The Empire
The year is 7761 ER (Empire Reckoning) meaning this is the 7761st year since the founding of the Khizdushaz Empire as it now stands. The Emperor Utuhesh II is the one hundred fifty-fourth Emperor to sit on Throne of the Silver Hall in the White Castle and the decadent and corrupt House Menosus spends most of its time looking inwards to court rather than attending to the demands of the Empire.
Thousands of leagues away on the northernmost reaches of the continent lies the mining town of Opal. It sits like a series of warts on the steep and broken slopes of a mountain range thousands of feet high that defines the ring of a crater hundreds of miles in diameter. Three hundred fifty years ago a massive upheaval caused by a mysterious subterranean detonation blew a crater in the barren, frozen steppes of the area which heretofore had been flat as a skillet for hundreds of miles in all directions.
This explosion, commonly referred to as the Upheaval, shattered the land and caused the disintegration of one of the two moons orbiting the planet. Three hundred fifty years is a blink of an eye in astronomical terms and pieces of the moon fall into the atmosphere routinely in a brilliant display of shooting stars. In several hundred thousand years, the debris from this moon will form a ring, shepherded by the remaining moon, Kedi. In the mean time, the slow passage of Kedi across the sky flings meteors in all directions with its passage.
The cataclysm also struck dead or drove mad Essence users in the region and the witchplague is thought to be the result of such madness. The witchplage was an especially virulent plague that ran its course perhaps two hundred years ago slaying one human in four across the northern continent. This plague has brought the fury of an angry superstitious mob down on many an unsuspecting Essence user and, while not exactly outlawed, Essence users have gone into hiding, passing down their lore in secret places.
The plague has drained the area of human presence and where once there were homesteads dotting the landscape most are now abandoned for the safety of proper towns and cities, leaving the countryside empty, untended, and unwatched. This leaves plenty of room for things that go bump in the night.
Kedi is the source of superstitious ill-omen and many an ailment is blamed on “noch” (nighttime) and people do not willingly go out after dark. The streets are positively empty if Kedi flings a meteor shower in its passing.
The Four Nations
Before the essence explosion, North Brilend was the home to four nomadic tribes who claimed the land starting at what is now Tothkubad and extending eastwards through East Brilend. Most of the existing human(oid) population was scattered or killed in the cataclysm and for the last three centuries have struggled to rebuild and find a homeland now that the Empire has laid claim to the lands surrounding the Jewel Cities.
– The Koyatki roam the territory defined by the Aphend Forest and the region west of the west fork of the Udema River.
– The horse nomads of the Chutki claim the territory east of the Upper Inaro River.
– The herders of the Chakagari occupy the land southeast of the Upheaval.
– The waterborne wale-hunting Chati live in the northern waste.
Non-humans
The primary non-human threat to settlements in North Brilend is the three species of Sudaar orc: red, white and black.
The most common of the Sudaar is the Gothi or red orc, characterized by the reddish fur that covers the head, neck, back and arms. Of the Sudaar they are the smallest and least intelligent, raiding settlements and caravans in ill-organized mobs with direct and obvious tactics. They are clever at crafts and are known to forge metals, and are often used by other species as fodder.
The largest of the Sudaar is the Arokaar or white orc, standing taller and far broader than the average human. White Sudaar are engines of hate and their frenzied attacks are difficult to defend against.
The most dangerous of the Sudaar is the Ventaar or black orc. Intelligent and crafty, these orcs appear as leaders of the largest bands that they have assembled though threat of violence, promise of loot and plunder, and sheer force of will. Black orcs will use military tactics and attack from ambush to increase the effectiveness of mobs of red orcs in their sway.