Alright, folks, here's the first preview of the Third Dawn Campaign Setting. Here, we'll take a deep look into the Ophid Protectorate, the dominant society of the continent of Tion. Details are subject to change at a later time.
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Ophid Protectorate
Capital: None, see below
Population: 374,814 (Ophiduan 52%, Human 19%, Dromite 9%, Xeph 7%, Jettur 6%, Kobold 5%, others 2%)
Government: Psionocracy
Imports: Spices, Wool, Furs, Timber
Exports: Wine, Herbs, Armor, Ore
Overview
The area originally controlled by ophiduan society is referred to, both by those within and without the borders, as the Ophid Protectorate. The Ophid Protectorate is actually divided into several distinct sections, each governed by an overlord, although the entire area is a psionocracy. Each overlord controls a variety of overseers, who each govern one city, or an area roughly the size of one city. Because the Ophid Protectorate is a true psionocracy, where psionic power is looked to as an individual’s societal standing, it is not unusual to have overseers who are not ophiduan.
In fact, several hive-cities of the dromites are under control of the Ophid Protectorate, but are ruled by powerful dromite wilders as ophid overseers. They report to one of the overlords of the Ophid Protectorate, but maintain control over their hive. Several of the hives of the dromites willingly entered into this arrangement to avoid being subjugated by the powerful ophids. This allowed the dromites a measure of control of the hive in exchange for paying taxes to the Protectorate.
The Ophid Protectorate is expansionistic, always striving to expand its borders and encompass more of southern Tion into their grasp, both for political reasons but also for practical and philosophical reasons. Ophid overlords believe that the Protectorate is the best chance for civilization, knowledge and co-operation to spread for the benefit of all citizens. With the Protectorate comes troops, architecture, roads, trade, schools and law - all things that to the overlords seem to be great boons in exchange for a change of loyalty amongst the citizens.
They expand through diplomacy, warfare, and even voluntary annexations (as the dromite hives attest to), but even though their goals might seem imperialistic, they let every citizen keep their homes and livelihoods, do not interfere with philosophical beliefs, or force the citizenship to do anything except follow the Ophid Law. The Ophid Law dictates that no citizen may slay another citizen, that all citizens must pay fair taxation, and that the bureaucracy of the Protectorate is dependant upon the Duels. The Duels means that anyone with an "open mind's eye" may challenge their superior to a psionic duel, the winner assuming the higher position, while the loser must either return to the bottom of the bureaucracy or be exiled. It should be noted however, that exile is not a harsh punishment; rather it is meant to allow the loser to start anew somewhere else. Losers may also bring with them their families and retinues, which often means either relocating to another city or village, or founding a new colony entirely.
Life and Society
Most citizens find that life as a part of the Protectorate is simpler and more enjoyable than living without it. Amazing architectural achievements, such as the aqueducts that transports water from the mountains into the cities and irrigate the fields, ensure a healthier life and higher living standards than anywhere else. Roads are built to enable troop movements, but also make trade and travel easier for all citizens. Citizens pay much of their income in tax, but also receive benefits unlike citizens of other governments on Ksaren.
Citizens have a right to put their children through school, which means that most of the citizenry can read and write and know basic mathematics, as well as philosophy and how the Protectorate works. Citizens also have a right to be treated by the Herbalists for a small fee, which means that most citizens are much healthier and live longer than others in areas without organized healing and medical treatment.
Society is layered into two areas, the civil area and the Protectorate area. In the civil area you find such businesses as traders, shops, bars and taverns, bards and theatre troops, and thus life for most people involved in the civil area is social and full of interaction with other citizens. Many civilians enjoy their lives, although it is dependant more or less upon the Protectorate part of the citizenship. In the Protectorate area you find herbalists, teachers, soldiers, armorers, and most of the farmers, people employed directly by the Protectorate and given a guaranteed salary and free housing, but forbidden to use their knowledge freely. A soldier must go where the wars are, an armorer cannot deny a Protectorate order, and neither has full control over their lives or how much they are paid. However, working for the Protectorate like this also means you have an assured income, regardless of if you must work or not.
