Pathfinder Chronicles - Gazetteer - Asamnet

mighty Koldukar, in the foothills of the Hungry Mountains.
There, at the Battle of Nine Stones, the Sky Citadel fell to
the most revered hero of orc folklore, a savage warrior king
who gave his name to the nation: Belkzen.
Belkzen held together his f ledgling nation long enough
to erect massive stone temples and monuments throughout
the plains surrounding the conquered citadel of Koldukar,
renamed Urglin, (“first home” in Orc). The Hold of
Belkzen became a legend among orcs, attracting them from
throughout Avistan.
A line of petty conquerors, orc and otherwise, has laid
claim to Belkzen over the centuries, whipping the orcs
into obedience until an inevitable defeat or betrayal from
within. The legendary lich-king known as the Whispering
Tyrant usurped Belkzen’s throne in 3204, uniting the
warring orc tribes of the plains and mountains and forming
an immense army of savage humanoids unheralded since
the subterranean times. That force relentlessly harrassed
the kingdoms of Avistan in a series of abominable
invasions and raids that lasted more than 500 years, until
Taldor and its allies launched the Shining Crusade that
imprisoned the Whispering Tyrant below Gallowspire and
thrust Belkzen once more into chaos. Thus has the nation
remained for centuries upon centuries. Leaders come and
go, but the savagery and resilience of the orcs of Belkzen
remains a terrible constant.
Non-orcs seldom survive long in Belkzen. Roving hordes
of orc warriors and their associated allies and servitor beasts
wander the countryside, occasionally settling in meager
communes amid the crumbling ruins of monumental
buildings from Belkzen’s time. Only in the capital at Urgir,
where the strongest tribes exist in an uneasy peace, can an
outsider expect to pass unmolested and unabducted, and
even then only if he or she bears the sign or fetish of a highranking
orc warlord. Many Pathfinders, arcanists, and
explorers find risking the bad reception worthwhile, for
even though their stink permeates nearly every chamber of
Urgir, the orcs have not yet discovered all of Koldukar’s lost
passages and unclaimed treasure. Others come to Urgir for
trade, to muster an army of orc mercenaries, or to purchase
slaves captured by orcs on raids against neighboring lands.
In the country’s nothern wastes, warriors from
Wyvernsting dash across the border to abduct the giant,
antediluvian creatures of the Realm of the Mammoth
Lords, transporting them to Urgir for later sale to the
armies and arenas of the south. The kingdom of Cheliax
has of late developed a voracious appetite for the weird
beasts of the north, swelling the coffers of Wyvernsting’s
ambitious ruler, Hundux Half-Man, who is thought to
have ambitions upon Urgir and who fashions himself a
warrior king in the mold of Belkzen himself.
The ruined castles of countless would-be tyrants dot
Belkzen’s landscape, giving warning to any outsider hoping
Gazetteer: Nations
to bend the orcs to his will. One of the most impressive
of these monuments, the fortress Scarwall, gazes down
upon the f latlands of Belkzen from its perch atop a spur
of the Kodar Mountains. Visible along the crude road
from Wyvernsting to Urgir, the castle was once home to
an Ustalavian general named Kazavon who ruled Belkzen
early in the fifth millennium. The orcs use Scarwall as
a landmark but never venture within, for Kazavon’s rule
ended in madness, and uneasy spirits violently haunt his
unhallowed home.
Warring along Belkzen’s southwestern border with
Lastwall continues as it has since the final days of the
Shining Crusade. Orc warriors f lock south to test their
blades against human steel as they have for centuries, but
the orcs’ numbers grow greater and greater every year.
Soon, the gray-haired warriors of Lastwall fear, the orcs
will overwhelm this last bulwark, and the hordes of Belkzen
will spread a bloody scar across Avistan once more.
Brevoy
STRUGGLE BETWEEN NOBLE HOUSES
Alignment: CN
Capital: New Stetven (32,850)
Notable Settlements: Port Ice (13,260), Restov (18,670),
Skywatch (6,590)
Ruler: King Noleski Surtova
Government: Hereditary monarchy (Salic primogeniture)
Languages: Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian, Draconic
Religion: Abadar, Pharasma, Gorum
Taldorian explorers colonized the plains south of Lake
Encarthan about 2,000 years ago, conquering the plagueridden
inhabitants of an ancient frontier colony of the
legendary eastern steppe kingdom of Iobaria. Over time,
the Taldorian settlers and rustic Iobarian survivors
coalesced into two relatively stable, independent nations.
To the south was Rostland, led by the warrior-lords of the
Aldori swordpact, situated between the frontier capital of
Restov and encapsulating the whole of the twisted Gronzi
Forest. So great was the swordsmanship of Rostland’s
leaders that the Aldori style is still widely taught in Avistan
centuries after the fall of the kingdom that spawned it.
North of Rostland was Issia, a coastal land surrounding
the boisterous capital of Port Ice, haven to scoundrels and
lake pirates. Issian raids ranged the length of the Sellen
River in those days, giving even a Verduran woodsman
reason to fear the sounds of splashing oars by moonlight.
The greatest pirate family, House Surtova, thus had an
inf luence that spanned the whole of the Lake of Mists and
Veils and the waterways connected to it.
Rostland and Issia cycled between war and peace
throughout the centuries, but constrained their attention
to one another, largely ignoring the outside world. In 4449,
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