The Sandjak of Antasyn
by Christian ConstantinLocation: Continent of Brun, in the Converted Lands at the northwest of the Dark Wood and Hule, and south of the Sdrednayan forest.(Map)
Area: About 50 000 sq. mi. Population: 135, 000 humans (80% Antasynians, 10% Bulzanians, 5% Huleans, 5% Monzagians) plus some elves and dwarves. Language: Shqradër, Hulean, and Bulzanian. Coinage: Lek (gp), Kuru (sp), Qintar (cp), barter.
Government Type: Hulean protectorate. Formerly a loose monarchy built upon a confederacy of clans, Antasyn is in a state of semi anarchy where the Hulean administration is the only official centralised political power.
Industries: Mining (copper, tin, iron and silver), timber, animal breeding.
Important Figures: Ilnur Baykurt (C26, of Bozdogan), governor of Antasyn; Shkum Rogaji (T18), Bajraktar of Prizvo; Sali Luzaj (M15), Bajraktar of Zar; Kandòn Ristani (F21), Bey of Leqan; Leke Bey or "The Sloth" (14HD wurmling), head of the Bleak League.
Description: The land of the Antasynians, or Shqradèrs, as they called themselves, has once been quite larger than the current Hulean sandjak is. The Antasynians were once the only human society in the Northern part of the Converted Lands, however, centuries of invasions from the outside and division in the inside left to the Antasynians only a small portion of what was their realm in their heydays. The Shqradèrs still see their motherland as extending far beyond the current frontiers of the Hulean province where most of them live. If nowadays the lands recognised as belonging to them are cantered on the Kurqès river, the Antasynians traditionally claim the Kereçul Valley (in Monzag) up to the Crisöl river as theirs and they consider that most of Oltania (Bulzan's northernmost province) as part of Antasyn. Those regions are peopled mainly by Antasynians and are considered as stolen territories.
The current land of Antasyn (Shqraderia) consists of a large well-irrigated plain in the east and of mildly high hills in the west. Northern Antasyn is characterised by dense forested hills that slowly gives way to the Great Sdredanyan forest. This geographic division (hills versus plains) is also mirrored at the social level between the people of the hills, the Gurs; and the people of the plains and valleys, the Dasks. Both peoples have different traditions, economic activities, social relations, and relations with Hule. When travelling in the hills, one is most likely to see small villages of cattle herders (goats, sheep) at the top of a rocky hill (west) or hidden in a small clearing (north), but in the valley the most common sights are bigger hamlets surrounded by crops of many kinds. The Sandjak's borders are more or less defined by the following geographic features: in the north and west, the Hulean Basin watershed; to the east, the forested areas of the Kereçul mid-valley; and, in the south, the hills of the Zorab Gur.
Weather varies according to the terrain types (winters are colder in the hills while summers are a little milder than the average). In general, however, the Antasynian year is clearly divided into four seasons: a cold and wet winter with heavy snowfalls; a short rainy and temperate spring; a long dry and hot summer and a colder but still dry fall. Western Antasyn tends to be much drier than the eastern part of the country because the winds blowing in the region come more often from the arid southwest than from the wetter hinterland of Brun.
The Bylot Hills (Bileot in Thyatian) are the geographical feature that is the most important for the Antasynians. It is so because, in the first place, it is from those hills that came the ancestor of the current Antasynians, but, also, because the hills provide most of the riches of Antasyn. Since Antasyn is a country in which the first industry is the extraction of minerals, the hills and their riches are the economic lung of an otherwise poor country. The hills are also the place where the Shqradèrs go in times of war or penury; they provide a good shelter when invasions rock the lower lands. Nevertheless, if the Bylot Hills are vital for the Antasynians they also could be deadly as a multitude of creatures have elected domicile in the abandoned ruins of the first settlements of the region, and because they are at the fringe of the Sdredanyan forest, home of the dreadful Sendarya tribes.