Major Geographic Features
The Ophid Protectorate began in the lush jungles at the foot of the Spearclaw Mountains in the south of Tion. It has spread from this point to the plains south of the Eternal Desert, to encompass most of the eastern side of the mountain range, all of the jungles, as well as the fertile coastal areas to the west. For a long time, most structured areas and major cities were located at the base of the mountains or in the jungle, but with the recent acquisition of the dromite hives to the north, as well as a need to expand westward, the Ophid Protectorate is meeting natural borders in the form of desert and sea.
A number of pioneers have settled the coastal areas and two major cities with corresponding overlords have risen since then, only to find that their fishing fleets and exploratory ocean vessels sometimes mysteriously vanish. Because of this, a number of lighthouses and guard towers have been raised on the outmost islands and all shipping must be within sight of these towers so as to ensure the safety of both citizen and Protectorate. This has made the ophids unsure about the prospect of settling far away islands; many of these plans have been put on hold until more information has been discovered as to what has happened with these ships.
The major rivers that snake from the mountains into the jungles and out towards the sea are important trading routes for the Ophid Protectorate, especially since the once fierce and harsh rivers have been diverted and partially drained to help with agricultural programs all across the Protectorate. Now smaller riverboats can traverse the river upstream and downstream, powered by both psionic ingenuity in the form of heavy ships made lighter through permanent powers, and muscle power for propulsion. Most riverboats use large lizards, which have similar cousins often found in fields, which are trained to continuously tread forward, pushing the ships onwards.
Important Sites
Ophiduas is the first of the major city-clusters of the Ophid Protectorate, the area from which both the ophiduan race and the Protectorate itself takes their name. Situated at the base of the Spearclaw Mountains, it has since spread, climbing up the mountains in the form of terraces filled with farmers and smaller villages, as well as spreading out into what was once jungle. At the center, the Ophiduas Palace sits, the bureaucratic heart of Ophiduas where the Overlord resides, the Ophid Guard and Protectorate Army barracks are found and the hundreds upon hundreds of clerks that maintain the interests of Ophiduas work day and night. Ophiduas is the only city-cluster that has only had ophiduan overlords.
Silasrs is the most prominent of the dromite hives that joined under overlord S'samas and the dromite citizens of Silasrs are working hard to claim their own area, thus raising their overseer into the position of overlord of a new territory. Never before has the Ophid Protectorate spread as fast as under the direction of Xolu, the overseer of Silasrs, whose scouts traverse mountains and rivers, jungles and deserts. These scouts work both to find places for new dromite hives, but also to inaugurate smaller tribes and villages, and to perform intelligence operations against larger tribes and cities not yet affiliated with the Protectorate. These scouts were the first to add an entire clan of jettur to the Ophid Protectorate, greatly increasing the influence the ophids have over the Eternal Desert.
Regional History
The Ophid Protectorate has grown from its original founding city of Ophiduas, mostly due to the bureaucratic psionic duels. Traditionally, if the contestants were powerful enough to have a large group of followers, the losing party and his or her retinue would leave the city proper to establish a new colony. Over time, that meant that powerful individuals with large retinues formed around the central city, using their knowledge and experience to quickly build and explore new territory. It also meant that these colonies had cultural ties, associations, eager trading partners, and a common language. All of these things meant that instead of separate city-states, these cities were tied together, forming a cohesive nation.
These quick expansions also lead to early contact with other, minor, races such as the jetturs, xephs, and humans. Most were incorporated into the existing cultural structure, since the Ophids allow everyone to retain their customs and traditions as long as they follow the Ophid Law. Some xeph societies retain blood-drawing duels as a way to determine rank in the army or city guards, while many jettur ophids are still nomads. All of these races are full citizens of the Ophid Protectorate and it makes no difference towards a citizen whether they are of the ophiduan race or not; all are afforded the same rights and privileges.
Most of the early cities were founded along the edge of the Spearclaw Mountains in the southern reaches of Tion, where the jungle becomes plains as it reaches towards the mountainous peaks. Water was plentiful with flowing rivers and the ophids were quick to master agriculture, building terraces up into the mountains to farm. This was the traditional way to build colonies until the innovation of the advanced waterways that could be used to irrigate their fields, as well as functioning as a quicker postal and transportation system.
