Shuroc

Shuroc, the nation of sand, controls the trade routes that cross and encircle the vast desert, connecting North, South, and East Calistaph. Few and far between are the cities and villages of Shuroc, and trade routes between them cut long curves around regions of wasteland, leaving the majority of Shuroc uninhabited. So long as the desert wilds keep out of civilized affairs, Shurocis are perfectly happy with this arrangement.  

Geography

Shuroc is a hot desert with steppes on its northern border, savannah on its east side, semi-arid desert to the south, and a mountain range on its west.


Shuroc supports only three large cities: Mythemvadet (the capitol), Nektemun, and Shael Befu. Smaller cities and towns connect the long roads that circumnavigate the uninhabitable regions. The Great Waste, The Dry Sea, and the Serapis Dunes are expanses of shifting sand with too little firm ground to build on. They are also particularly harsh and difficult to cross, which is why the trade routes of Shuroc go around them. Few are desparate enough to try a direct route through them.

 

Races

Desert elves dominate Shuroc. Nagaji, Lizardfolk, and Grippli are the next most common races in Shuroc. In ages past, they were the only races of the desert, their ancestral home, but a faction of elves colonized the desert centuries ago and have reshaped it in their image. Entari are also native to the desert, but they never had a large society and have easily adapted to the ways of the elves. As sentient members of the natural world, elves are particularly fond of Entari, a fact that the walking plants don't seem to notice. Catfolk from the savannahs south and east of the Sandsea sometimes find their way to Shuroc, and humans can be found everywhere. Least numerous of the permanent populations in Shuroc are the death warden dwarves. At least a century before the arrival of elves in the desert, a rivalry of clans pushed the death warden dwarves to the eastern fringes of the mountains, from which they ventured into the desert and made it their home.

   

Cultural Values

"It is, therefore, the heritage of all life on Calistaph to earn its freedom to exist, through force, guile, or any other method that works." -Senusyth, Royal Soothsayer   As mentioned above, Shuroc is dominated by desert elves. They share some traits with their wood elf cousins: hautiness, preference for art and architecture inspired by nature, and a mild distrust of outsiders. But, where the wood elves have built themselves paradisical forest enclaves, the desert elves embrace the harsh reality of nature. The desert elves of Shuroc hold strength as the primary virtue. As they conceive it, strength is a generalized ability to thrive in adverse conditions. What skills and traits an individual develops are irrelevent so long as they lead that individual to strength. So long as the elves can maintain their supremacy, they also encourage the other races of Shuroc to embrace their potential for strength. They take great interest in what unique capabilities and aptitudes other races have.   Because of its advantageous position, international commerce is incredibly important to Shurocis. The most wealthy are typically marchants with trade contracts spanning the continent. The next most wealthy are the artisans who use raw materials from near and far to create art and practical products that will sell in any market. Soldiers also enjoy a particular elevation in Shuroci society as they frequently demonstrate their strength. Farmers, couriers, mediocre craftspeople, brewers, tanners, and so on fill out the lower eschelon of the country. Anyone, however, can earn some fame through demonstrations of great strength in any of its myriad forms.   As in most cultures, magicians fill a peculiar niche in Shuroci society. Magic itself is considered a supreme source of strength, and consequently magicians are typically in the highest eschalons of society, weilding political power in favor of the merchants' wealth. Competition among magicians is fierce and often deadly. While the day to day lives of Shurocis are colored by the sand elves' love of strength and competition in all of its forms, the shape of Shuroci society as a whole is driven by the rivalries of the nation's greatest magicians.   Whether they realize it or not, Shurocis also draw strength from the simple fact that the perception of power amplifies power. Bragging is a way of spreading the knowledge of your strength, which leads to greater respect in the community. Conversely, humility is considered shameful because the humble person is passing up an easy opportunity to grow their power, and it makes people wonder if that person even has any strength to brag about. In this and other ways, the primacy of strength as a virtue in Shuroc leads to a different understanding of which qualities are virtues and which are vices.

