- → For the episode of the same name, see Xhorhas (episode).
Xhorhas, sometimes referred to as the Wastes of Xhorhas, is a large region spreading across the expansive wastes and turbulent badlands of eastern Wynandir in Wildemount. It includes multiple regions, governments, tribes, and loose confederations, but is dominated by the Kryn Dynasty, whose capital is the dark city of Rosohna.
Description[]
Xhorhas was once a densely forested region,[1] though at the beginning of the Calamity, it also had plains.[2] The climactic final battles of divine warfare in that period left Xhorhas a burnt and cracked wasteland surrounded by blackened marshes and jagged cliffs.[1]
Xhorhas is smaller than the Dwendalian Empire and, centuries after the Calamity, has few natural resources. It is a scarred landscape overrun with beasts and terrors left over from the Calamity.[3]
The northern lands of Xhorhas are ruled by the Kryn Dynasty. Its capital Rosohna was built in the ruins of Ghor Dranas, a former city of the Betrayer Gods during the Calamity,[4] and its settlements are connected by dirt roads.[5]
The southern portions of Xhorhas consist of marshes,[6] dense forests, and grasslands. Some areas, even if they have vegetation, seem drained or blighted, with even the ground itself being gray (such as that of the Barren Valley).[7]
History[]
A number of the large-scale battles at the end of the Age of Arcanum took place on Wildemount, culminating in the Calamity's final battle between the Betrayer Gods and the Prime Deities at Ghor Dranas. Much of Xhorhas remains a barren badlands from the intensity of that battle, lying cracked and destroyed.[8]
In the north, the drow slowly rebuilt on the ruins of Ghor Dranas, constructing a new city they named Rosohna. The power and reach of the Kryn Dynasty they established there continued to grow over hundreds of years, though hampered by the destruction and devastation of the surrounding landscape.
Geography[]
Fan art of the Penumbra Range, by Kent Davis.[art 3]
Xhorhas is bounded to the west by an almost unbroken mountain chain consisting of the Ashkeeper Peaks, the Brokenveil Bluffs, and the southern Dunrock Mountains. The eastern boundary of Xhorhas, separating it from Blightshore, is the Penumbra Range. To the north of Xhorhas is the Emerald Gulch Sea, and to the south is Whitedawn Lagoon and the Lucidian Ocean.
Kryn Dynasty lands[]
The Kryn Dynasty, as of 836 PD, controlled all of Xhorhas north of the Seepfeed River and also held the grasslands around the Many Hosts of Igrathad.
The Barbed Fields and surrounding area[]
Fan art of The Barbed Fields, by BlackSalander.[art 4]
Bounded almost entirely by the Penumbra Range and the large Vermaloc Wildwood, the Barbed Fields were ground zero for the final battles of the Calamity. The area is now a desolate wasteland, home to dangerous creatures and errant magic.[9] The notable exception to this desolation is the Arbor Exemplar, a lone, gigantic tree planted by the Wildmother at the end of the Calamity.
The Barbed Fields are ringed by roads connecting a few settlements:
Rosohna/Ghor Dranas: The capital city of the Kryn Dynasty, built on the ruins of Ghor Dranas.
Bazzoxan: A large village at the base of the jagged mountain cliffs at the northernmost point of the Penumbra Range. Surrounds a temple to the Betrayer Gods[10] that, in the time of the Calamity, was the seat of the Demon Princes of the Abyss.[11]- Wandering Oak's Grove: At the intersection of the Emerald Loop and the Hallowed Path leading out of the Barbed Fields to the west is a small forest seeded by a treant who later entrusted it to two dryads of Melora. Within the Grove is a caravan stop.[12]
Western Dynasty lands[]
Official art of Asarius, the City of Beasts, by BlackSalander.[art 5]
West of the Barbed Fields and the Vermaloc Wildwood are more badlands. From the Wandering Oak's Grove one can take the Emerald Loop, a road leading north to the Emerald Gulch Sea, or the Hallowed Path leading west. Both lead to settlements on the Ifolon River:
- Asarius is a mid-sized city serving as a military and cultural hub for the waste folk of northwestern Xhorhas.
