Imbara

Patron: None
Ruler: Khanal Bonebiter Voun, War Bringer
Capital: Seaspite
Primary Race: Half-Orc, Human
Primary Language: Imbaran
Suggested Traits: Bullheaded, Child of the South, Competitive, Courageous, Defiance, Duelist, Experienced, Hardy, Islander, Kitted Out, Militia, Play Hard, Sea Legs, Work Hard, Where it Hurts
Regional Feat: Spirit Undaunted

Description

Few groups are able to survive without the help of a patron, and of those, fewer still are able to do so well.  Most cling to life, perhaps a few dozen individuals counting down the generations until they are gone forever.  But not so with the proud warriors of Imbara, in whom the blood of man and orc mix; even the nominally 'human' members of this society have some orcish heredity.

Imbaran society is based around fishing and farming during half the year, and conducting coastal raids on near-by nations during the other half.  Swift, low-slung ships are piled with dozens of warriors and set out to claim whatever booty can be found: gold, spices, works of art, and, most precious of all, magic items.  Ships will often carry a crew entirely of men or entirely of women and these unisex boats will compete with each other, whichever gender that performs best getting the bragging rights for the rest of the year, swaggering around the cities of Imbara and mocking the other group.

They are a devoutly martial culture, with no qualities being more prized than courage and performance in battle.  Their ruler, known as the War Bringer, is chosen from the most accomplished captains, with the position often secured through displays of prowess in battle and ludicrous bribes paid to other captains with plunder from their voyages.  Though they are brutal combatants and raiders, they have their own sense of justice: on a raid, they will not kill children or the elderly unless they attack the raiders first, and they will generally spare the lives of those who surrender unless they have committed some act of treachery or cowardice first.

History

At the dusk of the Age of Heroes, the Imbar Islands were home to the Fettered Spire, the great prison where half the world sent its worst criminals for punishment prior to their executions.  When the Well was destroyed and society began to collapse, the wardens of the Spire decided that the criminals would be left to starve to death in their cells, the energy of the wardens better spent on trying to help the other islanders survive the coming trials.  But one of the wardens felt pity for the prisons and, without informing his captain, deactivated the magic seals and told the prisoners to flee for their lives.

That warden was the first to die, before the hundreds of prisoners swept out and across the island, hunting down the wardens and setting themselves up as kings in the defenseless towns and villages.

But then the monsters came and the tiny kingdoms died, one after another, as abominations crawled out of the sea hundred for flesh.  So began the long battle that would last centuries, as the villages slowly united and fought back, sometimes pushing their foes to the shoreline, other times being forced to withdraw to the gates of their walled cities.  As the years ground on, the people of the Imbar Islands became very good at war.

The stalemate broke when the leader of the monstrosities attacking the islands presented itself, the great Aboleth King Tursvarssa.  It demanded that the islanders bend knee in worship to it and, in turn, it would end the attacks.  Tursvarssa died with an Imbaran axe buried in its brain and, from that day forward, the people of the islands swore they would never kneel to any monster nor have truck with those that did.

Foreign Relations

Imbarans consider themselves superior to any group or culture that embraces a patron, which they see as weakening the humanoid races as a whole.  If a nation does so, they essentially have declared themselves fair game for raiding by 'true' humanoids.  That being said, they generally restrict their raids to coastal nations near the Imbar Islands, such as Skunting, Tythald Gate, the Tyrancy, and Tholaqua, as well as Estruaza, though they have a healthy respect of the fey sword-sages.  Especially daring War Bringers will gather a small fleet of ships and occasionally raid one of the larger, more heavily-guarded ports of the Tide Princes.  The one nation within their reach that they tend to avoid is the Chorate of Dwallutham, out of a near-religious fear of the ogres.