Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 16830" data-attributes="member: 2020">I was asked about Varnaith on the ENBoards before they changed.  Varnaith is not a country that exists on official Greyhawk.    It does exist here.  The geography south of the Sea of Dust and the Amedio Rainforest is not the same here as in canon Greyhawk.  Here, if you follow the Hellfurnaces south, you will find an ancient, low, and broken set of mountains running west from the Hellfurnaces at about the level of the lower Amedio.  This broken range was devastated by the Rain of Colorless Fire, which is the reason it is so broken, eroded, and the peaks are not above 5,000 feet.  Follow the Hellfurnaces a little further south, and they end, but a narrow and very high mountain range springs westward from them, with peaks reaching 20,000 feet.  Between the broken, ruined, low mountains, and the straight, narrow range of high mountains, is the Akkis-Caltheath, a tropical desert of relatively high attitude that runs along the southern border of the Sea of Dust for many hundreds of miles.  On the south side of the high range (known as the Varnaith Range,) however, everything is different.  For over a thousand miles, east to west, a highland region of hills and valleys (everything is above 7,000 feet) is to be found south the Varnaith Range.  This highland region of hills and valleys gives way, in turn, on the southward side to another lofty east-west mountain range.  The Midrange Mountains, this third east-west range, run from the ocean in the east to the Bay of Varna in the west, paralleling the Varnaith Range.  Thus, the highland region between the Varnaith Range and the Midrange is very long, but narrow.  Slim and long is the next region south, although more irregular, for it lies between the Midrange and the Coastal Range.  The Coastal Range also runs generally east to west, from the ocean to Varna Bay, but outcroppings and twists in it make the coast to the south irregular.  In effect then, there are three regions between the mountains.  The hilly highlands between the Varnaith Range and the Midrange.  The slim, long lowland region between the Midrange and the Coastal Range.  And the near sea-level region south of the Coastal Range.  The Akkis Caltheath is not a part of the realm of Varnaith, and the rulers of that land generally ignore it and it's sparse peoples.  The upland region between the Varnaith Range and the Midrange is the cradle of Varnaithian civilization.  The climate is tropical, but not excessively hot due to the altitude, and the soils are fertile and heavily farmed.  The region between the Midrange and the Coastal Range is at low attitude, and it is insufferably hot and humid, having an equatorial climate.  It is the home of many monsters and dangers that Varnaith cannot control or eradicate, even though Varnaith claims the entire region.  It is also the home of the single greatest population of wood elves in this part of the world;  a people who have adapted to the extreme environment.  It is considered a backwater by the authorities.  The region south of the Coastal Range is insufferably hot and humid, and nearly all the people who live here live on the coast itself, having built various seaports, and living on trade.  Varna bay, where the Coastal and Midrange slope down to water's edge, hemmed in on the north by the Varnaith Range, is also a place of insufferable equatorial heat, but here the power of Varnaith is supreme, and the entire region is heavily populated and farmed.  The people of Varnaith have great cities ... and they are almost invariably up in the mountains themselves.  This is especially true of the lofty Varnaith Range and Midrange.  The capital city itself, Varna, lies on the westernmost heights of the Midrange.  The cities of the Coastal Range are there because the inhabitants prefer the mountains to the insufferable conditions closer to sea level.  - - -  Varnaith has four great ethnic groups.  Elves.  Dwarves.  Gnomes.  Humans (a mixture of the descendents of Suel, Oeridian, and types that are totally non-Flanaess.)  Elves are the supreme rulers of Varnaith, and all the peoples of Varnaith acknowledge this.  Varnaith has a strong caste system, in which elves stand at the top, dwarves are next, gnomes follow, and humans are last.  All of the government officials of Varnaith are elven:  even in the deep dwarven cities of the mountains, elves are the rulers and dictate what shall be.  In general, the elves live in the mountain cities or in the southern lowland, or around Varna Bay.  The dwarves, live in cities within the mountain ranges, are welcome in the mountain cities, and also live in great numbers in Varna Bay.  The gnomes, are found everywhere, but are second class people in the mountain cities, Varna Bay, and are not welcome amongst the wood elves.  The human peoples are the farmers, growing almost everything Varnaith produces, and they live for the most part in the hilly highland region between the Varnaith Range and the Midrange, where the climate is tolerable.  Slavery is legal in Varnaith:  slaves have no caste.  Any race is subject to slavery, including elves (although elven slaves may only have elven masters or mistresses, and they are treated quite well.)  Varnaith is a rather stagnant society, where one knows that one shall inherit one's father's position and caste, as he did his father, and he his father, and so forth.  Elves produce magical items, form the elite parts of the army, oversee the building and piloting of ships, and in general live a high faluting life.  The dwarves produce the raw wealth of Varnaith, which the elves trade to make themselves ever richer ... gold, silver, iron, and precious metals are common in the mountains.  Gnomes are the common workers, to be found in every city, hustling and bustling as is their wont, servicing the elves and dwarves, sweating and toiling so that others may live without sweat and toil.  And humans, produce the food supply.  They work all day, every day, except for holidays six times a month, and they work until the day they die, toiling in the fields, producing every manner of foodstuff.  Much of what they produce is shipped to other lands, after magical preservation.  Very little of the more exotic foodstuffs they grow, are allowed to be retained for consumption by those who grew it.  The elven overlordship is not particularly harsh (a comparison with Thay is not in the works), but it is firm, and those who break the law are well disciplined for it (death or maiming is rare ... the elves wish to recriminate, not retaliate, in general.)  Most aren't inclined to break the law.  Most of the people of Varnaith are quite happy with the way things are, accustomed to their lot, and expect no more and no less out of their situation than what society decrees.  Varnaith used to engage in a great deal of shipping with the peoples of Oerth, prior to the Greyhawk Wars.  Now, the seas between them and the Flanaess are held by the Scarlet Brotherhood, whose fleets are a match for Varnaith's.  So ... Varnaith simply abandoned trade with the Flanaess, and compensated by trading with the Scarlet Brotherhood (with whom they carefully avoided war), and with the Celestial Empire to their northwest.  Although Hempmonaland is quite distant, across the Denzac Ocean, there has been a state of constant war between Varnaith and the Yuan-Ti Empire there.  Ship to ship battles are frequent, teleportation raids are more than frequent, and occasionally one side or the other will launch a large assault via teleportation against the other.  Why the two powers are at war is not certain, and they are only half-hearted about it, having fought on and off for many hundreds of years.  The only lasting effect of this war has been that the Yuan-Ti have gathered slaves, the elves have gained useful combat practice, and a fair number of innocent people have been killed.</blockquote>

Verification