Borunan

**Borunan** is a province in Riedra that is the homeland of ogres. In the days of the old kingdoms, the ogres of Borunan were peerless warriors. Their champions possessed inhuman strength, martial discipline, unshakable courage, and weapons forged in Fernian flame. Time and again, they repelled the legions of Nulakesh and the crusaders of Khalesh, and yet Borunan never sought to conquer any of its neighbors

## Geography

Borunan is located in south-central Riedra. It shares a border with the region of Syrkarn to the southwest and Adar to the south. Borunan's climate is fairly warm, with the Andnemun Desert covering the south of the province and the north containing the Kelshak Mountains. The province contains a number of manifest zones to Fernia and Shavarath.

## History

Borunan was once home to an independent kingdom of ogres led by ogre mage warlords. These ogres had a strong martial culture and mainly competed amongst themselves for internal power instead of seeking conflict with the neighboring human kingdoms. During the Sundering, the Inspired united the other nations of Sarlona against the ogre kingdom, conquering it to become part of the Unity of Riedra, and driving out those who resisted to nearby Syrkarn. For over a thousand years now Borunan has been a part of Riedra, adopting Riedran culture and religion.

### Planar Influences

The center of Borunan contains a wild zone to Shavarath where a fragment of the Eternal Battleground extends directly into the Material Plane. So the ancient ogres devoted their might not to conquest, but to defending this keep—known to the ogres as Gul Dol, the Gate of War—against the forces of tyranny.

Borunan contains several wild zones tied to Fernia and Shavarath, along with multiple passages into Khyber. The forerunners of the ogres emerged from a demiplane within Khyber; tectonic activity destroyed this passage, leaving them stranded in this barren region of rocky desert and hills. Of the Shavaran wild zones, only Gul Dol is a direct passage to the Eternal Battleground. But the ogres built their fortresses in the other Shavaran zones, and over generations, the influence of Shavarath helped shape them into fierce warriors.

The ogres of ancient Borunan cared nothing for the Sovereigns or the Silver Flame—they were entirely devoted to the battle for Gul Dol. The angels of the Legion of Freedom battle the devils of the Legion of Tyranny for control of this massive fortress, which is broken into multiple rings and wings. The angels believe that the balance of this war reflects the balance between tyranny and freedom across the multiverse. Of course, this is only one of countless fronts in the eternal war between these forces, but the ogres embraced this idea and believed that in fighting alongside the angels, they were fighting for freedom for all people.

### Birthplace of the Oni

The origin of the oni is a secret long forgotten, but one possibility is this: just like the rakshasa and the overlords, the immortals of Shavarath can't be permanently bound. But during their service in Gul Dol, the champions of Borunan found a way to bind defeated fiends to their own bodies—sort of an involuntary version of the process that created the kalashtar, trapping a fiend within a bloodline of ogres. Thus the supernatural powers of the oni may be tied to the essence of devils bound to the bloodlines. This could be why many oni are drawn toward evil; but the oni of Borunan resisted those sinister instincts, using the power of their defeated foes to fight alongside celestials.

In addition to being fierce warriors, the oni of Borunan forged their weapons in the Cauldron, a wild zone tied to Fernia. Their weapons weren’t as well-crafted as the arms and armor of the Dhakaani, but the oni spell-smiths were able to channel the energies of Shavarath and Fernia to imbue their creations with powerful magic. While most of these weapons were destroyed long ago, legendary items or even artifacts could remain in Gul Dol, the Cauldron, or other ancient ruins.

### Legend of the Nine Swords

The history of Borunan lives on today mostly through the Legend of the Nine Swords, although few know to ascribe the tale to the ancient ogres. Reshar the Swordsage was an oni born two thousand years ago on the continent of Sarlona, though he traveled in the guise of a human. A DC 30 history check is required to know Reshar's true lineage. First he explored Sarlona, and then traveled across the seas, following in the wake of Lhazaar. When Reshar returned, he was accompanied by warriors of many races, including hobgoblins, shifters, and elves. Reshar had ventured into the caverns of the Dhakaani clans and rode across the Tairnadal steppes, learning the styles of every culture he encountered and drawing an apprentice from each nation. Returning to his homeland of Borunan, he established the Temple of Nine Swords; here Reshar and his nine students honed and perfected the divergent disciplines gathered from across Eberron.

After a century of study and teaching, Reshar departed the world to do battle in Shavarath. When he did, he left each of the nine masters a gift: a legendary sword that embodied the principles, skills, and philosophy of the recipient’s first discipline. In his absence, however, the nine masters turned on each other due to manipulation by the Quori. At the same time, the nations of Sarlona entered a period of war now known as the Sundering. When the conflict was over, the Temple of the Nine Swords was no more.

### The Fall of Borunan

Despite the might of its champions, Borunan was easily laid low by the Dreaming Dark. The humans of the surrounding regions had long feared the ogres, and it was easy for the quori to fan these flames. Within Borunan itself, the quori sowed doubts and created feuds, shattering centuries of unity. “Are the oni secretly in league with devils? Was the battle for Gul Dol a pointless sacrifice?” Civil strife decimated Borunan and left it vulnerable to outside attack.

### Borunan Today

In the present day, the ogres of Borunan are kept from the wild zones that served as the strongholds of their ancestors. They're also largely kept from any form of war; they use their strength for manual labor as opposed to battle. The oni are raised to believe in a twisted form of their actual history, taught that their gifts are the result of being living prisons for fiends. Thus, it's the duty of the oni to redeem the fiend within them through their own devoted service to the Inspired. Largely, this indoctrination has proven successful, and the Horned Guard—an elite corps of oni soldiers—is one of the most powerful weapons in the Riedran arsenal.

However, over the last two decades, a group of Borunan rebels has been forming a resistance movement, the Horned Shadow, that seeks to protect the ogre-kin (ogres, oni, eneko). This is still a young movement, struggling to build power while avoiding the gaze of the Thousand Eyes.

## Notable Locations

* Gul Dol, the "Gate of War", is an ancient fortress which lies on a manifest zone of Shavarath. It is currently held by the fiendish forces of the Legion of Tyranny.
* **The Cauldron**, a Fernian zone in the Broken Blade Mountains and the seat of old Borunan’s oni spell-smiths.
* Mokush, an ogre village.
* Talcheka, a Dromite city-hive dwelling in Khyber is known to trade with Mokush.

## Appendix

### Connections

Template:Riedra

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 ***Secrets of Sarlona***.
Keith Baker, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (2007). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4037-0.
2. ↑ ***Secrets of Sarlona***.
Keith Baker, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (2007). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4037-0.
3. ↑ ***Secrets of Sarlona***.
Keith Baker, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (2007). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4037-0.
4. ↑ ***Secrets of Sarlona***.
Keith Baker, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (2007). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4037-0.
5. ↑ ***Secrets of Sarlona***.
Keith Baker, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (2007). Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0-7869-4037-0.