Nations

Nations

While Antarok may be a world rife with monsters, magic, and strange entities, its peoples have come together to form hundreds of individual societies. A vicious world of danger encourages its people to band together for survival in trying times while their societal wicks burn short from disastrous conflict.

Ælheim

Ælheim is a nation born from Ældrassil, and Ældrassil is no ordinary tree– nestled within it lies the body of an ancient dragon. Now a hybrid between flora and fauna, He remains alive in a state of suspended animation, and ultimately, the tree and the dragon are one and the same. Ældrassil maintains His vibrant vitality from what became of His Arcana, and in turn, the flora of the region will always remain lush and full of life. It is said that the dragon influences the land around it, though in what ways and to what extent it is uncertain; the part that is certain, however, is that all of Ælheim's territory is part of His Grove. The Ælves who call the tree home struggle to tell where exactly their influence ends and the dragon's begins, for they consider their relationship to Him to be wholly symbiotic.

In the modern era, Ældrassil's influence has claimed a vast swathes of land including dark, primeval forests, treacherously cold mountains, chilly bogs, and more. The Ælven populace which calls Ælheim home have free reign of the land, though the majority of them call the Myrkvior mountains, where they have built their capital around Ældrassil, home. It is exceedingly rare for any aside from the Æld'Norai and Ældrassil's descendants, the Ævergreen Flight, to ever enter the basin. The settlements outside of the Myrkvior mountains were all built on the backs of their human vassals, the Fælnir, whose resources the Ælves siphon away to fuel their endless prosperity.

• Citizens: Æld'Norai, Wisps, Ævergreen Flight Dragons
• Welcome: Dryads, Satyrs
• Tolerated: Other Dragons, Kobolds, Pixies, Sofontti, Rakshasa, Djinn, Aeon, Aarakora, Mithrae, Coatl, Abyssal, Mnoomin, Leshy, Haemora
• Unwelcome: Sidhe, Jin'Norai, Cor'Norai, Dvegar, Gnomes, Onryo, Daemons
• Forbidden: Vokhai, Other Undead
• Slaves: Humans
• Languages: Ælvish, Common
• Religions: Whilst there is no official religion, the Ælheimar worship Ældrassil as if He were a God.

For in depth information on Ælheim, see the codex located in the forums.

Dullahan

The Dullahan Empire is known for its divisive politics, laws, and xenophobic rhetoric. It is a huge, slow machine of humanity with sprawling borders along the western realm. Personal Arcana is highly regulated in Dullahan, nearly all of it banned aside from Practices, Theorems, and Radiance. Its main concerns are repelling Vokhazan from the east, and putting down the rampant internal strife of quarreling factions, heathen cultists, monsters, and rebellious hedge mages.

• Citizens: Humans
• Tolerated: Dvergar, Gnomes, Elves, Servs, Special Envoys
• Forbidden: Draugr, Najda
• Slaves: Everything Else
• Languages: Common
• Religions: Elysian - the worship of Andormu and His light - is the only permitted faith within Dullahan. Practicing heathen faith is considered a crime.

Territories

Whitegate: Whitegate is the capital of Dullahan, and the largest city on Antarok. Sprawling stratified neighborhoods of townhomes house the citizenry while vast industrial complexes along its ports deliver goods to territories near and far. As the throbbing heart of Dullahan, its city center is teeming with wondrous magical complexes built from the schema of arcane engineers and slave labor. Airships fly overhead as they transfer goods and stream propaganda to millions, and Railways carry its citizens around the city and across the country. Tens of miles of ghettos for the poor and non-citizens lay tucked along the foothills, an unregulated pox on an otherwise majestic example of humanity.

Vokhazan

Rising to fill the power vacuum left behind by the inward focus of the Dullahan and Jian Empires, Vokhazan is a coalition of hordes and warbands loosely loyal to Pack Queen Raish, a powerful gnoll warlord responsible for subjugating otherwise squabbling tribes of Beastfolk and monstrous Stonekin. From the vast Orlandrian Plains of the west to the cold and mountainous Spines of the east and the sprawling desert badlands of the Elhim, the Vokhazan are currently the largest nation in all the world. Its borders are amorphous year by year, member tribes falling away only to be subjugated time and time again as brutal wars are fought within to maintain loyalty. The tribes, clans, and piratical nations making up its borders raid other lands for slaves and treasure.

Territories

Kesh: Capital of Vokhazan, Kesh is the site of a vast port city belonging to no race in particular. Here every race beneath Vokhazan can mingle for glory and fortune while contending with the brutal enforcement of tribal law. Pirates moor here, pillaging up and down the rivers and shores of the Free Cities when they manage to break the blockades.

• Citizens: Orks, Trow, Goblins, Kobold, Naj'Da, Draugr
• Tolerated: Faefolk, Dragons
• Slaves: Everything Else
• Languages: Crudish, Various
• Religions: Polytheistic; each race maintains autonomy over its own beliefs and spiritual practices.

The Gnoll Horde: Matriarchal tribes of nomadic gnoll who form many small warbands to raid the western Free Cities.