The Antasynians are long lost cousin of the Bulzanians with whom they share the same origin: the Blackmoorian colony of Yazak. The people of Yazak were already a mix of several cultures of the Blackmoor era but they were later joined with people of Oltec and Neathar descent. This explains the variety of physiological features that the Antasynians may bear. However, in general, people of Antasyn tend to have a light brown to olive completion and dark brown to black hair. The people of the hills are normally of lighter completion than those of the plain and valleys.
As said earlier, the Antasynian society is divided in two different groups: the Gurs and the Dasks. The Gurs have a society organized along clanic ties. The clans of the Gurs regroup in larger coalitions based on geographic proximity. These associations of clans are called bajrak, which are headed by a bajraktar who is hereditary designated. Gurs' bajraktars exercise patriarchal powers, arrange marriages, mediate quarrels, and mete out punishments. The clansmen of the Antasyn hills recognise no law but the Code of Lek, a collection of tribal laws that regulates a variety of subjects, including blood vengeance. Taxes on the clansmen are difficult if not impossible for the Huleans to collect because of the rough terrain and fierceness of the Antasynian highlanders. Some tribes of the hills have succeeded in defending their independence through the centuries of the Master's rule They are regularly engaged in intermittent guerrilla warfare with the Hulean troops, who don't deemed it worthwhile to subjugate them as long as they do not disrupt the supplies of metals from the western hills.
The Dasks have been more influenced by the Hulean and Bulzanian societies so that the Antasynian tribal system disappeared in the lower valleys. The Hulean administration of the Master has imposed a system of military fiefs under which the Hagiarchy grants soldiers and cavalrymen, temporary landholdings, or timars, in exchange for military service. The practice of the timars has divided the lower lands into small holdings headed by a bey who performs most of the administrative and military duties at the local level. With time, however, many military fiefs have effectively become the hereditary landholdings of economically and politically powerful families who squeeze wealth from their hard-strapped tenant farmers. The beys, like the clan chiefs of the hills, have become virtually independent rulers in their own provinces, have their own military contingents, and often wage low-scale war against each other to increase their landholdings and power.
Between the brajraktars and the beys the Hulean administration basically administers the major urban centres and the exploitation of the mineral deposits of the Bylot hills, the remaining administrative chores are the business of the Antasynians local rulers. To guarantee the loyalty of the local rulers, the Hulean administration have recourse to two different means of coercion: the devshirme, or the children tribute, and religion. By the devshirme, the most promising children of the Antasynians rulers are sent to Greatrealm or Jandak to be trained for military, administrative or religious services and to be converted to the Temple of Chaos. Now, those young Antasynians are among the most prominent officers of the Hulean troops. The other way is to impose lower taxes on the families following the Temple of Chaos than on the rest of the Antasynian families who must pay the Cizye. The Master thinks that, by increasing the number of his religion's followers in Antasyn, this people will be easier to control and more loyal to Hule. Finally, the wild card that the Master is using to secure the mineral supplies from the Bylot Hills is the Bleak League, an organisation living mainly out of criminal activities at the head of which is Leke Bey, a wurmling allied to the Master. In fact, if one would like to designate the real central ruler of Antasyn, this wurmling, also named "The Sloth", would probably end up at the top of the list, before the Hulean governor Ilnur Baykurt.
History: the history of the Antasynians can be traced back as far as the Blackmoorian culture zenith. It is during these times of widespread technology and magic that was founded the colony of Yazak by settlers from Blackmoor and Thonia. When the Great Rain of fire destroyed these ancient civilisations, Yazak was miraculously saved by its remote localisation at the edge of the Arctic Circle. As a matter of fact, Yazak even profited from this cataclysm as the Mystaran axis shift brought it to more temperate regions. However, since Yazak was totally dependent on Blackmoor for its technology, the colony rapidly fell back to some kind of Iron Age.
