In addition to the Drakelands and the Skyfire Mandate, there are several major populated regions of Triaxus.
Allied Territories: Spanning the entire continent of Ora, this region—often simply called “the Territories”—is a riot of nations both small and large, including monarchies, theocracies, democracies, and more. Once these nations struggled against each other in a political free-for-all, yet the first great wars against the dragons of the Drakelands drove them to ally into a single federated unit in order to ensure that humanoids would survive as anything more than just a slave race. After the great victories of the War of Heroes and the establishment of the Skyfire Mandate, however, the dragons became a less immediate threat, and old rivalries began to splinter the bonds of blood and fellowship. Today, the Allied Territories are a union in name only, frequently engaging in border skirmishes and even absorbing each other completely, while still paying lip service to the humanoid alliance of old. Should the dragons ever make another significant push into their continent, however, it’s likely that such feuds would quickly be mended, and all spears turned outward. The composition of the Allied Territories is always in flux, particularly as portions of their population are driven south from the poles in winter or drawn north in summer, but of the hundreds of nations and free cities that spring up periodically, a few are particularly well established, having survived many seasonal cycles. The riders of Aylok, for instance, hold fertile plains and are widely notorious for breeding the best cavalry. Zo, the Port of a Thousand Ships, boasts markets where anything can be found, and in winter maintains magically melted shipping lanes. Prieta, the Scholar’s Paradise, values learning above all, and even the basest of its mercenaries seek to improve their minds. And everyone in the Territories has heard of Kamora, the wealthy gateway to the Uchorae Jungle, whose residents pay for their nation’s bounty by constantly defending their high-walled cities from vampiric predators.
Ning: An island continent separated from its neighbors by the wide Sephorian Sea, the Immortal Suzerainty of Ning is an independent empire rarely challenged by the armies of other nations. Nevertheless, the empire maintains a vast standing army that it uses to protect the countless rural villages strewn across its landscape from the many predators—both bestial and dangerously intelligent—that dwell within the forests and valleys of the continent’s interior. Many of these communities are reachable only by treacherous roads through sharp-toothed mountains and deep jungles, and thus one of the first things constructed in any new settlement is its shelterstone, a ziggurat-shaped fortress designed to house citizens during invasions by monsters, and which usually contains some magical means of contacting the empire’s military for help. Perhaps the most unique aspect of Ning’s culture is its focus on social station, honor, and custom. Ruled by the benevolent Immortal Suzerain (a title conferred on each monarch when the previous one dies or abdicates), everyone in the nation, from government officials and nobility down to common farmers, is obsessed with matters of etiquette, and those who flaunt the rules—either deliberately or through ignorance—can find themselves treated as invisible by the affronted populace.Another peculiarity of Ning society is a unique caste called ukara, or “battleflowers.” These individuals are elaborately decorated and androgynous warriors who renounce all ties to family, social status, and personal gender in order to compete in ritualized gladiatorial bouts. Those who do well are treated as high nobility, with great houses and powerful merchants competing for the honor of their favor, while those unable to prove their worth after their first year are banished from the major cities forever, forced to spend their lives defending outlying communities.
Sephorian Archipelago: The seas between these several hundred islands are remarkably gentle, allowing travel by canoe in the summer and by walking across mazes of ice floes in the winter. Despite regular trade between them, most of the small island communities maintain their own customs and traditions, with even a few miles between islands creating vast differences in culture. To the more “civilized” nations of the continents, the most interesting aspects of the archipelago are the mysterious cylindrical towers on some of the islands that periodically exhale smoke and, aside from being used as navigational aids, are treated as taboo by the residents. Many of the more fertile islands are also left fallow, for reasons either unremembered or unexplained to outsiders.