User:GoldenYak/Chronicle/Khazgor


 * "World of earth and stone."

Khazgor, also known as the Realm of Stone.

Summary
Khazgor is the Realm of Stone, a world of rugged natural beauty concealing ancient ruins and machines from a long-lost civilization. A devastating cataclysm in the distant past reduced the southern third of the world to a barren desert wasteland scoured by ferocious sand storms and poisonous energies. The mortal races of the world build great empires based on advanced technology that sprawl across the mountains and woodlands of the northern regions, sending armies of excavators and archeologists to the southern lands to uncover long-lost ruins and advanced machinery.

Geography
A world of towering mountains, deep chasms, rolling plains, and underground caverns. Ruins filled with ancient machinery choke the rusted deserts of the south. Khazgor has no oceans, but the lower elevations of the south are filled with rolling desert sands that flow in currents and have hidden depths.

Locations in Khazgor

 * Nordfall - Populated by ogres, vrykul, and trolls, this inhospitable frozen realm lies to the far north.
 * Callaban - A human kingdom of crusading knights who ride atop mechanized beasts.
 * Sycorus - This mighty nation of allied orcs and dwarves seeks ever more conquests.
 * Kaburagi - Remote and hidden in the wilderness lies this nation of elves.
 * Ironkhaz - Built atop the great divide that separates the forested lands of Khazgor from the southern deserts, this nation is a technological metropolis.
 * The Reavercrag - Largest of the sand-reaver strongholds.
 * Sunaragi - A nation of elves hidden in the desert, watching over technology that must never be revived.
 * The Expanse - The vast deserts of Khazgor, dotted with countless independent settlements seeking to uncover buried secrets.
 * Beastwild - A deadly region inhabited by vicious beast-machines.
 * The Deadlands - The very earth itself is poisoned. Those who perish here rise as undead.

Elves
Elves of Khazgor dwell in the wild, uncivilized places - in the darkest forests or most remote desert regions. They shun technology and the urbanized city environment that other races inhabit.

Kingdoms of Khazgor
Khazgor is primarily divided into two regions, separated from one-another by a massive canyon known as the Grand Divide running the full circumference of the world. Khazgor has no oceans, but the two regions are still regarded as continents. The northern continent is a heavily forested climate, with tall mountain peaks and low chasms, giving way to rolling plains towards the equator. The lands south of the Grand Divide are a harsh dry desert, where little life exists. Sand-storms of terrible fury have eroded many of the mountains and carved out even deeper chasms, and some regions are polluted by toxic energy that cause mortals to sicken and die if they remain there too long. Great ruins constructed by an unknown ancient race are founded throughout the world, often containing treasures of advanced technology that every nation covets for themselves. The vaults in the desert lands are more easily exposed and unearthed than those in the north, and so a thriving society of plunders and treasure-hunters exists in the south, trading the technology they recover to the north.

Kingdoms of Nordfall
The northren region of Khazgor is known as Nordfall, a place of towering frozen peaks and glaciers. Only the hardiest of life-forms can thrive in this harsh and unforgiving environment. Buried within the frozen stone of the mountains are relics of the ancient makers, cities and machines of fantastic technology. The races of the north are in an almost perpetual state of war with one-another, and regard the nations of the warmer lands to south only as something to occasionally plunder. Only this constant warring keeps any single force from turning its full attention to the south, and if one faction alone were to finally dominate, a deadly new empire would be born in the north to menace the other kingdoms.


 * The Vrykul Clans - A race seemingly related to humans, but much larger and stronger. Vrykul clans populate the Nordfall, subsisting on hunting the great beasts of the north and raiding the soft, lesser races of the south. Vrykul honor a pantheon of mighty gods made in their image.


 * The Ogre Tribes - Brutal, towering humanoids of great size and strength, ogres are capable of surviving nearly anywhere. In warmer climates ogres tend to become lazy and slow-witted, but the frigid air of the cold north keeps the ogres sharp and alert, significantly more so than their southern cousins. Ogres honor the natural fury of their hostile lands and pay homage to the elements.


 * Empire of Zul'Uhmbrak - The only truly organized nation in the north, all the tribes of the uhmbraki, or frost trolls, regard themselves as the empire of Zul'Uhmbrak. Unlike the more primitive races, the uhmbraki are fully dedicated to uncovering the ancient machines buried in the ice and putting them to full use in their goals of conquest. The uhmbraki venerate a pantheon of wild gods.

Callaban
The nation of Callaban rules a significant portion of the northern continent. Largely human, the nation includes a significant number of gnomish citizens, whom make up nearly a quarter of the population. Gnomes and humans are regarded as having equal status, though the two races fulfill largely different roles in their culture. A great many gnomish undercities exist, built beneath the human constructions. Many Callaban settlements are therefore larger than they appear, with significant portions constructed below the surface. The people of Callaban shelter behind high stone walls to avoid the predations of hostile beast machines and their increasingly hostile neighbors. Callaban controls vast territory that consists of some of the most fertile farmland and abundant woodland in the north, while their mountain holdings are a source of valuable minerals. Gnomish industry supports the nation, with humans providing great numbers of troops while gnomes equip them with advanced weaponry. Gnomish engineers construct great mechanical steeds for the elite human knights of Callaban to ride upon. Ancient traditions of chivalry, martial prowess, justice, and duty suffuse the nation, forging a lawful society with a prestigious history of military victory in war.

