Capital: VarrthanePopulation: 343,520 (41% human, 35% hobgoblin, 10% goblin, 7% Halfling, 5 % Half-Elf, 2% Elf)
Government: Anarchy (War-time)
Religions: Gods of the Chalice, Gods of Woe, Anntaeus
Imports: Metalwork goods, glass, textiles
Exports: Grain, livestock, lumber, copper
Updated Through: 2806
In the upland moors that lay east of the river Selduin, lies the quiet, ordered realm of Annvar. The land consists of small towns and villages spread out across the hills and vales, engaged largely in the raising of sheep and cattle.
For many centuries, Annvar was prostrate under the iron rule of the priesthood of a god named Anntaeus. The extremely rigid and spartan priesthood of Magistrates answered to the high lawgiver known as the Consul, who was replaced every seven years. However, the god and his priests were a sham. They did not exist.
In the year 2798, a group of adventurers named the Company of the Lance revealed that the priesthood of Anntaeus was a lie created by a secretive race known as the illithids, or mind-flayers. These foul creatures live on a diet of the brains of humanoids. A city of illithids below the mountains of eastern Annvar had created the sham religion as a means to control the surface population and provide a steady supply of slaves. With some small aid from the Elven Court of Celendor, the Company of the Lance led a rebellion against the illithids in their capitol of Ulairus.
Though the priesthood of Anntaeus is largely gone, and the illthids are now no more than one power among many, the war rages on. Individual cities vie for supremacy, and several hobgoblin warlords from Carhallas have brought their warbands into the area.
The Sunstones
The wealth of Annvar is not only in its highly-prized cattle, but in its mines, from which are taken silver, iron, and the golden-hued semi-precious gems known as sunstones. Sunstones are very popular throughout Vatheria as both jewelry and currency, and the trade in them has made the merchants of Annvar wealthy and welcome in many lands. The Consul was said to carry a sunstone the size of a human fist as his badge of office.
HISTORY
Annvar is a relatively new nation, having emerged from a collection of scattered cities and towns just over one hundred years ago. The region was a sparsely-settled part of the Conorrian Empire until the arrival of the Vaul tribes in the 23rd century. The weakened empire was forced to accept the Vaul as an allied client state, rather than as the refugees they truly were, and the plain of Annvar was never again wholly under Conorrian control.
The Vaul became farmers in the Conorrian vein, and soon assumed most of the cultural identity of the Conorrians, except for their own notions of rulership, which came not from tradition and law, but from power and strength. They believed that the strongest should lead, and that others should follow or die. Thus the Vaul tribes who were to become the Annvarians subjected themselves to centuries of internecine struggle for control, while their best and most ambitious left to become generals and even emperors in Conorria.
By the 27th century, the Vaul had blended with lesser tribes and with the native Conorrians of the region to become the Annvarians. Their constant struggle against the goblinoid tribes of the Tarrakas mountains to the east and the ancient power of the Celendor elves to the west made them a strong, vigorous people in war, but divided and slowly dying. Into this chaos came Ecthevorn, self-proclaimed prophet of a new god, Anntaeus. Ecthevorns philosopy appealed to the strength-loving Vaul, and they soon rallied to this new religion and nation. Their farmer-armies, lead by priests of Anntaeus, drove out the marauding bands of orcs and hobgoblins, and established a new border with the proud elves through astute diplomacy. Ecthevorn became the first consul, and ruled for twenty-one years. After his death, it was decided that all future consuls would reign for only seven years.
In 2726, Annvar went to war for only the second time, this time against the nation of Pelendur, where it was badly defeated at the battle of the Harrow Pass. After the war, there was a brief uprising by Annvarians living along the Pelendur border, but these were put down by the Magistrates and the leaders severely punished.
In 2798, The Company of the Lance proved that Anntaeus was a mere lie, a tool of the secretive illithids who plotted under the fortress of Ulairus.
MAJOR POPULATION CENTERS
Varthane (Small city; population 44,000). A once neat and orderly collection of modest buildings on the shores of Lake Linnon, Varthane is perhaps was best known for its safety and cleanliness. The population has swelled during the war, and many of its inhabitants now live in squalid conditions along the lakeshore.
Bellias (Large town; population 9,500) Bellias is a border town, and receives most of the trade passing between Annvar and the Empire. It is more colorful than most Annvar towns, but is still dreary by Conorrian standards. The town holds a garrison of three hundred soldiers whose job is mostly to keep the peace among foreign traders new to Annvar. Most travelers stay at the Iron Boar, a large inn, tavern and general store run by an enterprising family of halfling merchants.
Ulairus (Illithid city; population 12,000) Once the seat of the worship of Anntaeus, Ulairus is now revealed as merely the surface level of a city of illithids. It is powerfully built, capable of holding off an army with a very small force.
IMPORTANT LOCAL SITES
The Niharn Arch – One of the best-known Iridian relics, this seventy-foot tall, forty-foot wide arch of black basalt rises on the fertile Mardan plain, a monument to greatness past. The arch is considered sacred by the priests of Annvar, and fierce temple warriors keep all but the priests at bay.
The Plain of Bones – In the southwestern marches of Annvar there is a stark, dry plain where once two mighty armies met. Orcs and goblins filled the ranks of one, elves and men the other. The armies battled for seven days on this remote corner of the world, and the battle left so few alive that there were none to bury the dead. And so one still finds, mile after mile, the long-dead remains of those ancient warriors slowly being ground to white dust by the winds and passage of time. Occasionally, some object of interest or danger can be found amid the bones. On moonlit nights, the untended souls of the dead wander this region, and so the living avoid it.