WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0086 0086
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the Makadan Nordennan learn to fight from an early
age, embracing the Kod, and they are a warrior culture
through and through. This echoes in their city’s design
of stark, stout homes of functional stone architecture.
They disdain cosmetic “frippery and decadence” they
see in other Khitan cities, most especially Teleris. A Norden saying oft repeated is, “When a hot wind blows,
don’t fear, it’s only the jabber from Teleris.”
The Nordennan claim to fear no creature that lives on
Khitus, though no dragons have ever wandered near
Norden for them to test their mettle against. Some
proof for their strength lies in their use of massive trisaurs as beasts of burden. Among the few acceptable
decorations in Norden are the skulls and bones of slain
animals, shown as once-living records of a family’s or a
group’s prowess. The Chief’s Hall has a massive entry,
its double doors crafted from interlocked and petrified
trisaur bones. Above the doors looms a colossal trisaur
skull, eye sockets ever-burning with huge brands.
Sounds of industry ever echo from within Norden’s
walls. The citizens here make excellent military-grade
goods—strong weapons and quality armor, reinforced
carts or chariots, and even more durable hides and
clothes—from many creatures they hunt locally. Their
weapons and vehicles also see use against human foes,
as bandits regularly raid Norden from their caves and
hidden camps among the Thalos Hills. Expect to check
your steel weapons at the gates, though, as Norden takes
no chances with the Iron Virus.
to his word, the brutal warlord publicly beheaded the
ruler and locked up or executed nearly anyone linked
to the old government. Before the crowds realized that
he led them not to their freedom, Khanik Thyn crowned
himself in the seat of power and used his marauders to
cement his hold on power through force. After one full
day of Khanik on the throne, several hundred more died
while “threatening the new rule of Ormas.”
In the past twelve years, Khanik has ruled with an
iron fist so tight that the people teeter again near their
breaking points. Whatever catalyst may set them off is
unknown, but any change will cost Khanik and his followers much. The people of Ormas sought freedom, only
to endure his spiteful reign and his transformation of
the city into a haven for marauders.
The Black Cloaks are Khanik’s secret police and their
primary foes at present are hidden rebels collectively
known as the Spear of Freedom. They are an offshoot of
the Unnata, or tribal Council of First Sons. Rumors tell
that the group’s leader is a woman who lost her entire
family to Khanik’s betrayal. Less than a handful know
she was once a Black Cloak herself, which makes Khanik’s betrayal more painful and her revenge sweeter. She
and her rebels do all they can to make life in Ormas miserable for Khanik and his followers. Her hand is open to
brave warriors who might assist her cause.
Ormas
One of the largest and most prosperous cities, Pacheodon rests in an ideal location, making it a hub among
many trade routes in a lush land. Pacheodon is less a
melting pot of cultures than a bubbling cauldron of
intrigue among the many Khitan races living here.
A three-tiered city of wonders designed long ago by
pachyesh architects and engineers, the foreign ward is
the smallest and rests atop this massive step-pyramid.
That ward alone houses courts and official embassies for
dignitaries of other city-states. The largest ward at the
bottom is home to the pachyaur and much of the caravan-related trades and warehouses. The central ward
houses an eclectic mix of traders, slavers, merchants
and crafters from all races.
Every five years, the city’s populace elects three beings—one pachyaura and two of other races—to serve as
representative ward rulers and collectively as a triumvirate over the city at large. The humans here are primarily Chindi, but liberally mixed with other tribes. Each
ward maintains its own separate and standing contingents or guilds for guard and police protections, waste
removal, taxation and mercantile control, and funerary
Ormas is a city on the brink of revolution. In this farwestern Prajalu city, suffering from the Great Reprisals
that decimated its royalty, a decadent human culture
has pushed its people too far, and now the city struggles
with murder, violence, robbery, vice and nearly every
manner of extreme excess. Ormas is humankind’s inhumanity to itself writ large and an example of why people should never let a marauder become a leader with
promises of change.
The chieftain upanya Khanik Thyn offered people
glimmers of hope that he could change a city built on
the backs and blood of thousands of slaves. Khanik fomented dissent against a fair but avaricious ruler, unleashing a firestorm of long-suppressed hatred that
raged through the brown stone streets. This unrest
ruined several city wards and led to nearly a thousand
deaths in one bloody rampage-fuelled night. Promising a new era for the people of Ormas, he vowed to stop
any from threatening “the new rule of Ormas.” True
84
Pacheodon