It was also during this time that the Protectorate ophiduans experimented most vividly with their racial template, creating one of the most well-known offspring - the kobolds. The goal of the ophiduans was to create a creature similar to themselves, but smaller and more capable of mining. When the kobolds as a race were born, the ophiduans were filled with sorrow, for their cousins were mind-blind: born with a closed third eye. They abandoned their experiment, believing it cruel and unwholesome to force existence upon a race born with closed minds. The ophiduans underestimated the kobolds’ intense survival instincts. Taking to the mines they were bred to work, the kobolds built warrens, hunted for food, and actually prospered. When the ophiduans realized they had misjudged their smaller cousins, they offered the somewhat barbaric tribes to become full citizens of the Protectorate, so long as they could prove to have psionic ability. Several kobolds had developed psionic power while trying to survive in the mines and their return to the Ophid Protectorate was celebrated by both sides. Since that day, most of the kobolds that live on Tion have been citizens of the Ophid Protectorate.
The development in advanced waterways and the increased capacity of irrigation led to the ophids being able to grow more food, use bigger areas, and thus expand both faster and continue having a one-way communication system that was faster than before. The Protectorate was already expansionistic, but this change turned the expansion from one of necessity to one of focused colonization and armed warfare against neighboring tribes, clans and states. For years they expanded, winning most battles they fought, but mostly expanding through vicious diplomacy - until the day when they encountered the Eternal Desert to the north.
Here they made few allies and even fewer enemies, but the vast expanses of the desert ensured that the agricultural techniques and bureaucracy of the Ophid Protectorate would not expand further. Attempts to irrigate into the desert failed, and attempts to use psionic power to fuel such colonization proved to costly to support. Over time, new colonies were founded closer and closer to the sea coast, rather than in the desert, clearing vast areas of jungle for building new cities. In the past decade, two colonies have been founded at the coast, but unfortunate accidents and mysterious disappearances means that the expansion of the Ophid Protectorate has slowed to a crawl.
Plots and Rumors
• The Protectorate is an unusual nation in that it does not have any one true leader, but is lead by a coalition of overlords who work together for their own personal benefit and that of their citizens. Most overlords however, fear that one amongst them is trying to circumvent the traditional dueling, trying to assume power for itself and unite the Protectorate under one tyrant.
• A number of dromites are working together with the citizens of Silasrs to expand the powerbase of their northern hive-city so that their overseer can be raised to the position of Overlord. For this they are trying to find a way across the Eternal Desert to the dromite hives they know are situated on the other side. This concept seemed impossible, the dry heat of the desert threatening to overcome any army and making it hard for diplomats to prove any real benefits to a northern hive-city when it cannot be connected to the vast trade, agriculture and protection of the Protectorate. However, now a large number of dromites have turned to training the fierce landsharks resident in the area, using them to tunnel under the sand. This would provide the dromites with easy, cool passage to the north, enabling trade as well as being able to move troops there to continue expansion.
• The sailors and fishermen of the coast claim to have seen black ships cleaving the waves just before a powerful storm hits the coast, or before a number of their friends were lost at sea. Most say that these are the cursed ships of previous colonists who tried to leave the homeland, drowned by a vengeful and unpredictable sea. Now these ghasts have become as vengeful and unpredictable as the sea that killed them.
• There are a number of bestial kobolds who refused citizenship when the kobolds were integrated into the Protectorate. Rumors now say that these barbarians have dug too deep into the old mineshafts they occupy, unleashing something from the Ancient time. Scores of burned carcasses are now filling the deepest level of the mineshaft and the small of burnt flesh lingers. The barbarians have fled their mine, leaving the Protectorate to handle this enemy, whatever it is.
Important NPCs
Yssiri - The overlord controlling the northern section of the Protectorate, Yssiri (male ophiduan egoist 11) was previously the overlord of the northern region of the Ophid Protectorate, controlling the area near the dromite hives. Yssiri was removed from office when S’samas assumed overlordship by successfully defeating Yssiri in a duel. In his exile, Yssiri was followed by scores of his followers and subordinates, which led to the expansion of the Protectorate westwards toward the sea. Yssiri expects perfection from those who work with or for him and is unforgiving with failure. He is not, however, without a level of understanding and has allowed failure if it is truly out of the control of the individual. It is particularly because of this level of understanding that Yssiri maintains the loyalty of his followers, who seek his praise and always work to handle any contingency so as to avoid failure. Those who bring results for Yssiri are rewarded with increased ranks and privileges. Those who continuously fail are ejected from his retinue or, in extreme cases, killed if the failure was particularly bad. With a fiery temper and a sense of entitlement to return to his previous position of overlord over the northern Protectorate, it is a common rumor that Yssiri is planning for a return to the north to regain his lost title.