 

Origin Myth

Beliefs about the origin of the world are similar throughout the Sandsea. In the Shuroci version, the divine existed in the void before everything else, including before time. The divine couldn't decide on a course of action, and in arguing with itself, it divided itself into hundreds of divinities. Each god having its own mind made up, they created freely. Since none of them agreed, the result was primordial chaos. As their creations infered, the gods began to fight with each other, and one by one the hundreds of divinities were pared down to tens. A small group rose to power, asserting their dominance over the pantheon and enforcing strict obedience from the other gods. With new coordination in their efforts, a world was made and the bodies of the dead gods were reshaped into the trees, flowers, beasts, and people of Calistaph.

 

Religion

Like their kin in the forest, the sand elves of Shuroc hold Odarr in the highest esteem. However, their depictions of the god and their devotional practices are quite different. The image of Odarr known to the elves of Iushana is a colossal bear with a long finned tail, moons for eyes, moss in his fur, and a forest growing on his back. In Shuroc, Odarr is depicted as a serpent with hundreds of arachnoid legs, a scorpion stinger at the end of his tail, and instead of eyes and eye sockets, he has a single eye that shines like the sun, held by the forked end of his tongue. Shurocis believe that he lives in the desert, burrowing under the sand to sleep for years at a time. While he dreams, he carries out the spiritual duties of a god, and when he wakes he changes the land and the weather to keep the wilderness protected from civilization. While the elves disagree about who has the correct understanding of Odarr, others who consider the issue tend towards one of two theories. First, Odarr is a shapeshifter whose form is dependent on his environment. Second, one of these two forms of Odarr is genuine and the other is some sort of imposter, posing as the god of the wilds.   Worship of other gods in Shuroc is uncommon, but largely accepted. Calistae, Ivmera, and the Princes are the only other Elder Gods with a notable following. Shurocis do not believe in mortal gods, but instead put faith in Dreams. Individuals who serve Odarr are sometimes chosen at the time of their death to continue their service indefinitely. These chosen become Dreams, appearing when and where the great god needs them to deliver his messages, dispense his justice, and enact his will. They don't retain any physical body, instead appearing as spectral images with a variety of psychic abilities. They themselves claim to be in a constant state of dreaming through which they communicate with Odarr, hence the name for them, "Dreams." They have also been known to insert themselves into the dreams of living people, and even travel from place to place by entering one person's dreams and exiting from the dreams of another. Dreams are not common, but most people will encounter one at some point in their life.   Every settlement has at least one ritual gateway on its border with the wilderness. These serve as starting points for their sacred rites, which lead them through the gate and into the wilds. Some of these rites are open to the public, but many are open only to the priests and acolytes of Odarr. Common folk will leave offerings at the gate, usually food or trophies from a successful hunt, in hopes of earning Odarr's favor.

 

Desert Living & Magic

Shurocis have learned to live in the harsh desert through centuries of trial and error, and, more recently, the use of powerful magic. While smaller settlements usually form around oases or along ephemeral rivers, the large cities of Shuroc were founded with trade routes in mind, and where water or arable land was lacking, magic made up for it. Magicians in Shuroc aren't just the most powerful people around, they're also necessary for the survival of their communities.   Aside from the use of magic, Shurocis are well practiced in dry agriculture, raising crops that do well in the desert and tending herds of native beasts. Settlements are built with light cloth awnings to shade the roads and roofs that slant into troughs to collect the occassional rainwater.

 

Currency

Shuroc never developed its own currency, as the people normally bartered for goods. By the time there was enough trade that currency might be helpful, the country had already become the intersection of myriad trade routes and was inundated with foreign coins. Instead of working to replace them with a local mint, They simply decided to trade in all currencies by measuring the weight and material of coins. This also means that precious metals can be used as currency in Shuroc even in their raw form, so long as they're pure enough. A "grain" is the basic unit of currency and it refers to 10g of any precious or semi-precious metal. The word "grain" is only used when it's undetermined what metal is being used or to clarify that the speaker is talking about money. Otherwise, it's quantity-money. For example, an item may cost "one copper" or "five tin" or "half an iron". If anyone asks, "one copper what?" the proper response is to look at them funny and say, "a copper grain, of course!"  

Conversions

1 Gold = 10 Silver
1 Silver = 10 Copper, 5 Iron
1 Iron = 2 Copper, 10 Tin
1 Copper = 5 Tin