Gol Algor

Capital:
Population: 2,376,600 (dwarves 64%, gnomes 25%, humans 6%, halflings 2%, elves 1%, hobgoblins 1%)
Government: Council of craftsmen
Imports:
Exports:

This Eastern dwarven realm is dedicated to the idea of progress. Its citizens are not content to just create everything according to the same old procedures - they want to find better procedures! Its many craftsmen constantly compete against each other, and this drive to excel attracts many master crafters from other lands - be they dwarves or not.

Industries

Life and Society

Government and Politics

Groups and Organisations

Religion

Important NPCs

Major Geographical Features

Important Towns and Cities

Markub (Large City, 341,782): This city is famous for its glass blowers. Its glasses, lenses, and colored window plates are renowned the world over, and always fetch high prices.
To the citizens of Markub, however, this is only a secondary concern. Their pride and joy is the Observatory, an array of giant telescopes on the mountain above the city. The dry air and the high quality of the lenses used in their construction allows viewers to see other planets as if they were close by. Most citizens of Gol Algor, and many other gnomes and dwarves from all over Rothea travel to this observatory at least once in their lives to marvel at it. A strange sect of predominantly gnomish priests controls access to the telescopes, and recruits from promising pilgrims.
Geniok (Large City, 237,772): Dwarves, as a rule, are not very interested in agriculture. As a result, the dwarves of Gol Algor were only too happy to leave the whole business to the gnomes - who founded the agricultural center of Geniok with typically gnomish twists.
Much of the city is covered by gigantic greenhouses kept hot by a ventilation system using a nearby volcano. The various gnomish families who built them try to outdo each other with the most outlandish plant hybrids, using seeds from distant lands (for which they are willing to pay high prices). But unlike distant Grüngarten, the focus is not merely on providing food and other useful substances - the gnomes have mastered the art of turning plants into entertainment as well. Friendly competitions using the oddest criteria abound, ranging from bardic contests using music intruments carved out of vegetables to creating fruits that explode spectacularly when ripe (the current record holder in the latter category had a splash radius of 13 yards). There are also rumors of a darker side to this, however - for example, it is reputed that a certain type of root which can be grown in the likeness of people (by using a drop of blood from that person to water them, among other ingredients) can also be used for casting curses and necromantic magic from a distance on the person they resemble...
Kiturab (City, 123,334): This city is considered one of the grandest architectonical marvels in the world. While other cities boast more inhabitants or taller buildings, Kiturab is unique in that the entire city is built on a single, rotating platform which completes a full circle every 24 hours. This causes some parts of the city to receive large amounts of sunlight during the day, while others are shrouded in permanent darkness.
The primarily gnomish inhabitants of Kiturab are all excessively proud of their grand work, and visitors who question the usefulness of such a structure will often be met with hostility. When asked why they have built such a city, the answers will vary - but most of them can boil down to a single sentence: "Because we could."
Nesef (City, 153,216): A border town facing the Gawaris Desert, Nesef has prospered on the trade between the inventors og Gol Algor and the far-ranging merchant caravans of the desert nomads. The city always had an open and friendly atmosphere, and was always accepting of even the strangest behaviors. Numerous expatriates from many lands have found the town's atmosphere to their liking and settled here.
However, a recent event has shaken the town. A lone traveller from the Gawaris desert suddenly started firing a wand of fireballs into the main market, killing more than 200 people before he could be killed in turn. A search of his room in the inn he had stayed in unearthed a letter claiming his attack was a protest for the many weapons and other support the League of Armach channeled to the Modernists of the Gawaris Desert through Nesef - and many of these weapons, while paid for by the League, had been built by Gol Algor.
Now tolerance has given way to a sense of suspicion of humans, foreigners, and especially those hailing from the Gawaris Desert. Trade has already begun to suffer, and those who remain are wondering what the future of the city will be...
Pymander (Large City, 215,278): Those who follow the latest trend in magical artifice agree on few things. But one of the things they agree upon is this: The very best and most advanced golems were developed in Pymander. The enchanters there delight in coming up with new and unusual golems, and there are frequent competitions to come up with golems suited for certain tasks - whether racing along a dangerous mountain trail or creating a certain number of swords within the shortest time possible. Thanks to the sale of their creations, Pymander is very wealthy indeed, and the League of Armach is among its best customers.
Sargoth (City, 173,558): The craftsmen of Sargoth have taken on an usual challenge: The conquest of the air. While there are numerous spells that allow one to fly, they usally work on only one person or a few individuals. The Sargothians instead want to fly through mechanical means. As a result, one can see all kinds of strange things in the airspace around the city, from prosaic balloons to gigantic mechanical birds to even stranger sights. Most of them end in nearby chasms (which explains why feather fall potions are so popular in the city), but there have been a few noteworthy successes. But the kind of research that seems to be the most promising right now involves a combination of mechanics and enchantments. While many purists decry this, these efforts have gained several very wealthy and influental sponsors. A prototype airship kept afloat by gigantic enchanted fans, the Pride of Sargoth, is scheduled to be completed sometime in the next few months. The military potential of this kind of technology hasn't been lost on other realms, most notably the League of Armach and the Hobgoblin Dominions, and as a result the city is crawling with spies.
Ushmim (Large City, 422,135): The main weapon producer of the kingdom, Ushmin has thrived from selling its products to the League of Armach, where the quality of its goods are greatly appreciated. Sympathy for the League runs high here, and comments about the less savory activities of the League are ignored at best, and taken as insults at worst. There are some people and organizations here that even want Gol Algor to join the League, claiming that such an alliance would be invincible and bring peace and order to the world, but the rulers of Gol Algor are steadfastly opposed to such a sentiment for the moment.

Important Sites

Regional History

Adventuring in Gol Algor

Adventure Seeds