For more than two millennium the city thrived and expanded it's influence across most of the region that is now known as the Savage Coast: new settlements are founded nearby, colonies are developed in the Bylot Hills where rare minerals can be found and cooperation with the neighbouring post-Oltec and Neathar tribes expands. The Antasynians are the children of these mining colonies of the Yazak era. Their destiny will be following tight the one of the great city of Yazak until the murderer of a mine administrator and the quest for vengeance of his family led the different cities of the hills into a civil war, which will rage from 1914BC to 1909.
After this civil war, that utterly destroyed their holdings in the hills, the Yazak people of the Bylot colony split, one faction returned to the original city of Yazak while the other fled to the eastern forested lowlands. There they met the nomads of southern Niwhelm (the great forest that once stretched from the Yalu Sea to the Western Sea of Dread). At first the cohabitation of the two peoples was far from being easy: the ways of the Bylot settlers and the druidic nomads were conflicting on many aspects, but in the end the two peoples merged to form just one original population.
If the new settlers brought in a new form of government: monarchy, when Kajoshaj is crowned by a group of warrior as the first Antasynian king, the nomad influence will be greater as their druidic cults will become the principal religious belief of most of the newcomers. This won't stop Kajoshaj from embracing the religion of Hule, the Temple of Chaos, when a group of missionaries from the Great Valley will come to meet the new king in 1884BC. The new religion will penetrate deeply in the Antasynian aristocracy, but the population will mainly keep its druidic and shamanistic believes.
For about two centuries, Antasyn will remain in peace. The monarchy is located in the small centre of Gjitra (now Debredladany), but it has only more or less control over the local clansmen hierarchy who pays obedience to the king but administrates the local questions independently. In 1756 BC, the Shah of Sardjikjian sends missionaries to the land of the Antasynians, the Way of the Law will slowly take roots in the Antasynian populace.
This period of calm and peaceful extension of the Antasynians will be ended in 1712BC when beastmen coming from the overpopulated steppes of Urzud pours in the region. King Kajoshaj VIII organises the defence of the country, but division among the clans over tactical decisions will weaken the Antasynian army to the point that the beastmen will finally defeat the Antasynians in 1709BC. Most of the population of the lowland clans will flee the approaching hordes and hide in remote forested valleys and in desolated hills. The Way of the Law will find a fertile soil in these refugees community as an opposite force to the chaotic habits of the beastmen. Many clansmen won't accept the beastmen rule and will keep the war going for the following century. The beastmen will never be able to ripe the fruits of the conquest of Antasyn, as they will never see peace in the region. The major contribution of the period to the Antasynian society will be the writing of the Code of Lek by Sardjikjian missionaries of the Loyal Brotherhood around 1685BC.
In 1624BC, the exhausted military leaders of the beastmen flee to the south and try to enslave the people of Bulzan, but will be defeated two years later. This victory over the beastmen won't bring any good on the Antasynians since the different victorious clan leaders will enter a military struggle to take the head of the entire nation. So, when, in 1619BC, the Bulzanians invade the Antasynians' lands all they will confront is a loose confederation of military leaders who are more opposed between them than they are united against Bulzan. The Bulzanians will officially annexed Antasyn to their Bulzano-Antasynian Kingdom. However, the Antasynians' participation to the kingdom will remain sparse and the Bulzanians' control over the country will remain limited to the urban centres of the valleys and to some of the mining towns of the Bylot Hills.
The entire period of the Bulzano-Antasynian kingdom (1619-1297BC) is a period of peace for the Antasynians. It is also the period in which the division of the society will slowly appear. This era will bring prosperity upon the urban centres of Gjitra and Prijderel, but will leave the highlands in their backwardness. The corporation's system will bloom in both the Antasynian and Bulzanian cities, but will never reach Antasyn's rural areas.
