Sorry for the long hiatus. I've been back in University and have less spare time to dedicate to the blog. City of Thieves, the heist system is still in development and I may be able to run a campaign of it soon. Soon in this case being in the next few months. Hopefully, I'll be able to put actual play reports of the game up on the blog, but no promises.
Anyways, today's post is the result of some collaborative setting generation for an Exalted 3e game that may extend into a campaign, depending on how my players feel about it. While it references several setting details from Exalted, it could easily be changed for use in a different setting. Also, depending on which game my players choose, I'll be posting the details for the one they didn't pick.
The Kingdom of Azara
These harsh desert lands are
home to the nomadic herding tribes known as the Azara. Every
decade, the scattered tribes gather at a fertile, limestone cavern
known as The Caves of Nahas
to elect a new leader. If their leader dies before their decade is
up, the tribes must reconvene early. Every leader is referred to only
as the Ash Khan and
does not acknowledge their gender until their term ends. The Ash
Khan dresses in concealing robes
and veils as part of their office. The Ash Khan conceals
their gender in homage to the first Ash Khan a
woman who dressed as a man in order to lead their tribe to victory
against a roving band of Fair Folk. The election of the Ash
Khan is a closely guarded
secret. Each tribe of Azara sends a representative to a moot, those
representatives deliberate in an isolated chamber under the Caves
of Nahas to choose which of
their number will become the new Ash Khan.
The tribe of the new Ash Khan
move into the caves, displacing the tribe of the former leader.
The
Caves of Nahas are
named after the Goddess Nahas, the Reflecting Sands, Handmaiden of
the Sun. She is a minor Deity of Reflected Light and Mirrors. She
provides the light that helps make the cavern a lush paradise. She
spends most of her time in her Sanctum, among the ruins of the grand
First Age project that drew her to the site, a ladder to the sun. She
was once praised in proxy to Ignis Divine, his representative in the
south, and spends her time turned from the affairs of the world.
Perhaps the Chosen of the Sun could shake her from her dull
nostalgia. Nahas is not the only god worshiped by the Azara, there is
also the Horse God, Tenacious Stallion. Despite
his name, Tenacious Stallion has been reduced in the last two
decades, barely appearing before his followers. Once he would stud
the mares of great champions, but now he lurks in his sanctum below
the cavern and refuses all visitors but the Ash Khan.
The
caverns are divided into three sections. The first is the Shining
Market. Traders from the nearby
city states of Zoatham, Dajaz and Gem as well as sundry Guild
merchants, all gather in the Shining Market to trade their wares for
the finest horseflesh in the South. The tribes of the Azara stay in
the Shining Market when they wish to trade their wares for the steel
weapons and tools sold in the market. The second area is Svarna
Durga, the Golden Holdfast. Svarna
Durga is the remains of the ancient temple to Sol and the reason the
caves were a pilgrimage site during the First Age. During the
Shogunate the Dragonblooded set up a prison for loyalist gods and the
Lunar Exalted in the shell of the temple. The Khanate of
Ash, a title given to the
current ruling tribe, lives within the Svarna Durga. Outside the
temple-fortress is a vast Garden,
with verdant fields for the tribe's horses to graze. Towards the
edges are bee hives and vegetable gardens where the Azara grow
onions, melons, millet, date palms, and olive trees. They also hunt
the feral temple hippos that swim in the waters around the edge of
the garden, but not the guinea pig sized Vasati
Hippos as they are
sacred to Nahas. The Azara do not raise camels or yeddim as those are
seen as merchant's animals and fit only for someone without the skill
to raise horses.
The
Lands of the Azara are vast but arid and mostly uninhabited. There
are six main tribes of Azara, including the Khanate of Ash. The
current Ash Khan was responsible for a war against the seventh tribe
on a claim of heresy. The only sources of clean water and vegetation
are scattered oases and the Caves of Nahas. Tribal leaders and sages
pass down the knowledge of locations of clean water, too many of the
springs and pools are tainted with disease, oil, or wyld energy.
On
the south border of the Azara is the Court of Coal, a
group of elementals ruled by 3 Ifrit Lords. Due to an ancient pact
with the Azara they are bound to ride to war against the nomad's
enemies in exchange for regular offerings. In times of peace, they
are aggressive and territorial.
Beyond
the south boarder are the boardermarches. Here, scattered
cannibalistic nomads trade prisoners of war to the Fair Folk for
great vessels that sail across the dust and sand of the arid south
but dissolve when touched by water. Riding at the heads of these
great raiding parties are the Raksha captains and their Hobgoblin
crews. The Raksha call themselves The Fang Jihad.
The West
and East border onto lands held by the Tyrant of Gem, the mysterious
rulers of Dajaz, and the ruling temple of Zoatham. These marches are
haunted by bandits, Fair Folk, and other more mysterious foes.
Beyond
the North border is a tribe known as the Surazu. These people were
once the eight tribe of the Azara but they, like the recently
destroyed seventh tribe, were attacked on suspicion of heresy. Using
sorcery learned from the whispers of demons the Surazu were able to
repel the combined might of the Khanate of Ash and the gathered
tribes. Now, the Surazu live in towers of brass and green fire,
riding to war with their servitor-demons on the backs of great
flightless cranes. At the heart of Surazu lands is a shadowland, home
to a sprawling tea house and opium den called The House of
One Thousand Unearthly Delights.
