I have passed through Touvette on many occasions, often when the stars of Desna were my only guide. It is a peculiar land, carved from the very heart of the River Kingdoms, and yet it manages to hold itself apart from the rest of that chaotic menagerie. Most folk think of the River Kingdoms as a place of constant strife and shifting borders, and in that, they are not wrong. But Touvette is different. It is a collection of small, independent towns and city-states, each with its own pride and its own pocket of peace, even if it is a fragile one.
The land itself is lush, watered by countless streams and the great Sellen River to the south. The Echo Wood covers much of its northern expanse, a truly ancient forest where the light of the moon filters through the leaves in a way that reminds me of home. Ah, the Echo Wood… it’s a place of quiet mystery. You may hear the laughter of fey echoing through the trees, or perhaps the rustle of a satyr's hooves. Just be careful not to mistake a mischievous sprite for a lost child. I once saw a young, hot-headed adventurer offer a piece of bread to what he thought was a beggar boy, only to have his pack disappear and reappear three trees over, filled with frogs. A lesson on hospitality, I suppose!
Touvette’s history is a story of resistance and stubbornness. Unlike many of the more ambitious, self-proclaimed kings of the River Kingdoms, the people of Touvette have a collective will for self-governance. It is said that in ancient times, the land was a wild, untamed place, but it was settled by people who simply wished to be left alone. When the tyrannical lord of some nearby principality would come marching with his armies, the towns of Touvette would simply band together, not under one banner, but as a unified front of independent will. This tradition has held, more or less, to this day. There is no one king of Touvette; instead, its towns and villages are bound by a loose confederation, a pact of mutual aid and non-aggression. This is a rare thing indeed in the River Kingdoms, where a handshake is often worth less than the paper it's written on.
The main centers of population are often built along the river or at the edges of the Echo Wood. You'll find bustling river towns like Avendale, the so-called "City of Coins," a place where a mercenary’s word is as good as gold, so long as the gold is presented first. Then there's Sarkoris, the ancient home of the Sarkorian people, a place that holds a much darker history, having once been a land of barbarians and shamans before the Worldwound tore it asunder. The lingering scars of that ancient wound can still be felt in the whispers on the wind and the peculiar shadows in the woods.