Pathfinder Chronicles - Gazetteer - Asamnet

Pathfinder Chronicles
26
Curse of the Darkmoon Vale
The government wags of Augustana and Almas scheme on
such a grand scale that those predicting trouble for Andoran
might imagine it striking there, in the populous, cosmopolitan
cities of the Inner Sea coast. Instead, trouble brews in the
sparse northern uplands, near secluded Darkmoon Vale and
the scattered logging community of Falcon’s Hollow. The
Vale lies at the heart of a long-dead dwarven enclave from
the Age of Darkness, and its wooded lowlands enshroud
dozens of eroded temples and monasteries. Some of these
forlorn ruins cap elaborate subterranean complexes once
inhabited by dwarves. Some tunnel miles underground in
the Darklands of the world, a realm one does not disturb
without inviting dire consequences. The restless spirits of the
dwarven dead reveal a highly decadent culture at the time of
collapse, and the byproducts of that unhallowed society still
emerge from time to time from toppled monuments and
overgrown tunnel mouths.
Readers interested in further exploring the region should
consult the Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Darkmoon Vale
and the GameMastery/Pathfinder Modules D0: Hollow’s
Last Hope, D1: Crown of the Kobold King, D1.5: Revenge of
the Kobold King, and LB1: Tower of the Last Baron.
By 4669, the outrage grew too great for the proud
merchants of Andoran. Citing the anti-nobility screeds
of Galtan philosophers like Jubannich and Hosetter, the
merchants rallied the common man to demand greater
rights and cast down the old order. Unlike in Galt, whose
own revolution went astray, the merchants of Andoran did
not seek to kill their former lords. Instead, they offered
citizenship in the new kingdom without a king, where all
men were equal and leaders ruled only at the mandate of
the people. Those who agreed were welcomed into the new
order. Those who refused faced the noose. Either way, the
nobles’ holdings became the property of the state and were
often immediately sold off or given to supporters of the
so-called People’s Revolt.
Today, Andoran owes its power to a consortium
of political radicals, wealthy merchant lords, and
sympathetic aristocrats who seek to spread the political
philosophy of Common Rule and open new markets
throughout the world. Much of the nation’s impressive
wealth comes from precious antiquities raided from
distant, unmapped lands such as Arcadia and the Mwangi
Expanse. Competition for these resources grows fiercer
by the year, and exotic locales like the ruin-laden deserts
of interior Osirion or slivers of ancient Azlant have hosted
proxy wars between agents of Andoran and enemy powers
like Cheliax and Taldor.
Andorens seek not just to transform their homeland,
but to export their cultural, philosophical, and mercantile
beliefs to the world. Years ago, the heroes of Andoran
emptied the nation’s prisons and freed all its slaves in an
attempt to bolster the strength of the Revolt, and its people
have henceforth subscribed to a militant abolitionism.
Agents provocateurs dispatched from the capital city of
Almas actively seek to undermine the Inner Sea slave trade
and those nations that support it, which is nearly all of
them. The world thus views Andorens as troublemakers
and unwanted ideological imperialists.
The Supreme Elect of Andoran, currently Codwin
I of Augustana, manages the Executive Office, a huge
bureaucracy that handles most governmental affairs in
the nation. The 350 citizen-representatives of the People’s
Council sit on marble benches in the monument-laden
capital at Almas. Many once held noble titles, while others
rose from slavery or serfdom to speak for their home
counties in the assembly. From the highest government
official of Andoran to its lowliest servant, nearly everyone
believes in the tenets of the People’s Revolt that transformed
their nation some 40 years ago. They are the children of
the second and third generations of liberty, and their faith
in the Andoren way is resolute.
Belkzen, Hold of
SAVAGE HUMANOID HOMELAND
Alignment: NE
Capital: Urgir (28,700)
Notable Settlements: Wyvernsting (11,320)
Ruler: Prominent orc champions and their respective
clans include Grask Uldeth of the Empty Hand, Tulluk
Clovenface of the Haskodars, and Hundux Half-Man of
Murdered Child
Government: Numerous tribal hordes vie for dominance
Languages: Orc
Religion: Rovagug, Lamashtu, Zon-Kuthon
Ymrir’s Saga tells the tragedy of Koldukar, second of the
10 Sky Citadels of dwarven prehistory. In the dying days
of the Age of Darkness, the dwarves erected enormous
stone keeps like artificial mountains to protect their
people. This done, the dwarves looked out from their vast
balconies upon the night-black lands of the surface world
with pride and ambition, for the shadowed hills and open
spaces of Golarion were theirs to inherit, the rightful prize
for completion of the eternal Quest for Sky.
As the dwarves had marched ever closer to the surface,
they pushed ancient enemies ahead of them in a series of
great genocidal wars. The most relentless and cunning
of these enemies—the orcs—emerged from the depths
centuries before the dwarves and waited eagerly to avenge
the warfare of countless millennia. Some of the Sky
Citadels, like Highhelm in the Five Kings Mountains
and Janderhoff in Varisia, resisted the orc assaults. Not so