Bone Dwarves

Bone Dwarves
The Bone Dwarves are native to the Corpse Continent. According to their own history they were created by Aeon the Shaper.  Who or what they were created from remains unknown and the Bone Dwarves do not speak of it. 
Bone Dwarf Culture is insular, pragmatic and egalitarian. They tend to keep to themselves, avoiding contact with other Cultures.  There is little trade with the Bone Dwarves as they can produce everything they need from their environment.
Bone Dwarves possess a unique digestive system. They can eat almost anything and survive. Their diet is largely carnivorous, and although they prefer fresh meat, they can also survive quite well on carrion.  It is a widely known fact that Bone Dwarves eat their dead as part of the funeral ritual. This gives talk of 'Grandmother's Soup' a very different connotation in Bone Dwarf society.
Their apperance is fearsome. All Bone Dwarves have chalk white skin, and both sexes are hairless. In adolescence, as part of their adulthood rites, Bone Dwarves undergo a ceremony where their teeth are ritually filed to points.
The Culture subsists by mining into the Corpse Continent and partaking of the dead flesh for sustenance.  Everything they use comes from the land or each other. Occasionally a peddler or merchant will trade with the Bone Dwarves for manufactured goods, often exchanging exquisite bone carvings that fetch a high price in the urban marketplaces.
Very few Bone Dwarves leave their tribes. Those that do are considered unusual and, usually, have a violent background. As a result, it is the image of these Bone Dwarves that travel to other lands, working as mercenaries or assassins, that has helped to enhance the Culture's frightening reputation.

E.F.K.A.S.

E.F.K.A.S.
There are a number of strange regions in the World, but very few of them can compare to E.F.K.A.S., the Empire Formerly Known as Shu.  Located on the continent of Orric, EFKAS was once a great power. Over time, however, the country's leadership, a traditional monarchy, became corrupt and inbred, producing a number of shockingly mad Emperors and Empresses. Not even the Droyish Empire, on Hezeq, produced as many mad royals as the Empire Formerly Known as Shu.  That madness reached its apex centuries ago when Emperor Tenic VI decared war upon Astropolis and attacked the floating city with ancient ray projectors.  Astropolis responded by redirecting the ray barrage back at Shu.  The entire country was decimated in less than three hours.
Most of the surviving commoners abandoned Shu.  Within a month, the land was almost empty.  Into this void, strode a distaff branch of the royal family. They assumed power and began the lengthy reconstruction of the capital city, Lacada.
Today, Lacada is the single populated area in the region.  The city has a population of approximately 13,000 people. Most are employed, in some fashion or another, by the ruling family. 

The current ruler of the Empire Formerly Known as Shu, is Her Divine Majesty, Xillian the First. No one is quite certain if Empress Xillian is mad, brilliant or, most likely, a bit of both.  Some of her royal decrees are definitely odd, such as the one making possession of a timepiece of any sort a death penalty offense.  Others seem to be merely eccentric, such as requiring every citizen to wear purple on the second day of the month.
It is Xillian who has ordered the country's name officially changed from Shu, to the Empire Formerly Known as Shu.  She has also ordered the ancient ray projectors be repaired, if possible, and begun to actively recruit arcanists to the imperial army.
These last two commands have attracted the attention of neighboring states as well as the Intelligence of Astropolis. They remain uncertain if her peculiar orders are some sort of smoke screen, to hide a darker purpose, such as war. 
Adventurers and explorers are generally welcome in E.F.K.A.S. The region around Lacada is littered with ruins and peculiar artefacts.  One of Xillian's more unusual orders was to turn her country into a dumping ground for the rest of Orric.  All sorts of odd things have made their way to E.F.K.A.S. Most are harmless, but some are useful and a few could be quite dangerous in the right hands.
Travelers with business in E.F.K.A.S. are advised not to linger. Ignorance of the local laws is no protection and trespassers may find themselves punished severely for breaking some strange, local taboo. Punishments tend to be bizarre and disproportionate, such as execution for wearing a watch to being forced to wear stripes and plaids if you kill someone in the middle of the week.
A popular saying in the surrounding regions is, "You don't need to be mad to live in E.F.K.A.S., but it certainly doesn't hurt."

The Dreadsands

The Dreadsands
The Dreadsands are a region in the southeast section of the Corpse Continent. The region is infamous for the number of strange and inexplicable events that occur within its borders. Strange lights have been seen within the Dreadsands and many people have reported periods of 'lost time' and a uncomfortable sensation of being watched.  Others claim to have been abducted by mysterious figures and subjected to strange and arcane experiments. A handful of people have emerged from the Dreadsands, bearing odd scars and markings on their bodies.  Caravans skirt the borders of the Dreadsands, which are marked by a series of tall, spiral bone-like spurs.  Some adventurers venture into the Dreadsands in search of fame and fortune; most simply find death.  Many disappear, never to be heard from again.

