Nations and Cultures

## The Empire of Tarak

The home of the dwarves, Tarak is a harsh temperate region of treacherous mountains and blasted badlands. It is ruled over from the Infernal Throne located in the city of Maebalg by Alkhaz Bizad, a tyrannical duergar king and direct descendant of Alkhaz Haggrond, founder of the duergar line. The city of Maebolg is carved from the mountain’s surface and even extends several layers downward into the earth itself, a decadent and unruly place bound together only through fear of the duergar regime. As well, the mountain dwarvish traditions that once kept this land guarded from the scarring of war have crumbled, giving way to a dark land plagued with civil war, slavery, and political turmoil.

As of the events of November 16th, 2500, Alkhaz Bizad has proclaimed himself a God among mortalkind, having come into ownership of one of the few remaining Shards of Innara. It is currently unknown what this entails for the Empire, now at the whim of a living myth.

## The Twin Kingdoms

Modugon and Dirge, the dual city-states of the hill dwarves, who forged a kingdom of blood and gold out of a simple mercenary company. The Kingdoms are ruled by two monarchs, referred to as the Gold and Silver Hands, meant to balance one another in terms of power. Unlike Tarak, the Twin Kingdoms often break tradition and even act against it, resulting in a progressive nation of forward-thinkers but giving way to dishonor and self-interest. As well, the Twin Kingdoms are among the wealthiest lands known to Incarcia, attracting many who would seek to build or even claim a piece of that wealth for themselves.

## Nexicir

The City of Many Eyes, Nexicir is the isolated home of the high elves, tucked away within the Cidarian Glade in its own corner of the world for millennia. Once a place of great malignance and dark magic, the elves of Nexicir have cast away the chains of Sincarnus, embracing a new unknown instead: the Boundless Lord, whose followers have taken to decorating the city in His influence. In this city, unassuming cellar doorways can lead to magnificent extradimensional demiplanes, while towers of glass hold eyes that spy upon those that would disturb this tranquil society. The nation itself is governed by a council known as the Highborn, who possess the Boundless Lord’s gift of near omnipotence, able to gaze into the future, past, and present all at once.

## The Kingdom of Wendon

Home of the elite vampire-slaying Stalkers, the kingdom of Wendon is one twisted by permanent war and terror, having endured centuries of hostility with the vampire threat. As of the advent of firearms and advanced weaponry, however, Wendon has been brought to near-peace, living now in the paranoid shadow left behind by their new prey. The nation is also one of the most technologically advanced, lit by electricity with rudimentary buggies, rail-carts, and steam trains providing most transportation. In these cracked and weary streets, one can expect to meet a cynical yet driven people, weighed tired by the darkness surrounding the land.

## Izer

The Haunted Halls of Izer are infamous throughout Incarcia as the home of the corrupted forest gnomes, who founded the kingdom in the name of dark magic in spite of their stolen homeland. Dark magic propels this city’s everyday motion: floating metallic platforms carry gnomish scholars between each level of their towering institutes, iron golems keep the peace and crush outbreaks of Sincarnus’s volatile presence, and archmages concoct convoluted rituals that topple kingdoms and give rise to new ones. The city is almost always closed off to outsiders and is ruled by an Umni, an archwizard among archwizards who undergoes the ritual of lichdom and rules Izer in eternal undeath.

## Mastia

The frozen isle of Mastia serves as the home for the warforged, who colonized the land soon after the end of the Makers’ Revolt. Battered by frosty winds and drowned in saltwater, the island is a harsh place indeed and is suitable almost only for the warforged, with aetherborn and vampires being the only living creatures capable of withstanding the climate. The warforged, while not exceptional creators themselves, build for utility and order, dotting the island with cubic towns gridded to perfection, with an almost standardized design to every city. The island’s denizens make up for this lack of engineering with unparalleled combat, leading many warforged of Mastia to becoming coastal raiders, soldiers, and mercenaries in both their wars and the wars of others’.

## The Republic of Jodur

Once a great nation that spread from coast to coast across the island of Satrum, the Republic of Jodur was shattered when the gnomes of Izer swallowed the island in tsunami during the Deep’s Reckoning. Now but a shadow of its former self, the rock-gnomish nation seeks to reclaim its glory and has already made strides in its progress. The rock gnomes are expert craftsmen and inventors, rivalling the humans in terms of ingenuity and the Republic’s new capital of Kyllarin shows that. A city of gears, clockwork, and machinery, Kyllarin sits upon the sunken ruins of the old Republic, and it is here where the technological marvels of the world are created.

## The Kingdom of Sertheron

The human kingdom of Sertheron sits nestled within the mountains and plains of the central lands of Incarcia. Once a devout and prosperous nation, Sertheron has fallen into decay. Worship of the Black Seeker Sincarnus is widespread, and dark magic outbreaks occur almost daily, warping the landscape into one of horror, while the previously elite desperately cling to the noble power they once held. However, small seeds of hope have been sewn in the face of ultimate degeneracy, with circles dedicated to the Fourborn attempting to shine light into Sertheron’s darkened lands. It is said, though, that only the foolish would attempt to undo the damage wrought to this dying nation, as to any sane individual it would appear an apocalyptic wasteland.

## The Kingdom of Burg

One of the last remaining bastions of civilization in service to the Fourborn, the Kingdom of Burg is made up of a pious yet misanthropical people, believers in the idea that mortalkind will do all in its power to destroy itself. Burg has withstood centuries of war, terror, and apocalypse and remains a prosperous land but at the cost of much sacrifice and oppression. Through a strict iron fist rule, Pontiff Samael of Burg has maintained stability amongst his people, both out of fear for punishment and a respect for the Gods and their creation. As well, it was here in Burg that the Felfry Blades were founded, a religious order of templar and paladins meant to purge Sincarnus and be rid of its influence.