BEXT:
This is a rather squarish continent, with each of its corners pointing in a different cardinal direction. Bext's northern corner is solidly linked to Fjoul; its southern corner (almost) intersects Illerine. The Iron Mountains bisect Bext from northwest to southeast. West of the mountains are the empty Haunted Lands, a once thriving nation reduced to a kingdom of shades; to the mountains east lies the forested Beastlands, the coastal states of the Vanmarian Alliance, and the seemingly endless Empty Lands. A extensive, though mostly empty, underdark lies beneath the Iron Mountains.
Bext is probably the most densely populated of Golgotha's continents, being home to tens of thousands of humans, and thousands more mongrelmen, lycanthropes, su-monsters, and an increasing number of gibberlings. A bare handfull of elves are present here, acting mostly as guardians for specific sites in the Last Forest, which is also protected by bands of treants. Other sylvian creatures - brownies, pixies, and the like, are also found here. The Final War spawned more than a few magical monstrosities; creatures such as basilisks, cockatrices, chimera, hydras, lamia, minotaurs, and mimics turn up now and again in Bexts wastelands and ruins. More ordinary creatures are also found, with the emphasis on insects and rats of all sorts. Dogs, cats, bears, and herd animals of various sorts are present, but scarce.
Some underdark races can be found in the hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath the Iron Mountains; most notably Kua-toa (who are making something of a comeback on this world and are turning up more and more often on the surface), along with dwarves (mostly decended from the crew of a citadel ship that landed here centuries ago), duagar (who seem to have arrived via a elemental portal), gnomes (a offshoot of the gnomes of Groenpak), several bitterly feuding factions of drow, bands of Quaggoth, and a number of mind flayers (actually an outpost of the mind flayer kingdom under Illerine). Underdark creatures such as goblins and orcs are almost unknown.
The origin of the various `ape races' - gibberlings, quaggoths, and su-monsters - is unclear; these races appear to have been unknown on Golgotha prior to the Final War. It is speculated that they may have been conjured here to this world at some point in that conflict; traces of very old conjuration/summoning magic can be found in the oldest of their underground lairs.
THE ALLIANCE:
Long ago, the mighty wizard and seer Vanmaren, forseeing the Final War, selected a thousand young couples and placed them in a hidden and well warded sanctuary, where they remained in enchanted stasis for ninety-nine years and a day as that horrid conflict came and went. Fifteen years after the last cataclysmic events of the Final War, Vanmarens stasis spell ended and the youngsters emerged from their tomb to find a world changed beyond recognition, a world devastated by plagues and earthquakes and poisonous clouds.
Horrified by their surroundings, yet determined to survive, the Vanmarians (for they realized that their previous nationalities were meaningless in this new world), set about creating a new civilization, beginning with the small city-state of Vanmar on the eastern coast of Bext. As time went by, this city state grew and expanded, and the Vanmarians encountered other bands of survivors, some human, some not. Within fifty years of its foundation, Vanmar included not just Vanmar city itself, but the island state of Shoal and the Twin Cities (a city state of mongrelmen ruled by humans) as well.
In the centuries that followed, the Vanmarian Alliance expanded to include much of eastern and southern Bext, reclaiming land devasted in the Final War, laying the ghosts of the old cities to rest, and rebuilding some of the old stone paved roads that had once spanned the region. They absorbed a flow of refugees fleeing the monsterous realms of Illerine and came to terms with the arrival of several thousand unhappy exiled tirraxtians who appeared seemingly overnight on the continents northern coast. Then came the Tirrextian invasion.
