Flag: a yellow diamond with teal corners, an orange eye with a gold eight-pointed star as an iris in the middle
Current Metropolite: Malias Ormandu
Military: 4th Air Brigade, "The Harpies"
Gardenoor is both the name of one of the Eight States of
Chronan and its capital city. Most of this southeastern state is covered by the
Hourglass Desert. Gardenoor lies to the south of
Jubileum and to the east of
Parcivale, bordered by the
Raucous River to the north and the
Brasswall Range in the west. Most of the denizens of the state are humans, but there are also a great number of lowland goliaths and dragonborn. For an unknown reason, many people are born as tieflings, cursed by a fiendish influence.
The
capital city of Gardenoor is protected from the desert sandstorms and raiding nomads by extremely high walls. That is why the citizens have put their gardens on the roofs of their houses, to catch the sunlight in the shaded city. The citizens are described as superstitious and suspicious of outsiders, since they have amassed a great wealth from the surrounding oil fields known as the
Black Gold Fields. Nobody suffers from hunger or homelessness inside the walled city, but a new town made of hovels and tents - known by the derogatory name
Spill Town - has formed outside the walls from refugees seeking entry into the "Golden Oasis". Gangs collectively known as "Tribes" have formed around specific ethnicities - the centaur
Mamluks, the hobgoblin
Rednecks and the tiefling
Dustdevils among them. The Tribes are in a continuous turf war for the different parts of Spill Town.
The other settlements in the state are few and located along the coastline. To the northwest, the
Absalom Tradepost is an important place of trade between the gardenorians and their neighboring jubileans. On the southern
Cerulean Peninsula, among hills of wondrous blue crystals, lies the towering
Pharos City, the lighthouse of which guides ships through the dire straits of
The Forlorn Islands. This city is famous for its glassblowers and crystal sculptors, and was once the center of the
magocracy of
Alpharo. It is still governed by a mage-mayor, appointed by the Council of Gardenoor.
Port Zadoor by the lush
Phoebean Coast to the south and the artisan town of
Damask by the western
Velvet Bay are more akin to walled fortresses like the capital city. Two oases,
Rahazem's Oasis and the
Last Hope Oasis, are vital pitstops for the caravans traversing through the dangerous desert. Wandering through the dunes is the mobile town of
Dunamo, a den of gambling and other illegal activities, run by sentient
replicatons.
The Hourglass Desert used to be the domain of one of the
Greatwyrms, a blue female called
Khordaganna. Her immense treasure horde is still rumored to be locked away in the
Stormvault, an impenetrable tomb surrounded by a constant thunderstorm. Khordaganna's followers lived in the great city of
Horaeus, but it fell into ruins after the meteor strike thousands of years ago. Hidden among the dunes is also the
Dragon Graveyard, where many chromatic dragons come to die to honor Khordaganna's memory.
The desert is also home to the nomadic antkin tribes that call themselves "thri-kreen", as well as many dangerous beasts such as the
hourglass harpies that have given their name to the local
Air Brigade.
Along the western edge of the desert is a series of steep cliffs known as the
Devil's Drop. Myths say that the desert was formed from the ground being churned into dust by a gargantuan devil that once opposed the
Gods of Time and Order, hence the name. In the past, traitors and heretics were executed by dropping them down from the cliffs.
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