Priest Olis' Complete Gazetteer (Most Recent Edition)

[CaptainPenguin]

This work is dedicated to all those who dwell outside the light of Great Mitras. May He watch over you.

-Priest Olis

[CaptainPenguin]

Full Official Name (Arcturan Registry): Barbarian Territories of Alssonia
Population: Unknown. A census is too dangerous to hold in these territories, however, there are approximately 600 Arcturan citizens in various forts and outposts.
Government: None, however, Imperial Arcturus has been attempting to colonize border portions of the territory.
Ruler: None.
Capital: None.
Major Cities: No cities as such. The largest census-marked settlement is Lake Usellus (Loch Uisliu).
Major Languages: Alsson
Major Religions: Alsson deities (Alotti)
Currency: None, though most forts and outposts will accept currency of all nations.
Resources: Sparse pine forests in the north, animal pelts, untapped mineral resources.
Major Imports: None, except for regular supplies to forts.
Allies: None
Enemies: None

History
Alssonia is the home of the Alsson barbarians, a people who migrated southward during the great Armori migrations as a conglomeration of tribes called the Ulssi. The Ulssi, who became the Alssoni, or Alssons. occupied the huge territory known as Alssonia, and remained their rather unmolested, because the rocky, incredibly mountainous land was considered, for a long time, worthless.
The only noteworthy stirring from Alssonia was the Great Alsson Invasion, in the earliest days of the Arcturan Empire. This invasion, led by the chief known as Arddan ma Sieolech, smashed itself against the strength of young Arcturus, though the Alsson tuaths (tribes) have rearranged the story so that it is often considered a victory.

Geography
Most of Alssonia is extremely mountainous and rocky, with high, jagged, peaks and sinking chasms and canyons through the northeast, center, and southwest.
In the north, the mountains of Alssonia merge with the soaring Khossus Mountains.
In the northwest, this lowers into stony badlands with sparse pine forests on the borders with Helvetia and Woron.
In the east, the Khossus range extends down, forming the Alssor Mountains, the eastern border of Alssonia.
In the southeast, on the nebulous border with the barbarian land of Gotha, the land drifts down into dry, rocky, rolling hills with scraggly forestation.
There are few rivers in the mountainous Alssonia, however, there are many mountain tarns. These tarns are incredibly deep and steep-shored. They are also known for icy water.

Flora and Fauna
Alssonia is rather a difficult place to dwell in. The wildlife is extremely hardy and wild, even wilder than one might expect of wild animals. Elk, bears, wolves, rabbits, high deer, and all manner of birds dwell in Alssonia. There are also a sizable number of Dire-wolves, huge wolves native to the northern Armorican Lands.
Alssonia's plant life is rather limited to hardy grasses and flowers, with pine in the north and mediterranean trees in the south. In addition, there is the famous Alsson-vine, a form of growing vine that splits rock and grows in thickets up the lower slopes of mountains and in the sunnier valleys.

Culture
Alsson culture varies between tuaths (Tribes). Most tuaths are led by a chieftan and worship Alotti, along with other Alsson deities. They are warlike and often battle among each other. Tuaths are semi-nomadic, settling only for a few months and then moving on. Alssons often tattoo themselves distinctively according to their tuath. Women are considered to be not as strong as men, and are thus rather home-bound, however, they are quite unrestrained compared to women in such nations as Marcosia and Orlonia.

Crime and Punishment
Alsson law is according to tuath. Most serious punishments are either banishment from the tuath or death. However, a very gruesome punishment that has been witnessed is called the "blood eagle", in which the victims ribs are spit open and his lungs mounted on his back like wings.

Armed Forces
Not organized, though every man in a tuath is considered to be a warrior in times of need.

[CaptainPenguin]

Full Official Name: High Imperial Arcturus and the Arcturan Hegemony
Population: 5,500,000
Government: Empire with senatorial government
Ruler: Emperor Valension Jovian Caesar (styled Wise Emperor Jovian or Jovian the Sagely)
Capital: The Polis of Arcturus
Major Cities: Ostia, Veii, Carseoli, Telamon, Populonia, Ariminum, Nola
Major Languages: Arcturan, Marcosian, Zinaldian
Major Religions: The Arcturan Pantheon (Arcturus), Sammerian Ancestor-Moth Cult, The Cult of Talos
Currency: golden denarius, silver sestercius, copper asus
Resources: Many kinds of wood in the north and east, huge tracts of farmland for wheat, grains, and vegetables, silver, gold, iron, bronze, and more. Arcturus' huge size makes it difficult to list all of its resources.
Major Imports: Marble and other precious and semi-precious stones, jewels, tin, iron, Southern woods, luxuries
Allies: Marcosia, Thasar, Nydria, Woron (client state), Watzcha (client state), Orlonia, Zinaldia, Licuria (client state)
Enemies: Kozkil, Gloriano, Nermalia, Gothic barbarians, Czechki barbarians

