~: Contents :~
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(Introduction)
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[Southern Frontiers]
- Lord Fingers
-Iron Horn
-'Wendel'
-Gold Crown & Silver Crown
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[Western Kingdoms/Dan]
-Pheraxian League
-Western Alliance
-Five Cities
-Nightlaw Guilds
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[Farian Vales/Ashten River]
-Greywater
-Greenpine Monastery
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[Central Kingdoms/Scir]
-The New Capital
-Afkeylu
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[Meres]*
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[Summerlands/Paleos]*
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[Others]
-Council of Nine
-Order of Jhantin
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Territories and Factions
The great south-eastern continent of Logross is known by the old title 'Yhorgii', which is read as both the land and the mapped boundaries of the original Sirin Empire.
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The Old Empire (OE) had unified the three realms of the West coast Danten, the Central Sirintai, and the tribes of the Eastern Steppes, from which the Alwath Hordes would arise and pour into the old world, eventually coming to rule Afkeylu, the ancient capital of Sirin.
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Know then that it is the seventeenth year of the reign of Empress Chiazhen the First, Daughter of the Alwath Conquerer Golexian the First, Favoured of The Sun. Recent events have included the War of False Armies and the War of Assassins that placed Chiazhen I on the throne and extinguished sibling rivals. The New Capital is in the eighth year of construction by the banks of the river Neethe.
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Since the Conquerer Golexian I the borders and alliances within Yhorgii have re-emerged as a patchwork of new kingdoms given as reward to Alwath generals and Sirintai nobles that turned sides during the Battle of Broken Swords. The West Coast has rebelled during the last thirty years since the collapse of the OE, and is presently ruled over by self styled Dantian Kings of the sea and mountains thereabouts.The western borders are also host to the independent state known as the 'Five Cities', an enclave alliance among five benevolent tyrants who have fortified the mountain passes against their Dantian neighbours and the Sun Empire.
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South-Western Yhorgii has been known as an arid borderland of infighting warlords since the early records of the OE. The barbaric half-men are tolerated for cheap slaves and other trade that is unique to its harsh environment.
Southern Frontiers.
"Contested Badlands/South-Western Wastes"
Lord Fingers - Half bred Warlord based in the hidden clay canyons of the central wastes. Claims the wells of Haggletown and the central regions until Ashten River. Reports from border merchants describe Lord F. as wearing a shirt of "mummified fingers and knucklebones". [- Executed by unknowns in the eighteenth year of Chiazhen I.]
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Iron Horn - The minotaur brigand ruler of a strip of territory between the Tzaren Mtns/Lifelost Coasts and the central wastes.
'Wendel' - Most travellers through the wastes hear stories of a Sirin wizard that haunts an area between Lord F. and Iron Horn. Testimonies of encounters with 'white haired beastmen', and a great pit in the earth scramble from the lips of outland survivors.
Gold Crown & Silver Crown - Rival warlords of the highland regions, south of the main guarded passes along the Road of Tears. Gold is a mongrel breed like most of the populace, Silver Crown a pardoned criminal from the Empire who purchased a small army to cut out his own domain. The rivalry is exploited by the Empress, their crowns 'gifts' of unequal value.
Western Kingdoms.
"The Pheraxian League"
Fueled by the Temple Treasuries of Darramaea, the Pheraxian League is the largest military confederation of the north Dantian Kings, organized foremost to preserve the freedom of the west from the Sun Empire. Also controls the trade routes from Darramaea to Meres through the Northsea Passages.
'Lionas' - City state of Lio. Ruled by the House Berexes.
- Prince Roth, Second Son of King Kiphross Berexes. Commander of the Fleet of Lionas.
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'Darramaea' - Largest Island off the North-West Coast of Dan. Historically the major grain producer for the Western Kingdoms as well as a strategic 'bridge' between Yhorgii and the Northern continent Khouross.
"The Western Alliance"
Led by the Zoe'ahni bloodline of Drawoah, the Western Alliance is a traditional unwritten treaty among the western families, honoured in the present age by the southern Dantian Kings. Its original sentiment was the mutual protection of the kingdoms against eastern armies. The Alliance worked with the Alwath invaders in breaking the old Sirin rule to liberate the west coast, only keeping peace with Golexian I until they were ready to declare themselves independant of any new eastern overlords.
