Chapter #18Tiefling kingdoms by: Yote   The Plurinational State of Xarakorum
After a period of establishment and military expansion, Xarakorum looked destined to be consigned to the tomes of history as all other Tiefling nations have done before, waging war on multiple fronts while weakened by their racial pastimes of political backtabbery, civil anarchy and moral decay. Their fortunes were turned around however after the ruler Anax Abrogail forced through a number of social reforms intended to curb their self-destructive tendencies. Of these, the most effective was the implementation of the New Xarakorum Calendar.
Though now codified into thousands of laws and traditions, the calendar was simple enough - it established two seasons each of 666 days in length. During the Season of War, the Xarakee are expected to commit themselves to conquest and raiding, with internal conflict strictly forbidden. During the Season of Rest, the Xarokee return to their cities to spend their plunder, indulge their every desire and grudge built up over the past ~2 years.
The Xarakeese treat the calendar with utmost reverence, even to the point of abandoning a battle upon the stroke of midnight should the season be transitioning to one of peace. The only major alteration to its opperation came but recently recently, when current ruler Anassa Sahala split the country into two, East and West, each following a different season, such that while one half of the country is feverishly expanding, the other is contracting inwards, like a beating heart. A cunning ruler, she has so far avoided assassination from conservative factions for this heretical act by always holding court in the region currently in the Season of War.
As a traveler in these lands, it is important to always keep one eye on the calendar and the new border line, as the local laws and hospitality/hostility of your host are liable to completely flip at a moment's notice.
The Puazi of the Fleshwarren
The Puazi are perhaps the most unsettling of all Tiefling subspecies, being some of the most normal, friendly and grounded people you may ever meet during your travels as a wizard.
Though only recently arrived on this plane, the Puazi are the end product of a captive breeding program between demons and humans that has been going on over 400 years, and are in-effect the sensory organs of a yet unconfirmed Demon Lord designed to study the mortal plane in general and humans in particular. We know this because we asked them, and they politely told us.
Their physiology is far more standarised and refined than is common for Tieflings (which tend towards a chaotic mishmash of human and demonic parts). The Puazi display crimson skin with black markings over flesh and blood of a striking neon blue. They have fleshy/cartilaginous horns rather than the common bone. Their ears are sometimes described as elven or like those of a gazelle. Their tails are short and muscular, not serpentine, and they have feet and toes, not hooves.
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In temperament, the Puazi are naturally inquisitive and make excellent scholars. Those sent to the mortal plane spend their time experiencing and documenting everything, which they will publish upon their return.
The Fleshwarrens from which they hail is a demonic demiplane of twisting, organic-like tunnels. Portals to this area only began appearing in the last fifteen years. Bloodline analysis has finally settled the mysterious disappearances of thousands of scholars, clergy and wizards over the past four centuries. Evidently this is where they ended up, where they were bred with demons to create the Puazi we see today.
It is believed that what we are seeing with the Puazi is the infernal equivalent of our own Demonology Department. They are part of an ongoing threat-assessment - until its conclusion, the Puazi are to be regarded as hostile but treated as friendly. Though they have been extremely helpful in furthering our understand of Hell and its denizens, and were instrumented in the dissolution of the demon lord Pazuzug, do not mistake them for anything other than demons. Though individually they come across as (and may indeed be) nothing more than naive, curious documentarians, do not assume that their unseen master(s) seeks anything less than the complete domination and consumption of all mortal souls.
Keep them away from all sensitive areas. And I mean that in more ways than one. Do not invite your pet Puazi into the Grand Library for a late night encounter, and then start crying when the High Librarian has to put her down because she starts copying down all of our most powerful spells.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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