Scavenger Lands

The actual nations of the Scavenger Lands are few, considering the space and vast resources. Nations rise and fall constantly in these warlike lands, as some dictator or warlord seeks to carve an empire for himself out of its myriad settlements, creating a kingdom, until he extends his reach too far and is crushed by those he threatens.

Though it is not always readily apparent, there is a difference between the true nations of the Scavenger Lands and the city-states with their clients. Nations maintain a sort of national identity; one of the Kelinai considers himself a citizen of the Keldin Nation in addition to being a citizen of his city. Additionally, nations usually have bureaucracies in place that cover the entirety of the nation's well being, and maintain a national defense force in addition to local ones.

The Girian Protectorate

The Girian Protectorate is located in the windswept prairies of the central Scavenger Lands plains. The favored place in times past for great wars and the tombs of heroes, these plains now serve as the nation of the Girian Protectorate, a nation of mercenaries. Many mercenary companies base their primary operations out of one of the cities of the Protectorate.

The Girian Protectorate is ruled by a governing Council of Armsmen, a council made up of a single representative from each of the mercenary companies that make up the Girian Protectorate. Those companies that are accepted onto the Council of Armsmen are bound under the Armsmen Truce, a bond that says that companies that find themselves on rival sides shall be merciful towards one another, limiting losses as much as possible, and aid one another where they can. They are also bound to keep any such assignments against one another from impacting their peaceful co-existence as part of the Protectorate.

The townships are guarded by the individual mercenary companies that dwell there. Additionally, each season, every company is required to dedicate 10% of its forces to the Armsman Force, the standing army that defends the Girian Protectorate. The core of the army, however, is made up of the former forces of the Giria's Company, the mercenary company that first proposed the Armsmen Truce.

The Protectorate is home to more mercenary companies than occupy the Council, for not every mercenary company that occupies land within the Protectorate is granted a place on the Council. Though these companies are not required to contribute to the Armsman Force, they do pay higher taxes than those companies who are on the Council proper (one of the reasons many of the companies strive to be accepted on the council). All of the mercenaries have a say in the governing of the city or township that they are based out of, however, as they belong to smaller councils led by the companies that are actually part of the Armsmen Council.

Toroshi Citadel

Capital of the Girian Protectorate
The central citadel and location of the Chambers of the Council, Toroshi Citadel is ruled utterly by the remnants of Giria's Company. Though their founder, Giria, is fairly elderly now, Giria's sons capably manage both the military for the nation and its bureaucracy (which is really mercenary bureaucracy applied to running a nation).

Delbreth

The second-largest settlement in the Protectorate, Delbreth is home to no less than four of the companies that sit on the Council: The Fierce, Chanerlin's Troop, the Omen Dogs and the Silver Company. Delbreth is known for its nearby iron mines and the smithies that supply most of the equipment in the protectorate.

Wolfkeep

Located near a fair-sized wood, Wolfkeep is run by the Black Wolf Brotherhood, the only company in the keep to sit on the Council. Wolfkeep supplies much of the lumber for the Protectorate, and is a favored place for members of the Council to go hunting. The Rose Towers: An impressively towered keep, the Rose Towers are named that for the company that founded them, the Ebon Rose Elite, known for their archers and skirmishers. The towers themselves are impressively carved with climbing vines intermixed with actual vines that grow wild up the sides of the towers, blooming with wild black roses.

The company is run by the Ebon Rose Dowager, a small god of black roses who has undertaken a military endeavor. The towers are shared by the Ebon Rose Elite, plus two other companies: Karvin's Dragoons and the Thousand Blades.

The Keldin Cliff-Cities

The Keldin Cliff-Cities are ancient settlements dug into the very faces of the cliffs that overlook the flowing of the Yellow River. The cities that make up this nation all share a similar design – each city is arranged in levels of terraces, with actual dwellings consisting of several tiered levels of balconied buildings. Each terrace-level has an impressive railing-wall that stands perhaps four feet tall, but is fitted with clever engineering that allows them to be fitted with larger bulwarked walls in times of war.

