Prax is the wide, semi-arid plains east of Dragon Pass. The area is the sacred homeland of the Praxian animal nomads. The land is poor for crops but the grazing is good. Some parts of Prax have good grasslands every year; the rest grows little more than sparse grass and chaparral, even though great amounts of rain may fall in winter and spring. Little or no rain falls the rest of the year. The surface of the land is mostly hard clay and sand, and the water runs off or goes underground, lost to the inhabitants.
The beast-riding nomads of Prax are an ancient and widespread culture. They are proud of their way of life and distrustful of other cultures. They wander through a wide range of territory, tending herds of their own and captured animals, skirmishing with neighboring tribes, hunting, and meeting with others of their own tribe. They are chronically short of raw materials for metal-working, but know every secret of utilizing the resources of their environment.
There are five Great Tribes of Prax, all descendants of the original people who migrated from the Spike with their mighty leader, Storm Bull. Four of the tribes are based on a pairing of humans (which the Praxians call two-legs) and beasts (which they call four-legs), each named after the beast of the tribe: the Bison, High Llama, Impala, and Sable. The fifth tribe consists of the four-legged and intelligent Morokanth who are paired with two-legged, unintelligent
herd-men.
Praxian beasts eat different things: bison eat green, moist grasses; impala eat brown, dry grasses; high llamas eat leaves from bushes and scrub; herd-men are omnivorous, but primarily eat roots; and sable antelopes eat almost anything. Because the Praxian beasts have different diets, different tribes can share a single area without competing for grazing.