Huun Imperium
The homeland of the Huun Imperium is the Desert of Oreb, a high, isolated desert plateau in eastern Libynos. With rain-bearing clouds blocked by the high Scythirian Mountains to the west and the even higher Tirzhakah Mountains to the east, the Huun are largely dependent for water on sources in and from the mountains. The high mountains also have odd effects on the wind, which swirls strongly between the mountain ranges and can create powerful sandstorms that race across the desert with incredible speed.
The isolated location of the Desert of Oreb has resulted in the development of some strange plants and creatures found nowhere else, many of which have been adapted by the Huun to further their own needs. For instance, the plateau at one time had a small population of karkadanns, a muscular, rhino-like creature only rarely seen in other deserts of the world. The Huun increased the beasts’ numbers and trained them for riding, giving the imperium an alternative to the camels they also imported for transportation across the hundreds of miles of desert they call home. Less easy to work with were the monstrous creatures the Huun now call “war beasts,” but eventually ways were found to train them and methods developed to use them in warfare.
The Huun do not permit intruders to the imperium; those caught trespassing should best hope for an immediate death, as the only alternative is painful (and ultimately fatal) questioning regarding their business and intentions in the Imperium. Most who encounter Huun outside the high desert meet only armored warriors in battle. Very few (typically limited to merchants or traders from Ifthaaz or the Malagro) can claim any other relationship with the folk of the Imperium, and they do not discuss such things. As a result, the Huun have been able to remain a mystery to most of the world, and much of what is said about them is little more than wild speculation or unsubstantiated rumor.
History and People
The Huun people are content to have outsiders believe that their origins are shrouded in myth and legend. Akadonian scholars have pieced together enough to conclude that year 1 of the Huun Chronicle corresponds with the year 2496 I.R., a year remembered for the fiery destruction of Curgantium and the beginning of the end of the Hyperborean empire. This seems to be the year the Huun organized the scattered settlements in and around the Desert of Oreb into a unified kingdom.
Many foreigners, based on little more than proximity, have assumed the Huun are an Ashurian folk. However, the history and stories of the imperium describe their descent from the ancient Hundaei clans of the Great Steppes of Akados, making the Huun the inheritors of an ancient legacy of enmity to Hyperborea. Physical similarities between the Huun and the other known descendants of the Hundaei make this claim quite plausible, though the same histories indicate some intermixing with other peoples of Libynos. How the Huun’s ancestors found their way from The Haunted Steppes to the far reaches of Libynos is a topic of Huun myth little shared with outsiders, though the involvement of their great peacock deities is strongly implied.
For long years, the Hyperboreans occupied a plateau north of the Desert of Oreb, which they called the Sacred Table, and on which their city of Tircople was located. After the fall of their empire, they abandoned Tircople in 137 H.C. (2632 I.R.), an event greeted by the Huun with satisfaction. Unfortunately, the Akadonian Kingdom of Foere, which viewed itself as the spiritual successor of Hyperborea, decided to lay claim to the Sacred Table in 249 H.C. (2744 I.R.).
In the year 463 H.C. (2958 I.R.), the god Nergal (who was then in ascendance) sent a vision to Ossimandius, the Huun king of kings, revealing the plateau as sacred to Nergal’s faith: It conceals an entrance to the Underworld, the realm of Nergal’s consort Erishkigal. Ossimandius duly declared a holy war against the Foerdewaith. The Huun armies swept over the mountains and slaughtered the inhabitants of Tircople and the plateau around it. Imperium soldiers were proud to say that they caught and killed both the pontifex, or religious leader of the city, and the purported first high lord of Tircople who was in charge of the military. They also put to the sword all of the Foerdewaith knights guarding the city, supposedly half of their total number in the entire world.
As is told elsewhere, this led to the so-called First Great Crusade and almost 250 years of warfare (and three further crusades) between the distant Foerdewaith and the imperium. The last such crusade ended with a Foerdewaith victory at the Battle of the Sickles in 712 H. C. (3207 I.R.), though it was only possible with the aid of an attack by dwarves of Shamash Kush on the Huun rear. This would likely not have been the final struggle between the two, but future conflict was preempted when fierce fighters of the Mguru tribe of the Malagro attacked the Sacred Table, slaying the entire remaining population of Tircople and destroying the city. The Mguru did not remain, and the Akadonians have never returned. Though the imperium has seen no need to reoccupy the plateau to date, Huun scouts patrol the area to ensure that future visitors do not believe it unprotected.
