[Information] The Continent of Caravan

[Icereach]

~Caravan~

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The continent commonly called Caravan sprawls across the surface of Yallek, over 30 million square miles of plains and deserts and jungles, inland oceans, and towering mountains. Only the immortal elves in their eternal caravans can hope to cross the breadth of it in their lifetimes, and then only if they can survive the extreme disparities in peoples and terrain.

In an age of fallen magic, the distances have proven devastating in halting the spread of information across the land. People living on the continent's furthest eastern point in the frozen north may never even learn of the existence of the people on its south western, tropical shores. The maps that once defined Caravan in charcoal and ink are now full of empty spots where the banners have changed and the original faces are long forgotten.

As many gods walk the surface of the Land of a Thousand Kingdoms as people populate it. Every kingdom, every tribe, every hovel has its personal gods they exalt over all others - sometimes their prayers even have weight. This is the land in which the Pawn plays his gambit, Lady Hathaway haunts her mansion in forgotten woods, and the Scorned Heart writhes to the scent of blood.

Only one thing unites this disparate mass of peoples: the God Road and its travelers, the unending diaspora that is elvenkind.

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Setting-specific Species Lore

Humans: Humans populate all corners of Caravan in a stunning array of kingdoms, professions, attitudes, and ethnicities. They are the shortest-lived of all the races, though perhaps the most prolific. Notable human-dominated kingdoms are Carelon (known for advanced magic and technology made in concert with gnomes), and Stoel (a human city built on a much older city, dedicated to a goddess of the sea.)

Elves: Elves are a people and a culture in unending diaspora. Legend states that the God Road carried them from a cataclysm and one day will guide them back home. They travel its length and breadth across Caravan, growing what food and family they can in their massive wagons in the hope that the path will open once again. Elves feel a connection with the God Road that always draws them back, no matter how intent they are upon leaving it. Elven society as a whole is deeply affected by a seemingly unending sense of ennui.

Half-elves: Half-elves, while common, do not often come from the most stable of backgrounds. Rarely do mortal parents decide to take up the caravan life. Instead, half-elves are often born by elven parents that try to step off of the road. They fail, almost inevitably, often leaving the child without one or more parents. Half-elven children born outside of the caravan are rarely welcomed to it without their elven parent.

Dwarves: Dwarves are a populace, stout people that often compete with humans for space on Caravan. Once the dwarves were primarily mountainous people and while those ancient stone fortresses remain, the dwarves themselves have moved across the rest of the continent as well. Though ancient dwarven culture harkens to the calls of hammers and war horns, modern dwarves are every bit as diverse as their human neighbors.

Halflings: Halflings are the third most numerous peoples on Caravan, though they have few kingdoms or empires to call their own. Instead, most halflings have integrated into other societies, adopting the mannerisms and diversity of those cultures as their own. Of the few halfling-dominated societies in the world, the Horvanger Empire is perhaps the most well known.

Skinwalkers: The propensity for the were curse fracturing and passing down is little higher on Yallek than in any other campaign, except for in one place. Far to the east on Caravan, well off the God Road and isolated by mountains, is a city known as Bastion. The native population consists entirely of skinwalkers and they are not welcoming to outsiders. However, skinwalkers do not originate solely from Bastion and are not unknown in other parts of the world.

Gnomes: Gnomes are much less common than the other races and generally hail from only a few kingdoms or communes throughout Caravan. Their oldest legends associate them with the nomadic elves, though the gnomes moved on to settle and developed new cultures of their own.

Half-orcs (Kyn): "Half"-orc is a misnomer for the species predominantly found on Caravan. They refer to themselves as Kyn, and are a true-breeding peoples only very distantly related to "true" orcs. The Kyn are extremely long-lived compared to all but the elves, though their population is small and they reproduce slowly. Kyn typically live in the far northeast of Caravan, in the frozen Dagger Snarl mountains. While not hostile, the Kyn are not very welcoming to outsiders, often dispensing the barest hospitality before bundling any visitors back to their respective lands. Their frozen, inhospitable homeland keeps out all but the most determined of seekers.

Other Races: Most other races can be found in some proportion on Caravan. [Native Outsiders] of all types are exceedingly rare and would attract attention should their true nature be discovered. Players should feel free to work with the DM to flesh out their character's unusual origin.

