Empire of Spira

The mighty empire of Spira once stretched from the Shining Sea to the borders of the elven kingdom of Eregion. Built upon the principles of faith, chivalry and courage, Spira was a shining beacon unto the world that radiated outward from Spira’s gilded capital of Cormyr. Spira’s ancient Armies of Exploration established footholds for the empire throughout Athas and its mighty phalanxes and Purple Dragon Knights have long been the very face of heroism.

Now Spira is a stunted remnant of its former glory, having lost control of its daughter territories and is almost disregarded as a threat by some of the powerful countries of today, which assume it will continue its slow decline for at least another century.

Geography
When the first men settled what is now Spira several thousand years ago, they found lush, forested lands stretching as far as they could see. After millennia, the once-mighty forests have been reduced to an expanse of elf-protected forests in the north and the rest are now either rolling grasslands in the north, or weed-choked scrublands in the south. Natural borders define the region: the Fog peaks separate Spira from Keld, the vast Brevoy Waterways flows between Spira and Zoldanya, Hlondeth, and Fenland; and the Zimar scrublands divide Spira from Cavos.

Major Cities
Spira was once connected by well-constructed canals and solid, well-guarded roads. As the empire declines, the Spiran Horse and Spiran Phalanx were less able to guard the routes of travel, and the villages and hamlets farthest from Cormyr shrank and disappeared. Those that remain are heavily guarded by local militias or ruled by rogue barons, gangs or worse. To an outsider visiting Cormyr, Spira appears to be the height of modern society—travel a day or two south and the rapid decline of Spira’s once glorious achievements becomes clear.

Yorke
The second-largest city in Spira, Cassomir is home to both Spira’s Imperial Navy and the Imperial Shipyards. Strategically located along the western coast, it also connected to the Brevoy waterways—and thus, the Inner Sea—via series of wide rivers and well-maintained canals, allowing it to serve as a trade city with any nation that’s touching either ocean or the Inner Sea. Trade ships from these nations can always be found at anchor in Star Bay off Yorke as the Spiran Imperial Navy performs routine searches and taxation. All craft that attempt to access the canals without first being boarded and searched by the Spiran Imperial Navy are hunted down and either confiscated or sunk as smugglers. Yorke also acts as Spira’s gateway to the Verduran Forest, a semi-autonomous region of Spira that the empire controls but, thanks to the Treaty of the Wildwood in 2641 CR, largely ignores.

Maheto
In the northern foothills of the Fog Mountains rests the city of Maheto, the heart of Spira’s weapon manufacturing. This heavily fortified city is home to a sizable population of dwarves who lend their skill in metal-crafting to the empire in exchange for open-ended mining rights in the Fog Peaks. Many young rakes in Cormyr wield Maheto-crafted rapiers—not carrying a Maheto blade is a source of embarrassment among the youth and senatorial and noble classes. The trade roads and canals that run from Maheto to the Verduan Forest are some of the most heavily patrolled routes in Spira. Ten full legions of the Spiran Phalanx and two legions of the Spiran Horse call Maheto home.

Ridonport
Built in a natural harbor along the Jagged Saw, Ridonport is most famous as the home of General Arnisant, Spira’s heroic leader of the Shining Crusade, who sacrificed himself against the Grey Lady’s armies. A huge monument to Arnisant, a 200-foot-tall, ornately carved marble obelisk in the city’s main square, is a testament to Ridonport’s pride. Ridonport is a very poor city, with most of its industry focused on supporting the Spiran Imperial Navy, which uses Ridonport as overflow for its larger ships when the harbors at Yorke is full.