Sycorus
A brutal expansionist empire. Born of an ancient alliance between orc and dwarf, the empire of Sycorus has risen to dominate vast territories in the northern continent. The industry of the dwarves and the might of the orcs has seen huge swathes of the forest torn down for fuel and the mountains ripped open for ore and buried technology. Huge numbers of slaves toil in the service of the Sycorus empire, including a large slave-population of ogres. Power in Sycorus is held by the Imperial Triumvirate, a system of three rulers that maintain equal power and responsibility. Emperors are chosen for their aptitude in warfare, with the dwarven and orcish populations holding separate competitions for prospective leaders to prove themselves in. The winning dwarf and orc of these competitions will rise to become an emperor of their respective races, representing their interests in the Imperial Triumvirate. The post of the third emperor goes to the winner of a third joint-race competition, where both dwarves and orcs may participate. The winner can therefore be either dwarf or orc, and the post frequently switches between the two races. The current third emperor is in-fact a mok'nathal, a hybrid of orc and ogre, an unprecedented occurrence in the nation's history. Sycorus' armies are made up of huge warbands of orcs supported by more organized legions of dwarven warriors. Specialist forces from both races also exist, from orcish war-shaman to dwarven magisters. The dwarves have mastered many ancient technologies, allowing them to produce advanced weaponry such as black-powder cannons and war-golems.

The Industry of War
Culturally, orcish citizens join the armies of Sycorus while dwarves join a profession that acts to support the industry of the empire. These roles have been long ingrained in Sycorus society, and the ancient alliance between the two races has remained strong through a culture of deeply instilled respect for one-another. The empire would not be nearly as strong without both races giving their all and working together. It is considered a mark of respect for orcish soldiers to kneel before the dwarven armorers who equip them in their warplate and hand them their weapons.

Kaburagi
A hidden nation within the western wilds ruled by the elves. The lands of the Kaburagi are a realm of natural unspoiled beauty, brimming with magical power. The elves live in enclaves scattered throughout their territory, dwelling in harmony with the natural world. Elven enclaves each have their own traditions and ideals, but they are united in the over-arching beliefs of the Kaburagi people that technology is an abomination and that those who do not serve nature are their enemies. Reclusive and isolationist, the Kaburagi scorn outsiders and their destructive habits, despising the exploitation of the natural world and the abuse of high technology that they witnessed used in other nations. Only those races who are prepared to adopt the Kaburagi way of life and dwell in harmony with nature are tolerated within their borders. Recently, the Kaburagi have repulsed several attacks by the empire of Sycorus, who desires to seize the vast resources of the territories the Kaburagi hold. Secretly, hidden deep beneath Kaburagi lands is a vast nexus of ancient ruins and construction buried long ago, including great engines for re-ordering the world's natural ley-line network and concentrating elemental energy. Ironically, the natural splendor of the Kaburagi lands is a result of the very ancient technology the people hold in contempt.

Ironkhaz
The great metropolis of Ironkhaz lies at the edge of the Great Divide, an immense chasm that splits the lands of Khazgor along the world's equator, separating the northern woodlands and the southern deserts. Long ago it was the site of an abandoned city of ancient construction, the ruins filled with wondrous examples of magical technology and fantastic machinery. Numerous camps of excavators, techno-arcanists, tinkers, scholars, merchants, and other such individuals fascinated with uncovering the secrets of the ancients formed around the lost city, and over time these camps grew into communities in their own right, then sprawling settlements. Centuries later, the many scattered settlements have become one single great thriving city, whose many districts still bear the name of the early settlements that eventually gave rise to the metropolis, while the ancient structures at its core lie restored and repaired by generations of dedicated toil. Over time enormous bridges were constructed to span the Great Divide, and the city has spread across them into the southern deserts.

Ironkhaz boasts renowned centers of learning, academies of magic and technology, libraries and workshops, and great engineering compounds. Ironkhaz exists as a nation-state independent from the other great empires of Khazgor, maintaining their independence through a balance of trade and commerce deals with the larger nations. The ruling council of Ironkhaz withholds the most advanced technologies from the other empires, striving to preserve a delicate peace and fearing the scale of destruction that could be unleashed if the most secret and forbidden technologies that exist in the city were made widely available. Members of every race dwell in Ironkhaz, and it is common to see golems and artificial beings in the city's streets.

Secrets of the Ancients
Throughout Khazgor, ancient ruins containing advanced technology can be found. The many empires of Khazgor eagerly seek to plunder these long-sealed vaults, reverse-engineering the secrets within to strengthen their own technology bases.

Beast Machines
All the races and nations of Khazgor know to fear the beast machines, mechanical monstrosities that populated the wildernesses of the world. No one knows where the beast machines come from or who constructed them. None who venture into the wilds to find their source ever return. Whole armies have campaigned into the heart of the wilds, finding great caverns and fissures rent into the earth that the beasts spill from, but no force has been able to reach deep beneath the surface to their point of origin. The beast machines seem to have no purpose other than to seek out mortal life and destroy it. While every settlement dreads a beast machine attack, many have also come to rely on the creatures as a source of technology and material that they cannot acquire any other way. Hulking beasts that are brought down are stripped of every plate and bolt and gear, their components re-purposed and re-built into useful machinery, often to provide a defense against a future beast machine attack.