Xolu Massenech - The overseer of Silasrs, Xolu Massenech (dromite wilder 6 / thrallherd 3) was born to the fire caste of the dromites, having a natural disposition toward fire. With aspirations toward ruling beside the queen of Silasrs, Xolu rose through the ophid ranks with Silasrs under the control of the Ophid Protectorate, unleashing his psionic power on those that threatened not only the hive, but those in his way. Taking up the path of the thrallherd, Xolu uses his ability to draw followers to add more citizens to the hive of Silasrs. Xolu runs a variety of hivemind experiments in Silasrs, seeking a way to unify the entire hive into a single, greater consciousness. He believes that by achieving this, he may reach his goal of ruling beside the queen as an overlord himself.
Cyrus Varoz - The current captain of the Ophid Guard, Cyrus Varoz (male xeph psywar 5 / ophid guard 4) was born in the predominantly xeph city of Varoz, after its annexation into the Ophid Protectorate. The call to travel came upon Cyrus at the age of 20, and he journeyed throughout the Protectorate, before reaching the city of Ophiduas. Feeling that his home city should be as free to do as it would as Cyrus himself was, the young xeph attempted to foster rebellion, but was instead made an unwilling member of the city guard, given a position in the relatively dangerous part of the city. Although normally nomadic by nature, Cyrus was forced to pledge allegiance to the Protectorate. After two years of service and three failed attempts to leave Ophiduas, Cyrus finally came to realize the benefits of belonging to something greater and truly threw himself into service to the Protectorate. He began climbing the ranks of the city guard, later earning a position in the more elite Ophid Guard, until at the age of 31, he took over as captain of the Ophid Guard, a position he maintains to date.
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Ophid Protectorate
Capital: None, see below
Population: 374,814 (Ophiduan 52%, Human 19%, Dromite 9%, Xeph 7%, Jettur 6%, Kobold 5%, others 2%)
Government: Psionocracy
Imports: Spices, Wool, Furs, Timber
Exports: Wine, Herbs, Armor, Ore
Overview
The area originally controlled by ophiduan society is referred to, both by those within and without the borders, as the Ophid Protectorate. The Ophid Protectorate is actually divided into several distinct sections, each governed by an overlord, although the entire area is a psionocracy. Each overlord controls a variety of overseers, who each govern one city, or an area roughly the size of one city. Because the Ophid Protectorate is a true psionocracy, where psionic power is looked to as an individual’s societal standing, it is not unusual to have overseers who are not ophiduan.
In fact, several hive-cities of the dromites are under control of the Ophid Protectorate, but are ruled by powerful dromite wilders as ophid overseers. They report to one of the overlords of the Ophid Protectorate, but maintain control over their hive. Several of the hives of the dromites willingly entered into this arrangement to avoid being subjugated by the powerful ophids. This allowed the dromites a measure of control of the hive in exchange for paying taxes to the Protectorate.
The Ophid Protectorate is expansionistic, always striving to expand its borders and encompass more of southern Tion into their grasp, both for political reasons but also for practical and philosophical reasons. Ophid overlords believe that the Protectorate is the best chance for civilization, knowledge and co-operation to spread for the benefit of all citizens. With the Protectorate comes troops, architecture, roads, trade, schools and law - all things that to the overlords seem to be great boons in exchange for a change of loyalty amongst the citizens.