In 1300BC, the humanoids of king Wogar reach the Yazak Steppes, forcing the beastmen of the steppes to attack the Bulzano-Antasynian kingdom. This attack couldn't fall at a worst moment: the administration of the kingdom is locked in internal conflicts and unable to organise an effective resistance. The invaders rapidly conquer the kingdom's centre but will stop short of crossing the Zorab Gur, giving de facto independence to the Antasynians. At that time, however, Antasyn is far from being a coherent country: the cities of the valleys were deeply integrated in the Bulzanian network of corporation, but the hills and most of the rural areas were still divided in numerous brajraks. Civil disorder will develop rapidly in the cities, as the corporations' power will be cut of its bases in Bulzan. In 1267BC, after some 30 years of troubles and unrest, Zymer Carjeki, Brajraktar of Kuranë, will be able to unite the western clans under his rule. In nine years he will conquer most of the Antasynian campaigns in a move to establish a centralised power in Antasyn. He will stop short of his goal of creating a new monarchy, as he will die prematurely while besieging the city of Prijderel. His son, Luka, will finish his enterprise three years later and will be sacred king of all the Antasynians at the royal palace of Gjitra (the Bulzano-Antasynian kings' summer residence) in 1255BC. Luka Cajerki will take the name of Zymer II in respect for his father's achievements.
The period of peace and centralisation in Antasyn won't survive for too long though. Luka's son, Zymer III, will have to face the nostalgic Bulzanians just freed of half a century of beastmen domination. In 1212BC, the Bulzanians declares war to Antasyn in a move to revive the Bulzano-Antasynian kingdom. During the following fourteen years, the Antasynians will slowly loose ground to the invaders and, in a desperate move to thwart the Bulzanians' military progression, King Zymer III will ask the Holy Men Empire for military support. The result of his query will be far from what was asked: the Hulean forces will conquer Antasyn's enemy in 8 years. The autonomy of Antasyn is saved, but the influence of the Temple of Chaos will spread rapidly in the Antasynian urban society, as the Holy Men will develop their influence at the political level.
The military alliance between the Antasynians and Hule will gradually transform the organisation of the military administration of Antasyn. The militaries will adopt many of the more centralised Hulean military structures. As their administration become more centralised, the military will increasingly found resistance among the local Antasynian leaders. The king of Antasyn will be dragged in between the two opposing factions. In 1124 BC, King Zymer V decides to purge the administration from the influence of the Holy Men, a decision that will bring him closer to the local leaders against his own military administration. Helped by the Holy Men, General Sakir Frasheri will overthrow the king in a bloody coup d'État in 1123 BC. Abhorred by the population and the local lords, Frasheri's administration will be constantly contested and survived only from the support of the Hulean troops sent in Antasyn. Within the following fifty years Antasyn status in the Hulean Empire will evolve from this simple military alliance to a military administration under the direct control of Jandak.
The three hundred years of Hulean administration that followed Frasheri's coup led to the destruction of most of Antasyn's traditional economic and social institutions. The Hulean administration centralised the exploitation of the mineral and timber resources. The Antasynians working in those industries were treated as little more than slaves. The remnants of the corporations were obliterated during this first imperial era. The religious polarisation between the city dwellers, worshipping the Temple of Chaos, and the rural communities still following the old druidic ways or believing in the Way of the Law will be exacerbated by conversion campaigns forcefully held throughout the Antasynian population. These campaigns will bear fruits only in the more developed regions of the valleys though, the more remote hills community will never be totally affected by the Holy Men faith. As for religion, the Hulean Empire won't be able to transform the rural leadership of the brajraktars who will continue to rule their fiefs along the ancestral ways.
Numerous attempts to destroy the power of the brajraktars by the Holy Men administration will be met by strong resistance that will culminate in 868BC in the great rebellion of the western brajraks. The Hulean militaries will be sent to quell the rebellion, but their only positive result is to stop the brajraktars' militias from raiding in the valleys. Dispute over tactical decisions will deepen the growing gap between the religious and military administration.
