In the northern part of the continent, to the west, is the highest mountain range in Edalom: the Fan Si Fana range. It is home to the longest-lived nation in the world since the disappearance of the heterochromes, the Tibereans.

Estimated population: 20 000 inhabitants

Language: Khaaz

Religion: animist

Currency: dragon

A BIT OF HISTORY

The Mountains of Tranquility

Once upon a time, when the first men fought their fratricidal wars, a motley group of people rejected the path of arms and traveled hundreds of leagues in search of a place secluded enough to be unreachable by war. Thus the settlers reached the highest mountain range in the world. Its mountains became known as the mountains of tranquility.

There they created a nation from their common values. Principles of peace. Convinced that they should extirpate all dangerous words from the language, they invented an entirely new language, Khaaz. They extolled the pacifist founders of the nation, created their myths and laid the foundations of a common history. Isolated from the rest of humanity, the Tibereans reproduced among themselves for centuries, softening the ethnic differences of the first settlers. They were also not influenced by the struggle of the Limerean and Jorolite religions, so they have continued to worship the spirits until the present era.

The Present Era

Today, the Khaz'Tiber enjoys complete independence, despite being nestled in Dareni lands, with no access to the sea and with fuzzy and shifting borders. Raids by the Darenis are frequent, but are usually no more than small skirmishes. Occasionally a regiment sacks a village in the foothills to remind the Khaz Dolu that the Tiber should not belong to them. When that happens, the Khaz Dolu usually sends his dragon riders to burn a random Dareni village in retaliation. They burn the villages to ashes, but the riders allow some time for the Dareni inhabitants to leave the houses and there are usually no human casualties.

And so, the conflict has been simmering for years, in a status quo that does not seem likely to change in the short term.

ECONOMY

The dragon is the monetary unit of the Khaz'Tiber, and is accepted throughout its territory, but nowhere else. There are iron, bronze, silver and gold dragons. In some of the isolated villages in the higher areas they still resort to barter.

As for the goods produced in the Tiber most of the minerals are counted, for the mountains are overflowing with them. Some plants only grow there, and they have a most unique fauna, counting among its members the legendary dragons resting in the Sky Combs. They are forbidden to trade in dragons, but the scales of the carcasses are sold at exhorbitant prices.

POLITICS AND RELIGION

In the Khaz'Tiber there are no great houses. Their system is a kind of theocracy, but since there is no God for the Tiberians, political power rests with the person chosen by the spirits, the Khaz Dolu, through a ritual known as the Tai Si Tui.

They worship dragons, with the most famous lineages being the direct descendants of the most famous dragon riders, whose portraits adorn the walls of the Great Hall of the Golden Palace. They also worship mountains and trees, believing that evil spirits are held there by the roots of thousands of plants. They believe in the reincarnation of souls and in karma, a belief based on the fact that every action exerts a dynamic force in the successive lives of the person who performs it.

GEOGRAPHY

The capital of the Khaz'Tiber is located in Do Shoi, the only city, because of the rugged terrain and relief, the rest are small villages. These usually flourish in small valleys and on the shores of lakes and glaciers.