F&F Background

Languages

• Hegemonic is spoken throughout the known surface world, if only by traders and the educated in the more remote places. Many other languages borrow its versatile alphabet.
• Deepling is the lingua franca of the underdark. A mixture of drow, duergar and derro tongues, along with a few strange words of provenance unknown to surface scholars.
• Daboli is spoken south of the scarred lands. Its clicking sounds are difficult for non-natives to master.

South

Dabo-Ile

The Kingdom of Dabo-Ile is an absolute monarchy sandwiched between the Scarred Lands to the north and thick jungles to its south and east. Six hundred years ago, it defined the southern boundary of the Hegemony at the battle of five hills. As sea travel to the Kingdom is obstructed by the Kraken Capes, little was known about it in the second millenium until thirty years ago, when the ring-haired armies emerged from the Scarred Lands in shocking force, armed with strange monsters and powerful magic.

They established the Meybo Principality under the rule of Princess Mino, said to be taller, stronger, wiser and more beautiful than any northern Queen. Its laws are clear and its taxation tolerable, but the churches and their flocks are unhappy with being expected to regard the princess as a deity in her own right, and fearful rumours surround the practice of shipping criminals and debtors south never to be seen again.

Dabo-Ile proper and its King Fon are still shrouded in obscurity. Ambassadors to Meybo report that it dominates many tributary kingdoms in its own region, and that its wise men claim to have mastered the magical alteration and combination of flesh. Much scoffing is had at these claims, from those who have not seen the monstrosities at the Princess’s command firsthand.

For traders, Dabo-Ile maintains the usual crops and industries of the southern shore of the inland sea, but is also a source of curiosities from further south. The Princess will also reward hunters and scholars who can provide specimens to ship south of strange northern flora or fauna - or people.

The Exaltation Roads

Chances are, if you were to ask a merchant for the road they had walked the most, they would name the Exaltation Roads as the exemplar by which all lesser empires beat the ground into flat strips for travel. The most well-used trading route along the coasts, this ancient Hegemony network of roads passes through several kingdoms and wild lands, serving to connect the great empire to circulate its vast wealth.

It is no longer the heyday of the Hegemony, and many of the roads, known for their bronze colour and pattern of narrow stripes, have been torn up by war or natural disaster, replaced by more modern edifice. One long stretch still reaches north from south, stretching from well beyond the Scarred Lands and down through the southern kingdoms. Dathalba's Fork, marks the split, where one branch continues south along the coasts, and the other drives west into the jungles and other wild lands.

Merchants and travelers still rely on the great road to keep trade flowing through settlements, and it remains the quickest path over long distances. Much of the road passes though wild lands, the great forts that once sent out patrols long razed to the ground or abandoned to bandit kings or horrors of the wild. Their legendary resilience has its limits, and much of the roads are in disrepair. Near civilization, pieces have been replaced by local stone, sometimes painstakingly recreating the distinct pattern, other times a conflicting style. In wilder areas, the roads simply become cracked stretches, unmaintained by any. A tavern along the southern tracks has a chunk of the highway hanging on the wall - they are called the Stolen Road Inn.

The roads' traffic, being so important to long-distance and even local traders, is a prime target for criminals. Many raid the roads from the wild areas, seeking fortune, holing up in old Hegemony stations or abandoned villages. Even they, however, do not know every side-road and bypass. Both savvy businessmen and eager raiders look for the many side-roads and bypasses that would provide money-saving shortcuts for goods to reach far-flung settlements, and the riches of the distant lands to reach the developed parts of the world.

These wild areas, and the roads themselves, have secrets that many do not know. The ancient Hegemony geomancies - maps of ley lines, rituals and procedures that allowed knowledge and maintenance of the roads, are lost to even the most well-stocked archives. Orders of mystics and druids, however, keep these ancient practices sacred, knowing far more about the Exaltation Roads than many others, and their peculiar relationship with nature.