Up until this point, the Vanmarian Alliance had not had any serious foes to contend with - just the occasional marauding bandit or odd raiding band from the Beastlands. Now, they found themselves confronted with something more than that - war. And to fight that war they needed organization. And Erin Whitecrown provided it. Erin Whitecrown organized the disparate Vanmarian states, creating a standing army that systematically routed the invaders, driving them back to their homeland, and turning the Vanmarian Alliance into the Vanmarian Empire in the process. Erin Whitecrown and his half dozen successors aggresively expanded the empire, invading both the Beastlands and Illerine at various times, adding parts of both to the realm along with Fell, the bandit plagued northeastern peninsula of Bext. They also became notably less tolorant and more autocratic at home, imposing severe restrictions on their subjects with draconian penalties for disobediance. Matters came to a head during the reign of Loomis Whitecrown, a period marked by riots, enslavement of much of the populace, and the successfull secession of Shoal and Fell from the empire. Loomis's son and successor, Paragon, corrected many of his fathers excess's, but even so, the Vanmarian populace refused to accept another emperor after his death, and the Vanmarian Empire reverted to being an alliance once more.
The Invaders first appeared some eighty odd years ago. At first, they were paid little heed; many of Golgotha's nations before the Final War had fleets of spelljammers and the odd noble or wizard still flitted about the sphere in some of the surviving vessels; plus various wanderers, missionaries, and explorers from other spheres would turn up now and again, to trade or raid or found some outpost or other before departing. The Invaders, though, arrived enmass. Within a few decades of their arrival, they seemed to be pretty much everywhere, prying in this or that ancient ruin, wiping out a bandit nest here or rebuilding some ancient road or building there. In short order, it seemed as though virtually every city in the Alliance had a contingent of these pushy, noisy, and ruthless newcomers. Fifty years ago, matters came to a head when a group of particularly foolish bandits in Fell attacked a party of Invaders that was poking through some ruins in the area. The Invaders easily defeated the bandits - then went ahead and conquored all of Fell, citing `public safety' as their reason for doing so. In actuality, they wanted the Fell peninsula as a base of operations, a point driven home to the Alliances rulers when the Invaders founded Castra (the Camp) on Fells easternmost shore less than a year later.
These days, the Alliance is governed by nobles overseeing town councils at the local level, and by a senate (whose members are either elected or appointed by the nobility) at the national level. In times of crisis, the Senate appoints a Regent, with carefully defined powers and restrictions, to oversee matters. The Invaders, through pressure on the nobility, hold several seats in the Senate; furthermore, each noble has an Invader functionary in his or her household as an `advisor'.
Most of the Alliances citizens are human, though there is a substantial mongrelman minority, as well as small numbers of dwarves, elves, gnomes, and orcs. The dominant human strain of the alliance - the Vanmarians proper - are a handsome bronze skinned folk tending towards blond or brown hair color. Collectively, they are a serious folk, with a `can-do' spirit, a freqently larcenous nature, and a dry wit. Southerners - those descended from Illerine immigrants - have dark skin and hair, a tendency towards superstition, and a reputation for sexual promiscuity.
Most members of the Alliance - except the tirrextians - have short simple `nature based' names - Ash, Dale, Root, Cherry, Tiger, Willow, ect, with the further modifier of `son of' or `daughter of' if greater clarity is needed. The names of the nobility are more complex, featuring a first name - almost invariably that of some ancient hero or heroine, a descriptive middle name (the `Mighty', `Regal', ect), followed by a hallowed clan name.
The Green Legion: Not all on Golgotha are willing to simply stand back and let the world fall into darkness and evil; certainly not the members of the Green Legion. The Green Legion - which seems to have gotten its start as a scouting and `special forces' unit of the Vanmarian army - is a semi-secret para military force with almost a thousand members drawn from all classes and races found on Golgotha. It is organized into an uncertain number of companies, each based in a different part of the planet (though they seem to be headquarted in the Alliance); at times as many as three of these companies have come together for joint operations against various evil foes. Their more noteworthy victories include the near eradication of the Black Cauldron (a group of evil wizards and priests in service to the tanar'ri) and wiping out a mind flayer outpost in the Iron Mountains. The Invaders dislike the Green Legion, but for the time being are more concerned with hunting artefacts in various ancient ruins than stomping out them out. The members of the Green Legion, for their part, wish the Invaders gone, but lacking the manpower, magic and other resources for a direct assault are instead attempting a campaign of subversion and infiltration.