They expand through diplomacy, warfare, and even voluntary annexations (as the dromite hives attest to), but even though their goals might seem imperialistic, they let every citizen keep their homes and livelihoods, do not interfere with philosophical beliefs, or force the citizenship to do anything except follow the Ophid Law. The Ophid Law dictates that no citizen may slay another citizen, that all citizens must pay fair taxation, and that the bureaucracy of the Protectorate is dependant upon the Duels. The Duels means that anyone with an "open mind's eye" may challenge their superior to a psionic duel, the winner assuming the higher position, while the loser must either return to the bottom of the bureaucracy or be exiled. It should be noted however, that exile is not a harsh punishment; rather it is meant to allow the loser to start anew somewhere else. Losers may also bring with them their families and retinues, which often means either relocating to another city or village, or founding a new colony entirely.
Life and Society
Most citizens find that life as a part of the Protectorate is simpler and more enjoyable than living without it. Amazing architectural achievements, such as the aqueducts that transports water from the mountains into the cities and irrigate the fields, ensure a healthier life and higher living standards than anywhere else. Roads are built to enable troop movements, but also make trade and travel easier for all citizens. Citizens pay much of their income in tax, but also receive benefits unlike citizens of other governments on Ksaren.
Citizens have a right to put their children through school, which means that most of the citizenry can read and write and know basic mathematics, as well as philosophy and how the Protectorate works. Citizens also have a right to be treated by the Herbalists for a small fee, which means that most citizens are much healthier and live longer than others in areas without organized healing and medical treatment.
Society is layered into two areas, the civil area and the Protectorate area. In the civil area you find such businesses as traders, shops, bars and taverns, bards and theatre troops, and thus life for most people involved in the civil area is social and full of interaction with other citizens. Many civilians enjoy their lives, although it is dependant more or less upon the Protectorate part of the citizenship. In the Protectorate area you find herbalists, teachers, soldiers, armorers, and most of the farmers, people employed directly by the Protectorate and given a guaranteed salary and free housing, but forbidden to use their knowledge freely. A soldier must go where the wars are, an armorer cannot deny a Protectorate order, and neither has full control over their lives or how much they are paid. However, working for the Protectorate like this also means you have an assured income, regardless of if you must work or not.
Major Geographic Features
The Ophid Protectorate began in the lush jungles at the foot of the Spearclaw Mountains in the south of Tion. It has spread from this point to the plains south of the Eternal Desert, to encompass most of the eastern side of the mountain range, all of the jungles, as well as the fertile coastal areas to the west. For a long time, most structured areas and major cities were located at the base of the mountains or in the jungle, but with the recent acquisition of the dromite hives to the north, as well as a need to expand westward, the Ophid Protectorate is meeting natural borders in the form of desert and sea.
A number of pioneers have settled the coastal areas and two major cities with corresponding overlords have risen since then, only to find that their fishing fleets and exploratory ocean vessels sometimes mysteriously vanish. Because of this, a number of lighthouses and guard towers have been raised on the outmost islands and all shipping must be within sight of these towers so as to ensure the safety of both citizen and Protectorate. This has made the ophids unsure about the prospect of settling far away islands; many of these plans have been put on hold until more information has been discovered as to what has happened with these ships.
The major rivers that snake from the mountains into the jungles and out towards the sea are important trading routes for the Ophid Protectorate, especially since the once fierce and harsh rivers have been diverted and partially drained to help with agricultural programs all across the Protectorate. Now smaller riverboats can traverse the river upstream and downstream, powered by both psionic ingenuity in the form of heavy ships made lighter through permanent powers, and muscle power for propulsion. Most riverboats use large lizards, which have similar cousins often found in fields, which are trained to continuously tread forward, pushing the ships onwards.
Important Sites
Ophiduas is the first of the major city-clusters of the Ophid Protectorate, the area from which both the ophiduan race and the Protectorate itself takes their name. Situated at the base of the Spearclaw Mountains, it has since spread, climbing up the mountains in the form of terraces filled with farmers and smaller villages, as well as spreading out into what was once jungle. At the center, the Ophiduas Palace sits, the bureaucratic heart of Ophiduas where the Overlord resides, the Ophid Guard and Protectorate Army barracks are found and the hundreds upon hundreds of clerks that maintain the interests of Ophiduas work day and night. Ophiduas is the only city-cluster that has only had ophiduan overlords.
