Ber

**Capital:** Seobriga

**Government:** Absolute monarchy

**Head of State:** Bruse Corta Nariz (succeeding Bruse Shantus)

**Official Language:** Common, Draconic, Giant, Goblin

**Common Races:** Orc 26%, gnoll 18%, goblin 16%, minotaur 10%, kobold 8%, goliath 6%, dragonborn 5%, other 11%.

Ber’s history is tied to dragons. Until just a few centuries ago, the land was in constant flux, with different dragons battling for supremacy while the mortal races served as their slaves. Tribes of half-dragons, half-giants, gnolls, minotaurs, and orcs ascended to tiny nation states under the banners of their draconic overlords, built cities and strip-mined mountains to gather wealth for these kings, and eventually collapsed into chaos when their rulers fell. Newborn nations conquered each other like a ring of serpents devouring their tails, and whenever a dragon had willpower enough to unite all of Ber, it would inevitably make the mistake of pressing into Risur or Elfaivar, and be slain in retaliation.

Despite the endless turnover of rulers, Ber did manage to establish a few long-lasting cities—Ursaliña, Reo Pedrecoso, and the capital Seobriga, among others—and develop a shared culture, often thanks to wandering minotaur bards who were seen as neutral. After the death of the last dragon king Inatch the Hex-Eater two hundred years ago, Ber splintered into racial and tribal factions. Only in the past forty years has a semblance of unity returned to the land.

Though there are still factions in the Anthras Mountains who refuse to bow to the new monarchy, many old enemies are now clamoring for a share of this new prosperity. Against nearly everyone’s predictions, it appears that Ber will endure as a unified nation.

## Remnants of the Dragon Kings

Ber cities tend toward stout, vertical buildings with prominent rooftop perches. Dragons no longer alight these roofs, but they have become part of Ber’s romantic conception of its own identity. Many festivals are celebrated on these old draconic perches, and many inventors from Crisillyir come to Ber to study winged flight and test glider designs. Window cleaners can commonly be seen swinging from colorful ropes tethered to high rooftops, singing of lovers meeting to watch the sunset from the top of the city.

In the countryside, the dragon kings left an even more obvious mark: megafauna. Beasts of great hunger and great size, dragons protected herds of elephants, massive cattle, and deer as large as houses, forbidding their enslaved mortals from hunting the creatures. Huge swaths of Ber are still relatively uninhabited because these megafauna and the giant bears and tigers that hunt them pose too great a threat for cities to endure. Even more deadly are the pets that were bred for the dragon tyrants: giant bipedal reptiles known as tyrannosaurs.

Some ranches have managed to domesticate megafauna, which can feed a whole village for days. Wealthy foreigners pay huge amounts for the privilege of serving such a beast at their banquets.

## Scars and Loyalists

The nation bears the scars of many mines. Sadly, the wealth from these mines is mostly lost, hidden away in the lairs of paranoid dragon kings, and booby trapped even after the tyrants’ deaths to prevent their recovery.

Along the southern coasts, unincorporated tribes composed primarily of gnolls refuse to join the nation. Bruse Shantus has cheerfully appointed one gnoll as his Minister of Rebellion, and claims this shows his graciousness to his enemies. In truth, the gnolls are simply too numerous to ignore, and they have a violent and messianic faith in the eventual return of their slain dragon tyrant Gradiax, the Steel Lord.

By contrast, the citizens of Ber’s cities love to keep trophies of long-dead dragons. In the capital Seobriga, the courthouse has integrated the skeleton of the dead tyrant Widoreva into its décor.

## Fear of the Clergy

Ber has never had any close ties to Clergy religion, for it was insulated by its neighbors. Some eladrin sought refuge in Ber after the Second Victory, and brought with them great distrust of the Clergy. Ber’s religions are a disjointed mish-mash of different tribal beliefs, involving hundreds of gods and spirits without any unifying doctrine.

Recently, however, preachers from Crisillyir have begun to visit Ber, and a few have set up missions to spread their faith. Some of these have been met by violence retaliation, including one incident where an Enforcer of Freedom tossed a battered priest into a rowboat and told him to return home after the man’s church abducted several children from a nearby village under the auspices of teaching them.

Ber has seen what the Clergy can do to a nation when they disagree with its faith. Especially since the Bruse became so friendly with Danor— itself deemed heretical by the church—many in Ber fear that Crisillyir might someday invade in a bid to forcibly convert them.

## Campaign

The party had a stay in Ber during Adventure 6, running into the Obscurati while looking for Tinker Oddcog in the Bruse's service, spending extended time with ambassador Brakken of Heffanita and Executora Glaucia Evora in the process. The party later got caught up when Gradiax and the Cult of the Steel Lord attempted to kill Bruse Shantus.

Starting Adventure 7 the party received aid from Ber via The Strange One and his agents, who occasionally ran interference or kept an eye out as favors to the knights of Risur.

In Adventure 9, the party sent word to the Strange One about the Obscurati's lighthouse plans and managed to keep Seobriga free of Ob brainwashing.

In Adventure 10 Brakken of Heffanita came to Axis Island at the direction of the Strange One, warning the party of the upcoming Forward Symposium. He and the Strange One coordinated with the party to buy time and covert access to the symposium. First, though, the party investigated reports of Gidim in Ber and drove out a Gidim vanguard operation in Ursaliña.

Later Brakken attended the Forward Symposium as Ber's representative hosting the minds of several party members with him, and during the symposium itself promised Ber's alliance against Gradiax on Axis Island.

The people of Ber were most resistant to the Obscurati's brainwashing hivemind in Adventure 12-13. Unfortunately, Bruse Shantus did come under the hivemind and became a tyrant who enslaved "lesser" races and tried to execute those who resisted. When the party returned in Adventure 13, they helped depose Bruse Shantus and crown Corta Nariz in his place. Glaucia and the Executores went on to liberate the country.