Cities and Places of the Alliance:
Vanmar:
Bounded by a well protected harbour to the east and rivers flowing into it to the north and south, Vanmar is home to over ten thousand people, making it one of the largest cities on the planet - indeed, only the Invader metropolis of Castra is larger. Within Vanmars confines are found the halls of the Senate, the Grand Academy (offering instruction in everything from engineering and accounting to music and magic), and a most impressive market. The Invaders maintain a substantial garrison just north of the city proper, and are often seen in the city itself.
Vanmar city is the nominal head of the planet spanning Wizards Guild, a loose association of the planets more powerfull mages. These days the organization is infiltrated and partly controlled by the Invaders; virtually all of the Guilds more powerfull members have one or more Invader `assistants'.
The Museum:
Located a few days walk south of Vanmar city, this is a monastery type place, whose caretakers (now overseen by Invader scholars) attempt to compile the definitive history of Golgotha. The caretakers (monks) are regarded as having `dropped out' of normal society.
Mirrex:
Set at the eastern most fringe of the Last Forest where the Green River empties into the Cold Sea, Mirrex is the northernmost citystate of the Alliance. Founded by refugees fleeing religious civil war in Tirrex, Mirrex is a grey, nearly joyless city of some five thousand, dedicated mostly to fishing, herding, and fine woodworking. Its inhabitants follow the Reformed version of the tirrextian religion, but even so hardly qualify as `party animals'. The Invaders maintain only a minimal presence here.
Slabbo:
Prior to the Final War, Slabbo (then Gharrig) was one of Bexts largests cities, with a population of more than a hundred thousand. Now, it is a vast ruin, covering several square miles, with a population of only a few hundred occupying the rebuilt buildings at the cities core. The city is occupied at all only because it sits at a crossroads where the High Road connecting Mirrex and Vanmar crosses the Wild Road running between Fell and the Beastlands, making it a popular stopover and trading spot. The ruins outside the `reclaimed' area are home to everything and everybody from stray monsters that have wandered in out of the wastes to banned cults. Officially this is a `open city', in practice the town leadership is directly controlled by the Invaders.
Cartel:
Westernmost town of the Alliance, Cartel is built along the Wild Road, just inside the bounds of the Last Forest. About half of its three thousand inhabitants are mongrelmen whose ancestors decided that servitude in the Alliance was preferable to the `free' life in the Last Forest (where they were subject to constant Su-Monster attacks). Cartel is a major stoppover and logging center; felled trees are floated down the Green River to Mirrex. Lycanthropes and su-monsters often come here to trade or hire themselves out as mercenaries.
Nomors Arch:
Located on the rebuilt road between Vanmar and the Twin Cities, this is a forty foot tall arch of black stone, lightly carved with geometric shapes that seem to shift slightly when not being watched. Nomors Arch has a sinister reputation: those who sleep within a mile of its location invariably have nightmares, often with a precognitive twist.
Sage Tree:
This is a collection of huts and rebuilt ruined buildings along the road between Vanmar and the Twin Cities, next to a small forest. At the heart of the forest is a truely majestic tree, said to be an ancient treant who at great personal cost managed to preserve this forest through the Final War only to revert to a dormant state afterwards. Since the founding of Vanmar, Sage Tree has become something of a haunt for religious ascetics (wizards and druids of several races) as well as a minor logging and farming center.
Gharmak:
Located to the west of the Twin Cities, Gharmak is a fairly typical farming and herding community - except that its population consists almost entirely of orcs, whose ancestors came here fleeing defeat during the first Unhuman War. Gharmaks orcs (almost the only members of this race on the planet) are actually fairly decent sorts, as orcs go, more interested in fitting in with their human neighbors than marauding about the countryside.
Twin Cities:
Located hundreds of miles to the south of Vanmar, this city consists of two huge terraced cone shaped mounds on either side of the Turbid River, the terraces of each mound dotted with dwellings, shops, and public buildings - the `human' part of town. At the base of the mounds is a vast shanty town, home to thousands of mongrelmen, most just one cut above slaves.