The terrace-streets themselves are utterly massive, often with park-like strips of greenery and gardening along the open side, allowing peaceful enjoyment of the view while not impeding the normal traffic of day-to-day life. Each terrace ends in a ramp that connects it either to the level above or below it. Each of these ramped areas are fitted with a gate that can be sealed in times of war, and the entries to the city both at top and bottom are fitted with stout gates crafted during the First Age, which have never been breached.

These cities are resplendent with tall granite pillars and incredible amounts of statuary. The cities themselves are quite wealthy, for they have excellent defenses without the need for expensive building materials – they construct their homes from the solid stone of the cliff-face, creating the honeycombed cliffs that the Cliff-Cities are known for.

Over the years, the Keldin Cliff-Cities have been ruled by any number of modes of government, from republics to military dictatorships. Currently, the Keldin are ruled by a dynasty of merchant-princes who trace their lineage to a Guild functionary from several hundred years ago. This family, the Ivory Star Dynasty, rule from White Sentinel. Quite wealthy, they maintain the military of Keldin – known for its siege engineers and sledge-wielding cavalry – as well as a small host of champions both Dragon-Blooded and god-blooded. In times past, one or more of these champions have come close to attempting to take the throne, only to be thrown down by others of the champions.

White Sentinel

Capital of the Keldin Cliff-Cities
The largest of all the Keldin Cliff-Cities, White Sentinel is named for the several-hundred foot tall statues, hewn from the rock of the cliffs that flank the city proper. These statues are actually impressive towers that include First Age engineering that allow various sections of the statues to open and a hollow core with a chain-driven siege engine platform, allowing the city to launch attacks from various heights.

The city itself is very prosperous and clean, a place of white stone and fine rich brocades and tapestries in jewel tones. Its people are skilled, thanks to the Guild sensibilities of the Ivory Star Dynasty, who believe that their populace should be made up of skilled craftsmen, supported by an underclass that remains in the small settlement-farms at the feet of the cities proper.

Delbrennan

The Quarry City of Keldin, Delbrennan provides impressive granite and marble to much of the Scavenger Lands. The quarries proper of Delbrennan are found on the plateau-top a half-day from Delbrennan proper, but they are well-guarded and walled-in. The impressive slabs of stone are taken to a market at the foot of the city proper, down a set of complicated gear-driven lifts along the eastern side of the city. The city itself is populated by all manner of architects, engineers and sculptors; as a result, Delbrennan is perhaps the most elegantly decorated city in all of Keldin.

Goral

Goral was obviously designed as a supremely defensible city. Its terraces are actually tall, impressive walls with soldier's walkways. This causes the terrace-streets to feel more cramped than those of the other cliff-cities, but creates a sense of security that is well-founded. All of the other cliff-cities have a single retreat-tunnel that leads to Goral in case of defeat in battle. These tunnels can be collapsed at a variety of junctures, and the "central hub" where all of the tunnels connect before entering Goral is supremely well defended. As a result, Goral is where the troops of Keldin are trained.

Lionroar

Located where a small river flows into the Maruto, the cliff-city of Lionroar is dominated by the waterfall of the river, which is surmounted by a massive bridge constructed during the First Age. Where the bridge overlooks the waterfall, it is crafted to look like a roaring lion's mouth, so that it seems to be roaring the river into existence. Lionroar is where much of the river trade to the Cliff-cities takes place, as it has an extensive set of docks set a small distance from the city itself.

Venrathi

Venrathi is best known for its skilled weavers, who maintain a trade secret for producing jeweled hues in cloth that isn't duplicated anywhere save by alchemical means. Rich brocades and embroidery can be found everywhere here, and there is a thriving textiles market at the foot of the city that features impressive fashion fairs once a season.

The Kingdom of Joraba

Once, the Kingdom of Joraba was a free nation. Home to a small pantheon of gods, Joraba once maintained a caste system within its society, each caste of which was representative of one of the gods of the Jorabani. The laborers wore their hair long and marked their foreheads with two curving lines in grey ochre, in emulation of the tusks of Ugaji, the elephant-headed god of labor and physical work (Temperance). The soldiery marked their foreheads with red ochre, for the blood that they spilled, and in emulation of the color of crimson-skinned Bahari, the tiger-headed god of warriors and spear-battle (Valor).