- Jigow is a fishing town on the coast of the Emerald Gulch, mostly populated by orcs and goblins with a competitive culture.
West of the Ifolon River is the Honorwalk Road, which also connects the two settlements.
As one travels west toward the Brokenveil Bluffs, the wastes give way to wetlands. The Brokenveil Marsh is encompassed in the valleys of the craggy hills of the Brokenveil Bluffs.[13] The roaming town of Urzin slowly moves through the Marsh atop the massive, mossy shells of about 40 horizonback tortoises, accompanied by hundreds of tents and mobile huts.
South of Asarius and the Hallowed Path is a lake feeding the Ifolon River and then a grassland where the Kryn Dynasty has stitched together a loose confederation of peoples:
- The Sorrowseep Waters: A lake mysterious for its cleanliness and for its vegetation-obscured depths.
- The Many Hosts of Igrathad: A loosely united network of seven villages of different races located south of the Sorrowseep Waters.[14]
Lands not controlled by the Kryn Dynasty[]
Fan art of the Vermaloc Wildwood, by alexielapril.[art 6]
Near where the Vermaloc Wildwood meets the Penumbra Range are at least two settlements not controlled by the Kryn:
- The Braan: A stronghold of the stone giants not far from the Kryn's Deepriver Mining Camp.
- Dumaran: A hobgoblin stronghold in the south, turned into the headquarters of the Children of Malice.
Both the Dolorav tribe and Koshtask clan claim the lands between Igrathad's grassland and the southern reaches of the Vermaloc, including:
- The banks of the Seepfeed River, which, true to its name, feeds the Sorrowseep Waters from its source in the Penumbra Range.
- The Iothia Moorland which consists of hilly grasslands, muddy fields, swamps, and lakes in the west-central portion of Xhorhas.[15]
South of the Igrathad grasslands is the Lotusden Greenwood, a vast, leafy forest surrounded by somewhat swampy land.[16] Within the forest is a small village of halflings and dragonborn called Charis.[17]
The Iothia Moorland, the grasslands of Igrathad, and the Lotusden Greenwood all border the large, brackish, occasionally inhospitably warm Fevergulf Lake, which smells of sulfur and contains dangerous creatures.
Also south of Igrathad, and west of the Lotusden Greenwood, the Dreemoth Ravine cuts deeply through the southern tip of the Ashkeeper Peaks for almost 80 miles, ending just north of the Whitedawn Lagoon.
- Draconia: Draconia was once a floating archipelago of cities in the southwest of Xhorhas.[18][19] southeast of the Ashkeeper Peaks.[20] It was a dragonborn kingdom and the home of Tiberius Stormwind.
- Xarzith Kitril: The new dragonborn city constructed by the ravenites in the southern end of the Dreemoth Ravine after the fall of Draconia.
Official map of Xhorhas obtained by the Mighty Nein, by Deven Rue.[art 7]
Racial makeup[]
Humanoids
The most populous races are:[21]
- Elves, most of whom are drow (dark elves) in the Kryn Dynasty[22]
- Goblinkin: bugbears, goblins, and hobgoblins[23]
- Kobolds
- Lizardfolk
- Orcs[24]
- Tieflings[25]
Though countless dragonborn fled from the fall of Draconia into Xhorhas,[26] they are still less common than the above races as of about 836 PD. Few in Xhorhas encounter gnomes, and most of those are deep gnomes.[27]
Races that are rare in Xhorhas:
- Aasimar[28]
- Dwarves,[27] most of whom are duergar[29]
- Firbolgs[30]
- Genasi[31]
- Halflings[27]
- Humans,[32] of whom most are nomads[27]
The relative populations of other humanoid types are less precisely described, but don't seem particularly rare:
- Gnolls[33]
- Minotaurs[34][27]
- Humanoids of mixed ancestry, including half-elves[35] and half-orcs[24]
Giants, including hill giants, ogres,[36] and stone giants[37]
Fiends wander the wastes of Xhorhas. This list does not include the variety of demons concentrated in the Betrayers' Rise.
