Punaji Chiefdom

Country Name: Punaji Chiefdom

Population: 60% Lizardfolk, 15% Treant Empire associated races, 12% Tnz'qran Human, 10% Vishga Human, 3% Other

Capital: None

Goverment: Assorted tribes, some ruled by self proclaimed monarchs with blood ties to powerful warlord who passed away several decades ago.

### **Culture**

Day-to-day life is not recorded on a calendar system within Punaji.  Time is recorded by the coming and goings of the seasons of hot and rain. Life's struggle of tribal violence against fellow people and the land are interspersed with the disparate gatherings, such things as coronations of a new clan heir, the announcement of a peace or war between tribes and religious ceremonies. Beyond the loosely feudal machinations imposed by the great tribes in the Obelisk valley the Punaji tribes are connected by the cross pollination a badly degenerated mythology relating to the lives of the Gods Gloria-Etalia with nature worship sponsored by the Treants across the sea (with nature worship particularly common among tribes with ties to the Treants, whether active or ancient).

Life in the jungles of Punaji is never easy. The flora and fauna are actively hostile; the vines here grow huge and attack any who are unwelcome, and other hazards are abound like live volcanoes and flash flooding. Even with their familiarity with the dangers, each day a tribesman could fall prey to wild beasts while they tend to jungle orchards or harvest rare plants to trade goods with convoys coming out from the House of Concordance.

Despite these hardships, a primitive form of civilization endures and rejects the influence of outside powers wholeheartedly.

### **Religion**

Each tribe has its own faith which are generally convoluted mishmashes of nature worship, superstition, traces of the old Gloria-Etalia Faith, and in some cases, traces of the Tnz'qran and Treant Empire faiths.  Like many religions in the area, scholars from civilized nations simply lump them into the Punaji Kupta Branch (AKA the Ram's Head Branch) of the Gloria-Etalia Faith.

### **Organization**

The camps, villages, settlements and even freely wandering foreigner parties who call the Punaji jungles home have little in the way shared identity. To each their own. Bluecrests keep away from green frills, lizards keep away from humans, and life goes on. Punaji is only held together as an identity by the shared primitivity of the region and the strictly tribal culture— enforced by stone carvings and and blood rites. Places where the scenery forms a majestic view naturally develop into official sites for clans to meet, dual, celebrate ritually sacrifice and the rest. The more incredible the landmark the more important the events that are held there. Pretty waterfalls and big trees are all fine and well but without question the one place in Punaji with the greatest natural wonder is the Thin Mountain, greatest of the Obelisks and rightful throne for any would be Lord of Punaji. All that one can survey from the Thin Mountain's peak is the dominion of whomsoever sits atop it.

In Punaji anyone with the proper strength and guile to put their foot on the jugular of a would be rival can do anything they like and they are not afraid to enforce it. Loyalty is not a fluid thing here, Its just business.

### **Origin**

Long ago, what is now the Punaji region was said to be the center of the eastern branch of the Gloria-Etalia faith.  One of the landing sites of Gloria-Etalia was in the northwest part of this region and according to legends a mighty nation was once located here.  However, those days have long faded into myth, and the region has been nearly lawless as long as anyone cares to remember.

The three of the four main demographic groups are believed to have settled in the region sometime during the War of the Fire Roses when the Treant Empire ruthlessly assimilated the Vishga people (the fourth main current group) who were living there at the time.  The lizardmen may have been living there before the War, but the oldest recordings of them being in the region come from old Celestial war stories.  The Tnz'qran people there descend from one of the "Lost Ordes" (Ordes who stayed in the Ram's Head rather than return to the Great Plains) who conquered the surviving Vishga in this region following the Great Betrayal, but then degenerated into a primitive tribal society.  Finally, there are the remnants of the Treant Empire occupation of the area, mostly humans, but some wood elves, dryads, and treants as well.

The current name of the region is a mere five decades old, its namesake is one Master Punaji, a lizardfolk warlord whose corpse still lies at the top of the world surveying the corpse of his former "Empire". Prior to Punaji's brief unification of the region, it was for ages simply a nameless area loosely associated with Ranji.  Modern Punaji is a shattered husk 'ruled' by middling grandsons of Master Punaji, who hatched into their rulership of clans that are not theirs by bloodline.

The most successful of these descendants who managed to wrangle real rulership of their assigned tribes now either bicker and fight in civil war over control of the Land of the Obelisks. The north and south broke away from from the offspring of Punaji for their own reasons while the southwestern coast is now beyond their influence. The east has migrants streaming in and an assertive human war cult that rose from the collapse. The western coast is a war zone with the Merchant League.

### **Diplomacy**

The only thing that the inhabitants of the Punaji region seem to agree on is that contact with outsiders should be minimized. In particular, some tribes are at war with the small outposts the Merchant League has established along the western coast.

### **Geography**

The Punaji region is mostly covered in dense jungle, though the hills in the center are covered with scrub and long grass instead.  Scattered ruins can be found here and there, said to be the remains of a long lost civilization much more technologically advanced then anything found in the present.

### **Economy**

The Punaji tribes are fanatically isolationist and generally do not trade with outsiders, even inter-tribal trade is rare. However occasionally tribes will send a party to do trade at the House of Concordance, an independent town located where the borders of Punaji, Nanji, and Mun overlap.

Groups of foreign adventurers will sometimes go poking around the old ruins (the largest of which is known locally as the Land of the Obelisks) looking for tech loot, but those that do quickly find that the most of the good stuff was looted long ago, and that most ruins are home to hostile tribes.