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ing on a pier. The tribes stop by here at least once a year to barter and show their children some of the things of the outside world.
COUNTRIES
CHAPTER 4:
Plots and Rumors
For a culture that respects the old and embraces the new, the Thurka have their share of problems. Three-Armed Plague: A tribe of athachs living in the forest has been making raids on Chellon, stealing gems, food, and horses (presumably for food). The Thurka don’t know why the athachs are living in the forest or what has caused them to make these attacks on the city, but the elders suspect one of the magical pools is responsible. The Vanishing: One of the thirteen tribes has completely vanished and has not been heard from for over a month. Their last known campsite is empty, but there are no tracks of them leaving that location. The only clues are eight metal hoops found on the site, each made of a different material and adorned with different gems and carvings.
XAPHAN Capital: Inilith Population: 167,200; human (4%), undead (95%) Government: Theocracy Religions: Nessek, Orcus, Phaant Imports: Iron, slaves, lumber Exports: Jewelry, marble, herbs and spices, strange magic items Alignment: CE, N, NE Xaphan is a terrible realm of oppression and evil, bearing the constant stench of undeath. Ruled by a council of vampires, most of the island’s native population was slain and converted to undead of various kinds. Now the few thousand living humans on the island live in slavery, existing only to provide food for vampires and ghouls and give up some of their children to swell the ranks of the undead. Few people ever visit Xaphan, and those who do are usually very powerful or very foolish. Most of the island’s trade is conducted through intermediaries, for few would willingly deal with agents of such a depraved country. The council of vampires that rules Xaphan is beset with internal power struggles and conflicts between personal armies, for the council lacks a true leader who can unite them in the manner of Xaphan himself. Aggression from Xaphan against Manifest and isolated outposts in nearby lands is lim-
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ited to hit-and-run tactics, slaving raids, and battalions of mindless undead transported via ship or magic to places where they can kill and harass the living. Major Geographical Features
Xaphan has its share of strange places to visit. The Forest of Khul: This small forest is haunted by undead and monsters powerful enough to fend off undead attackers. Particularly common is a sort of goatlike monster with a skeletal head, which are used by some undead as mounts. The forest is slowly dwindling from logging while it simultaneously becomes more corrupted by negative energy. Phyrrian Isles: These four islands off the western coast hold the remnants of a civilization that predates the founding of Manifest but apparently had no interaction with the Deathwarden dwarves. Some undead from Xaphan roam here amid the ruins, and occasionally one of the vampire councilors investigates the area for old magic, but warding spells and old curses have prevented much from being discovered. Life and Society
Xaphan is unfit for human life. Necromancers and many kinds of horrible undead roam there, performing foul experiments and covering the land with their corruption. The flatlands are decaying into areas of dry, gray soil that is often stirred up by the wind into blinding clouds. The forests are being chopped down almost before the dark energies permeating the environment can twist them into mockeries of living things. Even the waters around the islands are foul and polluted, with thousands of dead fish piling up and rotting on beaches until discovered by scavengers. The native animals have nearly been wiped out, with the exception of vermin and other creatures too small to be easily caught by ghouls and other hungry undead. The humans who live in the area are treated more like cattle than slaves, herded by powerful undead lords and either used for food or sold to other lords for evil magic. The humans work in small gardens in the lords’ manors, scrounging what they can from the few fertile spaces and eating rats and other small animals they find. In desperate times they even fall upon each other. Only a handful of people manage to escape the island in any given decade, usually sorcerers with a hidden talent for magic that helps them cross the water. These poor souls wash ashore on the Hikirian peninsula, Salkiria, or (rarely) Tereppek, bearing tales of misery and depravity. The undead have a quite different experience. The vampires who rule the place have doled out parcels of land to their more powerful spawn, as well as to other intelligent sorts of undead, who subdivide their own territories into smaller pieces for their lieutenants to control. Because the undead are tireless and have no real need for food, considerations such as available