The Hulean control over the western possessions of the Empire will increasingly become under threat throughout the eighth century BC as the Sendaryan tribes will multiply their raids on the Northern Military Route between Hule and Antasyn. Finally, as the contacts between the central Hulean administration and the Antasynian troops will become sparser, general Hersek Çamak, head of the Hulean military hierarchy in Antasyn, will declare himself ruler of the Antasynians in 702 BC, thus seceding from the Empire. Çamak and the following Hulean masters of Antasyn will stay away from the Hulean politics during the period of trouble that will ensue from the Empire fragmentation. They will keep most of the Empire's administrative structures put in place during the Empire Era, but will manage them to enrich themselves. In less than four generations, however, they will be assimilated into the Antasynian society and will, in fact, look more like the traditional king of Antasyn: remote and dependent on their vassals' power.
The period following the crumbling of the first Hulean Empire is a period of relative prosperity for the Antasynians. Despite regular raids from the nomads of the Sendaryan tribes, trade in minerals with the Hulean warlords is booming to meet their needs of weapons. The exhaustion of the old mines of the Shlèzer Gur forces the Antasynians to progressively settle the farther highlands of the Bylot Hills alongside the Kurqès River. Nevertheless, this period of development and expansion will be halted by the plague of the sixth century BC, which will claim a high toll on the cities and valleys' populations. The balance between the Gurs and the Dasks is strongly tipped towards the Gurs, which will accelerate the decentralisation of the country and reduce the king's power.
The fourth and third century BC in Antasyn are characterised by the fragmentation of the country and the shallowness of the central administration. The kingdom is in a state of semi-anarchy, local wars erupt between different brajraktars, and the élites of Prijderel and Gjitra are increasingly competing to be the economic and political centre of the country. When, in 186 BC Bulzan is conquered by Hule, the Antasynians are completely caught off guard and soon see themselves as the most probable next victim of the new Empire. In order to keep a relative autonomy for his country, King Kulaj II accepts to become Hule's vassal in 183 BC, a decision that many Antasynians will dispute. Kulaj II will be the main victim of this decision as young radicals murdered him in 150 BC. Antasyn, however, will remain under Hule's suzerainty, as his successor, Baron Kulaj III, will refrain from giving legitimacy to the rampant rebellion against Hule.
The rebellion in Antasyn is kept underground until the reign of Kulaj VII, who, taking advantage of a wave of unrest in Bulzan, will openly take the side of the insurgents and revoke the suzerainty link in 25 AC. The new Antasynian monarchy will remain independent for about 14 years, since the Hulean forces won't be able to retake the lost lands before 38AC. Nevertheless, the crushing of the rebellion is one of the bloodiest event of Antasyn's history as scores of Dasks will be killed by the Hulean troops and their allies of the Yazak Steppes. The Dasks' nobility will be all but annihilated, many Antasynians are sent as slaves to Hule and the Yazak Steppes, and the highlands population is swelled by refugees coming from the more populated lands of the valleys. This ushers in an era of terror and violence in Antasyn under the strict rule of the Huleans in which the Antasyinians are of less value than a goblin. This period of terror will only end with the destruction of the second Hulean Empire after the Hulean defeat at the hand of the Crystal Pact's armies in 291 AC.
From 291 AC to 295 AC, the Antasynians will struggle to shake Hule's domination. Unable, however, to designate a new ruling family, the different brajraktars will keep fighting among themselves until 353 AC, the year when Vidian Muju, Brajraktar of Bushkor, will defeat his last adversary on the way to total power in the country. These fifty years of war among the brjaraktars following the Hulean rule, will leave Antasyn with most of it's political hierarchy decapitated, which will allow Vidian Muju to establish the first centralised monarchy that Antasyn ever knew.