After driving out the Sirin eunachs and nobility, internal debates on how the Alliance should be administered divided the Dantian kings, the northern most forming their own league (see 'Pheraxian').
'Drawoah' - Peer city state of the southern Kings of Dan.
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- King Lerateis, of the House Zoe'ahni. First amongst equals in the Western Alliance.
'Couch of Heroes' - Megalithic table monument reserved for the funeral pyre of Kings and the Valiant, overlooking the Western Ocean from the shores of Drawoah.
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"The Five Cities"
As the Eastern factions remained pinned under the plans of Chiazhen's strategist during the War of False Armies, three foreigners along with a native Dantian and Sirintai came to rule five villages on the west coast. Arriving as mercenaries hired by the Dantian rulers to drive out the residual eunuchs and spies of the OE, peculiar circumstances left them on the thrones of the kings and judges who they had slain in turn after their rivals.
Beckonging those of free enterprise and a refuge from the Sun Empire, The Five Cities will test a traveller's wits and purse, enticing them into the cut throat alleys and sea sprayed decks of Fortune's boldest.
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Hawksparrow - Tyrant king of Kur, a foreigner of unknown origins who drifted on Fate's wind until his captaincy in the mercenary armies purchased by the West. Thirty summers or more in age, a stern but fair veteran who has earned his position with more sword strokes than diplomacy.
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Limrin - Sirintai swordsman with unfounded claims to a fallen noble house. Regardless of the truth of Limrin's heritage, he was once an assassin for House Ferenjo before its extermination by Chiazhen's armies. The Tyrant king of Ogla
Leora - Tyrant queen of Hone. A foreigner to Yhorgii, Leora is a proud beauty with a mane of pale gold, riding often on one of her many horses through the Arcadian wilderness and tide lapped beaches. Some who have gazed on her symmetry wonder if she is as human as she claims to be.
Tasriff Dhulak - Also known as the 'Warlock of the West', Tasriff is an enigma to all but the other four tyrants, who had journeyed with him many moons ago. What is known is that he is a practitioner of the forbidden arts (magic), and a decadent madman who entertains a secret court of like-minded hedonists. The Tyrant king of Yi.
Endo - Plucky little Tyrant king of Kered. Recognized by his red burnished helmet and many wives, Endo is a halfling man born into the Dantian regions after his ancestors escaped the slavery of the OE. Now a king in the alliance, he wastes no time living life to the hilt, figuratively and otherwise.
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"The Nightlaw Guilds"
Whereas the Courts of Afkeylu and noble houses of the Sirintai employed a network of assassin-spies to control and preserve their positions in the east, the Dantian coasts and Summerlands came to protect their own interests through a different ‘law’ that would take affect at night.
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Scribes trace the origin of the Nightlaw Guilds to a time when the Dan regions were troubled by robber-barons who mercilessly terrorized the countryside until village chiefs and kings turned a blind eye to the retributions of organized militia who had begun to capture and burn their tormentors.
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Organized and armed, the early ‘Night Courts’ almost came to control trade and the routes by which it was gathered. A compromise was agreed to by the Dantian noble families and the commanders of the underground, dividing their profits between what the Gods would apportion to night and day: the nobles would keep their properties and the produce born under Heiross thereof, the militia captains would be allowed to trade in the unpleasant tasks of vice and vendetta from dusk to the first cock’s crow.
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Through the long years the Nightlaw Guilds have declined from social justice and come to administer the ‘sundown trades’ (blackmarket), dividing into four known families that inherit control of the local sundown factions:
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The Barbossas’ – Summerlands.
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The Ogrens’ – North Dantian Coast.
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The Ar’halars’ – West and Southern borders.
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Bikandji – The recent leader of a breakaway from the Barbossa Family, Bikandji has moved his operation over the western borders into the Five Cities where he is protected from the many blood oaths against his name.
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Farian Vales & The Ashten Borderlands
'Greywater' - The newly appointed capital of the Ashten Region beyond the mountain passes of Faria. Once a backwater fishing village at the edges of the known Empire, Greywater was raised to a provincial capital to attract a larger population and reinforce the river delta close to the rebel kingdoms of Dan & the Five Cities.
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- Governor O'ehn of the Uubret Clan, Maimed hero of the Battle at Seigetower. Current Governor of Ashten at the behest of Chiazhen I.
