Fouchilia Protectorate (Foo-shill-ee-ah)

If you were to wander north up and past the last town in Zellek, you would find yourself in a vast plain, devoid of plants and wildlife, and over the horizon you would see the towering slabs of stone and clay that make up the Osiris Mesa. If you were desperate enough to continue, trekking past the gates and making your way through the winding network of canyons and tunnels would take you across the border into a wholly different part of Delvia: The Fouchilian Desert.
Then you'd reach the capital and realize you could have taken a boat here from Morenhauer.

Rough, Coarse, and it gets Everywhere

The Fouchilian Desert makes up only a small corner of Delvia on a continental map, but the desert is deceptively large and the heat gives the plane of fire a run for its money. Many an explorer has perished by underestimating the challenge of traversing such a land. The desert is rough and often unforgiving, and the people of Fouchilia are even more so.

Colonized

Centuries ago, the Fouchilian Desert was home solely to its native species; The majority being tabaxi clans that worshipped deities of their own, known as the Altiuwn. After them came the lizardfolk, an anomaly of rapid evolution. One year there was no other sentient species in the desert, and by the next, lizardfolk tribes were trading supplies and goods with the tabaxi. Each tribe mostly kept to themselves, accepting travelers and outlanders as they went. The tabaxi were nomadic in nature, and regularly visited lizardfolk land, watching them grow increasingly advanced and sophisticated with each passing sun.
However, in the year 333 AC, explorers from the frontier nation of Zellek found their way through the Osiris Mesa for the first time. They were welcomed by the native clans, and spent much time establishing a rapport with them. After two years, the explorers left for home, promising to return. And return they did, on a galleon carrying a crew and dozens of passengers. They made land on the eastern coast and established a trade hub. Over the next fifty years, the town called Fouchil, derived from the common translation of the desert's name, flourished into a proper city. With no official government presiding over the desert, the council in Morenhauer took advantage of the opportunity and claimed it as a protectorate, a nation under the control and protection of Zellek proper. This audacious claim did not sit well with many of the locals, and the tribes that once mingled eagerly with the human explorers receded into the desert.

Ancient Civilization

Scattered throughout the desert, the ruins of temples and settlements of ages past lie half-buried, as a reminder of what came before. The tabaxi, eldest of the native races, will tell of a grand civilization that once called the desert home, but was brought down by a daemon called Vremya. Archaeologists have searched for ages to learn more about the fall of the ancients, but have only ever succeeded in translating the name Vremya: Time. According to tabaxi legends, among the ancients were heroes, the best of them, and they fought Vremya to the bitter end, and as a reward for their bravery, they ascended to godhood. They, the Altiuwn, now watch over the desert, awaiting the return of the enemy that tore their home apart.
More ruins of the ancients are uncovered every day, and as many found out the hard way, they are not always uninhabited. Mercenaries and adventurers earn their keep acting as bodyguards, enforcers, or exterminators for scholars and treasure hunters alike.

Government

While the desert is a protectorate nation of Zellek, its laws only extend as far as the guard in Fouchil. In the wild desert, the only law is Finders Keepers.

Industry & Trade

Much of the economy is stimulated by trade with greater Zellek via boat.

Founding Date

333 AC

Type

National Territory

Inhabitant Demonym

Fouchilians