For two hundred years of strong monarchic rule, Antasyn lived a kind of renaissance. A council of the brajraktars both of the hills and valley was set to give advice to the king, trade was developed to link Bulzan with the northern countries and Hule, secular vendettas between clans or families were toned down, new valleys became settled, mining in the Bylot Hills was expanded to new deposit far from the valleys and religious tolerance reached its peak albeit the druidic believes began to loose ground in the rural communities. It is during this period that the Kingdom of Antasyn reached its biggest expansion, stretching from valley of the Zaynovoï River, deep in the Zdredanyan forest, to the Kadrulay Hills. Also, the northern military road, as the Huleans call it, has been paved from Leqan to Töpi (now Toguhaza) under the monarchy.
This "Golden Age" of the Antasynians was abruptly put to an end in 578 AC when barbarian tribes of the north invaded most of eastern Antasyn on their way to Hule. If most of the nomadic tribes of the northern steppes of Borea and Hyborea only used Antasyn's territory as a springboard to attack Hule, a confederation of small tribes, the Monzags, from the Zdredanyan forest stopped their progression in the valleys of eastern Antasyn. There, they plundered the Antasynian cities and wreck havoc in most of the valleys. For about 35 years, Antasyn's army waged a all-out war against the invader only to be beaten 613 AC when the barbarians won the siege of Gjitra and plundered the capital of the kingdom, thus destroying the heart of the monarchy's power. Since, King Gezar IV was killed while defending his palace; the rest of Antasyn found itself locked in a succession war among the local nobles as soon as the nomads had stopped their progression.
In 629 AC, Migen Xhul, Brajrak of Dehrid, unified the Antasynians under his banner. Strong of the support of most of the brajraktars and of the urban élite, he launches an offensive to take back the territories lost to the divided Monzag tribes. At first, this offensive was met with great successes, and Prijderel is retaken in less than six months. However, the marching armies of the Antasynians awoke the Monzags' solidarity and resistance soon began to intensify. The siege of Gjitra, renamed Debredladany by the Monzags, will be the turning point in this war of reconquest: the Antasynians will never be able to take back their ancient capital. This siege will be prolonged for more than a year, but, aware that Hule is slowly building the roots of a new empire under the rule of the Master, both the Monzags and the Antasynians found that a peace treaty would be better than a war that would make them easier preys for there big neighbour.
The wisdom of Migen wasn't to last though. In 662 AC, agents of the Master successfully disguise the murder of King Migen's daughter as the act of the Monzags. Out of rage, the king declares war to his neighbour, a war that can't be won according to his generals. Both country will rapidly find themselves locked in a war of position with none of them gaining the upper hand. This stalemate will continue for more than eighty years of more or less intense conflict. It became clear, however, for Migen's son that the Antasynians were unable to win and, in fact, that they were loosing ground. This is why, in 662AC, in spite of most of the brajraktars' advice, King Migen II asked the Master for help, help that will be more than happily granted by the Master who was waiting for any pretext to intervene in the region's affairs.
This help first appeared as a quick relief for the Antasynians who were able to regain territories lost long ago to the Monzags. Also, as Hule was painfully conquering all of Antasyn's neighbours (Monzag, Bulzan and Olgar), the country enjoyed an era of relative peace and good relation with the Master. Nevertheless, as soon as the Master had finished with Monzag, in 873 AC, his troops entered Antasyn and threw away the Antasynian monarchy, replacing it with a military administration.
From 876 to 889 AC, the Hulean military will be faced to constant agitation in the Antasynian lands. At first, they tried to quell it by force with few results. But, in 893 AC, the Master decided to take a different approach: the timar system of military fief was established to reward the Hulean officers and the loyal Antasynians who receive the title of Beys. The same year, the practice of the devshirme was also set in place and missionaries from the Temple of Chaos were sent to convert the Antasynians to the Hulean faith.
Since then, Antasyn has been a quiet possession of the Huleans. Even though much of the Antasynian territory is somewhat out of the Master's control, the Holy Men tightly administer the most productive parts of the country. In a move to increase the revenue coming from the province, the Master has struck a deal with Leke Bey, the wurmling at the head of the Bleak league in 963 AC. Since the Master's takeover of Antasyn, many Antasynians have preferred to risk living in the wildernesses of the western Bylot Hills and of the southern Zdredanyan forest instead of abiding to the Master's law.
