Land is Kishatryas
Ah, the Land of the Kishatryas! A melting pot of the world, the crossroads of three continents. Home to the capitals of four ancient empires. The birthplace of that most vital race, the humans. The vast mountains and high valleys of the Shull bound it to the north. Beyond them lie the Darkling Plains, home to too many evils to enumerate. To the west lie the mountains of La, with their high passes to the vast plateau of Sa-mal, which leads to far-off Zind. To the East lie the Deserts of Desolation. Beyond them to the north and west lies the great civilizations of the Mid Sea, and my home, Elba. To the south and east lie the remains of ancient empires, such as Ypt and Lon, and the Bright Jungles teaming with monsters. Directly south of the Land lie thick marshes and mangrove jungles. Some say it leads to a storm tossed ocean.
The Land itself is one of rolling plains and thick forests. A thousand rivers course the Land, flowing from the mountains of Shull and La, and draining into the mires of the South. These rivers, and the access of passes to Zind, and of routes through the Deserts of Desolation, make the Land the great place for trade it is. And the great target for anyone, or thing, wishing to get rich in money, power or souls. It is a god-ridden place, with a god for every thing imaginable, and others I think no sane mind would ever imagine, existing there. In the great city of Baiyab lies the enormous temple complex of Ameniz, holding shrines to everyone one of the 357,760 gods they believe to exist. They have philosopher-priests there who do nothing but postulate the existence of gods, based on observations of the world and it wonders and horrors.
To defend these interests is where the kishatryas come in. They are mercenary warrior-bands who protect the trade routes, the cities, and the caravans. Sometimes they become wildly successful, and members of some of these bands settle down, running a city or caravan business. Others fail, and become part of the problem. Those are rare though, for as trade from far off places flows through the Land, so do monsters from all parts of the world, from giants from the Shull, or the horrors of grell and eye tyrants that live in the vast underdark beneath them to the raiding goblin slavers from the Darkling Plains, or the Sphinxes from the deserts, or the Dragons of Zind and La, or the chimeras and manticores and dragons of the Mid-Sea....
Oh, I am afraid that I have forgotten to introduce myself. Alias Higgenbothem, dromite, of Neve dela Aven upon Muiren, Elba, scion of the great Higgenbothem spice empire. I went to the Land to hire kishatryas, for a cerulean dragon had disrupted our main caravan route to Zind. What a motley group they were. Even so, I had no idea what an adventure they would lead me on...