• Citizens: Gnoll
• Tolerated: Citizens of Vokhazan, Faefolk, Dragons
• Slaves: Everything Else
• Languages: Gnollish, Crudish
• Religions: The Hunt, Shamanism

Ouros: The Tail-Eater Clan - or the Ourobori - are a sorcerous theocracy of Naj'da and the living dead they care for, their ziggurats erected within the rolling tides of a saltwater mangrove swamp. Led by Lich-Snake Ssarsarin, Ourobori work with those those they are going to eat and those who are already dead to understand what they hold dear, sending spies to gather their affects. Tail-Eaters venerate the dead and the souls of their prey, mingling with them as allies and sources of power.

• Citizens: Naj'da, Draugr, Ghosts, the Devouring Acolytes
• Tolerated: Citizens of Vokhazan, Faefolk, Dragons.
• Slaves: Everything Else - slaves are kept as servants until they are eaten or raised as the living dead.
• Languages: Najiti, Crudish
• Religions: The Devouring; Naj'da know they will devour the world at the end of time, and all that lives will starve except for the living dead.

The Black Ramparts: A series of mountainous and subterranean holds belonging to the Orks, Trow, and Goblins, mortal enemies of the Dvergar, Gnomes, and Ald'Norai they war against. Their war machine is ever churning throughout the Ur'duun, cadres of slaves carving out the rock and felling trees to the south for expansion. Many of their disparate warbands quarrel amongst themselves for spoils from those they waylay.

• Religions: Warywryd, Shamanism, The Tall Father
• Citizens: Orks, Trow, Goblins
• Tolerated: Citizens of Vokhazan, Faefolk, Dragons
• Slaves: Everything Else
• Languages: Crudish
• Religions: The Hunt, Shamanism

   Various smaller tribes of a thousand people or less operate beneath the banner of Vokhazan.

The Deepholds

The Deepholds are the vast and isolationist network of Dvergar and Gnomish hold-states famed for their wealth and technology, each of them in a coalition with one-another. There are tunnels to the Underkyne all through Ur'duun, the hollow world beneath. They have lost many members to Vokhazan due to bureaucracy over how their resources should be mobilized; a railway once connected every city, but this marvel of engineering has since fallen to disarray in the wake of the war.

Territories

Bal Tor: The wartime capital of the Deepholds, Bal Tor is a city of reverence for the earth, statues and smooth stone walkways lining its crystalline globe-lit caverns. Bal Tor Artificers are known for their hulking golems and automatons, and its competitive guilds produce coveted jewels and inventions.

• Citizens: Dvergar, Gnomes, Kobold, Dragons
• Tolerated: Everything Else - if it can survive in the Ur'duun.
• Forbidden: Orks, Trow, Goblins
• Slaves: None
• Languages: Dvernish, Gnomish
• Religion: The denizens of the Deepholds worship the heart of the world, the World-Soul.

   Dozens of holds comprised of between one hundred and ten thousand individuals operate beneath the banner of the Deepholds, each specialized in a form of magic or mineral.

Jian

The times of old weave a tale of misfortune, death and betrayal; Jian had been the first empire run by Human-kind. The ongoing war between Man and Beast took a toll on the populus, fracturing the “Empire” that once hailed over the region. The Empire had broken into several Clans and factions of smaller sizes. A foreign gem, Jian is a country of beauty, mysticism, & a deeply rich culture. Steeped heavily in the sense of duty, honor, & virtue, Jian maintains an air of mystery to outside influences. Legend has it that the Jianese possess unique abilities hardly seen by outsiders. There is no “Government” held by a single entity, but several Ancient Dragons that rule the populace from the shadows.

When one looks to the heavens in Jian, their view will be dotted with the silhouettes of Dragons flooding the blue dome adorned with oyster-white clouds. There are constant large-scale skirmishes; the clashing of metal and screams of desperation can be heard from hundreds of miles away. The results are often puddles of blood, piles of corpses, and discarded weapons/armor hundreds of yards in length. Although Jian is beautiful at first glance, it is war-torn and heavily political.

The Heavenly Mountain: The spiritual capital of the Jian Empire, the Heavenly Mountain is a city of temples and resorts built into the slopes of an active volcano, an ancient dragon slumbering in its molten heart.

• Citizens: WIP, Jianese Humans, Dragons, Kobold, Half-Dragons
• Tolerated: WIP
• Forbidden: WIP
• Slaves: WIP
• Languages: Jianese, Draconic
• Religion: WIP

The Fae Courts

The Faefolk live upon the lawless plane of Ælphyne, far from the concerns of fearful mortals. Fae customs are strange and wild, a people who are difficult to understand. They have no concept of borders beyond home and garden, as Elphyne has never known war nor conflict over resources. Those without Arcana are advised to stay far away from these savage and self-interested people.

• Citizens: Faefolk
• Tolerated: Dragon, Kobold, Inari, and those skilled with trickery or Arcana
• Slaves: Everything Else
• Languages: Eudaimonic

   The fae who live on Antarok are usually descended from exiles, or else they are serving their part in an arrangement that benefits them.

Antarok Handbook

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