A Region of Andash
Once a quiet backwater, a place for the rich and powerful to build fine palaces far away from the bustle of the coast, the Tribelands were abandoned long ago as the Old Andashi Empire fell. The more commercially viable coastline was favoured and the back country that bordered onto the cursed woods of the Greenweald became a haven for bandits, raiders and then nothing.
But in time all things heal. The wandering peoples of Andashi reclaimed the ruins of the forebears and once again people wander the streets of Obregon, plants grow in the shade of Civisello, and travellers venture north to swing in the beautiful waterfalls on the border.
The Tribelands could broadly speaking be divided among three regions, in the South the land is more lively, fed by small streams and rain from the mountains beyond. In the North East the land is rugged and untamed, these thin woods are where the Greenweald fades into scrub and then nothing. In the north west the rolling sands of the Andashi lands sweeps across the horizon, largely made up of the Tanebar sea.
The Tribelands are a place of hope and hardship, of tradition and innovation, of peace and war.
The Towns
Obregon is the largest city in The Tribelands, and acts as the capital of Andash. The second largest city in The Concord, after Lerona Mere, Obregon is a beautiful city of cream-coloured limestone and accented with terracotta clay and beautiful fabrics. The city is patrolled by mercenary Janissary guards serving their tithes and is generally safe across much of its grounds, with the Janissaries acting more as resolvers of disputes and customs officials.
Originally built around the vaunted Andashi School of Gifts, whose spires rise high over the city, Obregon is separated into four districts. The highest district, also known as the School district, is the large flat expanse and highest part of the city, roughly in its centre. Atop these heights one would find the grounds of the school, important government buildings such as the state treasury, the grand library and the council of tribes. The area is beautiful and open with many small parks and fountains.
Below the School District is The Rise, the winding warrens of staircases and alleys that cling to the sides of the plateau. These thin streets are home to a majority of the city's occupants, who live in small apartments and townhouses with often little room but fine rooftop entertaining spaces.
Below The Rise is The Lower District, the wide expanse of shops, restaurants, barracks and all other manner commerce that makes up at least half of the cities overall size. Here is the land of a thousand goods and a thousand more. A trading hub of artisans, entertainers and merchants, all ringed by the small outer wall of Obregon, some five meters tall and two deep.
Beyond the outer wall is a close knit series of encampments known as the Plaza De Amigos, where the visiting tribal clans rest while visiting the city. Often busy and loud with groups coming and going, the Plaza is certainly wild and lively, with children, livestock and warriors all coming and going.
Civisello is not far from Obregon, and can even be seen with the naked eye from the highest peaks of the School, but travelling there generally takes a day or so on The Wheat Road. Once thought to once be a palatial manor of some noble or another, Civisello was once set alight and much of the stone is still scarred black hundreds of years later.
But Civisello is most well known for its acres upon acres of irrigated farmland. Permanently cut and channeled with stone, what was once a garden larger than any other in Andash fed by carefully curated springs is now hundreds of individual single acre lots, leased seasonally to farmers who would attempt to make profit through their work. The manor itself has become a school of agriculture, with the greatest green minds and thumbs comparing yields and methods year after year. Civisello manages to feed all of Obregon with more food to trade.
Far to the east, within sight of the slice of the Greenweald known as ‘The Gap’, The Shrine of Hafiyan glimmers, not far from the side of the Golden Road. A simple dome ofmarble held aloft by twelve pillars, its original purpose remains unknown. Now the underside of the dome shows a beautiful mural of thousands of tiny stones. It shows the swirling spheres of Lumos, Arcadian and Anarch, with a hole in the ceiling channeling light downwards onto a magnificent smoky quartz during noonday sun. The shrine's inscription welcoming travellers to Andash and or encouraging those that are leaving to live their lives with bravery, ferocity and truth makes the shrine a common way station. Helped more than a little by its nearby well.
In the northernmost parts of The Tribelands, in the shelter of the sandstone mountains known as Ashlams Ashamalia, Abqala is the most notable encampment of the wandering clans of The Tribelands. Year round it is normal to find at least a few hundred tents clustered by the clear, cold pools of water fed by towering waterfalls. Abqala is a place of trade, of celebration and faith. Here the tribes celebrate marriages, hold councils and give true acknowledgement to the Spheres, which is not always possible while travelling. Those folk who become great heroes or leaders of the Andashi people are sometimes buried within the smooth caves within the rocky foothills, their natural mausoleums sealed with massive stones carved with the occupants' entire life story.
The Roads
Crossing from Obregon to the Greenweald, The Golden Road is the most commonly travelled road for visitors to Andash, often travelling to Obregon for trade. Cobbled from the Shrine of Hafiyan till the streets of Obregon, it is an easy road to travel with wells becoming more common the closer you get to the city.
Crawling South-East from Obregon is the busy Wheat Road. This cobbled road leads from Obregon, through the cracked stone canyons and up into the carefully maintained farmland and expanses of Civisello. The route is often busy with trade goods and wanderers, it is uncommon to ever camp alone along The Wheat Road.
Compared to the other main tributaries of travel in The Tribelands, The Salt Road is a harsher experience. Originally marked with white stones by the old empire, the road still has a dry, cracked facade, not unlike a dry salt lake. The road stretches onwards for days and days of travel, all the way to Nazafeza and the great trade sea in the far west. A difficult road to travel, it requires careful management of water, food and sun.
The Lands
The Crescent is a fertile, cool section of plains south of The Golden Road and East of Civisello, stretching up to the base of the distant mountains (known as La Espada mountains to the Artebazzani and La Calidez to the Andashi). A generally calm place, the Crescent is a place of tribal wealth, with the nomads who reside here having little to contend with aside from the occasional hunting creature of The Gap and bandits along The Golden Road.
To the North-East of The Golden Road lies The True Wilds. A strange oddity in the world, The True Wilds were too far east and too close to the Greenweald to have gathered much attention from the old Andashi Empire. Likewise, it was outside the eaves of the Weald to draw the attention of the Baronies and the predecessors. As such the True Wilds have remained without the greater touch of civilisation for hundreds of years. It is a place of wild beasts such as Andashi lions and even worse from the eaves of the Greenweald. With no water save for precious natural springs and small lakes. It is a raggedy scrubland unheard of elsewhere in The Concord.
The Waters
As mighty as any ocean of water and salt, The Tanebar Sea stretches on for hundreds of horizons North and West of The Tribelands. A rolling arid desert whose rolling dues bury and reveal lost ruins with tides of wind. Wandered only by treasure hunters, hunting insects and worse, the Tanebar Sea is an incredibly dangerous place to take lightly, but may just hold the future of Andash, buried in the past.