Gavare

A land riddled with natural disasters and monsters, Gavare’s hostile environment has bred a resilient and warlike population. Gavare straddles the southern Cloudpiercer Range - where the mountains are considerably easier to navigate - and occupies the land around most of the Smoldering Canyon. Common natural disasters in this land include sulfurous gas spraying into the air from the canyon, sandstorms whipping up in the desert, rockslides from the mountains, earthquakes thanks to a large fault line, and monsoons that batter the Gavarese states east of the Cloudpiercers.

Gavarese folk have traditionally believed that engaging in frequent ritual warfare with one another will appease the gods responsible for these natural disasters. Many are ready to move on from such beliefs, but the monarchs and high priests are reluctant to abandon tradition.

Academic.

Scholarly arcanists in Gavare are fascinated by the Smoldering Canyon and are trying to convince the ruling elite to abolish the ritual wars and harness the magical energy within the Smoldering Canyon. This social transition has thus far been unsuccessful.

Aristocratic and Political.

Gavare has eleven major states. Each is ruled by a monarch. Some such monarchs are also the high priests of their state, while other states separate the responsibilities of governance and religious leadership. These monarchs frequently negotiate trade agreements with one another and if threatened by a foreign entity will rally together.

Mercantile and Trade.

At the behest of arcanist scholars in the nation, some Gavarese tribes have begun to mine the Smoldering Canyon for its precious metals. They have also established an ongoing trade relationship with Ahten, who pays high premiums to mine the Canyon in Gavare’s territory. Gavare and Thaaj trade frequently, especially the states of Gavare that can offer timber from east of the Cloudpiercers.

Militant, Religious, and Social.

The nine states on the west of the Cloudpiercers, occupying the land around the Smoldering Canyon, engage in ritual warfare with one another. This is done to appease their destructive pantheon of gods, whom they believe destroy the world every hundred years. Given Gavare’s high volume of natural disasters, the Gavarese see these disasters as acts from the divine.

The two states that live to the east of the Cloudpiercers share the same religious beliefs, but this manifests in battle against the monstrosities that lurk in the Kozia Rainforest.

Most Gavarese worship gods out of fear, rather than gratitude. The Ashyidir Conclave of the Archfae, the Corrupted Avadri, the Fiends of Inferno, and the Exiles are commonly worshiped as they seem most likely to be responsible for frequent natural disasters.

Underworld.

Gavarese crime syndicates have leapt at the opportunity to mine precious resources under the direction of scholars. They have a near-monopoly on mithril and adamantine mining in the Smoldering Canyon.

Tlezcan

The largest state in Gavare is located in the Cloudpiercer Range and extends west into the desert near the Smoldering Canyon. The capital of this state, Tlezcan, is constructed on and around a large lake in the Cloudpiercer Range. It is accepted as the capital of the whole nation, as each other Gavarese monarch looks to the Tlezcani monarch as the first among equals. The current monarch of Tlezcan is King Mactezuma III.

Points of Interest

Smoldering Canyon. Gavare controls most of the Smoldering Canyon, which produces vast quantities of valuable metals and gems. Among mundane precious metals, the canyon also produces magical metals such as mithril and adamantine. The Smoldering Canyon also produces magical energy that scholars are working to harness, and it yields plants whose pigments can be used to create magical tattoo ink.

Quest Ideas

• A scholar has approached the heroes and asks them to help convince the monarch of Tlezcan to abandon the old ways of meaningless bloodshed.

• The crime syndicate in the Smoldering Canyon has choked out all supply of mithril and adamantine, swearing that they will only reopen the mines once they are made monarchs.

• Great monsters in the forests to the east of the Cloudpiercers threaten small Gavarese towns. Can the heroes fight off the monsters?

• The time has come again for multiple states to go to war with one another and appease the gods. The heroes are drafted.

• A series of multiple natural disasters batter Gavare, including one that rips a portal from the Smoldering Canyon to inferno. The heroes have their hands full fighting fiends and must figure out how to close the portal amid the other natural disasters.