Dyspara

The peoples of Dyspara are generally hospitable and down-to-earth. The natural climate is anything but. Dyspara is a harsh landscape of jagged, rocky deserts and rolling sand dunes. Along the coast, scant vegetation offers marginal relief from the scouring heat and sand-specked wind. Worst of all, far above this parched land, an enormous cube of water floats in the sky, tantalizingly out of reach. Dysparans have never been able to reach the water cube, so to access water they dig very deep wells and by desalinating ocean water.

Academic.

Dyspara’s capital city has a small academy that has competent lectures on reading, arithmetic, and basic history, but struggles to attract any prestigious scholars.

Aristocratic, Political, and Social.

Dyspara is functionally a tribal federation. Each tribe has a patriarch or matriarch who is elected to lead the tribe. These elders elect representatives who travel to Dyspara’s port city of Stemorna, where these representatives negotiate legislation that all of their representative tribes can abide by.

With a few exceptions, Dysparan tribes are nomadic, following herds of leatherbacks and moving with the weather in an effort to find the most livable conditions for the season. Aside from Stemorna, Dyspara has a half-dozen tribes that live in permanent cities. These tribes welcome traveling tribes when they arrive, with the understanding that nomadic tribes will not reside in a city for more than a month at a time due to the strain that this puts on the city’s resources. Most Dysparans understand and respect the rules set forth by permanent cities and especially by Stemornan lawmakers.

Mercantile and Trade.

Dyspara exports semi-precious rocks and salt, which they trade with Ahten in exchange for foodstuffs. They also export sand to nations that wish to press sand bricks or make adobe structures. Stemorna has a large port that accepts international traders, although most other nations prefer to trade with one another and overlook Dyspara due to its lack of luxury goods.

Militant.

Dysparan tribes each have a young warrior sect that keep their tribe safe from the fearsome creatures of the desert and from belligerent tribes. Dysparan warriors tend to be skilled at navigating desert terrain, but fight with weapons that other nations might consider primitive.

Religious.

As Dysparans can always see an abundance of water but never access it, their religious philosophies wrestle with the problem of scarcity and the question of why good people aren’t rewarded with good things. They largely arrive at the conclusion that the gods only care about themselves, leading them to other philosophical questions that Dysparan elders and monks often debate and teach.

Underworld.

Dyspara has no organized crime, but at times an inexperienced tribal elder might see fit to wage war on another, not realizing that this is far less effective than maintaining a peace.

Stemorna

By any other nation’s standards, Stemorna is a small and struggling city. By Dyspara’s standards, it is a thriving metropolis. Stemorna has a small academy and a respectable port that can host international deep-sea vessels. It also houses the congressional halls of Dyspara’s representatives sent from the tribal elders. Stemorna’s governor, and the facilitator of inter-tribal deliberation, is an older dwarven fellow named Jethro Sandbeard, beloved for his jovial nature and empathetic demeanor.

Points of Interest

The Water Cube. Far above the Dysparan tribes, a miles-wide cube of water warbles above the parched earth. On occasion, a stray fish will swim too low and drop out of the cube, plummeting to the earth. Sadly, the water cube absorbs all moisture from the nearby atmosphere, so it virtually never rains anywhere in Dyspara.

Quest Ideas

• A young, foolish town leader decides that waging war on other tribes will earn some quick wealth. The heroes are brought in to intervene.
• A Dysparan mystic thinks that they can draw the waters of the Cube to the ground by using a portal, but they need to create a connection to the Everwilds to do so. The mystic hires the heroes for security on their journey into the Everwilds.