During the last, bitter days of the Final War, the wizards and priests of this city surrounded it with layer upon layer of protective wards - then retreated into their towers and manors within the city which they surrounded with still more wards. In the end, the wards kept (some of) the commoners and nobles alike alive, but enough of the energy leaked through the outer layer of wards to transform the commoners (or rather their descendants) into mongrelmen. The descendants of the better protected nobles, priests, and wizards managed to retain their humanity.
FELL:
A large diamond shaped peninsula jutting towards the sunrise off the northeastern corner of Bext, Fell is a country of rolling hills partly covered with tough grass and dotted with tiny stands of trees.
Fell has long had a reputation as something of a trouble spot; the earliest Vanmarian records mention `bandits' in the area, apparently isolated survivors of the Final War who preferred looting others to building a new society. As time went by, these `bandits' were joined by outcasts and exiles from Vanmar, Tirrext, and elsewhere, who were promptly forgotten by their lands of origin. Eventually, Fell turned into a collection of tiny feuding bandit `states', each `state' little more than a village. Vanmar annexed Fell during its imperial phase, but found little glory or profit in the endavour; the Fellians were poor, quarrelsome, and more inclined to larceny than honest labor. They did organize themselves long enough to throw off the imperial yoke during the reign of Emperor Loomis the Mad, only to take up their thievish ways once more. It was these thievish ways that was their undoing: the Invaders used the pretext of a Fellian raid on one of their `investigating teams' to annex the whole of the peninsula some half century ago, slaying and enslaving many and forcing others out of the area (many wound up in Shoal).
These days, Fell is no longer a underpopulated wilderness dotted with villages of bandits: instead it is a piece of the Invaders Empire, under their direct control. The Invaders took a unnamed coastal ruin, brought in many of their own people, and rebuilt it, turning it into the metropolis of Castra (the Camp), then went and established farming villages around it, then built roads to link those villages with their new base of operations. Currently, Castra is home to well over ten thousand Invaders (about three fourths of them ordinary citizens arbitrarly drafted from elsewhere in their empire) plus thousands more locals. It is the Invaders chief spelljamming port and repair facility on the planet, as well as a major port of call for ordinary seafaring vessels.
THE BEASTLANDS (The Beast States, The Free States):
The Beastlands - so called because of their beastal (nonhuman) inhabitants, cover most of northwestern Bext, extending from the Alliance in the east to the Iron Mountains in the west. About half the beastlands is covered by the wooded expanse known as the Last Forest - which, indeed, is one of the very few remaining forests on this world.
Prior to the Final War, this part of Bext was home to a thriving nation of elves - virtually all of whom simply vanished at the start of that conflict. However, the warding spells and guardians (most notably the treants) they left behind managed to keep the forest from being utterly destroyed in the turmoil and destruction that followed. A number of other beings found refuge within the forest as well. Lycanthropes, with their innate protections, did a better job of surviving the holocaust than normal humans; indeed, towards the last days of the Final War, many humans deliberately infected themselves with this disease to help ensure their own survival. Others, though, shunned this measure, opting in wards and amulets, which all too often, proved woefully inadequate against the destructive forces unleashed. Some of these humans did survive - only to see their offspring born as deformed mongrelmen.
Shortly after the Final War, the Last Forest was taken over by a mob of psionic ape like creatures - Su-Monsters - emerging from lairs deep beneath the ground. These creatures found the forest an ideal home and rapidly came to dominate it, alternately enslaving and hunting the mongrelmen, lycanthropes, and remaining humans within the forests borders. In order to protect themselves, several species of lycanthropes came together and formed the Totem, a sort of shapechanger `nation' which staked out the easternmost part of the forest as theirs alone.
