Amsar (concept)
Biozone: Amsar
Amsar is a land of immense ecological diversity, and over the long ages has seen drastic changes to both its human and animal inhabitants. Deep in antiquity it was known as an arid land. In those days, only some lucky regions in lower Amsar were graced with enough water to support meager vegetation and itinerant farming. Today, that same region is a lush paradise crisscrossed by farms, orchards, and well-groomed woodlands kept as hunting preserves by the nobility. Only the mountains of Amsar have remained almost unchanged from this nearly forgotten age. Foreboding, immense, and riddled with a labyrinth of enigmatic stone highways strung across its peaks and valleys, they have a way of swallowing up even the most well-prepared travelers.
In Amsar game can be found aplenty, thanks in large part to the efforts of bored Qanamsars from ages past, who decreed the importation of the wild game their once-desert land was missing. Most of these animals are benign, but populations of wolves, lions, and other dangerous predators have taken root in the hinterlands thanks to the fickle adventurism of the Hiklahn's often eccentric high nobility.
These same nobles can also be thanked for driving the Amsar valley's oldest and strangest inhabitants uphill into the mountains, thus turning the valley into the place of tranquility and safety it is today. Nevertheless, among the great and ancient peaks those entities from the dawn of time still lurk, gazing enviously upon the green and bounteous valley below.
Amsar refers to both the region itself and as an alternate name for the Amsari Hiklahn. It borders untamed lands to the west, the arid Kemsar to the south, and the Sheharddi city-states to the southeast. Amsar is a land of striking contrasts, ranging from barren hills to lush plains nourished by rivers descending from distant mountains. Its geographical isolation has profoundly influenced its history and culture, fostering an inward-looking realm with limited engagement economically and politically from the rest of Sarradon.
To outsiders, Amsar often appears as a single, unified, and stable realm, its vast coastline dotted with imposing fortresses and prosperous cities. However, beneath this façade lies a complex history marked by internal crises, partly fueled by frequent siblicide among the most powerful dynasties, cutthroat politics, and periods of profound uncertainty, the most recent to date being the Century of Crisis.
The region's recent history is inseparable from the people who share its name, the Amsari, as well as The Prophet. As such, Dream Magi hold a revered position in Amsari society and is often theorized by scholars to represent the central form of magic from which all others originate. Most Magi are Frazan or have at least undergone training under the Frazani.