<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Setting - The Nation of Dhergham</strong></span><br/><br/>Lying far to the South East of Creation, the nation of Dhergham, which calls itself the Lion of the Dreaming Sea, is a relatively small nation. Though not insular, it has little contact with the wider world, by dint simply of how far from everywhere else it is.<br/><br/>So close to the borders of Creation, the touch of the Wyld is frequently visible in both the inhabitants of the nation, and its own geography. As such, lesser (or beneficial) mutations are not the stigma here that they are in other places.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/1/1c/Gamemap2.jpg)<br/><br/><em>Click on image to enlarge map</em><br/><br/>From the capital of Abqaliyah, the Dragonbloods of House Sharji rule, as they have done (so they say) from the breaking of the world, when the devil queen was cast down.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ab/Sharji1.jpg)  (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/6/63/Sharji2.jpg)<br/><br/>The city is the centre of all commerce and learning in the nation, vast herds and tons of crops making their way in daily, whereupon ships at the port load them and carry them to many other shores of the Dreaming Sea. Merchants haggle over a thousand goods and scholars debate the nature of Creation.<br/><br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d8/Abqaliyah.jpg)  (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/6/68/Wallpapersden.com_fantasy-ancient-city-cool-illustration_3840x2159.jpg)<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/75/Avokhar_City-3.jpg)<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a3/HD-wallpaper-the-prince-of-cats-art-roof-city-fantasy-luminos-shen-fei-man-prince-of-cats.jpg)<br/><br/>The weather is hot, but the nearby sea keeps the coastal regions pleasant. The further one journeys inland, the hotter it can become, with cropland giving way to savanna where the great herds roam, and savanna giving way to deserts and mountains in turn. Strange storms can flare up out of nowhere and sweep across the land, leaving all kinds of wonders in their wake .. getting caught in the path of one is a less pleasant experience though. If you’re lucky, a few minor physical changes can be expected. If you’re unlucky .. well, you never know what you may end up as.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/47/Kisa2.jpg)  (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/da/Add8bb8bcd0854092db87c0f93652a2e.jpg)<br/><br/>Slavery is a fact of life here, as in much of Creation. Slaves fetch and carry, farm and herd, while the local Immaculate monks preach that a dutiful slave in this life may return in the next as something more. There are always those who seek to fight against the natural order of things, and escaped slaves sometimes form into bands who seek to pillage and plunder, taking what they have not rightly earned, while avoiding the dangers that lurk far from civilisation ... beasts, beast-men and the nameless ones that ride the Wyld storms like fractious mounts, and prey on all that is.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/32/Beastman.jpg)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Places of Note:</strong></span><br/><strong>The Diamond Bridge</strong><br/>Spanning the mighty Najamarra river, the Diamond Bridge is a wonder of the First Age. Made of crystal, it crosses the miles to the other bank, sturdy enough to carry thousands of people at once in perfect safety. Not even the worst storm can shake it.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/50/Crystalbridge.jpg)<br/><br/><strong>The Drowned City</strong><br/>The sages say that the Serpent Isles were once a single island, but when the world was torn asunder, the city that stood here was dropped into the sea and drowned. The water is clear enough, most of the time, to see the buildings that have remained intact, home now to little more than fish and ghosts.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/ff/Drownedcity.jpg)<br/><br/>There are rumours of many darker things that live among the city that drowned, but that does not stop intrepid souls from diving there to try and find lost treasures.<br/><br/><br/><strong>First Age Ruins</strong><br/>There are a handful of ruins dotted around the nation, the biggest in the far north and south. Many treasure seekers have delved into them over the centuries, and they are believed mostly picked clean of anything useful now. Anyone going into them now is more likely to find monsters than treasure.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/6/64/Firstageruins.jpg)<br/><br/><br/><strong>The City of the Dead</strong><br/>No one quite knows what happened here. The original name of the city has been stricken from all records, and it is only referred to as the City of the Dead, for that is what it has become. The dead still walk here, their spirits replaying the lives they lived, over and over again. Sometimes they will remain apparently ignorant of the living who intrude on their domain, sometimes they will turn on them in spectral fury, and then one more spirit comes to dwell within the city, and join their mimicry of life.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/b/b4/Cityofthedead.jpg)<br/><br/>There are still those brave or foolish enough to risk the city in search of treasures, though few return with anything more than stories and warnings for the next unwary group.<br/><br/><br/><strong>The Silver Tower</strong><br/>The valley that contains the structure known as the Silver Tower is one the wise avoid, as the taint of the Wyld lies heavily on it.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/2/2e/SILVERTOWER.png)<br/><br/>Strange beasts and plants, even the very land itself bears the mark of the Wyld, and at the heart of the valley, a strange tower of crystal that towers as high as any mountain, unmarked by the passage of time, and with no visible ways in or out.<br/><br/><strong>The Field of Bones</strong><br/>Lying at the edge of the desert, the landscape here is bleached an unnatural dirty white, the rock outcrops suggesting the bones of great behemoths that lie half buried in the ground. Other shapes look like the figures of men and beasts, frozen mid battle and turned to stone, now worn down by time.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/b/b4/Fieldofbones.jpg)<br/><br/>The wind echoes strangely here, carrying distant sounds of what sounds like fighting, but nothing is ever seen. Occasionally great masses of bones will be found, like a herd of animals that chose to die together, or a caravan slaughtered by forces unknown, with every bone stripped clean.<br/><br/>There is a great cave complex beneath the Field of Bones, but the extent of it is unknown. Many of the tunnels are small or unstable, so little of it has been explored.<br/><br/><strong>Other things of note:</strong><br/><br/>Perhaps related to the land’s name, but there are (relatively) large numbers of Simhata to be found roaming the savanna lands. The young Dragonbloods of House Sharji prize them highly, and taming your own Simhata is something of a rite of passage for them.<br/><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Game thread</span>(https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=346569.0)