Unther’s Hold
When Emperor Unther Windsor III took power, the title of emperor was losing power. His father, Emperor Unther Windsor II, fell prey to the petty grievances of his royalty and senatorial classes and spent most of his life on the defensive, keeping his wealthy subjects happy in order to keep the daggers out of his back. In order to restore power and faith to the throne, Unther III launched a massive public works and military campaign to establish a foothold in the Whistling Plains. Unther III saw an opportunity to build a large town and keep and house several legions of the Spiran Phalanx on Spira’s easternmost border to watch for Fennish aggression. His master stroke was to convince the wealthiest among the nobility, the largest thorns in his father’s side, that leading, financing and constructing the project would bring them great honor on behalf of the empire. Thus, Unther’s Hold was born and Emperor Unther III rid himself of any challenge to his power. Unther’s Hold is a frontier town, but it’s well-patrolled road to the River Porthmos keeps is solidly connected to Cormyr. Extensive earthworks surround the town and protect it from those who would invade, and the nearby keep sits on the highest hill for hundreds of miles around and commands an expansive view of the surrounding countryside.

Wispil
At the heart of the Verduran Forest, the semi-autonomous gnome town of Wispil is the capital of Spira’s woodcrafting and lumber industries. The gnomes work hand-in-hand with the wood elves of the Wildwood Clan to carefully harvest enough trees throughout the forest so that Spira’s hunger for lumber is fed, but the forest still remains large, healthy and vibrant. Wood cut near Wispil is hauled overland to the Verduran Fork and floated by gnome steersmen (called “Boomrafters”)  who tie the massive logs together and float them to the Yorke shipyards. Spira is a primarily human nation, so it’s rare to see settlements with a non-human majority, but in Wispil humans are the minority; the population is made up of mostly gnomes, half-elves, halflings and a smattering of dwarves.

Umbyr
As the most heavily fortified city in Spira, Umbyr exists as a southern buffer against the threat of Cavosi and Kelishite invasion. Caught off-guard by Kalishite invasions three centuries ago, they spent more than a century fortifying and rebuilding Umbyr to ensure future invasions would be met with a well-organized force. Umbyr is Spira’s third-largest city and rests on the Jarlune River, named for Emperor Jarlune who was assassinated in 2129 by Kalishite blades (or so Spiran history claims). The Spiran Imperial Navy keeps a dozen capital ships in Umbyr, and the Spiran Horse and Spiran Phalanx maintain scores of legions here as well. Even the Purple Dragon Knights have a barrack in the city. Spiran finance corsairs to attack Qadi shipping throughout the southeastern Inner Sea, and their home base lies in Umbyr. The city’s residents are raised believing service to the empire is a citizen’s highest calling, and a disproportionate number of Umbyr’s poor join the military. In addition, every citzen of Umbyr is expected to attend monthly training exercises to learn the use of the bow and the spear, and they practice phalanx strategies as well as house-to-house guerilla warfare in case Umbyr should ever fall into the hands of an enemy power. Umbyr’s architecture is a cultural blend of east and west, as Al-Kalim controlled the garrison city intermittently for 150 years. Marbled halls and red slate roofs rub shoulders with turreted temples and tented markets. Though the Cult of the Dawnflower is outlawed in Spira, her largest group of followers still worships in underground temples throughout Umbyr.

Arabel
A fortitified city in northern Spira, the city stands at an important crossroads and is an important trading city in the north. It stands at the junction of the High Road, Calantar’s Way, the East Road and the King’s Road. Major exports include coal, horses, dry red wine, black beer and cheese. Unlike many other Spiran cities, inhabitants of Arabel—even mercenaries—could keep their weapons unbound, due to the frequency of orc and kellid raids. It is known as cosmopolitan for a northern city and is a haven for mercenaries and travelers alike.

Monastery of the Seven Forms
Built into the sheer face of a mountain high in the White Mountains range east of Zimar, the Monastery of the Seven Forms is an ancient, underground town that grew around a monastery of the same name. Founded by Karatan monks 1,200 years ago, the Monastery of the Seven Forms was a secluded school, established far from Kara-Tur so that the students might learn patience in their 6,000+ mile journey. The monastery sits on the outside of the cliff face with a breathtaking view of all the lands east to the Inner Sea. Behind it, dug deep into the mountain, is an underground city of interconnecting tunnels, air holes, mine shafts, wells and houses. The current residents of the city are a mix of Cavosi and Spiran ancestry, as the monastery lies quite close to the Cavos border. The monastery is currently home to the Stalwart Fist, an order of monks who blend classic Karatan fighting styles with dervish styles of Cavos and Varisia. There’s a 2-year waiting list to join the school, and the monks steadfastly refuse any bribes made to circumvent the line.