Silasrs is the most prominent of the dromite hives that joined under overlord S'samas and the dromite citizens of Silasrs are working hard to claim their own area, thus raising their overseer into the position of overlord of a new territory. Never before has the Ophid Protectorate spread as fast as under the direction of Xolu, the overseer of Silasrs, whose scouts traverse mountains and rivers, jungles and deserts. These scouts work both to find places for new dromite hives, but also to inaugurate smaller tribes and villages, and to perform intelligence operations against larger tribes and cities not yet affiliated with the Protectorate. These scouts were the first to add an entire clan of jettur to the Ophid Protectorate, greatly increasing the influence the ophids have over the Eternal Desert.
Regional History
The Ophid Protectorate has grown from its original founding city of Ophiduas, mostly due to the bureaucratic psionic duels. Traditionally, if the contestants were powerful enough to have a large group of followers, the losing party and his or her retinue would leave the city proper to establish a new colony. Over time, that meant that powerful individuals with large retinues formed around the central city, using their knowledge and experience to quickly build and explore new territory. It also meant that these colonies had cultural ties, associations, eager trading partners, and a common language. All of these things meant that instead of separate city-states, these cities were tied together, forming a cohesive nation.
These quick expansions also lead to early contact with other, minor, races such as the jetturs, xephs, and humans. Most were incorporated into the existing cultural structure, since the Ophids allow everyone to retain their customs and traditions as long as they follow the Ophid Law. Some xeph societies retain blood-drawing duels as a way to determine rank in the army or city guards, while many jettur ophids are still nomads. All of these races are full citizens of the Ophid Protectorate and it makes no difference towards a citizen whether they are of the ophiduan race or not; all are afforded the same rights and privileges.
Most of the early cities were founded along the edge of the Spearclaw Mountains in the southern reaches of Tion, where the jungle becomes plains as it reaches towards the mountainous peaks. Water was plentiful with flowing rivers and the ophids were quick to master agriculture, building terraces up into the mountains to farm. This was the traditional way to build colonies until the innovation of the advanced waterways that could be used to irrigate their fields, as well as functioning as a quicker postal and transportation system.
It was also during this time that the Protectorate ophiduans experimented most vividly with their racial template, creating one of the most well-known offspring - the kobolds. The goal of the ophiduans was to create a creature similar to themselves, but smaller and more capable of mining. When the kobolds as a race were born, the ophiduans were filled with sorrow, for their cousins were mind-blind: born with a closed third eye. They abandoned their experiment, believing it cruel and unwholesome to force existence upon a race born with closed minds. The ophiduans underestimated the kobolds’ intense survival instincts. Taking to the mines they were bred to work, the kobolds built warrens, hunted for food, and actually prospered. When the ophiduans realized they had misjudged their smaller cousins, they offered the somewhat barbaric tribes to become full citizens of the Protectorate, so long as they could prove to have psionic ability. Several kobolds had developed psionic power while trying to survive in the mines and their return to the Ophid Protectorate was celebrated by both sides. Since that day, most of the kobolds that live on Tion have been citizens of the Ophid Protectorate.
The development in advanced waterways and the increased capacity of irrigation led to the ophids being able to grow more food, use bigger areas, and thus expand both faster and continue having a one-way communication system that was faster than before. The Protectorate was already expansionistic, but this change turned the expansion from one of necessity to one of focused colonization and armed warfare against neighboring tribes, clans and states. For years they expanded, winning most battles they fought, but mostly expanding through vicious diplomacy - until the day when they encountered the Eternal Desert to the north.
Here they made few allies and even fewer enemies, but the vast expanses of the desert ensured that the agricultural techniques and bureaucracy of the Ophid Protectorate would not expand further. Attempts to irrigate into the desert failed, and attempts to use psionic power to fuel such colonization proved to costly to support. Over time, new colonies were founded closer and closer to the sea coast, rather than in the desert, clearing vast areas of jungle for building new cities. In the past decade, two colonies have been founded at the coast, but unfortunate accidents and mysterious disappearances means that the expansion of the Ophid Protectorate has slowed to a crawl.
Plots and Rumors
• The Protectorate is an unusual nation in that it does not have any one true leader, but is lead by a coalition of overlords who work together for their own personal benefit and that of their citizens. Most overlords however, fear that one amongst them is trying to circumvent the traditional dueling, trying to assume power for itself and unite the Protectorate under one tyrant.