The priesthood marked their heads with a single yellow mark, celebrating golden-skinned Dirkashi, the god of sacrifice and incense (Conviction). The nobility marked their foreheads with the pure white mark (and included hanging white pearls in their headdresses) for Lafaia, the crowned goddess of nobility and riches (Compassion).

Even the outcaste, who were considered unclean, wore black marks upon their brows, marks in honor of Naramun Dasraja, who was not actually a goddess, but a concept – that of death and filth. It was they who were responsible for dealing with corpses and the filth that any civilization accumulates, and the wisest among them cared for the Ashfields, a haunting shadowlands where the ash of burnt sacrifices and the cremated dead were taken to be deposited in honor.

But all this changed with the coming of the Realm fifty years ago. They arrived first under a flag of negotiation and then eventually came in force, "pacifying" the Jorabani. Even their gods were put to flight by the powers of the Immaculate monks, and soon the presence of a Satrap and his Dragon-Blooded entourage became the norm. Their faith was outlawed, their caste system overthrown and great walls were put up around the Ashlands, surrounded with circles of salt and wards against the dead.

In this time, however, an assassin cult has sprung up, with the intention of murdering the Dragon-Blooded. The locals claim that it is made up of only the outcastes, but the Dragon-Blooded know that this is simply another example of the Jorabani leaving their outcastes to do their dirty work. Men dressed in black, their foreheads marked with the old symbol of the outcaste, attempt to waylay any Realm citizens they encounter – some of them have even tried (and in a few occasions succeeded) at murdering Dragon-Blooded.

Golden Joraba

Captial of the Kingdom of Joraba
The capital of Joraba, seat of the Rajas of Joraba, is also home to the Satrap Cathak Naltir. It is perhaps the best pacified of the cities, and in many ways runs like any other Realm city, though its citizens are terribly dispirited. Every year or so, the Satrapy has to outlaw new ways of expressing former castes among the older generations, while the newer generations have begun to forget what their castes meant at all.

Imishaal

The City of Ash
The city at the edges of the Ashlands, Imishaal was the great Temple-City of Joraba, home to the largest temples to the gods of its people. At the very edge of the city, in the Quarter of Skulls, is the massive crematorium where the Sons of Dasraja, an order of mute outcaste morticians, brought the corpses of dead Jorabani for their last rites. Bodies were brought in the Door of Silence and exited into the Ashlands themselves, carried by the mute Sons to their final resting place.

Now, however, Imishaal is home to a garrison of Legionnaires, and a number of monks, who watch the temples, which are now manned by Immaculate monks who both perform the proper rites for the gods of the Jorabani (who have been incorporated into the Immaculate Philosophy's calendars) and keep an eye on the gods themselves, who have not emerged from the sanctums within their respective temples.

Ashlands

The Ashlands of Joraba are a shadowlands made up of several miles of strange honeycombed trenches and canyons, most of which are separated by no more than a foot of rock. Over these canyons have been built pavilions and foot bridges, allowing those who come here to pay their respects to the dead to remain above the canyons, for they are home to literal seas of ash, from hundreds of years of the ashes of sacrifices in temples and the cremated remains of all Jorabani. Once, any day would see a regular arrival of priests to deposit sacrificial ash and families to pay their respects to ancestors, but now the Ashfields are empty and forlorn both day and night.

Birish Ahl

Once the center of the military complex of Joraba, Birish Ahl underwent an incredible siege some fifty years ago, during the so-called Pacification of Joraba. Now its impressive elephant-riding cavalries are in the service of the Legions, and its spear-fighting generals have all bowed their heads to the Satrap. The Jorabani still have to fight off the tribal Karala, but they do so at the orders of the Satrap now – no more are brave enemies captured to be sacrificed on the altars of the tiger-god Bahari.