Notable Features
Most of Spira is flat, rolling grassland interrupted by the forests and mountains to the north and the rivers to the east and south. With nearly 2,000 years of history, Spira is covered in abandoned cities, ruined castles and buried temples. Most of modern Spira is built on the foundations of Old Spira, but the farther one gets from Cormyr, the more often one stumbles into ruins or happens upon weed-choked ghost towns.

At the height of Old Spira’s greatness, the modern borders were merely the glorious heartland, with the true borders of Spira extending to what are now Azan and Zoldanya and other neighbor states. The heartland was covered in roads and canals, with hamlets, villages and inns that subsisted on the busy traffic moving across the empire. Today the roads disappear into wilderness, the canals are clogged with silt or debris, when they haven’t dried up entirely, and the roadside inns crumble in ruin.
 * Jarlune River: Named for Spira’s assassinated Emperor, the Jarlune River is part of Spira’s southernmost border that separates it from Cavos. The river is notable for being quite wide, stretching more than 30 miles across at its widest point, and is filled with hidden coves that smugglers and bandits know quite well. The river is dangerous for ship traffic not flying large, obvious Spiran flags. Corsairs are fervently dedicated to their task, destroying and capturing anything that approaches the river flying a Kalishite flag. Where the river passes through the Border Wood, bandits can be a problem—as can the monstrous spiders and the green dragon rumored to dwell in the woods. Ogres and hill giants are also known to roam the countryside surrounding the river.


 * River Porthmos: Known as the Mighty Porthmos, the river is Spira’s lifeblood. Nearly every canal, trade route or caravan in the Heartland touches the Porthmos and its shores are constantly choked with merchant traffic. The river’s mouth is 20 miles wide and heavily patrolled by the Imperial Navy. Without warning, they can board, search and tax any ship traveling into or out of the river’s mouth. The river stretches all the way to Cormyr and the Indigo Lake in the west and to the Brevoy Waterway in the east.


 * Brevoy Waterways: One of the longest rivers on Oerth, the Brevoy Waterway runs the entire length of Spira’s eastern border, and even further south until it reaches the Inner Sea. Fed by dozens of tributary rivers and thousands of high mountain lakes and streams, the Brevoy moves more water than all of the other rivers that touch the Inner Sea combined. Fed as it is, the Brevoy is a constant river mostly unaffected by seasonal melts or flooding. The Brevoy is heavily patrolled by the Imperial Navy, using small, sleek clipper ships that make up the brunt of their River Guard fleet. Inside Spiran borders, the River Guard is the ultimate authority on the Waterways, and its sailors frequently board ships to search for illicit goods or activities—and, it’s rumored, to take their cut before the goods exit Spiran waters. The River Guard maintains a harbor on the Isle of Arenway, though by the Treaty of the Wildwood, sailors are not allowed to stray beyond the walled port. Most ships travelling the river stop here to have their vessels blessed by the elves, a blessing they believe offers them protection from the dangers of the river—especially those sailing north. Hazards are few and far between along the length of the heavily trafficked Brevoy, but the Verduran Fork is extremely dangerous.