History
Official Arcturan history states that, in the glorious Age of Heroes, the greatest hero of all, Caesar, heard the voice of Arcturus himself while bathing in the Aelorus River, telling him to create the "greatest of all kingdoms, which will shine into the future as the master of the world and will live longer than lost Atlantis." Caesar, inspired by the words of his god, formed a band of heroes, the Aelorians, and carved out his empire.
However, as with many official histories, this one has little to do with the truth.
Arcturus was formed by the Armorican tribe known as the Arturii. The Arturii, led by a chieftan who was indeed named Caesar, in the misty depths of time, sacked the capitol of the Adversary Empire (from which came the Kozkirrim). On the ruins of this capitol the Polis of Arcturus was eventually constructed.
The Arcturii, soon called the Arcturans, formed a kingdom, over which Caesar ruled. Using the plundered knowledge of the Adversary Empire, the typical Arcturan intelligence and tenacity, and the ingenuity of sages from the land of Cemitum, the Arcturans were soon the most advanced of all Armoricans.
The first true challenge to Arcturan power came during the Nermalian Wars, in which young Arcturus smashed the power of Old Nermalia.
In Imperial Year 425, after the Great Alsson Invasion, and subsequent Czechki invasions, the Emperor Tibor erected the famous Tibor's Wall, screening Arcturan territory out from barbarian attacks.
It was in the Imperial Year 798 that the client-states of Marcosia, Chargia, Orlonia, and Zinaldia successfully sued for independence in the Arcturan Senate. Soon after, the Emperor Aesculos granted freedom to all client-states (Woron and Watzcha refused the independence, and still do to this day.)
In recent times, Imperial Arcturus and its hated splinter-nation, Gloriano, have had more and more border skirmishes. It is doubtful that it will come to open war, due to the huge difference in size and population between the two.

Geography
Most of the Arcturan heartland is rolling green plains with light forestation. The Aelorus River Valley and the surrounding Latifundian Hills are included in these heartlands, which are heavily farmed. The climate is mediterranean and very sunny.
The south is hot, dry climate, becoming badlands and even desert in the south, with scrubland and sandy fastness, and rising into forested plateau in Sammeria.
The southeast is dry, rocky, canyonlands, and the Vindocladia Tablelands.
The east and west are much like the heartlands, but there are many grasslands and rivers.
The northeast is marshy and deepens into the Black Morass of Licuria.
The northwest is gray weathered and deeply forested, holding a portion of the Black Forest itself. The weather is chilly and rainy.

Flora and Fauna
The great empire of Arcturus is vast, and thus contains too many plants and animals to catalog in this volume.

Culture
Arcturan culture is organized into castes according to economic means.
From highest to lowest:
-The Emperor
-The Patricians: Nobility and the very rich
-The Plebeians: The middle to low class, farmers, merchants, tradesmen.
-The Capite Censi: The low-low class, thieves, rogues, deeply poor and destitute, poor farmers, lowest of peasants
-Slaves
Patricians are the nobility and very rich. They are cosmopolitan and well-learned, though they have a tendency to be proud.
Plebeians are the middle to low class, the peasants, farmers, merchants, and tradesmen. They are a grab bag when it comes to personalities.
The Capite Censi are the trash of humanity.
Slaves vary on their owners. Most Arcturans treat their slaves very well.

Crime and Punishment
Arcturus has a well-established judicial system with many courts. Most crimes are punished with a (more likely) money payment or (rarely) jail time, though jails in Arcturus are a joke, because the Arcturan temperament does not lend itself well to incarceration. In most of central Arcturus, laws are simply ignored and go unpunished, or citizens find ways to get around them, however, when crimes are punished, they are punished harshly.

Armed Forces
Arcturus has a huge army known as the Arcturan Imperial Legions, generally. Legionaires come from all walks of life and all places, and most Arcturan men can expect to serve some sort of purpose to the Legions.

[CaptainPenguin]

Full Official Name: The United Clans of Chargia-Of-The-Wood
Population: 1,000,200 (roughly)
Government: Loose theocracy
Ruler: Officially, the Hustarn, Son of Elrim, High Priest of the Forest Gods, though he serves more as spiritual guidance than as a ruler.
Capital: Dasmuth, City of Trees
Major Cities: Ujessteni, Rilema, Omatess
Major Languages: Chargian, Chargian Sign Language, dialects of Iberian and Gund
Major Religions: The Forest Gods (Elrim), Mitraism, a smattering of Arcturan nature-related gods
Currency: Mostly trade-and-barter and sworn debts. The Chargian government does not issue it's own currency
Resources: Lumber, animal pelts, foods (game meats and fruit), various kinds of stone
Major Imports: Clothing, grains, metals, some luxuries
Allies: Arcturus, Marcosia, Thasar, Iberia, Gundia
Enemies: Radothite reavers, Kozkil