In addition to their homeland in the Scythirian Mountains, the Huun left a mark on other parts of Libynos, such as the Gulf of Huun off the continent’s northwestern peninsula, so-called even on modern maps made in Akados. Yet other than the conflict over the holy plateau, the imperium has not openly sought to dominate peoples outside the Desert of Oreb for most of its existence. Recently, however, the priesthood of Nergal has been urging more active engagement with the outside world, following which an army of the imperium made a surprise attack into the heart of Akados. Marching to the very walls of Bard’s Gate in 1019 H.C. (3514 I.R.), the army besieged the city for more than a year before making a calculated retreat ahead of the approaching forces of the overking of Foere. In addition, Huun warriors are now stationed at the great citadel of the Mulstabhins on Krivcycek Island in the midst of the only land passage between Libynos and Akados. Though the nuances of the plans of the priests and generals are not widely known even among the Huun, their armies — both in the desert and abroad — are prepared to bring glory to the imperium.
Throughout the years in their homeland, the Huun have spent much time traversing the sand and rocks of Oreb, and thus consider themselves people of the high desert rather than of the mountains. However, Oreb lacks the oases or wells usually found in hot sandy deserts (such as in Khemit or the Ashurian Desert), so the vast majority of the population is concentrated on the outskirts of the desert, near the mountains, rather than in the center. In addition, a sizable percentage of the Huun live and work in and under the mountains themselves.
Religion
The Huun worship a pantheon of gods, though the one most in ascendance today is Nergal, deathbringer and god of plague. His consort is Erishkigal, the gentle amasser of souls, who gives souls a place to rest until the destruction comes. Also venerated are Aku’te Selissa, the uncaring mother (called the White Lady and the Peacock God Maas Tal’ek, destroyer of the universe and the end of all things.
Trade and Commerce
The Huun go to substantial lengths to be entirely self-sufficient, despite the harsh environment of the high desert. The imperium’s engineers and wizards worked to make water supplies more accessible, creating and expanding channels for snowmelt from the mountains and tapping underground water sources. The courses of certain rivers have even been changed to flow toward the desert or at least to mountain valleys where the water is available to the Huun. This enabled the irrigation of terraces built along the mountainsides and furnished reliable sources of food for the nation.
Given the difficulties of travel over the mountains, exploration underground has sought to find usable routes to the lands beyond the peaks. This has been largely unsuccessful in locating easy means of travel north or south. However, several cavern systems were discovered that, with modification, opened routes east to the Malagro Jungle and west to the various nations along the Sea of Baal. Some trade occurs via these routes, primarily with the jungle peoples of the Malagro and with some discreet merchants in Ifthaaz and Baalthaaz. Only the most-trusted Huun are given the opportunity to travel to these lands outside the mountains. The routes themselves are kept secret even from most Huun and are zealously protected from any outsiders.
The mountains themselves provide many resources. Stone, of course, is readily available and many types have been quarried. The Huun have also been mining the mountains for hundreds of years, finding everything from iron ore to silver and gold to gemstones. Some miners believe such rare substances as diamond, adamantine, and even mithral may be found deeper under the Tirzhakah Mountains and exploration is continuing in that direction.
Loyalties and Diplomacy
The imperium has no embassies in any other country, nor do any other nations have formal relations with the Huun. Mutually cautious trading relationships, sometimes conducted at one remove, are maintained with a select group of countries.
Government
The imperium is ruled by an absolute monarch known as King of Kings Ossimandius the Undying. This happens to be the same name used by the king who first sacked the city of Tircople in 463 H.C. (2958 I.R.). As a result, outsiders are forced to speculate whether the current king of kings is indeed the same individual or if the name and title are always taken by the ruler of the imperium. The Huun are content to let them wonder.
Military
The Huun are among the most feared warriors in all of the Lost Lands. The infantry is fierce and the cavalry are excellent in the saddle or dismounted, riding camels, horses, or karkadanns, as the situation demands. The infantry on foot are supported by mounted archers that fire clouds of arrows in swift attacks and then withdraw. The armies of the imperium are most renowned for their fury in combat and their nearly unbreakable morale.
Huun warriors typically wear steeply pitched conical helms of burnished steel that cover the back and sides of their neck with steel scales, and have bronze nasal guards. The lower part of the face is protected against blowing sand or dust by a veil of black silk and the small portion of the face that is still visible (namely the eyes and cheeks) is darkened with kohl. Opponents find this gives a sinister, otherworldly appearance that has shaken more than one foe facing the Huun in battle. Soldiers of the imperium use lamellar armor made of overlapping steel plates covered in black lacquer and trimmed in polished brass.
Major Threats
For hundreds of years, the sand giants in the southern part of the Desert of Oreb were the major threat to the Huun. In the past decades, the king of kings finally reached an accommodation with the leaders of all the giant tribes and despite a few incidents, the peace seems to be holding.
Although the risk of outside invasion is negligible, the Huun stay vigilant. However, the desert has its own risks, including various monsters of both sand and mountain. In addition, some places in the desert are said to be haunted by the dead or worse, and the Huun shun such places of ill repute. It takes knowledge and experience to read the signs of the desert well enough to know where such places are and to avoid them, though, and few other than the desert scouts have that skill.
Region
Huun Imperium
Controlled Territories
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