Korathis - Summary
General Culture: A militaristic, honor-bound society obsessed with martial prowess and ancestral glory. Korathis is a stratocracy where military rank determines social status, and duels are a common way to settle disputes. The culture venerates dragon lore, believing their island was once a dragon god’s lair.
Political System: Stratocracy. The Grand Marshal, chosen through a tournament of combat and strategy, rules with an iron fist. A council of generals advises, but loyalty to the military is paramount.
Capital City: Drakehold, a fortress-city carved into volcanic cliffs, with forges that burn day and night crafting weapons and armor. Its arena, the Crucible, hosts trials and festivals.
Race Mix: Diverse but hierarchical. Dragonborn (seen as noble descendants of dragons) dominate leadership, followed by humans and half-orcs. Gnomes and halflings are tolerated as artisans but rarely hold power. Tieflings are distrusted, often accused of demonic ties to the Veilbreak.
Notable Feature: Korathis’s volcanic forges produce legendary +1 weapons, but their obsession with strength leads to frequent border skirmishes with neighbors.
Regions: Separated primarily by biome and terrain type.
The Mire and Wrym Peaks - A vast, flat bog encircled by towering, rocky mountains, where mist clings to stagnant waters and twisted cypress groves dot the mire.
The Broken Coast - A jagged, wind‑scarred shoreline where sheer cliffs rise directly from the sea, making any attempt at docking impossible. The tide crashes against black basalt spires, and hidden caves echo with the roar of distant storms.
The Greenlands - By far the largest productive area of farmlands in Korathis. The volcanic activity on the Island help maintain high enough temperatures to grow fruit, and the arable land is quite fertile.
Drylands - The driest region of the continent of Korathis, a sweeping expanse of earth dotted with low shrubs and wind‑scoured foothills. Scattered across the plains are modest villages that survive on salt mining and hardy livestock, while ancient salt pits glint under the relentless sun.
Coastwatch - A lightly wooded stretch of shoreline dotted with modest stone lookout towers, each manned to spot raiding parties from the hostile nation of Kragvost. The terrain blends sandy beaches, low pine groves, and gentle cliffs, providing both cover and clear sightlines over the sea.
Emberwyrm Grove - A vast, ash‑rich woodland in Korathis’s highlands where ironbark oaks and lava‑veined ferns thrive, infused with draconic magic from a primordial dragon god’s shed scales. The grove serves as a proving ground of fire and fang, where warriors hunt, duel, and face erupting flame geysers, illusory dragons, and mutated beasts, while hidden glades conceal ancient dragon‑shrine ruins and powerful artifacts.
Mount Draconis - The tallest peak in the Veilsea, soaring over 35,000 feet, Mount Draconis is a jagged, sheer monolith whose upper reaches are impassable to mortals. Dragons claim the lofty crags as lairs, carving caverns and nesting sites throughout the razor‑sharp summits.
Population: Korathis has large tracts of sparsely populated areas, with populations tending to be more densely packed in defensible cities, villages or fortress towns. There is limited homesteading, farming or other agriculture outside of the region known as the Greenlands.
Total estimated population: 850,000
Major Population Centers:
Drakehold: 620,000
Harvestead: 40,000
Forefire Outpost: 20,000
Wyrmguard Citadel: 25,000
Remaining Population: Spread out across the Greenlands, Drylands, and Coastwatch Primarily. The Broken Coast, The Mire and Wyrm Peaks, Emberwrym Grove, and Mount Draconis are sparsely populated.
Primary Religious Tendencies: Devotion to Kord (The Storm Lord), with gladiatorial rites as divine trials. Kord, god of strength, storms, and battle, Korathis channels this into arena worship where combats in The Crucible are seen as offerings to prove worthiness. Merit-based, warrior pragmatism, with slaves fighting for freedom as a path to divine favor. Tendencies involve storm-summoning chants before fights, tattoos of lightning scars for victors, and viewing weak leaders as forsaken by Kord, tying into their disdain for undisciplined foes like Kragvost.