Castia

## **History of the Continent**

The Khatran Empire was founded late into the Age of Power by Mirrash the Brave, a Chosen of Khatrah, the orc goddess of Order and Conquest. Mirrash united the orcish tribes of Castia, annexed Keltane, Fyris and other human nations now long gone, brokered a deal with the Bharum States, established a tense peace with Teyrna and negotiated a political marriage with Malthad Indor, a human who had united the human tribes of the Khara Desert and its surroundings. At its height, the Khatran Empire spanned half of Castia, half of Indoria and across all of Karden’s Spine.

Malthad is considered to be one of the main reasons Mirrash’s successes lasted, generating long-lasting changes on both continents and a heritage that persisted throughout the Ages. He had values that aligned remarkably well with hers, helped integrate the non-orc races of Khatra, and was considered by many her equal in diplomacy and vision. A dusky man with a proud and noble bearing, Malthad was his wife’s right-hand all the way to the end, some saying that what had begun as a political marriage had eventually developed into genuine love.

Mirrash gave herself the title of Dura-Khan (“the first/founding chief”), and intended for each subsequent Khan to adopt a variant on the Khan title, but it was not meant to be. Near the end of the Age of Power, Tharizdun manipulated Corellon into assassinating Khatrah and her Chosen out of fear Teyrna would be conquered by the Khatran Empire, and convinced Cyric to attempt the assassinations of Yurtrus and Shargaas to take over their followers. However, Shargaas survived the attempt and went into hiding for many years, though Yurtrus was not so lucky. Malthad himself is said to have perished defending his wife to the end and making sure his son escaped alive.
Gavrash Two-Worlds, the half-orc son of Mirrash and Malthad, had been deemed the official heir of the Empire, and he retreated to Indoria, the lands of his father, to establish the Indorian Empire which still exists to this day. Mirrash’s three orcish children (Uthram, Gruuma, and Nirraskh), which she had had before her marriage, were all heirs to the Castian lands. Uthram, the son, having received a vision of doom from Savras, took a third of the Khatran orcs and went far south, across the entirety of Indoria and through the Ta’karun Ocean to establish a new nation in Volskad.

Gruuma and Nirraskh, the daughters, fought each other for the right to rule Castia. Gruuma lost and was exiled to Arkanos, along with another third of the Castian orcs. They crossed over Dumath’s Hold, were allowed passage through Arkan and conquered the hobgoblin nation of Jatan. They would attempt to establish a new empire over the continent before the Rift War humbled them, and they formed the mixed race nation of Jaghai.

Nirraskh, having lost two-thirds of the orcish population, with the orcish pantheon in shambles and seeing nations like Keltane and Fyris claiming independence, sought greater power to reforge the Khatran Empire and regain the orcs’ lost glory. Disobeying the will of her shamans, mages, and priests, Nirraskh went to the Forbidden Vale and attempted to tap into the dangerous power allegedly only accessible through there.

This is what Tharizdun had been aiming for, having manipulated the fall of the Khatran Empire so that Nirraskh would tap into the power of a floating prison high above the Forbidden Vale, which would cause devastation of such scale it might actually release Tharizdun from its containment. Fortunately, the Fatebreakers intervened and while they prevented Nirraskh from tapping fully into the essence of whatever was imprisoned, she fought them off ferociously and managed to destroy the floating prison and bring it crashing into the earth before being taken out by the Fatebreakers. Such minor unleashing, however, created The Warp, which summoned/created monsters and twisted hundreds and hundreds of miles of land, turning the Forbidden Vale into what is now known as The Warped Lands. This act marked the end of the Age of Power and the beginning of the Age of Mists.

With Nirraskh dead, most of the remaining orcs retreated to their ancestral lands around Everstrong Peak and Luthic’s Peaks and formed the nation of Varrasham, though a good amount of orcs spread out into the wilderness around Castia and formed tribal warbands, which were rejected by civilized nations (including Varrasham) as mindless savages and were forced to subsist on raiding and pillaging.

## **The Warped Lands**

Home to equally strange and dangerous creatures, this part of the continent has become a place that only the most daring will enter. The powerful magic that permeates the land gives life to nightmares and creates pockets where magic is warped or in some places, nullified entirely. Since the Warp, these lands have become an ever increasing threat that the surrounding nations must contend with.

**The Warp and Varrasham**

The nation that was formed by roughly half of the remaining Orcs after the Warp established fortifications and shamanic wards across their lands, and became isolationist, subsisting on terrace farming and hunting the monsters that wandered from the Warped Lands.

**The Warp and Keltane**

When The Warp occurred, their devotion to Life and Nature backfired, their Western lands becoming suffused with Death and Destruction magic. Their dead rose from their graves, storms, earthquakes, fire and frost devastated their farmland, and they turned instead to the worship of Kelemvor and Mystra, farmers and peasants becoming mages, paladins and priests. Recently, they have begun to push back against the Warped Lands and cleanse their territory.
**The Warp and Teyrna**

After years of taking in human refugees from the Warp and Keltane, Teyrna has become racially mixed, though it still clings to a common cultural identity, and its lords, despite preferring isolationism, sometimes will cooperate if it's in their best interest. They have been pushed back by a blight coming from the Warped Lands, which they had been keeping at bay until recently.

**The Warp and Fyris**

Indeed, Fyris survived The Warp, but its inhabitants became forever changed. Most of them turned from human to tiefling, with the most powerful among them going full cambion. Over time, the inhabitants of Fyris brought in fiends from the Lower Planes, but only those that were tired of the Blood War and wanted something more. Over the years, Fyris became a nation of vice, where anything, even ephemeral things, could be bought and sold. Gambling, hedonism, and debauchery were and still are the norm, and even the most violent of fiends has plenty of outlets fighting off the monsters wandering from the Warped Lands.

**The Warp and The Spindel Theocracy**

When The Warp occurred, Lolth withdrew from public affairs and relinquished much of the daily guidance of Spindel to the rest of the Dark Seldarine, then commanded her High Priestess to dig deeper into the earth, sending her demonic servants (molydeus primary among them) to assist her and allow her to maintain communication with the rest of the nation.

**The Warp and the Free Cities**

Unable or unwilling to brave the challenges and danger of traversing the Warped Lands, the small folk of the Free Cities banded together to create a habitable in the Northwest of Castia.

**The Warp and Sylair**

When The Warp occurred, it created faint echoes in the Shadowfell and the Feywild. This weakened the veil between the planes and allowed beings from both planes to pass through more easily. Curious fey flocked to pass through a rift between the Material Plane and the Feywild, and founded a city in an enchanted forest between two lakes.
## **Remnant and the Nations of Castia**

1. The Remnant Peninsula
	* Remnant
	* Thim Dolur
	* Hangalor
	* Vista Virta
	* Hugonami
2. Major Nations of Castia
	* Teyrna
	* The Free Cities
	* Varrasham
	* Fyris
	* Keltane
	* The Spindel Theocracy
	* Sylair