"You came here all the way along the salt road, did you? You must be exhausted, please come here, come here, let me take your coat and let the soothing bath take your stress away. You see that man in the corner? That is Kasib, you need only ask and he will get you anything you need or desire."
-Proprietor of the Lavender Pools, Afra of Mond Kalas
The Cultures of Kelior
If someone without the proper education were to look at a map of the world, they would wonder why Kelior is considered not a part of Adra Majoris. After all, it is not a separate continent, or a series of islands, or even thinly connected only by a tiny land bridge. It is in fact fully connected to the larger tectonic plate of Adra Majoris. However, it is culturally isolated from Adra Majoris, and has been for more than a thousand years. To its east, there is the largest desert in the world, the Bleached Desert, a wholly inhospitable wasteland where only the hardiest of desert nomads live. To the north of the desert are the highest mountain peaks in the world, aptly named the Wretched Spine Mountains, where the paranoid and cantankerous dwarves that inhabit them largely restrict and discourage travel. To the south of the Bleached Desert are dangerous and poorly patrolled mountains, battered by constant storms from the coast. To the north of Kelior, there would seem to be a very sensible route of entry, through a low grassy plain. However, there is the land of Serpentinium, where the snake lords rule, and where merchants are often hunted for sport. With the land routes all but blocked off, one would think by-sea would be more approachable, but this is hardly true. By way of the south, the Flippant Sea makes travel impossible for all but the most ingenious and lucky captains of the oceans. To the north, the western Glass Sea is largely passable, but getting there likely means traveling through the lands of the Khaganate or the White Wastes. With all of this taken together, it is not in the least surprising that Kelior is isolated from the rest of Adra Majoris, and therefore has developed for the past two millennia largely uninfluenced by the wider world.
Kelior is believed by scholars to be the birth place of humankind, or at least, a place that they originated during the 1st Era and spread to the rest of Adra Majoris. The Great Western Jungle once stood in place of the Bleached Desert, and there humans settled from Yuyake to found a prosperous and wealthy kingdom, ruled by the King of Kings. From there, he spread his councilors, the highly trusted Loxodons, to rule his many palaces and courts to the west. However, the jungle was destroyed, melted to nothing and left to sear in the unforgiving sun. Those loyal Loxodons, free from the King of Kings, formed independent satrapies, and ruled over the humans and lesser races as gods. These satrapies warred and conquered each other, the wheel of fortune constantly turning and changing with every century. Now, the whole of Kelior, say for the Satrapy of Yuyake, is all ruled by the King of Kings from his palace in Tarro. Some are very happy with this, what some call a golden age for the Tesiphonian Empire. Others chafe ever more under the rule of Tarro, and wish to break free and let loose the wheel of fortune once again. Kelior is a land of extreme inequality, where at the top Satrap governors control untold fortunes, and at the bottom, teeming masses of slaves work eternally in the burning sun. Humans, largely complicit with this system of exploitation, rule as the middlemen of the system, with the oppressed goblins, kobolds, and kenku working below them in futility. This of course is not to say all is doom and gloom in this land, where art, music, theatre, and poetry is valued highly, and where scholars are collected into houses of wisdom to pursue all manner of inquiry. And while the inequality is fierce in Kelior, Kelorans are quick to point out that it is hardly better elsewhere; there are countless slaves in Arissia, indentured servants in Alz Gamora, and serfs in the feudal world. No, instead the difference is in how it is presented, where elsewhere oppression is hidden and tucked away, in Kelior it is displayed proudly. The measure of the wealth of a person in Kelior, it is said, is how many slaves they own.
The most common races found in Kelior are humans, loxodons, kenku, kobolds, goblins, and dwarves. You might want your character's culture to be of Kelior if they are comfortable around big crowds, often ignore blatant evil, are sometimes bigoted towards other races, were a slave or servant in their past, or if they have an ever-burning love of learning and scholarship. This is of course very broad-strokes, and you should have a look at the following cultures to learn more about the subtleties of each:
Bahrian Culture: The people of the southeast coast of the Red Bay, often accused of debauchery and sin.
Mehtian Culture: The people of the ancient satrapy of Ekmeht, nestled in the Bleached Desert along the Geje river.
Serpentine Culture: The people of the serpent lands of Serpentinium, usually hostile to outsiders and non-yuan-ti.
Tesiphonian Culture: The ruling people of Kelior, who inhabit by far the most temperate and beautiful part of the otherwise scorching land.
Western Yogan: A nearly extinct culture, once dominated the ancient Great Western Jungle.
Yuyakeese Culture: The only settled people fully independent in Kelior of Tarro's rule, and the oldest living human culture.
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