Lands of the Burning Sky - Ostalin

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Ostalin
For many years, the small island people of Ostalin battled among themselves, before finally a warlord conquered his foes and proclaimed himself Khagan. He then led his people to the mainland, conquering lands from Sindaire with the aid of hippogriff aerial archers until he reached a mountain range and met resistance from a clan of dragonborn. Impressed with the honor the dragonborn exhibited on the battlefield, the Khagan decided to learn from this strange race and sued for peace. The dragonborn accepted and the Khagan became a disciple of the dragonborn culture, even changing his name to Barazar.

During this time, Barazar had many children with many wives, but ultimately he left his nation to his half-elf son Onamdammin, in whom he saw the same fire of obsession that led him to conquer. The Khagan hoped his son would be the one to topple Coaltongue and rule Ragesia, but he did not see that the young ruler had no honor underneath his veneer of respectability. With deep regret, he denounced Onamdammin and fled along with his family to the mountains, vowing to correct his mistake. He died from an assassin’s arrow before he could carry out his coup. His remaining sons are now seeking help from other nations to depose their half-brother.

The Khaganhold of Ostalin is a violent state, ruled poorly by Khagan Onamdammin, whose passions and desires far outstrip his talents. He has broken relations with the dragonborn because they refuse to relinquish his siblings. In response, he has become sympathetic to the many tieflings chased out of other countries. The Khagan is also intent on finding his remaining three half-brothers; he is obsessed with securing his throne through a program of elimination. The capital city of Kistan is relatively small, since the city that used to occupy the land was burned down only a few decades ago by the original Khagan. The nation’s diverse landscape is renowned for its beauty, and Sindaire still seeks to reclaim it.

The Monastery of Two Winds
The Monastery of Two Winds lies in the mountains that form the main border between Ostalin and Dassen, near to the large town of Eresh. The monastery teaches two different approaches to harnessing the power of air magic, the gentle west wind style, and the fierce east wind style. Some monks of the two winds feel compelled to travel the world, letting the wind guide their journeys.

Lands of the Burning Sky - Sindaire

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Sindaire
The national government of the Exarchate of Sindaire is officially run by a representative from Ragesia, but in practice the Exarch has limited power. The people of Sindaire — mostly humans with some caravans of nomadic gnomes — pay some taxes to Ragesia, but maintain their own armies and laws. They take mild comfort in knowing that, should Ostalin, their neighbors to the south, ever attempt to claim more land, Ragesia will come to their defense.

Recently a vocal group of city mayors in the center of the nation began to protest the taxes to Ragesia, and refused to pay. Unlike the coastal cities, they little benefited from trade with Ragesian ships, and they called for the removal of the Exarch, a half-orc woman named Horstea. Despite protests from the government ministers, the Exarch sent a plea to Ragesia, and Coaltongue’s army reponded, traveling by Torch to the central prairies to put down the rebellion.

Sindaire has a long-established druidic tradition, coming from a time when a group of refugees fleeing a catastrophe in what is now Shahalesti settled in Sindaire’s warm forests, converting many of the locals through their generosity and their disciplined devotion to nobler ideals. The refugees revered lions, and lions now fill the role of pets to the aristocracy and guard dogs for the common folk.

The large capital city of Turinn lies on two sides of a long rock spur. The western side has ports on the sea, while the bulk of the city lies safe on the east.

Knights of the Aquiline Cross
The Order of the Aquiline Cross originally emerged in Sindaire a decade ago. Since then, small chapels that teach the order’s doctrine of mercy, sacrifice, and a fierce defense of life have sprung up throughout the lands of Ragesia and its neighbors. Knights of this order dress in white and red tabards marked with a cross surrounded by a halo of feathers.

Lands of the Burning Sky - Dassen

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Dassen
The Kingdom of Dassen lies to the south of Ragesia, and the southwest of Shahalesti, its borders defined by craggy mountains defended by hundreds of small dwarven strongholds. Dassen’s people, a swarthy assortment of humans and dwarves, cherish their land, to the point that superstitious cavalrymen even put dirt in their boots so never have to stop touching the soil of their homeland.

