (or Ruldin). Traditionally, Bhourdan itself is the fertile maritime crescent encircled by hills. Surrounding regions are self-governing, occupied in the west by nomads and independent colonies, only under Bhourdani administration by general consent.

The vast majority of the land is arid, semi-desert uplands, lying in the rain shadow between the towering Dun Jaen and the Bordani Hills. The east coast ranges from warm temperate in the north, through lush tropical plains to rainy equatorial swamp and forest in the south. The Bhourdan province itself is a humid maritime grassland, turning more arid further south.

By treaty, Anarthis has a massive land area, but in practice the majority of it is scarcely habitable except for autochthonous natives. Only the homeland province of Bhourdan is green and cultivated, encircled by low mountains, nourished by rivers and the sea. It is subsequently one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

14 M, almost all (87%) located in Bhourdan province itself.

Ceremonial Kingdom. For a large country it has perhaps the most curious system of government in the world: a pacifist-syndicalist anarchy with the outward forms of a ceremonial -religious oligarchy. The titular head of state is the Dying King. Outsiders believe that kings are constantly assassinated, but this is not so. Kings are in fact appointed for five years, must have no heirs, and are subjected to various tortuous trials every year - including castration - as a kind of national atonement. The King's cermonial purpose is to portray and atone for wrongdoings of his people, and they rarely survive the period. They are mostly male, more for the reason that men are seen as more prone to moral weakness, but there have been queens, or rather, female Kings.

Bhourdan operates on a gift and barter economy, though there is some use of coinage in ports.

Hirèrk was once the westernmost province of the lost land of Miyarous. Its capital was Miyarsic, a river city a little to the east of the modern city, Marr Sirque. Many centuries after the fall, the province developed a co-operative syndicalist government founded on Miyarroun utopian principles, which evolved into the modern nation.