Golden Road

The vast deserts of Garund’s northern coast may look inhospitable, but it was here along their rugged shorelines and fertile rivers that human civilization first rebounded from the devastation of Earthfall.   For a thousand years, humanity huddled in small bands and villages, eking out a bare existence under an ash-clouded sky, rarely organizing beyond localized trade networks. Then came the Jistka Imperium, clever artificers who rose from the deserts of what is now Rahadoum. The Imperium conquered the neighboring peoples and forced the desert dwellers in north-central Garund to form a defensive federation called the Tekritanin League, matched also by the rise of powerful Ancient Osirion in the east. In the ensuing conflict between these three nations, Osirion eventually ended up victorious through a combination of astute politics, magic, and brute military force, its god-kings conquering both of the neighboring empires. But Ancient Osirion eventually met its end as well, finally collapsing under the weight of its own hubris.   Keleshite agents from Qadira, a vassal of the vast Padishah Empire of Kelesh just across the Obari Ocean, took advantage of this decline. These agents destabilized the region until Qadira could sweep in and “rescue” Osirion from disaster, turning it into a Keleshite colony. This foreign rule in Osirion lasted for more than 3 millennia before Khemet I, dubbed the Forthbringer, drove the Keleshite government from its shores and returned Osirion to sovereign rule by a Garundi pharaoh.   While this chaos played out in the east, things were going equally poorly in the west. Spread by Keleshite immigration, the worship of Sarenrae hit the city of Azir and other major settlements like an avalanche, meeting violent resistance from local followers of Nethys and Norgorber. The resulting Oath Wars devastated the region for more than 60 years before Azir’s militia ended the conflict by burning all temples and establishing a fiercely secular nation, which they dubbed Rahadoum.   Meanwhile, south of Osirion, Sarenite refugees and bandits carved settlements out of arid and sparsely populated plains, guarded from marauding bands of gnolls by the legendary janni heroes called the Templars of the Five Winds. It was only with the arrival of the alien Pactmasters and their laissez-faire, plutocratic governance that this new nation of Katapesh came into its own as a hub of worldwide trade.   Today the nations collectively dubbed the Golden Road are a study in contrast. In their bustling, cosmopolitan cities, markets overflow with curiosities from across the world, while scholars advance the frontiers of magic and science in buildings older than many northern nations. Yet at the same time, settlements remain largely restricted to coasts and rivers, leaving huge stretches of land untouched, ceded to deadly monsters and those bold adventurers willing to brave them. In these sun‑drenched dunes ruled by scorpions, genies, fiends, and sphinxes, heroes find their fortunes—or are swallowed forever.