King Steppengard rules a patchwork of eight feudal holdings, many of them controlled by distant relatives with claims to the throne of numbing complexity. To assure that he never has to worry about untangling these claims, Steppengard has had a huge family with eighteen children, all legitimate on the word of his oath. There are no mighty cities in Dassen, only thousands of farms and towns growing out from the nine castles of the king and his dukes. The largest city, Bresk, lies on a major river beside Steppengard’s castle, and is a hilly community built both above and below ground. It’s population is a mix of humans and dwarves with a small number of orcs (65% human, 28% dwarf, 5% orc, 1% half-orc, 1% other).

Lyceum Academy
At the end of a swampy isthmus on Dassen’s southern tip, the town of Seaquen is home to a school called Lyceum, devoted to teaching magic of all kinds. Students of Lyceum are encouraged to learn a variety of magical styles, and are trained in spelldueling techniques similar to Gabal’s in Gate Pass. They were relatively unknown in the region until recently, when Simeon, headmaster of the school, sent out a call to all the people in and around Ragesia, asking for them to stand up against the threat posed by the Ragesians and their new leader Leska.

The Wayfarers
Every port in the region has at one time or another been host to the Wayfarer Theater, a beautifully-decorated ship that is both home and base of operations for the Wayfarers. The Wayfarers are both master acrobats and skilled mages, prone to dress in elaborate and eclectic costumes with elements cobbled together from dozens of lands. Wayfarers can teach a wizard a limited teleportation spell at second level (wayfarer’s step, q.v.). The Wayfarers will only teach this spell to a friend; friendship may be gained through adventuring or a skill challenge.

Lands of the Burning Sky - Shahalesti

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Shahalesti
On the far side of the mountains that mark Ragesia’s eastern border spreads the Shining Land of Shahalesti, ruled by Lord Shaaladel, a middle-aged eladrin who rose from being a military commander to the nation’s ruler during the ascension of the Ragesian Empire. Shahalesti was in danger of being conquered like Ragesia’s other neighbors, and Shaaladel’s aggressive displays of force — including the conquest and destruction of two nearby elven lands that were hostile to him — are credited as major reasons why Ragesia has so far not looked east for conquest.

During Ragesia’s annexation of its neighbors, Lord Shaaladel even lent his aid, he and his trusted aides participating personally in battles by Coaltongue’s side. A canny and charismatic commander, he is respected even by the Ragesian army, and many expected him to succeed after Coaltongue’s death. Rumors say that the eladrin lord had been quite displeased that the old halforc was refusing to die of old age.

Shahalesti is not an entirely eladrin nation. The majority of its population is human, but they live as commoners with little real power. The aristocracy is almost exclusively eladrin, as well as the higher ranks among the military. Despite a grudging alliance with Ragesia, however, orcs and half-orcs are despised and persecuted, unable to hold any public positions, often horribly exploited as nearly slave labor. A few outposts of wealthy orcs with ties to Ragesia have tried to start their own communities, and this is a steady source of strife.

The capital of Shahalesti, Calanis, is built over a crescent rift carved by a waterfall. The city is forbidden to non-eladrin except by invitation from one of the royal family which, as of now, consists only of Shaaladel and his daughter Shalosha. The population of Calanis is mixed (45% eladrin, 35% human, 10% elf or half-elf, 5% halfling, 2% orc, 2% half-orc, 1% other). Shahalesti is viewed by most politicallyminded sages as an opportunistic country. It will ally and war according to advantages it sees through the weaknesses and strengths of its neighbors. In general, Shahalesti is a good and peace-loving country that respects its borders, but as the winds of war blow, it is perceived that the Shahalesti people will seize opportunities to advance itself, even to the detriment of its allies.

The Solei Palancis
The Shahalesti military, including its navy, focuses on quality rather than quantity. Most soldiers are equipped with at least minor magic items, and arcane magic in general is key to most of the nation’s tactics. Their most famed soldiers are the Solei Palancis, the shining legion, whose swords shed light as bright as the sun.

Lands of the Burning Sky - Ragesia

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Ragesia

The Ragesian Empire (capital city Ragos) is located on central lowlands dominated by many lakes. While the core of the empire is populated heavily by orcs and half-orcs, the outer regions have wildly diverse cultures and populations, the result of having once been many separate nations, conquered by sword and torch.

