Bolkan

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Life from the Ashes

Bolkan is a dangerous place, even for those well-adapted to the withering dry heat. Life, however, has always been known to find a way, even in the most unforgiving of places.

People of the Blasted Lands

Though an inhospitable home to most, the Bolkhyn people have come to adapt to a life amist the lava floes and choking ash customary to their region. Comprised largely of flameheart iskani, as well as other folk such as agitation-bound Leyborne, the population as a whole is well-adapted to survival in these extreme conditions. Many who venture through these lands ill-prepared are quick to find peril where they tread.

Children of Ash

The Bolkhyn are a solitary people, a choice made for them by the environment they call home, though they reap the benefits of a lasting peace from outside forces. Lovers of the arts, many of the Bolkhyn trade exports are materials such as masonry stones, volcanic glassware, and specialized pigments. Much of the stone exported from Bolkan is known as Bolkhyn Andesite, quarried by those who reside in Merroun.
  The city of Kamigon houses the vast majority of the Bolkhyn.

Northern Sun

The Bexarem, seen as a subgroup of the Bolkhyn people, are native to the northen reaches of Bolkan, where Everbright's light still shines over the peaks of the bordering mountains. Unable to leave their homelands for reasons unable to be gleaned from the populace, these self-sufficient people survive largely on their own, producing intricate miniature glasscraft and worshiping the Ashen Divine.

Of the Recent History

Bolkan is among the youngest of the altered landscapes of Malkora, and there are some residing within who remember a time before the flames and ash dominated the region. Most of the population knows only the current state of Bolkan, having been born into it or having come to live there in more recent times.
  Those who remember may tell stories of a once-lush Bolkan which brimmed with life at every turn, from its green hills to its towering rainforest canopies. Hints of this past climate yet remain beyond the region's borders in the east, where the dry heat gives way to a more humid clime which grows more so as one reaches the jungle valley nestled between Bolkan's walled-off southeastern border and the earthen kingdoms of the east.
 

They weren't always this way, these blistering, lava-pocked lands. There was beauty here; mystique and life were abundant within the tropics of old, but now? Smoke and ash smother all we once knew. But we adapted. We had to.

— Iskani Stonemason

Effects of the Emergence: Agitation

With a population largely composed of Iskani and other Eldwrought folk, primal elemental beings of flame are known to show themselves with greater frequency here than any other volcanic or otherwise flame-aspected region. Unpredictable and dangerous, the people know they are best avoided at all costs, especially if one lacks a shared ancestral blood.
  There are settlements where these beings are known to coexist with the mortal races who share their home, but with the many ruined settlements located just far enough from volcanoes to have not met their demise by an eruption, one wonders if these cohabitations are truly safe.

Amplified Volatility

The emergence of the leylines do more than simply alter the landscape around them, but the very flow of magic as well. Those who manipulate the arcane in the vicinity of Bolkan find their abilities to be less controlled, less predictable, and often more destructive.
  Those with short tempers, or those experiencing other strong emotional states, may find their magical abilities triggering without intent and with mixed results, often posing a threat to those around them.

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