A Region of Andash
Untamed and abandoned, Mukarrem is different to many of the other regions of the Concord. Sparsely populated, even during the height of the Andashi Empire, it outwardly poses a calm wilderness. Less hostile than The Tribelands, Mukuarrem is flat plains of long grass, deep blue oceans with white gold beaches and rugged uplands clutching looming mountains.
But this is a facade. The plainlains or Mukarrem are as parched as much of the Old Andashi Empire. The Southern Great Trade Sea is a den of pirates and corsairs. The highlands Mitricasa Rise are a distant pleasantry, attained by days or hard travel. In this unconquered wilderness, the new Andashi strive for greatness. They learn to move with the land like sand through an hourglass, leaving their mark through their travels, but also being marked by the land.
Andashi from Mukarrem tend towards two kinds of folk; Ambitious city dwellers who strive to turn Nazafeza or some other new Mukarrem township into a polity even greater than Obregon. Or tribal nomads, less concerned with the pursuit ofwealth and history than any other Andashi. The nomads of Mukarrem are a unique people, truly rugged folk living a challenging life against the elements. To the point where they were nearly not a part of Andash.
Old Andashi Empire ruins are few and far between in Mukarrem, save for scattered coastal homes of long dead nobility and scattered border holdouts. These ruins were picked clean decades ago and are little more than landmarks and refuge in a storm.
The Towns
The coastal capital of Mukarrem, Nazafeza is a small coastal village of less than a thousand inhabitants more commonly seen as a comfortable place for ships to put ashore than a place of great civilisation. Beginning as a stretch of calm beachline protected by a natural breakwater, sailors would pull smaller ships ashore to make use of the wells that could be found on the grounds of the ruined manor up from the beach. Growing from these humble beginnings, Nazafeza has become a respectable settlement still built around the same manor, which has become multiple buildings, including a church of Cervitas, a small garrison and meeting chamber. Surrounding the manor are sites common to every coastal settlement; taverns, markets, boarding houses and artisans of every style.
If you travel north from the Salt Road until the scrubland gives way to the sand of the Tanebar Sea, you may come across a small settlement sheltering in the stout white stone walls of a border fort. Tadribar is a martial place, primarily occupied by warriors training themselves against the land and each other. But also a common stopping place for treasure hunters, explorers and travellers from distant lands. While Tardribar is even smaller than Nazafeza, its deep well allows it to be inhabited year round, and its reputation as a martial school is well regarded.
Weeks travel from Nazafeza, clutching the border with Calandri is the sister shrine to one on the far side of the Andashi territory. The Shrine of Maloza is dedicated to Cervitas, Stallia and Panoply. To the tribesfolk, The ‘Night Shrine’ is a serious place, where groups will come to discuss the future, to right wrongs and to hold funerals. To the travelling Pilgrim it is a place of purity. Far from civilisation, far from wealth, far from truth, you can begin to appreciate the importance of these things.
The Roads
The only true road in Mukarrem, The Salt Road crosses the region from east to west. Linking up Obregon to Nazafeza and the Great Trade Sea. In the east it was marked with white painted stones which crumbled and gave the road the appearance ofa cracked salt lake. Further in the west it becomes a wide hard packed track that travels in a nearly straight path day after day. Water is sparse and travellers must plan carefully or pray for rain.
The Lands
The Priado Expanse is Mukarrem. Vast, flat grasslands that stretch onwards as far as the eye can see, suddenly dropping onto a short beach and into the sea. Mostly composed of tall grasses with saw bladed leaves, the Priado Expanse is mostly difficult due to its remoteness. Help is often far away and if you do not know where to find water it can be as dangerous as any desert. The people of the Priado Expanse are Andashi tribes tending to truly immense herds of livestock such as goats and cattle. They wander the plains from water to water avoiding the massive wildfires that sometimes sweep the Expanse.
In the east where the land begins to roll and rise as you get closer to La Calidez mountains, sycamore, date and calitris trees replace the long grasses. This land, known as Mitricasa Rise, is sheltered by the mountains and boasts a cool climate. Peaceful and verdant, were it not for its isolation it would surely boast a larger population. But the loose woods of the Mitricasa do still owe their heritage to the Greenweald, and legends abound of man eating lions, scrub hydras and manticores where the woods meet the mountains.
While not truly part of Mukarrem, The Guardian greatly affects the region. Channeling the Great Trade Sea into the Strait of Aker, The Guardian is a large island, nearly big enough to be a region in its own right. Filled with low shrubland and some palm forested hills, The Guardian is not formally claimed by The Concord. In reality it is a haven for pirates and raiders, being claimed by multiple pirate commodores of the Twin Blade Confederacy over the years. It is said that founding member of the Twin Blade, Captain Ziccario Del’Merde’s ship is sunk in the waters off the Islands Eastern coast.
The Heights
Forming Andash’s southern border, La Calidez Mountains are the heart of Esterra’s south-western archipelago. Tall and dour, these mountains are prone to deep valleys with hundreds of ancient rivers. Known as La Espada to the Artebazzani, La Calidez is more temperate than their eastern cousins. But little vegetation, dangerous landslides and ornery manticores, lions and hydras make it a less appealing place to settle long term. To the Andashi these mountains form a powerful southern border against the world.
The Waters
The Southern Great Trade Sea is a broad and deep ocean between Esterra and the twin continents of Domus Imperiis and Bestiae Terra. A difficult ocean to cross directly, most ships travel along the coast of Esterra before breaking west at the edge of Zatiri Zan in the far north, hoping to make landfall near the Scalado Estates after three weeks of open seas. Near Mukarrem the Great Trade Sea is choppy but not stormy, cold, but not freezing and wide, but not empty. Prone to pirate fleets operating from the coast of Old Andash, you are far more likely to be boarded by corsairs than sunk by waves.