Every region has a large component of orcs in the population, along with heavy military presence to ensure loyalty and peace. Though the people of Ragesia have been conquered, most are content that they live today in relative safety. Given the power of the empire, rebellion just doesn’t seem worth it. The majority of the population is still human however, or half-orc, and different ethnic groups remain mostly concentrated in their old homelands, which are often separated by low, long mountain ranges.

Ragesia is conventional in its political organization; mayors and town councils are found in nearly every community. The focus of their governance though, is power and subjugation. Evil hearts are encouraged to define and execute the letter of the law with scant regard for compassion or quarter, though it is occasionally given, if only to underscore the power of the empire. Like the tribal beginnings of the orcs who now rule, strength and position is gained through depravity and guile. The populace has grown used to the occasional suspicious death or mysterious fire or robbery.

The northern reaches are home to people known as the Kelaquois, who live in frigid lands that are frozen for most of the year, where they coexist with frost giants, mastodons, and vast herds of bison.

The western plains were once the nation of Latia, its renowned ship-building now benefiting Ragesia and its navy.

The southern lands are craggy, with cold rocky deserts dominating what was once Chathus, a land of nomads and traders who nevertheless defended their lands with great vigour, using cavalry and mobility to wage a protracted war, allowing their home to be the last conquered by Ragesia.

The central heartlands once belonged to the powerful nation of Morrus, and numerous old castles, forts, and walls dot the landscape, defenses which were easily bypassed with Emperor Coaltongue’s Torch.

An ocean borders Ragesia to the west, with rocky mountains marking Ragesia’s borders with the nations to the south — Sindaire and Dassen. The northern border is a high, frigid mountain range, separating Ragesia from most of the rest of the world. The same mountains curve down to form the eastern border, rising high enough that Ragesia never saw much value in trying to conquer beyond them.

The capital city of Ragos stretches along a vast lake, and the imperial palace lies safely offshore on a fantastically-defended island. At night its walls burn with thousands of torches, making the lake look like it is on fire. Ragos seethes with intrigue and unrestrained evil. Plots and counter-plots are the norm and any kind of vice can be had for a few coppers. The city is intimidating and no-one, not even the guards can be trusted to keep one safe.

The Inquisitors
Dressed in bear skins, their faces concealed by bear-skull masks, inquisitors are the feared blade of Ragesia, expert in cutting out those who resist its rule. They fervently serve Ragesia’s supreme inquisitor, an aged witch named Leska, who until recently was a loyal servant of the emperor. Now Leska desires to rule, and her inquisitors are her greatest weapon.

Inquisitor

Stories tell of inquisitors sent to hunt down disloyal mages who completely ignore powerful spells, or even turn spells against their casters. The few who have been captured by inquisitors and have lived to tell the tale recount being tortured, their wrists slashed by an inquisitor’s clawed gauntlets, then being left to a slow, cold death unless they betrayed their allies. Other rumors warn that inquisitors can devour souls, stealing a mage’s power before raising the slain mage as an undead follower.

Inquisitors possess alternate class abilities. If you are interested in playing an inquisitor or a character who has managed to learn their secret techniques, talk to your GM. Inquisitors are rumored to be adept at cancelling and countering spells.

Lands of the Burning Sky - Overview

DM Disclaimer: All material in the Player Guide portion of this blog is copied directly from the War of the Burning Sky Player's Guide, which is freely distributed and available for public download at EN World. I take no credit for any of the text or images found in posts tagged with the "player guide" label.

Ragesia is the largest nation in the region, and four other nations commonly interact with it. The politics and history of the region are relatively simple, though the recent power vacuum in Ragesia threatens to make things much more complicated.

Overview
The Ragesian Empire lies in the northwest of the region, spanning several hundred miles north to south and east to west. To the east of Ragesia is the Shining Land of Shahalesti, a tenuous ally with whom relations have frayed of late. To the south lie the Exarchate of Sindaire, the Kingdom of Dassen, and the Khaganhold of Ostalin, three nations which so far have managed to avoid being conquered by Ragesia.

Ragesian Empire