Axehead Peninsula

This region has a mild climate. The rainy season that occurs during the summer, followed by a brief period of storms at the end of the fall. The deserts that separate the northern and southern ends of the peninsula are particularly inhospitable during the dry winters.

There are three cultures here—the technologically advanced Blue peoples in the north, and the horse-loving Silver and Red peoples in the south.

While the Blue kingdom used to have stronger ties to the continent, the old trade towns of the high mountains have gone into decline due to isolationist trends in the reigning political culture. With the buffer of the central deserts to the south, the sierra to the west, and their navy on the seas to protect commercial interests, Blue has been able to consolidate its power in peace. The high sciences of the capital university have delivered comforts even to the distant farming villages of the far north. Blue’s most revered saint, the Scholar, is celebrated with an orchestra of silver bells during the winter solstice.

Silver pastoralists spread along much of the southern peninsula, with their religious and cultural capital located on the central plain. They cultivate a variety of crops, and take pride in their riding culture. Limited opportunities at home have led some to ride the waves instead, with cadres of smugglers counting coup against Blue trading administrators in order to supply colonists in the abandoned river valleys of the northern sierra. Silver is an egalitarian culture with strong family and clan ties—many northern still settlers still make the pilgrimage to the central plain for annual games of horsemanship.

Red culture is centered around a regimented city-state, piled high on the southwest plateau and governed by warrior-priests. Even as they expand their fields, the helots of the outlying farming villages have not matched the hunger of their great city-dwelling masters. When the temple marshals further discovered the region’s modest fisheries could only offer them so much, they embarked on a grand project, pouring resources into commercial fleets and privateers to rival Blue’s historical monopolies. When the fall storms pass, the high priests inaugurate shipping season by lighting an enormous beacon flame in an intricate ceremony.