• A number of dromites are working together with the citizens of Silasrs to expand the powerbase of their northern hive-city so that their overseer can be raised to the position of Overlord. For this they are trying to find a way across the Eternal Desert to the dromite hives they know are situated on the other side. This concept seemed impossible, the dry heat of the desert threatening to overcome any army and making it hard for diplomats to prove any real benefits to a northern hive-city when it cannot be connected to the vast trade, agriculture and protection of the Protectorate. However, now a large number of dromites have turned to training the fierce landsharks resident in the area, using them to tunnel under the sand. This would provide the dromites with easy, cool passage to the north, enabling trade as well as being able to move troops there to continue expansion.
• The sailors and fishermen of the coast claim to have seen black ships cleaving the waves just before a powerful storm hits the coast, or before a number of their friends were lost at sea. Most say that these are the cursed ships of previous colonists who tried to leave the homeland, drowned by a vengeful and unpredictable sea. Now these ghasts have become as vengeful and unpredictable as the sea that killed them.
• There are a number of bestial kobolds who refused citizenship when the kobolds were integrated into the Protectorate. Rumors now say that these barbarians have dug too deep into the old mineshafts they occupy, unleashing something from the Ancient time. Scores of burned carcasses are now filling the deepest level of the mineshaft and the small of burnt flesh lingers. The barbarians have fled their mine, leaving the Protectorate to handle this enemy, whatever it is.
Important NPCs
Yssiri - The overlord controlling the northern section of the Protectorate, Yssiri (male ophiduan egoist 11) was previously the overlord of the northern region of the Ophid Protectorate, controlling the area near the dromite hives. Yssiri was removed from office when S’samas assumed overlordship by successfully defeating Yssiri in a duel. In his exile, Yssiri was followed by scores of his followers and subordinates, which led to the expansion of the Protectorate westwards toward the sea. Yssiri expects perfection from those who work with or for him and is unforgiving with failure. He is not, however, without a level of understanding and has allowed failure if it is truly out of the control of the individual. It is particularly because of this level of understanding that Yssiri maintains the loyalty of his followers, who seek his praise and always work to handle any contingency so as to avoid failure. Those who bring results for Yssiri are rewarded with increased ranks and privileges. Those who continuously fail are ejected from his retinue or, in extreme cases, killed if the failure was particularly bad. With a fiery temper and a sense of entitlement to return to his previous position of overlord over the northern Protectorate, it is a common rumor that Yssiri is planning for a return to the north to regain his lost title.
Xolu Massenech - The overseer of Silasrs, Xolu Massenech (dromite wilder 6 / thrallherd 3) was born to the fire caste of the dromites, having a natural disposition toward fire. With aspirations toward ruling beside the queen of Silasrs, Xolu rose through the ophid ranks with Silasrs under the control of the Ophid Protectorate, unleashing his psionic power on those that threatened not only the hive, but those in his way. Taking up the path of the thrallherd, Xolu uses his ability to draw followers to add more citizens to the hive of Silasrs. Xolu runs a variety of hivemind experiments in Silasrs, seeking a way to unify the entire hive into a single, greater consciousness. He believes that by achieving this, he may reach his goal of ruling beside the queen as an overlord himself.
Cyrus Varoz - The current captain of the Ophid Guard, Cyrus Varoz (male xeph psywar 5 / ophid guard 4) was born in the predominantly xeph city of Varoz, after its annexation into the Ophid Protectorate. The call to travel came upon Cyrus at the age of 20, and he journeyed throughout the Protectorate, before reaching the city of Ophiduas. Feeling that his home city should be as free to do as it would as Cyrus himself was, the young xeph attempted to foster rebellion, but was instead made an unwilling member of the city guard, given a position in the relatively dangerous part of the city. Although normally nomadic by nature, Cyrus was forced to pledge allegiance to the Protectorate. After two years of service and three failed attempts to leave Ophiduas, Cyrus finally came to realize the benefits of belonging to something greater and truly threw himself into service to the Protectorate. He began climbing the ranks of the city guard, later earning a position in the more elite Ophid Guard, until at the age of 31, he took over as captain of the Ophid Guard, a position he maintains to date.