History
The short-lived Turacian Dominion, which ruled the northern Armorican Lands before the Arcturans came to power, held thousands upon thousands of slaves in its sway during it's height of power. The Turacians sent out slaving parties to the far corners of the world seeking slaves to erect their monoliths and fortresses. When the Turacians were destroyed in a battle against the neighboring kingdom of Duramalc, which was also brought to ruin, their slaves, foreigners from a hundred different lands, spread out across the Armorican continent.
A group of these slaves, the Churaakt, who had been stolen from the islands in the Iapetus Ocean, fled southward from the shattered remnants of Turacia, fleeing capture by the Duramalcish soldiers, into the primal corner of the Armorican Lands now called Chargia.
With them, these slaves brought their animistic, nature-worshipping religion and their forest life traditions, built from centuries of dwelling in the forest-carpeted islands of their origin. Led by the high priest of this religion, the Hustarn, they established a forest kingdom, which blended slowly with the other Armorican cultures, becoming what is now known as Chargia-Of-The-Wood, or simply Chargia.
Chargia has been a relatively stabile kingdom in it's long history. The only gaps in this arboreal peace were the Kozkil Invasions, during which Kozkirrim came over the Thunderclap Mountains, rending down forest and destroying villages, and the War of Burning Trees, in which the Hustarn of Chargia was possessed by a malevolent presence, igniting a civil war.

Geography
Chargia is not called the Forested Land for nothing. From the coast of the Sea in the west, to the Thunderclap Mountains in the east, the land is clothed with forest.
Chargia is a very flat land, with extremely porous bedrock. The seacliffs and forests are riddled with caves, karsts, and cenotes.
The forest ends near the northern border, as the land rises, giving way to the cold, rocky, lands of Gundia. In the south, the land sinks into the fertile fields of Iberia.

Flora and Fauna
Chargia is a land of plenty, and as such, it is filled with animals. Deer, elk, rodents of all kinds, clouds of birds, all these can be seen. In the north, one finds many wolves and bears.
The plants of the Chargian forest are too numerous to be catalogued. Notable species of plants which are readily seen include the famous spreading-tree of Chargia, mighty trees that rival the size of the redwoods of Orlonia, and bridge vines, which string themselves among branches, forming bridges for which they are named.



Culture
Chargian culture is organized into clans, which usually contain two or three families. These clans dwell in small villages in the forest. Each clan or village has a druid sent from the Temple of the Hustarn in Dasmuth to aid in the spiritual life of the clan's members.
Chargians are peaceful and easy-going. Days generally consist of praying to the Forest Gods with the clan druid, gathering food in the wood, and exploring. Fathers hunt, mothers weave clothing and make meals.

Crime and Punishment
Crimes in Chargia are overseen by the clan druid, who passes judgement based on what he or she sees fit.

Armed Forces
Chargia has no armed forces. During the few wars it has had, Chargia's soldiery has been composed of volunteer warriors from clans and villages across the Forested Land, using guerilla tactics and their knowledge of the forest to their best advantage.

[CaptainPenguin]

Wisdom's Note- The reader will note that this page was torn out, and an inept acolyte has replaced it in the wrong position. Our apologies.

Full Official Name: The Sacred Dominion of Bohakii
Population: 4,200,000
Government: Monarchy
Ruler: The Sorceror-Queen Tunhii Ehu Uyaa-Sheker, First Daughter of Suuy
Capital: Holy City of Same
Major Cities: Uuyaan, Yaaz-Tuuy, Kuhiish, Tehu-Shekii, Maake, Uunc
Major Languages: Botherian (Bohakii), Muz (Lesser Bohakii), Cemitian
Major Religions: Bohakii pantheon, some Cemitian and Illionite gods
Currency: great uuyaakiz, lesser uuyaakiz, suumuuz, muzaashii, teyaake
Resources: gold, various kinds of stone, citrus fruits, jewelry, silks, various Southern woods, salt
Major Imports: iron, tin, silver, spices (save salt), vegetables and grains, Northern woods
Allies: Nydria, Illion (Eastern city-state), Vaapsum (Virtek principality), Elteki (Virtek principality), Zoraili (Eastern city-state), Durak (Southern nation; Land of the Lotus-Eaters)
Enemies: Officially, none, however, Nermalia, the Corsairs, Gloriano, and the Gothic barbarians are often considered to be aggressors.