As it travels through the most sparsely populated parts of Spira, the Verduran Fork is home to organized pirate brigades who split the length of the river into zones established by a verbal treaty. The largest band, comprised of mostly gnomes, halflings, and a handful of other fey, raid ships for sport—an annoyance for the other bands of pirates who raid ships for the plunder. The River Guard Fleet stepped up patrols recently, to little effect—with so many hidden waterways and so little population, the pirates are experts at striking and melting into the forest before the River Guard can respond. Ships traveling south from Keld or Skodonia are typically bristling with sellswords to guard against pirates, but even these tactics barely slow the pirates down. They’ve taken to filling the ranks with their own people, who quietly take over and plunder a ship once it reaches the pirate band’s territory. In any given year, the pirates plunder nearly 15% of all traffic that travels through the Verduran Fork, a fact that the River Guard works to keep secret.


 * Star  Bay: Named for the legend of the ancient people who were said to dwell here in ages even before the coming of the elves. The legend says that the Inner Sea was created when a massive star crashed into the earth. When this event, dubbed Starfall by scholars, a fragment of the star fell here, creating Star Bay. The natives believed the fallen fragment—now under hundreds of feet of water—glowed a tantalizing blue to guide fishermen home. Even today, sailors who travel across Star Bay drop shiny trinkets into the depths and say a quick prayer so they can continue safely on their journey. As recently as 10 years ago, reports from a naval vessel circulated that a vast, hot, and bright blue light emanated from beneath the surface of the water. But since no one has ever mounted a serious underwater expedition to explore the source of the light, or if the stories are even true, the truth behind the glow remains a mystery.


 * Verduran Forest: Nearly 500 years ago, the elves of the Wildwood Clan approached the emperor of Spira and presented a simple request: give the elves some autonomy to protect the last dominion of the blackwood trees, and in exchange the elves would ensure that Spira had ships for as long as the Spiran flag flies above the Lion’s Tower. Tired of losing patrols to fey attacks and largely able to control the forest anyway, the emperor agreed, though the treaty ensured the empire could erect a harbor on the Isle of Arenway so its sailors had somewhere to base their patrols from. Today, the portion of the forest that resides in Spira’s borders is a semi-autonomous prefecture of the Empire and the monarchy still honors the Treaty of the Wildwood. The forest, despite being controlled and watched over by the wood elves, the Verduran Forest still contains many dangers. Ettercaps, bands of obnoxious fey, orcs and river pirates are among the more obvious dangers. Sentient and flesh-eating plants and treants also present a danger, as do massive colonies of giant wasps and ants.

Natural Resources and Hazards
The towering blackwood trees of the Verduran Forest are among the strongest and most flexible hardwoods in Athas (though not quite Ironwood). Blackwoods once covered the entirety of what is now Spira and Cavos in a thick, primeval forest. After thousands of years of humanity, the blackwoods are now only found in the Verduran Forest.

With some of Athas’ tallest mountain peaks, the Fog Peaks are home to countless iron mines, a fact not lost on the dwarf clans who live and work in Maheto in exchange for mining rights in dozens of those mines. The southern climate has the perfect climate for olives and grapes, producing fine wine and olive oil shipped all around Athas.

The Foglands
Spira’s northernmost region, the Foglands are named for the perpetually cloudy Fog Peaks that mark the country’s northern border that divides it from the Kingdom of Keld. Starting in spring, mists rising from the Verduran Forest and the Boarwood in Keld feed the mists above these peaks daily, and by winter enormous cloud formations push toward the heavens. The Fog Peaks are constantly soaked in rain or snow, and when the temperatures plummet in the late autumn, the higher elevations are plagued by vicious, razor-sharp ice storms. Frost giants can be found in surprising numbers. Ehk Fogstomper claims a huge swath of the peaks north of the headwaters of the Verduran Fork. He has quite a following of primitive humans and orcs who dwell in the mountains. The Fog Peaks are also home to large clans of orcs who make frequent raids into both Spira and Keld, as well as several large groups of Roc, giant eagles and griffons (who frequently attack livestock). The most dangerous resident of the Foglands, however, is Icemourne, a white dragon who lairs somewhere above the north end of the Verduran Forest. Yorke, Wispil, Maheto and Arabel are all located in the Foglands.