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Notable Locations and Entities

Countries, Nations, and Governments
The Empire of Ash - The Empire of Ash began in the country of Lucs, rumoured birthplace of The Pawn. It then expanded to conquer Franc, Tany, and Espa, solidifying its control of the north western shores of Caravan. Ash is a strong and volatile military power, causing it constant friction with its neighbors, which include the Orc-ruled nation of Norn and the independent halfling Enclave of Thought. Ash is notable for allowing the elven caravans free roam within their borders, where-as many nations restrict them to the God Road. It is ruled by Ash Emperor Vanday.

Sovern - A metropolitan city-state on the shore of a massive inland sea, Sovern is the largest population center on Caravan. A traveler would have to journey several hundred miles to the south, to the city-state port of Wave, to find a population even half as diverse as that of Sovern. Located at an intersection of the God Rode and several other busy highways, Sovern makes its revenue through trade. Sovern is a representative republic governed by an elected council.

Saltflat - Almost directly opposite Sovern on the inland Bitter Sea, Saltflat is a gnomish city with a mixed population built between a stretch of highly productive salt flats and a series of low hills that quickly become mountains. Saltflat is rich in minerals and chemicals, and produces the finest alchemical exports on the continent. They are also one of the few nations that produce and export a limited number of firearms and high-powered explosives. Saltflats is ruled by a king elected from the people that serves for life.

Bastion - A large city on the extreme east coast of central Caravan. Information on Bastion is difficult to come by; not only is it a difficult journey through the mountains ringing the coastal city, but its inhabitants are also actively unfriendly to outsiders. Despite their distance from other cultures and the God Road, Bastion appears quite advanced, with a rigid, caste-based society. They appear to recognize a binary deity structure based around the sun and moon. The people of Bastion are bound to it in much the same way as the elves are bound to the God Road: further, they all carry the heritage of skinwalkers. In Bastion, a person's heritage determines their cast, from the lowly nightskulks and bloodmarked to the powerful fanglords and seascarred.

The Elven Caravan - Elves on Yallek are inextricably bound to the God Road, the place where some say the long-lived people entered this world. Theirs is a loose government, represented by a single elder that generally bargains on behalf of his people when necessary. Elven wagons are unique, largely for their size. An elven wagon is usually big enough to house a family of five, with niches and planters built all over to grow food and the occasional trade crop. They are traditionally pulled by a species of specially bred giant elk, though as elven despair deepens, fewer and fewer people care to tend to the herds.

Norn - Norn has a unique place in Caravan's history. During the establishment of the fiefdoms that now compose the Empire of Ash, their lands were full of terrible monsters. Over time, as the people calling themselves the Vanay grew stronger, they began pushing the monsters back east, into what is now known as Norn. While this solved the problem for the Vanay, it created one for the Salu, who had lived peacefully for many generations, their lands long cleared of dangerous beasts. The Salu could not succeed through might, so they succeeded through guile. They captured and tamed the most monsterous, and bargained or sacrificed to those that could be bought. Ultimately, however, they failed, and the last of the Salu bloodlines died out. It now has a reputation as a kingdom of villains and scoundrels, led by a monstrous orc named Throte-Jut. Despite their reputation, however, it has been many years since the kingdom of Norn has gone to war with any but the Empire of Ash.

Notable Locations
The God Road - The God Road is a road that runs the length and breadth of Caravan. Its origins are unknown, even to the gods themselves. Its surface is made of some indestructible, impermeable material that never seems to wear or pit. Major cities on Caravan tend to sprout up next to the God Road, though isolated cities like Bastion and the Kyn settlement of Qin do exist independently.

Notable Entities
The Enclave of Thought - Founded by Terras Silverfoot, a halfling scholar turned arcanist, the Enclave is almost universally known throughout Caravan, a Rookish feat all on its own. For over two millennia it has stood, fallen, stood again, burned, and been rebuilt countless times, all in the name of preserving that which its founder held most dear: knowledge. Graduates of the school are often granted the honorific Scholar, honored in most lands along the God Road. Internal politics at the school are an infernal quagmire of power structures and personalities; this, in turn, leads to some of the most skilled politicians and rhetoriticians on Caravan, a useful thing for a physically weak school with highly valuable assets.

Kwintin Qu'weer's Curious Carnival - Residents of and travelers to the lands surrounding Sovern, from as far south as Stoel all the way north to Abelhand, in the Horvanger Empire, can sometimes catch the greatest show on all of Caravan: Kwintin Qu'weer and his Curious Carnival. Though it started as a small troupe of traveling performers, the vibrant halfling known as Kwintin grew his roster over time. Now they cover the width of the God Road for nearly a mile whenever the Carnival comes to town. He has collected performers of every conceivable type, from the most mundane to the most bizarre, with his handsome, blue-haired face plastered above it all.