Pathfinder Chronicles - Gazetteer - Asamnet

markets of Okeno says much about the humanitarian
nature of Katapesh’s mysterious ruling caste.
Kyonin
KINGDOM OF THE ELVES
Alignment: CG
Capital: Iadara (56,340)
Notable Settlements: Greengold (10,400)
Ruler: Queen Telandia Edasseril, the Viridian Crown
Government: Monarchy
Languages: Elven
Religion: Calistria, Desna, Nethys, obscure elven deities
Kyonin is a beautiful realm of untamed nature, full of
vibrant forests, pastoral glens, and breathtaking vistas.
Although few modern scholars know the secrets
of the secluded kingdom’s history, elves
have dwelled in the region for thousands
of years. Abandoned, ruined elven
settlements dominate the Fireani
Forest north of the Five Kings
Mountains, their timeless beauty
echoing an era before the Age
of Darkness, when the elves had
hostile relations with the humans
of Old Azlant. Just before the
Earthfall, elves from throughout
the world gathered in Kyonin to
step within the sacred Sovyrian
Stone and abandon Golarion to
environmental destruction and
barbarism. Where the elves
went is a mystery to outsiders,
but they remained missing
for thousands of years, leaving
behind only a few stragglers to
watch over their abandoned realms.
Throughout the long centuries, many
of the elves who remained on Golarion became estranged
from the culture and beliefs of their people, assimilating
into barbaric human society as the Forlorn. The remaining
loyal elves in Kyonin kept to the illusion-shrouded capital
in Iadara, leaving the abandoned communities throughout
the nation fallow for artifact-looters, squatters, and vandals.
So many elven heirlooms and artifacts flowed south as
plunder from Kyonin that reclaiming them remains a major
challenge. Most elves consider the collection of these items
by non-elves a slight against all elvenkind.
The worst of the malign inf luences to roost in Kyonin in
the era of the elves’ somnolence was Treerazer, the demonic
self-declared Lord of the Blasted Tarn. The Fireani Forest
thrummed with the compassion and deliberation of the
elves, a lifeforce the demon sucked from its vegetation like
marrow from a bone. The beast corrupted a vast swath of
Gazetteer: Nations
the southern wood with his poisonous tongue, cautiously
testing the defenses of Iadara and the forest’s hard-pressed
protectors hiding there. The demon’s probes led it to the
Sovyrian Stone, a morsel too delicious to pass up. Corrupting
certain of the remaining guardian elves, Treerazer sought to
augment the elaborate gateway so it would connect Golarion
to the Abyss rather than to the elven refuge.
In response, the elves returned to Golarion in an immense
parade that took weeks to complete. Tens of thousands of
elves cleansed the Fireani of monstrous threats and foreign
settlers, reestablishing old communities and raising
forgotten battle standards upon a half-remembered world.
Treerazer himself proved impossible to slay, so the elves
hedged him into a haunted sliver of the forest called the
Tanglebriar, a twisted and evil vale watched
night and day by elven sentinels, lest the
demon stir again.
Expecting the worst from the
barbaric humans of Golarion, the
elves braced themselves for ferocious
combat. Instead, they discovered
Avistan in the midst
of the Age of Enthronement,
an era of civilization and refinement
(relatively speaking).
Convinced that modern humans
could be reasoned with,
the elves elected not to leave
once more via the Sovyrian
Stone but instead to return to
their old kingdoms throughout
Avistan and Garund.
In places, these claims met
with resistance and war, but
in others the old network of
elven citadels and cities f lares
once again with life.
Kyonin itself remains a closed realm. The elves welcome
few visitors within their borders, instructing strangers
to venture first to the small human port community of
Greengold, where arrangements can be made for travel
into the nation’s interior.
Graceful crystal and wooden spires break above the forest
canopy at the capital of Iadara, with towers and bridges
built in harmony with the surrounding forest. Despite this
pleasant facade, however, several potent threats face the
capital. The elven nobles have grown restless over the years,
frustrated with the lack of progress against the evil dwelling
so close to their home. Others press Queen Edasseril for
greater rights in opening up lost elven kingdoms scattered
across Golarion, hoping to restore elven rule and reestablish
ancient rites of trade. Worse yet is the threat posed by the
drow, vile descendants of elves who remained on Golarion
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