The Saw
The name given to the eastern region that ends along the Inner Sea. Powerful winds buffet the rocky landscape at a constant 30 or 40 miles per hour at the calmest. The Saw is known to be a haven for pirates and bandits, though the presence of Umbyr somewhere mitigates these dangers. The greatest dangers in the region stem from the weather. Very few people travel alone here, and hamlets either have well-organized militias or work closely with smugglers; they hide the smugglers’ illegal activities from the Spiran authorities while keeping a piece of the action. The Saw gets its name from two main sources—the rocky landscape and the jagged (also rocky) coastline that, on maps, looks like the teeth of a saw. A series of lighthouses (called “Saw Towers” by locals) dot the landscape and the coast. Their original purpose was to light in the event of danger or invasion, with each beacon lighting in turn in an effort to warn Cormyr. Today, that is only one of the functions of the lighthouses; when the fire is blue, that is the signal for danger. Otherwise, their main function is to keep travelers from getting lost. Each tower once held a small garrison of soldiers, but today most are abandoned. Only a handful remain across the region, the most famous residing in Umbyr and named Treacherous Jack by locals (as it has a habit of winking out randomly).

The Heartland
The largest region of Spira, home to Cormyr and the headquarters of the Purple Dragon Knights. The Heartlands make up the interior of Spira and contain most of the nation’s farmland and livestock. The roads in the Heartlands are the best maintained, the canals busy but free and trade routes regularly patrolled by guards and soldiers. The Heartlands are considered the “safest” region in Cormyr if not just because the regular military presence. It is certainly the most cosmopolitan, as well as the most densely populated. The Heartlands is mostly rolling grasslands where mighty forests once stood.

The Whispering Plains
The dry, windy plains near the border of Cavos. While not mountainous, they are certainly hilly and rocky. The southernmost region and also the most sparsely populated, the Whispering Plains have long been home to a clan of wood elves, as well as a few goblin tribes. The region has been slowly gaining prominence in recent years due to the founding of Unther’s Hold, which is slowly drawing the wealthy to this frontier region.

The Soup
The smallest region, located west of the Whispering Plains, along the shore of the Shining Sea and along the border river. The Soup is a humid bog that actually expands across the river, into the Mushfens (the large, famous wetlands in northern Cavos). The Soup itself is in a valley that locals call “the Soup Bowl”. Most filled with lizardfolk and peat farms that collect into loose communities to protect themselves from the dangers of the marsh. The most notable settlement in the Soup is Fort Wheloon, more commonly known throughout the region as “Swamp Castle” or “Fort Broth”. It is a fort and castle, long abandoned by the poor noble who’d been granted the land centuries ago and has been turned into a town in its own right by dozens of peat farmers and militia members. The town is run by a council called the “Broth Council” and the militia is known as the “Stew Boys”.  

Government
Spira’s government is convoluted, ensuring the need for legal scholars for generations to come.

Emperor
Spira is ruled by an emperor, the hereditary title for the monarch of Spira. The Emperor wears the Primogen Crown and holds absolute authority, his power base solidified by a loyal military. Spira’s line of succession follows a rule of primogeniture, with the eldest living son granted the title of Emperor upon his father’s death. This line has reset more than a dozen times in Spira’s history, with another powerful House of Spira claiming right to the throne when no heirs of the Emperor existed. As Emperor Unther Windsor III has only a daughter, when he dies it is likely that there will be infighting among the royals (including the princess herself) as they press various claims to the throne, which may devolve into civil war.

Royalty
Spira’s upper class—comprised of dynasty-inheriting Houses, most of which trace their lineage back to one emperor or another—is both the Emperor’s boon and his bane. Throughout the empire’s history, the royalty of Spira have shared as much responsibility for the greatness of their empire as they have for its downfall. The Emperor can raise a citizen or senator of the empire up to this class by bestowing the title and wealth upon the individual. Annually, the Emperor holds a huge celebration at the Imperial Palace where he does just that—though the current Emperor wisely limits his title-bestowing to those who ally with him and support his hole on the crown. Spira’s royalty class is full of byzantine titles—Patrician, Maester, Proconsul, Mandator, Exarch, Viceroy, Duke, Baron, and so on—and it takes several scholars at the Primogen Library to keep it all straight, as each title has a subtle place in the hierarchy of the empire. The royalty of Spira are eternally obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge and dirt about other Houses; anything to further their own power; an obsession they share with the Emperor.