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- Captain Jeres Varangar, Commander of the river forts east of Greywater. Foe of Lord Finger's raiders.
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- Baron Hathor, heir to the crumbling house of Hathor. In league with the local Oztradii gypsies.
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'Greenpine Monastery' - Monastic Order whose sect 'The Harmonious Truth' divided from the Prophets of Zong during the Butterfly Courts period. They do not actively wander the roads to fight the corrupt like their parent branch, but have retained the martial training exercises.
- Abbot Ughan Sorma, present head of Greenpine Monastery.
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Scir - The Central Kingdoms
The Temple Palace & New Capital.
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The administration of the Empire has recently relocated to the New Capital, north of the ancient city of Afkeylu after the urban struggle of the War of Assassins. The Temple Palace of the Fhasino Empress sits within those districts reserved for the nobility and their highest ranking retainers. This inner complex of religious buildings and courts is referred to as the ‘Celestial City’, the nexus from which all civil and religious proclamations are sent out into the Empire of the Sun.
Afkeylu.
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The venerable city of Afkeylu, founded by Ghorzon the Lawgiver seven hundred years before the Alwath Conquests of the present age. With the exceptions of Taeluin inhabited by the final Sirin Emperors, and the relocation of the civil administration to Edoma’at during the rule of the eunuchs, Afkeylu was the capital civilization of Scir and the Old Empire until the ninth year of Chiazhen I reign.
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Meres
Summerlands/Paleos
Other Factions.
"The Council of Nine"
(These passing notes on the Council were cribbed by the translator Ramsan, missing much of the Councils’ early political history and organization. For a more detailed account of the original Chairholder voting process, arcane academia etc., the reader is directed to the comprehensive ‘Court Diaries of Lord Garlan of House Dhrodaltha’ - Enneagram R. 5 – 27.)
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The history of the Council dominated five hundred years of Yhorgii’s history after the Republics, ruling openly from Afkeylu until the betrayal and death two hundred years ago of the First Chairholder (as the coucil members were known) signed the beginning of the Autumn Civil Wars. The first office was never revived afterward, a tradition that continued when two more Council members were murdered separately by the Prophets of Zong and House assassination. These later deaths preceded the odiferous proxy administration of the Eunach “Butterfly Courts” and House Majors of the Sirintai nobility.
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By the time of the Alwath invasions thirty summers ago, the remaining six members of the Council had withdrawn physically from Logross, existing within a twilight realm of longevity. Two more were slaughtered during the sacking of Afkeylu by Golexion I, being the last public sighting of the sovereign mages. We have on record the four remaining names, their continued existence in the present age however is debated as rumours concurrently arise.
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Bey Vhendalla - 6th Chairholder of the Nonagonal Council.
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Thuth Ruatha -7th Chairholder of the Nonagonal Council.
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Malihara Eiren - 8th Chairholder of the Nonagonal Council.
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Shao Madhar - 9th Chairholder of the Nonagonal Council.
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"Secret & Mystical Order of Jhantin"
An order of Magi who continue to study their Founder’s life and teachings. Driven underground during the rise of the Prophets of Zong and other hostilities with the ruling families of Northern Khouros , the current OoJ has been based within a fortress known only as the ‘Hidden Citadel’ for the last century somewhere in the Jagged Mtns. Their affairs have been mostly circumscribed by the eastern coast of Khouros, having ceased diplomacy with Yhorgii during the Autumn Civil Wars.
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The Order teaches its initiates that their founder Jhantin ‘bhel Ohmion returned from a solitary journey in west Khouros a millennia ago with magical texts he had discovered in an abandoned city of gold. He is credited with introducing the secret sciences into Khouros, from which he built his own golden city ‘Andar’, heralding an age of peace and idle pleasure for its inhabitants within and the countries skirting its prosperity without. Alas, the peace of Andar insulted the gods of Logross, or tempted the greed of men’s hearts to end the age in civil war led by the Sons of Jhantin.
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Gaining victory over Tir and his other Sons, Jhantin retired from Khouros into parts unknown, leaving the City of Andar to disappear under the sands of time once its citizens scattered throughout Northern Khouros. The Masters of the present Order wait for an enlightened future whence they can openly demonstrate their knowledge of magic for human benefit.
(MIND THE GAP, UNFINISHED INFO BEING CONCOCTED BY THE DM.)