Lesmishan

Lesmishan is a wealthy nation sprawling along the lip of the Great Chasm. Having been founded a couple hundred years ago, it quickly became remarkably wealthy thanks to miners finding many veins of precious metals in the regions of the Great Chasm nearest their town. Lesmishan quickly grew from a single town to a nation of mining communities and trade outposts built precariously along the Great Chasm’s massive cliffs.

Aristocratic and Political.

Lesmishan’s mighty banking guild - the Chasm Financing Co. - governs the nation. Each Lesmishanian town has a bank where representatives from the CFC choose a sheriff to keep order in the town and collect taxes for the CFC. The CFC will also loan out assets to people that they deem deserving. Both the bankers themselves and the citizens of any given town engage in wildly corrupt activity, but there are no written laws to enforce, so besides overt violence or resisting the CFC’s taxation, anything goes.

Mercantile and Trade.

Mining an abundance of gems, precious metals, and strange technologies, means that Lesmishan has vast trading capital. They trade widely with their neighboring nations and even distant nations in exchange for all manner of luxury goods and raw materials that they cannot naturally produce in their arid land. Lesmishan is especially known for a lightweight but rock- hard metal - called avadrium - that occasionally seems to glow in thin stripes and has been noted to enhance arcane and psionic power.

Militant.

Lesmishan has a well-funded standing militia, and most of the CFC hire private guards as well. Most Lesmishanian miners are also capable of combat and are very skilled in the rocky, cavernous territory of their home nation. Furthermore, due to Lesmishan’s tremendous wealth, most aggressors can be bought off for a low price, as earning just a few silver coins is better than risking violent combat in most people’s books.

Religious.

Many miners in particular are religious or superstitious in some mix. Untold monsters do lurk in the caverns of the Great Chasm, and most miners will claim that they’ve seen unexplainable things. Many worship the Celestial Council or Avatars of protection and guidance. Others carry charms and trinkets to ward off evil spirits.

Social.

Lesmishan has a pretty bleak society. The rich hoard their wealth while the poor explore dangerous caverns in hopes of earning a little coin only to have it exorbitantly taxed by the bankers. Miners will often find that their friendships with one another are their only real solace in an otherwise unforgiving nation.

Underworld.

There are likely secretive crime syndicates working in Lesmishan, both operated by Lesmishanians and by foreign operatives such as Nalathesh’s Sandsnakes. Most notably, of course, the bankers themselves operate much like a mafia.

Lesmishan

The capital of Lesmishan, a city by the same name, is the largest mining town in the nation. As it is the oldest mining outpost, most of the veins of minerals in this particular region have since dried up except for those very deep in the caverns dotting the Chasm’s cliffs. While some miningstill takes place there, most of the more shallow mineshafts have turned into black markets and criminal haunts. The city as a whole is wildly lawless and most miners spendfar more than they earn in this city. The Chasm Financing Co.’s headquarters is in this city: a large stone bastion with enough cured food and water to survive two years under siege.

Points of Interest

The Great Chasm. See Bridgemoor for more information on the Great Chasm. Lesmishanians often descend into the Chasm or build small outpost towns on the Chasm’s cliffs to access their mineshafts more easily.

Quest Ideas

• The CFC needs the heroes to clear out some monsters from a lucrative mineshaft.
• Miners ask the heroes to help them clear a cave-in so that they can rescue their companions.
• A banker hires the heroes to undermine, blackmail, or rob another banker.
• An outside nation asks the heroes to scout out the capital city to see how best to overthrow it.