Senatorial Class
The Senatorial class represents the hereditary members of Spira’s senate, the governors of Spira’s prefectures, and various heads of the bureaucracy. While it is quite rare for citizens to rise to the royalty, they can easily work hard for the government and achieve a title in the senatorial class.

Military
Spira’s extensive military allows it to guard against threats from all sides, despite the great drain on the country’s finances.

Spiran Horse
The cavalry is comprised of both horse and elephant units. Huge horse farms in southern Spira riase fierce destriers that are trained their entire lives to work and fight in the midst of chaos and carnage. Spiran elephants are the descendants of breeding stock brought back from the Garundi interior hundreds of years ago during one of the expeditions of the Armies of Exploration. The military uses its horses to break the lines of enemy advancement and to outflank their foes while they use elephant legions to move supplies and, rarely, to crush the heart of the enemy’s lines. The horse legions are comprised entirely of heavily armed and armored knights, led by a Knight-Captain. While the elepahtn legions are led by knights, they are largely populated with citizen soldiers specially trained to handle and care for the elephants.

Spiran Phalanx
The majority of the military is comprised of the Sprian Phalanx. For a thousand years they’ve used the same potent strategic combination of archers and spearmen to conquer their enemies. The spearmen wield long pikes, wear light armor and carry a small sword at their sides. They march as one unit and are trained to quickly form either lines of battle or defensive formations to protect against cavalry charges. Each spear unit is led by a knight-captain who sits atop his charger in heavy armor and directs his men into battle. Archers wield fine longbows, wear light or no armor, and carry a variety of sidearms (usually axes) for hand-to-hand combat, should it come to that. One unit of archers is assigned to each unit of spearmen, and they follow closely behind them. On command, the two units function together as the spears form a protective square around the archers, who fire hails of arrows from inside their living fortification. This strategy broke hundreds of Kelishite and orc charges, and the Phalanx proudly believes it’s because of their perseverance that the Spirans eventually won the Grand Campaign against Al-Kalim.

Fountain Guard
After the assassination of Emperor Jalrune, the next Emperor built a personal bodyguard to protect him from any threat. He sent emissaries to every corner of Spira and beyond, looking for skilled warriors to whom he promised vast wealth. Thus the Fountain Guard was born. Heavily-armed warriors all, they protect the Emperor from any threats, real or imagined. At any time, more than a dozen warriors ca be found guarding the Emperor, and they each serve for at least a year, though many stay on for their entire lives, entranced by Cormy’s wealth and enamored by the number of would-be assassins they get to slaughter every year. Once their service is up, they can take as much loot from the treasure vaults as he is able to carry.

Umbyr Corsairs
The pirates of the Jalrune River serve as a quasi-legal part of the Imperial Navy. Each captain of a corsair gallery is given a Letter of Mark that both identifies him as a full captain of the Navy and grants him some legal protections should his ship be captured by the enemy. The Umbyr corsairs patrol the Jalrune River and the southwestern Inner Sea region, seeking to sink Kelishite merchant traffic.

Purple Dragon Knights
The most famous military group in Spira, the Purple Dragons of Cormyr are renowned for their discipline, skill, honor and loyalty. The Purple Dragons are considered to be one of the strongest groups in Athas, and are renowned across the continent for countless acts of heroism and valor in the field of combat and on noble quests. They are notable for accepting non-nobles into their ranks and for their efforts to protect common folks. Standard knights receive the rank of Blade and the group is led by the Lord High Marshall.