How would a half-steppeland, half-desert kingdom with only a single river function?

On one of the continents in one of my fantasy worlds, I have a kingdom. The kingdom is comprised of two different geographical regions, a steppeland area in the kingdom's north and a desert region in the kingdom's south.

The problem is, I've been trying for a while now to figure out how this kingdom would function, as the geography poses several issues.

• The only major source of freshwater in the kingdom is a tributary river that flows from the steppeland area into a larger river on the kingdom's northern border. The kingdom is surrounded by two large bodies of water on its western and eastern sides, an ocean to the west, and a large inland sea to the east, but you can't really use that water because it's saltwater.

• The kingdom doesn't really have access to any major forests because of its geography.

• There are only two major cities in the kingdom due to it only having a single river and the land being flat, the capital city at the head of the steppeland river and a port city on the kingdom's eastern coast also in the steppelands.

• There are no mountains or large lakes in the kingdom.
• The world technology level is roughly medieval.

So, taking the points above into account, how would a kingdom with this kind of geography function? Specifically:

• How would the king maintain control over his people with such harsh geography?

• How would the kingdom's citizens live, considering the lack of land good for building settlements?

• Lastly, how do I justify the kingdom not being invaded?

Edit: It seems I didn't really describe the geography all that well, so I'm going to link a map: http://imgur.com/XXJReeX The kingdom I'm referring to is the one called Morizar

posted over 7 years ago

LordofFantasy15‭

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