History
Bohakii, called Botheria by Armoricans, is an ancient monarchy, and has been ruled by sorceror-queens and woman magi for as long as Bohakii history cares to relate. It is probable that Bohakii was founded about the same time as the Adversary Empire.
Bohakii has had a series of wars with various neighbors, including the Adversary Empire (thousands of years ago), Nermalia, four or five of the Virtek Principalities to their north, and at least two naval wars against the Corsairs. Luckily, Bohakii's great size, wealth, and military might, as well as profusance of those knowledgeable in magic (2% of the population, vastly more than any of their neighbors, perhaps save Illion), have pulled it through on the winning side of most of these wars. Since they were all defensive, Bohakii has not profited from of the wars, or in any noticeable way. Bohakii has never, in memory or in the eye of history, attacked any nation. It finds the practice of neutrality to be more profitable.

Geography
Bohakii is a huge nation of wide-open spaces, with a long, blooming seacoast along it's south. Most of Bohakii is open, semi-barren plains of red soil with few stones, clothed in clumps of hardy grasses. In the northwest, there are high peaks that form a wall between Bohakii and the nations of Nydria and Gotha.
The western regions are mountainous hill-lands, where the red earth of Bohakii blends with the richer, darker earth of Gloriano. This region is known as Uuhu-Tekii, or the Rich Fields, because it is one of the most fertile regions of Botheria. In the southwest, the terrain becomes rocky, arid canyonlands, similar to the southern Arcturus and Nermalia.
The central portions of Bohakii are occupied by wide, flat plains of red soil, nearly deserted except for Hurutaki nomad tribes. In the more arid regions, the lands become deserts of reddish sand. Several wide, muddy rivers cross these central plains, and the fertile regions along the rivers are populated more thickly.
In the east, Botheria's nebulous eastern border lies in burning desert, thick with outcroppings of sandstone and granite.
The northern border of Bohakii is a hilly green prairieland, with seas of waving grass merging into the rugged pine-hills of Gotha and the rich fields of the Virtek Principalities.
The southern portions of Bohakii, that is, those portions along the seacoast, are blooming lands and forests of cyprus, palm, olive, and other mediterannean woods. The land is sparsely overspread with small forests of these woods, and has many grass plains, green swards, and blooming regions. In the southeast, below the desert, the land becomes marshy, creating the mosquito-infested Marsh of Shuukir, infamous as a place of disease. The blooming southern coast is the site of the majority of population in Bohakii.

Flora and Fauna
The woods in Bohakii are composed of mediterannean woods such as cyprus, palm, and olive. The land has many kinds of grass, most of them sour and indigestible for horses, including the yellow bunch-grasses of the central plains, the green foot-grass of the southern coasts, and the soft, high grass of the northern plains. Many kinds of hardy, dry shrubs flourish in the eastern half of the lands, and cacti are common in the central plains. Citrus trees and other fruit plants grow in the southeast.
Bohakii's east and southeast are the home of many kinds of small deer and boar, with a kind of long-legged bear living in the mountains. Coyotes, often called "wild dogs" or "snappers", and jackals dwell in these parts also, as well as in the central plains. The deserts and plains are home to many kinds of rodents, as well as scorpions and spiders. Birds of prey are a common sight in the east and northeast. There are many, many varieties of snakes that dwell all over Bohakii, including the deadly Botherian cobra.
Little dwells in the west, where the shifting dunes, water-less flats, and blowing sandstorms make survival very hard. The hopping mice, insects, and snakes of that land make themselves evident only in the night.
There are no horses in Botheria. The grasses there are unhealthy for those beasts, and the climate is unsuitable, and in addition, they make Botherians uneasy. Botherians instead make use the shuzuuk-yuutuk, a species of very large, hoofed rodent that looks very much like an almost-hairless guinea pig with a long, bushy tail.

Culture
The culture of Bohakii is fairly stiff, with magic-enforced caste systems based on astrological readings. The bottom rung of society is the slaves, some of which are public property, while others are private. Above slaves are common laborers (uuzuk-kiiru), including farmers (who are few), herdsmen, tanners and leatherworkers, blacksmiths, potters, and weavers. Over the laborers are the merchants and shopkeepers (tzaak-ushaak). The next caste is the artisans, who include scribes, painters, sculptors, sages and loremasters, jewelers and clothiers (uyaakii-tzonc). Artisans are passed by warriors and soldiers (kihu-uyazi). Next are priests and dream-readers (behu-sonc). The highest heighth is occupied by the sorceresses and their guardians, the sheker-laar and the kihu-sheker.
For more on culture, see the Codex Populatia.

Crime and Punishment
The Codes are a strict code of laws set down by one of the early sorceror-queens. The Codes are enforced strictly by the kihu-uyazi and the behu-sonc preach that following laws is the will of the gods.
Punishments are usually "eye for an eye" style. Traitors have the word "betrayer" cut or branded into their palms and forehead, and are then turned loose into the western desert.

Armed Forces
Bohakii's armed forces consist of the kihu-uyazi, the warrior caste, who are some 20% of the population. They are well-armed and armored, and often wealthy. During times of war, the ranks of the kihu-uyazi are augmented by militias from the lower classes.