Agemonia map
A cosmographic look upon Agemonia.
Cosmographers have measured lands far and wide, and consulted the stars. They now agree that the center of Agemonia is Ambergate in the Republic of Benem, from where I write this essay.
Nowhere is this as evident as in the customs of the different peoples inhabiting our world, for the further they are from Ambergate, the more alien the people and the stranger their culture.
The Republic of Benem
Let us first take a look at Benem itself, inhabited mostly by nihteegri who are proportionate in their physique and sensible in their outlook on life. They have almost completely abandoned superstition in favor of science and the guidance of the stars.
The names of cities close to Ambergate evoke the trusty feeling of good Benemite life, places such as Orrery Hill, Runedale, Waneford, Battergale, and, of course, the capital Starhaven. Starhaven is undoubtedly the greatest city in Agemonia, famously built on ruins of the Ancients. The keechwood forests teem with wild packs of togrel and the memory of the guivrens nesting in the mountains still lives.
The island principality of Mossport never joined the Republic, but culturally the nihteegri there share most of the values of the Benemites. The major difference is they have not abandoned the superstitions of our common ancestors, but still tolerate the pagan religion.
The Lands and Seas to the South
Bekora’s Hoist and Shiver Retreat are also independent city states, but controlled by a strange alliance of nihteegris and korallians.
The further south one goes, the more korallian worship of wealth takes prevalence. In the Thalassocracy of Zheebul this is the prevailing religion. On top of that, korallians consider gargantuan sea monsters to be their deities.
Of all their cities, Sinkerton is the only one accessible to nihteegri. Sharzh’su Vachz and Vann’ti Shan’n’aiz are completely underwater and offer no respite for us whom the korallians derogatively dub larva peoples. Their monster gods are known to live in these cities.
The Lands to the North
To the north are old nihteegri towns now controlled by the Amethyst Order, the most prominent of these, of course, the largest and wealthiest city in Agemonia, Copperton.
It is surrounded by the wilds where five tribes of pattangans feud amongst themselves. A good thing, too, for combined the strength of the clans could even rival that of the Republic of Benem itself! The most notable of these is Ban’Daryan Hebath, the moving city, which is built on the backs of a huge caravan of gargantuan lizards the locals call gunbanjars.
The superstitious four-armed pattangans believe in the spirits of nature, each clan having a totem of their own. Their language is impossible for civilized nihteegri to understand.
To the east beyond Copperton are the arboreal labyrinths of the quothians, where we will find very little that is familiar to the casual observer. Small is their stature and avian their features. They lay eggs and see in the dark, like night birds. They ride enormous spiders and bats, and are governed by a necromantic council of their dead ancestresses.
Nevertheless, they produce excellent black silk, and both Benem and the Amethyst Order deal readily with their merchants on the borders of their land. At least the women of Benem and the Order do, since quothians only consider women to be real people and keep their men in pens like slaves.
The most significant of the quothian treetop towns is the capital Marrowdeep. The tree dwellings are connected by a network of rope bridges, teleporters, and flying beasts.
The Peoples of the Mountains
Far to the north-east are the Veral Mountains. At the foot of the mountains, on the shores and in the valleys, and even inside the mountains live the boryot. A rare sight in Benem, they are little more than beasts, and many are known to transform into ferocious monsters at a moment’s notice. Whether this is a magical effect or simply a way to describe their personality is something left for each travelers’ personal judgment.
Historically, the hairy, antlered boryot lived in a shared economy without kings or queens, where the tribe gave to each boryot according to their need and took from each according to their ability. Such experiments are bound to fail as was evidenced by the Megeian Empire conquering many of their lands. Now, the boryot towns Gorskow and Sholek are under Megeian occupation, their undermountain holy town Velek overrun by monsters, and the rest sure to fall soon. Other than that, not much is known of the boryot.
Another mountain people, and far more respectable, are the agurians. They live in mountains closer to Benem, and once even in the Reflection Range. The agurians are beings of stone, with agura crystal growing in their backs, and the very earth answering to their beckons. They live in underground cities such as Lok Turan and Lok Omox, known for their great halls and endless corridors. One of their age-old towns, Lok Torr, has been lost and not even the agurians can remember its location.
While Agemonia still has not forgiven them the madness of the tyrant Xotho who tried to make all other peoples his slaves, Benemites consider agurians somber workers and skilled artisans. Never eating, never aging, never being born, never dying, they are said to carry the memory of the very earliest times of Agemonia, and likely some have even seen the Ancients themselves.
The Distant Lands
The islands of Megeia and Giz are geographically closer to Benem than the boryot lands, but separated by the Dread Expanse, a vast ocean inhabited only by korallians. However, the fleets of Megeia, Benem, and the Amethyst Order routinely patrol the ocean.
Due to their distance from Benem, it is no wonder that these lands are the strangest and their customs the most barbaric. Little is known of the xi-noq of Giz, and even their travelers, merchants, or diplomats are very rarely seen in Benem. They are believed to be more plant than animal, usually working in threes, and somehow telepathically connected to each other. Ri-Giz and Nniq are their biggest towns, and sometimes curious magical items end up in Benemite bazaars that are said to be made by the xi-noq.
Their ignisaur neighbors are much better known, for the Megeian Empire rivals only the Republic of Benem in its military and commercial might. The monstrous ignisaurs worship demons, sacrificing others of their kind to the Burning Sun, their monotheistic god, and even resort to cannibalism. Their society is very rigidly organized, with the Emperor at the top, noble houses and the Solar Temple controlling much of society, and vast numbers of slaves doing all the work.
The ignisaurs are said to be born without sex. Once they shed their skin the third time, they are called upon to choose whether to be males or females. Priesthood is only open to females, and only males may become soldiers. No-one seems able to explain why this should be so, only that it has always been thus. Yet another example of their barbaric culture, which is no match to the enlightened nihteegri.
Much of Megeian land is either volcanic or desert, their cities built around oases or near rivers or the coast. Their large and foreboding cities bear names such as Shemet in Fire, New Shansol, and the capital Kruesol known for its pyramids and temples.
Other Peoples
These are the commonly known eight peoples of Agemonia, which are what give the Council of Eight its name; the Council being ruled by one warlock from each of the peoples. But are there others?
Should we consider the demons of the Breach a people of their own? Obviously not.
What of the intelligent Venorian hive mothers or the telepathic fish of Zheebul? Again, no, since they are beasts who are magically given intelligence, not a people of their own. Granted, the same could be said of the boryot, but I digress.
However, there is another possibility for a ninth people. Namely, the Ancients who have built so many wonderful magicanisms and even cities in Agemonia, on the ruins of which many contemporary towns have been founded. We all must tread in the footsteps of the Ancients. I would be glad to consider them one of us, if they still existed.
But not counting the Ancients, the nihteegri are clearly the superior of all peoples.
