Xalandis
Geography
The lowest part of Xalandis is hundred feet above sea level with Balphdurin’s Rise being another hundred at the highest point excluding the mountains. Xalandis itself is in a valley around the mountains that separate it from Rhyderia and Ursand. Xalandis is largely a steppe with only a few forests near the mountains.
Balphdurin’s Rise:
Balphdurin’s rise is the site named for the greatest leader the kobolds have had, or at least the most famous one. This plateau provides a high vantage point over the plains of Xalandis where most of the predators reside, nearly the entire population of kobolds lives in this area with Xoln being the capital and likely the most densely populated metropolis on Belthuran. Most of the land is dedicated to agriculture with nearly every other aspect of civilized life within the ziggurat of Xoln.
Fauna & Flora
Xalandis Zipplefruit
Zipplefriut is a favored of Kobolds and any of the races considered lizard and even Dragons find it an appealing fruit. It is however beyond toxic to the other races. A few ounces of the Zipplefruit juice can liquify the organs of other races.
To the races who can eat it, it has a very sweet and refreshing taste. To those it is toxic:
Type: Ingested Fort DC: 15 Onset: 1 minute Frequency: 1/round for 1 hour Effect: 1d6 con damage Cure: 1 fort save after drinking water infused with Alkali Salts
While this makes for a very effective assassination tool if you poison a person's drink with it, it is however very distinct in the horrific death it causes.
Bostrasaur
Massive herbivorous reptiles native only to Xalandis that can grow in excess of 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. Their shoulders and hips are rather high up on the body providing a very broad back, the neck sloped down. As they age their nose grows a large horn that branches out into smaller ones like antlers on a moose. Their hides are very thick with further protection from large articulated scale plates over the body. They range in colors favoring earth tones from stone grey to dark greens. A staple of their diet is the highly toxic zipplefruit which like most reptilian species can consume the fruit with no negative issues.
History
Xalandis is a place that has seen heights of peace and turmoil in the ages before recorded time in the time before the First Age the kobolds of Xalandis were weak creatures who hid from numerous predators in the open plains in nomadic tribes. This was the way they lived until some kobolds began trying to tame a native creature in Xalandis, the Bostrasaur these huge creatures are herbivorous reptiles that roam the plains, they are by nature rather calm but when provoked they are extremely dangerous as they go into a rage trampling and goring creatures until they calm. Once the kobolds had managed to tame these creatures, they began to build onto them forming howdahs and platforms that turned their nomadic culture into something more like a wagon caravan. The kobolds helped to defend the Bostrasaur using bows and spears from the platforms leading to a growing mastery over the plains. Eventually the need to keep the Bostrasaur fed the kobolds developed farming techniques and the first settlements were formed.
Midway through the First Age the kobold society began to improve until a kobold named Balphdurin, while none could truly explain why he was a larger kobold than normal blessed with great sorcerous powers, if he were born after the First Age, he would have been called a Paragon. Perhaps it was the local dragon flight or natural magics of the world that infused this kobold so radically. Regardless of his origin Balphdurin sought to elevate the status of his people and living on the plains was still a dangerous prospect for his people, they needed a truly safe place to live. The plateau to the south of Xalandis and the mountains further up were his goal however, they were currently occupied by hill giants who were far from hospitable to the kobolds. Balphdurin and those who followed him began to attack the giants in guerilla style raids able to disappear into caverns and caves too small for the giants it proved very difficult for the giants to make any real strikes against the kobolds in return. Eventually becoming enough of a nuisance and a significant enough threat the giant leader came to the front and managed to force Balpdurin into a direct conflict. The battle was costly for the kobolds but Balphdurin was able to call upon his magic to turn the tide causing the giant to burst into flames and burn to death sending the remaining giants scattering. After this battle the first incarnation of Xoln was founded.
Within a few hundred years of Second Age starting the Kobolds had gathered the interest of a up and coming dragon by the name of Tavreth’Kalinth who would become the third Tyrannus during the Second age and it was he that brought them officially into the Draz Tyran once the crown was his.
As the second age came to an end the world suffered the Crisis of the Crimson Star and the Draz Tyran fell from greatness, the last Tyrannus, Sharvaulus’Dorathen had given the now metropolis of Xoln an artifact of great power known as the Tyrannus Star that shielded Xoln and some of the lands surrounding it in a shield to protect them and what he called the future of the empire. This proved to be a true saving grace when early in the third age that the dragon hunters began to rise and caused the crusade of the Draconic god of vengeance to start when the lands were scoured by the rage and pain of the then ‘mortal’ dragon god.
As the fourth age began the lands were restored to life by the will of the new Tyrannus Dikara, this and other acts such as the creation of Mordereth, the effort to fix the Arcane, leading the newly reformed empire led to her rule as Tyrannus being short, eventful and undeniably important but short. However, thanks to her the shield around Xoln broke to reveal Xoln able to interact freely with the world once again and help the empire rebuild. The flight of Vartoris’Nemal had also survived though this was due to the dragon lord and his kind moving their flight lair into a pocket plane shortly after the Draz Tyran fell. The return of both forces to the Draz Tyran has been a grand boon to the returning strength of the Draz Tyran.
Climate:
The weather of Xalandis rarely changes being in a valley like it is only some storm fronts make it into the valley and those that do tend to get stuck feeding off the large bodies of water within before eventually dissipating. Temperate weather ranging from freezing to the 110s on truly hot days, with the full range of seasons.
Oddities:
Among many things that the common people of the Mortal Empires would find out includes but isn’t limited to:
Keyless locks, instead they use magic and magnetic crystals that are ‘programed’ with a key combination that opens the lock. While still ‘pickable’ it requires different tools including a powerful magnet.
High(er) magic, those within Xoln in particular, but Xalandis as a whole are used to seeing magic in everyday life from animated brooms, enchanted light posts, golems, dragons, floating landmasses, sunbathing plazas that are under the effect of magical daylight when underground or on sunless days.
Included Locations
Owning Organization
Inhabiting Species
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