Religion: As their neighbour of the south, the Antasynians tends to be very tolerant when it comes to religion. In fact, the geographic cleavage between the highlanders and the townspeople is probably responsible for the religious division of the country. So, if there is opposition between Antasynians on the religious ground, this opposition finds its sources more in the socio-historic process than in theological consideration. Basically, there are two main religion in Antasyn: the Way of the Law, which is followed by most of the Gurs; and the Temple of Chaos, which has been imposed to the Dasks by successive Hulean imperial Era. There never has been any armed conflict generated by religion in Antasyn, but the Huleans still try to impose, sometimes through the use of force, their faith to the people of the hills and forests.
Besides those two main pantheons, one can also find the remains of the druidic believes or the shamanistic faith of the Sendaryan tribes in remote communities deep in the forests of Antasyn. Also, some of the smaller Bulzanian sect can be found in Antasyn, the more important being the Patriarchs and the People's Temple.
Notable Sites: Prijderel is the siege of the Hulean government in Antasyn, but it isn't recognised as the capital of Antasyn by most of the population who still claim Gjitra (Debredladany) as being their historical capital. Prijderel is a little more than a trade centre, but it also is a major military stronghold of the Huleans. Its location, on a small island at the confluence of the rivers Kereçul and Kurqès, has always been of strategic importance. This city is packed with hundreds of small houses made of bricks and dominated by the impressive silhouette of Antasün hasari, a citadel built by the Huleans to strengthen their control of the region.
Leqan is the second most important town of Antasyn and also the last centre before the highlands of the Bylot Hills. This town's main industries are the trade and processing of the raw minerals coming from the hills. Since it is the last stop before the Antasynian outback, Leqan is also renown for being a major den for every kind of bandit and good-for-nothing on their way to the semi-legal exploitations of the hills. If Prijderel is the home of the Hulean administration in Antasyn, Leqan is clearly a town ruled by the Bleak League. The most impressive building of the small city is the palace of Leke Bey along the shore of the Kurqès River. The underground portion of this mansion is said to be at least as big as the exterior complex. From his mansion, the wurmling overlook most of his criminal organisation's operations.
If Leqan is a major rat hole, the village of Prizvo is really the perfect town for the Antasynian crooks and criminals. The local brajraktar, Shkum Rogaji, is one of the closest lieutenants of Leke Bey, and a prominent bandit. The Hulean code of law is seen here as a mere illusion and the tax collectors are the only sign of the Hulean presence, even the Holy Men don't go that far in the highlands of Antasyn. Nevertheless, Prizvo still remain the last civilised outpost before the rough terrain of the Bylot hills. There, the only law is the Code of Lek and the Law of the Jungle; violence in the mining colonies is every day's bread. People going to this small outpost are normally attracted by the quest for riches, a quest that may be achieved through the discovery of new mineral bonanza, through the exploration of the ruins dating back to the Yazak era, or that may be ended by the sudden encountered of one of the numerous creatures who roamed the hills.
Further north is a land of even greater anarchy: the valley of the Zaynovoi River. There, deep in this dense network of smaller river and lakes surrounded by a thick evergreen forest, gold was found in 988 AC by some Antasynian prospectors. Since then hundreds of Antasynians, Bulzanians and Huleans have flocked the region and built villages out of nothing. Rumours of marvellous fortunes made by the first colonists encouraged the new prospectors to brave the harsh winters and the constant threat of the neighbouring Sendaryan tribes. This threat has forced people of different origins and background to overcome their historical antagonisms and cooperate against the nomads. Maybe are we looking at the birth of a new nation deep in the forests...
Brami's Court and Jaja's realm are
two fairy realms founded some years after the Master's Greatrealm
Declaration, which forced the Woodland Folk of the Dark Wood in
exile. These areas of legends are magically protected against human
intrusions and are also guarded by many treants.