Some centuries later, the Vanmarian Empire attempted to annex much of the Last Forest. They made great strides at first thanks to a revolt of the mongrelmen slaves kept by the lycanthropes and (some) of the su-monster bands, but were ultimately forced out of most of the area when the handfull of remaining elves - powerfull figures all - emerged from the shadows to organize su-monster and lycanthope alike, with the treants backing up their authority. The result was the Forest Treaty with the Vanmarian Empire (which allowed that nation to retain control over a part of the forest, use of the Wild Road through it, and limited logging rights) and the Pact, a sort of broad `code of conduct' applying to the denizens of the forest as a whole. Both the Forest Treaty and the Pact are still in effect.
The Invaders, intrigued by the tales of ancient elven artefacts concealed within abandoned cities deep in the forests interior, have been poking about the fringes of the Last Forest since they first arrived - and have been dying in droves ever since as a result. Twice they have made determined efforts to conquor all or parts of the beastlands, only to find themselves no match for the creatures within - hence the term `Free States'.
While there are a few commonly visited trading and ceremonial locations within the beastlands, there are no cities or towns - indeed, few settlements of any sort. The su-monsters, for the most part, are quasi nomadic, living in family bands that move from hunting camp to hunting camp; while most of the lycanthropic inhabitants of Totem are scattered about in tiny villages that have no more than few score inhabitants each.
IRON MOUNTAINS:
These mountains are old and worn, with little in the way of sheer slopes - or anything else except mile after mile of endless, nearly empty tunnels. Most of the ores of any value this range once held have long since been extracted; most of the races and nations that once dwelled on and under these slopes are long reduced to dust, ghosts, and memories. Still, the mountains are not utterly dead - here and there one finds the odd wooded valley, isolated vein of silver or iron or copper, or tiny hamlet.
Khartum (the Iron Sanctum):
Located deep in the tunnels beneath the mountains, Khartum is built in a horseshoe pattern around one end of an underdark lake. This city is home to a total of perhaps five thousand dwarves, duagar, drow, gnomes, and goblins, each of whom lays claim to one of the ten wide, long tunnels opening into this end of the lake cavern (the others are dominated by fungi fields and mushroom farms, which along with fish from the lake are the mainstay's of the diet of Khartums inhabitants). Originally founded as a mine (it sits near some of the last remaining veins of copper and silver in the area) it gradually turned into a trading point and `safe zone' for various nearby underdark communities. Currently it is a rallying point for the more benign underdark races who find themselves confronted more and more often with kua-toa, mind flayers, and tanar'ri.
Paloondruloop:
Little more than a dark rumor, this is supposed to be a huge kua-toan metropolis, home to literally thousands of the repulsive fishmen. Disturbingly, these fishmen have established a number of outposts on the surface.
Time Caves:
Located in the northern Iron Mountains - somewhere - these caves figure prominently in Golgothian myth and legend. The wizard Vanmar was supposed to have seen his vision of the horror of the Final War here; supposedly the high priest of the lizardmen organized his peoples exodus from this sphere after his visit. Time moves oddly in these strangely aligned caverns - a few minutes inside may be several months outside - or it may really be only a few minutes. By staring into one or another of the caverns enchanted pools or crystal columns, it is possible to catch glimpses of the past and future - but not alter them. (Usually, the future seen is not the observers, but somebody elses.)
Resinith:
Prior to the Final War, this was a city noted for its decadence and devotion to pleasure. Its leaders survived that conflict through the use of vile magic - only to see their descendants changed into the hideous Lamia who now hunt and stalk all who enter the region.
City of Moving Stone:
Nobody is quiet sure what name this metropolis went by before the Final War. Most of its inhabitants perished back then, but their servants - a hundred or more golems and other automotians - survive, still carrying out the tasks to which they were set a millenia ago. Small bands of Invaders, mongrelmen, primitive humans, and a few stray gnomes are found here as well.
HAUNTED LANDS:
Set along Bexts western coast, this is a land of ghosts and ruined cities, the names of which are long since forgotten. At one time, this was Daridia, a vassal kingdom of the Khabullian Empire across the sea. Daridia revolted against Khabull early on in the Final War; in retribution the Khabullian Emperor had his soldier invade the land, putting the entire populace put to the sword. Only adventurers, madmen, and Invaders come here.
