Thuvia
When most people think of Thuvia, they think of the sun orchid elixir: the legendary potion capable of reversing the effects of aging. Discovered thousands of years ago by Artokus Kirran, the draught is derived from the famed flower that grows only in the harshest reaches of Thuvia’s desert, though its exact formula is known only to the immortal alchemist himself. A child of the chaos that followed the collapse of Ancient Osirion, Artokus met with local leaders and concocted a plan to use the vast wealth generated by the elixir to help his fellow downtrodden nomads. Artokus would remain a hermit, secreted in a hidden and heavily defended citadel in the Barrier Wall. Each year, he would send forth a blind, mute servant bearing six vials of the elixir. These would then be auctioned off—never to fellow Thuvians, lest they incur Pharasma’s wrath—in a one-bid auction, with all proceeds (including the losing bids) going to the government. The right to sell this elixir would rotate annually between the region’s five city-states, binding them together into the reborn nation of Thuvia.
The elixir is the root of Thuvia’s international power, and so Thuvian society has developed around it. Each of the five major cities is built to accommodate a huge influx of visitors twice a decade as merchants and entertainers flood in to accommodate the foreign bidders and their retinues. It has also forced the cities to strengthen their defenses, whether with magical or military might, lest outside nations seek to annex them or take the elixir by force. Foreign gold has built vast palaces and irrigation projects, universities and theaters. Yet even with all of this, most Thuvians are never directly involved in the elixir trade, instead herding flocks in the traditional nomadic style, mining ore and salt, trading with merchant caravans, or wrestling the desert into fertile bloom.
Thuvia’s two largest cities are both coastal, situated along the trade route known as the Path of Salt. Merab is often seen as the capital due to it being twice the size of the next largest city, though it has no more power than its fellows. Famed for its alchemy, the city’s Flowing Market bursts with potions ranging from the mundane to the impossible. Alchemical street lamps light the night, as do the eternal flames atop the minarets of the Temple of the Redeeming Sun, the largest Sarenite temple in the country. To the east, the city of Aspenthar is more dour, with its scheming Prince Zinlow requiring all citizens to join the military reserves in what many expect to be an eventual attempt to conquer the other cities, or perhaps kidnap Artokus himself.
On the Junira River that marks the border with Osirion lies Lamasara. The city is a port of pleasures, dedicated to artists and hedonists of all sorts and popular with tourists even in its off years thanks to the savvy policies of Queen Zamere. The isolated city of Duwwor, by contrast, has little interest in outsiders, and its citizens are devoted to living in harmony with the land. Boasting an immense temple to Gozreh and closely allied with a circle of desert druids, Duwwor is home to the best guides in the nation, taking scholars and adventurers deep into the dunes in search of the ruins of the Tekritanin League. Just as famous are the windmills that adorn Duwwor’s buildings and fields, harnessing the desert winds to power ingenious constructs and industry.
Smallest of the great cities is Pashow, dedicated to Nethys and organized around arcanists studying or teaching at the Scrollspire, the magical university built atop the entrance to an ancient Tekritanin library-well. Pashow’s isolation makes it vulnerable to raids by the Water Lords, nomadic warriors who inhabit the nation’s trackless interior, and the Scrollspire regularly shelters townsfolk within its walls.
Of the numerous monsters that hunt Thuvia’s wastes, the most feared are the fiendish divs. Long ago, the div demigod Ahriman dwelled in Thuvia’s heart, called there by the Pharaoh of Forgotten Plagues and housed in the vast magical palace known as the House of Oblivion. While Ahriman was eventually driven back to Abaddon, his murderous divs lurk throughout the desert, served by nihilistic cultists called the Usij.
The elixir is the root of Thuvia’s international power, and so Thuvian society has developed around it. Each of the five major cities is built to accommodate a huge influx of visitors twice a decade as merchants and entertainers flood in to accommodate the foreign bidders and their retinues. It has also forced the cities to strengthen their defenses, whether with magical or military might, lest outside nations seek to annex them or take the elixir by force. Foreign gold has built vast palaces and irrigation projects, universities and theaters. Yet even with all of this, most Thuvians are never directly involved in the elixir trade, instead herding flocks in the traditional nomadic style, mining ore and salt, trading with merchant caravans, or wrestling the desert into fertile bloom.
Thuvia’s two largest cities are both coastal, situated along the trade route known as the Path of Salt. Merab is often seen as the capital due to it being twice the size of the next largest city, though it has no more power than its fellows. Famed for its alchemy, the city’s Flowing Market bursts with potions ranging from the mundane to the impossible. Alchemical street lamps light the night, as do the eternal flames atop the minarets of the Temple of the Redeeming Sun, the largest Sarenite temple in the country. To the east, the city of Aspenthar is more dour, with its scheming Prince Zinlow requiring all citizens to join the military reserves in what many expect to be an eventual attempt to conquer the other cities, or perhaps kidnap Artokus himself.
On the Junira River that marks the border with Osirion lies Lamasara. The city is a port of pleasures, dedicated to artists and hedonists of all sorts and popular with tourists even in its off years thanks to the savvy policies of Queen Zamere. The isolated city of Duwwor, by contrast, has little interest in outsiders, and its citizens are devoted to living in harmony with the land. Boasting an immense temple to Gozreh and closely allied with a circle of desert druids, Duwwor is home to the best guides in the nation, taking scholars and adventurers deep into the dunes in search of the ruins of the Tekritanin League. Just as famous are the windmills that adorn Duwwor’s buildings and fields, harnessing the desert winds to power ingenious constructs and industry.
Smallest of the great cities is Pashow, dedicated to Nethys and organized around arcanists studying or teaching at the Scrollspire, the magical university built atop the entrance to an ancient Tekritanin library-well. Pashow’s isolation makes it vulnerable to raids by the Water Lords, nomadic warriors who inhabit the nation’s trackless interior, and the Scrollspire regularly shelters townsfolk within its walls.
Of the numerous monsters that hunt Thuvia’s wastes, the most feared are the fiendish divs. Long ago, the div demigod Ahriman dwelled in Thuvia’s heart, called there by the Pharaoh of Forgotten Plagues and housed in the vast magical palace known as the House of Oblivion. While Ahriman was eventually driven back to Abaddon, his murderous divs lurk throughout the desert, served by nihilistic cultists called the Usij.
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