Realm of Roxabor
Roxabor
Designation: 34th Realm
Capital City: Saevryn
Demonym: Roxaboran
Motto (Common Saying): “The wind has no master.”
Known For: Traveling Adjudicators, reputation-based social order, feline-humanoid population
Overview
Roxabor is a vast realm of windswept grasslands, jagged cliffs, and shadowed forests, home to the agile and enigmatic Roxaborans — humanoids marked by feline features including upright ears, expressive tails, and sometimes faint whiskers.
Individualism, honor, and adaptability define Roxaboran culture. Formal governments are secondary to personal reputation and informal pacts, giving rise to a decentralized, highly mobile civilization. In place of centralized rule, Traveling Adjudicators maintain balance across territories, enforcing contracts, mediating disputes, and acting as wandering judges whose word carries near-sacred weight.
Major Locations
- Saevryn
The cliff-perched capital, overlooking the Sunderswell Plains, famed for its hanging bridges, dueling courts, and skyline markets. - The Striding Fields
Rolling plains home to nomadic caravans, independent mercenary guilds, and merchant trains that shift with the seasons. - The Hollow Warrens
Secret subterranean networks beneath Roxabor’s cities, hosting black markets, neutral forums, and passageways hidden from outsiders.
Notable Institutions
- Traveling Adjudicators
Culturally sanctioned magistrates who wander freely across city-states and nomadic camps. Their judgments are binding by tradition, and harming one is an unpardonable offense.
Cultural Traits
- Social Order:
Fluid, reputation-based. Wealth and legacy are respected, but prowess, loyalty, and cleverness carry more sway. - Values:
Adaptability, cunning, and personal freedom. Strength lies in agility — physical, mental, and moral. - Diplomatic Standing:
Considered unpredictable allies and challenging negotiators by the Sapphire Assembly, Roxaborans are highly prized as scouts, traders, and mercenaries in Imperial service.
Geography
Roxabor is a realm of sweeping contrasts. The Sunderswell Plains dominate the interior with golden grasslands stretching horizon to horizon. To the west, craggy cliffs plunge into roaring sea trenches, while dense temperate forests rise in the east, filled with twisting paths and ancient ruins. Its capital, Saevryn, clings to high cliffs overlooking the ocean, famed for its tiered bridges and open-air terraces.
Ecosystem
Roxabor maintains a surprisingly balanced ecological footprint. Its semi-nomadic populace moves in harmony with the migratory cycles of local fauna, and their cliffside cities are built to preserve rather than dominate their environment. Forest and grassland ecosystems support a wide variety of life, while ocean-facing cities harvest sea-gale energy and aquaculture resources sustainably.
Climate
Roxabor has a predominantly temperate climate. Coastal zones experience frequent windstorms and heavy rains during seasonal transitions. Inland, the Sunderswell Plains are sunny and mild, but open to swift, violent storms known as “skybreakers.” Forested regions are cool and misty, giving rise to their deep, story-rich mystique.
Fauna & Flora
- Notable Flora:
- Swaybloom: A golden flowering plant that reacts to motion and is used for low-tech signaling.
- Cradle Trees: Wide-canopied trees common in eastern woods, known for their natural hammock-like branches.
- Moonfern: Glows faintly in moonlight; used in herbal remedies and light-sensitive inks.
- Notable Fauna:
- Velthounds: Agile, fox-sized creatures often tamed as scouts or message runners.
- Cliffdrakes: Small winged reptiles that nest in high rock faces, feared for aggressive swarming.
- Glidebeasts: Massive, slow-moving grazers with gliding membranes between limbs; revered and protected.
History
Roxabor was never unified by sword or law — it grew out of mutual need and the convergence of many powerful personalities. Once home to dozens of warring caravans and scattered cliffside enclaves, the realm's structure solidified with the rise of Traveling Adjudicators, who brought arbitration and trust to a chaotic land. While never ruled by a monarch, Roxabor’s traditions of duel-rights, trade-oaths, and trial-by-vow extend back over two thousand years.
Tourism
Roxabor draws thrill-seekers, duelists, and storytellers from across the realms. Tourists flock to:
- Saevryn’s Dueling Arenas
- The Singing Cliffs, which whistle through natural stone gaps
- The Striding Festivals, semi-nomadic celebrations that move across the plains
- Adjudicator Pilgrimages, where outsiders may follow the path of one Adjudicator for a season, learning about Roxaboran justice firsthand.