- Hezrou[38]
- Nergaliid - toad-like devils[39][40]
- Quasit[41]
- Shadow demon[41]
- Udaaks - large, dangerous, vaguely ape-like[42]
- Vrock[41]
Fauna[]
- Giant spiders - the legs of the spiders are marginally edible although they contain a toxin harmful to some[43][44]
- Gloomstalkers - inhabit the Barbed Fields and hidden lairs across Xhorhas[45]
- Horizonback tortoises - gigantic tortoises used as war machines[46]
- Mastodons[43]
- Moorbounders - giant cat-like creatures bred and used as mounts in Asarius,[47] but which also roam the wastes in wild packs[48]
- Purple worms - used as excavators and mounts by the Kryn.[49]
- Rocs - giant birds
- Sorrowsworns - inhabit the Barbed Fields
Trivia[]
- In the original Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the lifestyle and architecture of Xhorhas are said to be inspired by 13th century Romania.[4]
- In The Chronicles of Exandria - The Legend of Vox Machina Volume II, Xhorhas is described as an "evil empire", with the Dwendalian Empire being its "righteous rival".[50] This presumably reflects the Dwendalian propaganda surrounding the conflict between the two nations, since in reality both were morally complex.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 19.
- ↑ The kingdom of Ghor Dranas was founded on the plains of Xhorhas. See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 12.
- ↑ See "Curious Beginnings" (2x01) at 0:17:15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 99.
- ↑ The Hallowed Path and Emerald Loop are dirt roads. See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 39.
- ↑ See "Whispers of War" (2x18) at 1:25:16. Yasha states while talking to Trent Ikithon during the conclusion of the Victory Pit tournament why she had left Xhorhas.
- ↑ See "The Lost Light" (RTx08).
- ↑ See "The Mines of the Many" (1x98) at 2:15:18.
- ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 0:41:00.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 62.
- ↑ See "Beneath Bazzoxan" (2x66) at 2:11:54.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 45.
- ↑ See "Xhorhas" (2x51) at 0:50:05.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 138–139.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 139.
- ↑ See "Between the Lines" (2x78) from 3:00:27 through 3:01:26.
- ↑ See "Intervention" (2x63) at 0:46:04.
- ↑ From Matthew Mercer's tweet on the location of Draconia on Exandria.
- ↑ Matthew Mercer mentions that Draconia is on Wildemount. See "The Frigid Doom" (1x64) from 1:02:44 through 1:02:50.
- ↑ From this tweet further clarifying Draconia's location.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 15. This list doesn't include tieflings.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 163.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 174.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 178.
- ↑ Tieflings are "a common sight in Kryn society" and a significant population lives in Rosohna. See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 180.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 169.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 15.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 166.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 162. But see also p. 142, which says duergar make up 7% of the Kryn capital of Rosohna.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 169–170.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 171.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 165.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 6. See also pp. 132 and 146, which say gnolls are nearly a third of the population of the major city of Asarius and 21% of the roving settlement of Urzin, and p. 141, which notes that one of the seven villages of the Many Hosts of Igrathad belongs to gnolls.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 6.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 176.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 141.
- ↑ See "Perspective" (2x59) at 1:07:10.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 40–42.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 296.
- ↑ See "The Midnight Chase" (2x03) at 1:27:15.
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 40.
- ↑ See "Chases and Trees" (2x65) at 0:25:22.
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 198.
- ↑ See "Perspective" (2x59) at 1:40:29.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 291.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 292.
- ↑ See "Cornered" (2x53) at 0:51:10.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 39.
- ↑ See "The Cathedral" (2x86) at 0:20:01.
- ↑ The Chronicles of Exandria - The Legend of Vox Machina Volume II, p. 98.
Art:
- ↑ Official art of Xhorhas, from Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, by Kent Davis (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official map of Xhorhas, by Deven Rue from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. This page contains unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
- ↑ Fan art of the Penumbra Range, by Kent Davis (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of The Barbed Fields, by BlackSalander (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official art of Asarius, the City of Beasts, by BlackSalander (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of the Vermaloc Wildwood, by alexielapril (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official map of Xhorhas obtained by the Mighty Nein, by Deven Rue (source). This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.