Expeth Gadd

Expeth Gadd
Expeth Gadd was born and raised in Fayne, the beloved only child of a rich merchant.  After her mother passed away, Expath's father remarried. According to surviving letters and communiques, Expeth and her stepmother did not get along. When Expeth's father died, under suspicious circumstances a few months later, her stepmother forcibly expelled her from the household. Expeth took refuge with friends. A few days later, her ancestral home caught fire in the middle of the night and burned down, killing everyone inside.  After local authorities investigated, they deemed the incident an accident. Expeth inherited her father's estate, immediately liquidated all of her assets and left Fayne, never to return. 
She became an adventuress of some renown, traveling the length and breadth of Orric.  She only left the continent once, to travel to Hezeq for a wedding; apparently, her experience on the Green Continent did not enamor her to non-Orrican Cultures. She never left Orric again.
Expeth is best known for her discovery of the Glass Wife, an arcane artifact from the Old World, that she turned over to the University of Nornhold for safekeeping. She was a contemporary of the Scoundrel Lady and crossed wits with her more than once, leading to a deep and bitter rivalry between them.
Eventually, Expeth Gadd retired from adventuring. She settled in the city of Nornhold, where she became a prominent member of the city's social set and the subject of numerous thrilling scandals. Eventually, Expeth started a family, giving birth to three daughters and two sons.  After her death, it was discovered that Expeth had been a prolific writer; her diaries and copies of her personal correspondence were donated to the University of Nornhold.
Ironically, a statue of Expeth Gadd was erected in Fayne, which claimed the adventuress as a favored daughter. This was despite Expeth Gadd's blunt disdain for the city of her birth.  The statue vanished along with the rest of Fayne.
A painting of Expeth Gadd hangs in the library at the University of Narnhold, done by her son, Jance Gadd, and there is a small shrine to the woman outside the town of Brinx on the South Coast.

The Towers of Skarn

The Towers of Skarn
The Towers of Skarn occupy an area in the northern section of Orric.  The Towers are ruins from the Old World. Some of the Towers stand over a hundred stories tall. Others have collapsed or partially collapsed. There are reports that the Towers extend down, into the earth, just as deeply as they rise into the air.  There are also reports that some of the Towers are apparently self-repairing and this explains why some of them are still standing, over five thousand years since the Godfall.
The Towers attract explorers and treasure-hunters from all across the World, however very few adventurers make it out of the Towers alive.  Mechs from the area will not approach the Towers, and will try to actively dissuade any one else from doing so.  Adventurers who do make it out of the Towers may find themselves confronted by angry Mechs, demanding that they relinquish anything they may have taken from the Towers.

The Orrican League

The Flag of the Orrican League

 

The Orrican League

The Orrican League is a loose alliance of independent states along the western coast or Orric.  Although the concept of the League was proposed in 5005, the League did not formally exist until 5012 when the first League Assembly was convened in the city-state of Obbac.

The League exists, primarily, to promote mutual trade and defense among its member-states.  Each of its members retains their own autonomy and fiercely defends it.  In the eighty-eight years that the League has formally existed, its membership has shrunken.  Originally, twelve states belonged to the League, but today only seven remain.  Zalna and Athell withdrew from the Orrican League in 5048 to form the Triune Alliance with the Mech Nation-State of Uxbrut.   Oqiana and Ynton went to war with each other in 5050 and were expelled from the League.  The City-State of Fayn simply vanished in 5079.

Today, the Orrican League is showing further signs of collapse.  There is a movement in the region to restore the Tarwellian Directorship, which is causing extreme friction between the League's member-states.  There are also significant cultural differences between some League members, which is adding further strain to the alliance.  More recently, the Triune Alliance has made a very public overture to Ghir, to leave the League and join the Alliance.

Only time will tell if the Orrican League survives.

Nyron Ceret, Father of the Orrican League

Thought-Image of Lord Nyron Ceret

Nyron Ceret
Born in 4977 to a family of wealthy tech-merchants, Nyron Cerret threw his hat into the political arena when he was only 20 years old.  He won a position on the Secondary Council of the City-State of Obbac.  Five years later, having survived the Tarwellian Purges, Ceret was chosen to represent Obbac at the Restoration Congress.  Ceret is credited with forging the alliance of independent City-States that would become the Orrican League.  Sadly, Ceret would not live to see the fruits of his labors; he was killed by a Nartholemite assassin in 5008.  He was 31 years old at the time of his death.
Historical records describe Ceret as a quiet, careful man possessed of 'a poise beyond his years.'  He traveled extensively in his youth and left a candid record of his private thoughts and feelings that remains popular in Orric to this day.  Following his death, Ceret was posthumously awarded the title of 'lord' by the Orrican League.