L'r Tost
Patron: Larako Five-Crowned (Royal Naga)
Capital: Blackvine Temple
Primary Race: Nagaji
Primary Language: Hessa
Suggested Traits: Beacon of Faith, Cooperative, Focused Mind, Handler, Islander, Levelheaded, Ruin Explorer, Sea Legs, Work Hard
Regional Feat: Power in Unity
Description
Magic can be returned to the mortals of Zenáthras if only they purify their minds and their spirits through meditation, cleansing all the black energy that prevents them from touching on their inherent numina. These are the beliefs of the nagaji of L'r Tost, guided by the naga from whom they claim lineal descent back in the Era of the Walking Gods.
In hopes of hastening the return of magic, vast temple structures are built into the swamps and mountainsides where their walls are battered by the constant typhoons thrown north by the Great Equatorial Storm. Inside, hundreds of nagaji can be heard to chant rhythmically for hours on end, long sutras penned by naga poet-mystics who believe they series of sounds have a purgative effective on the soul, eliminating disharmony with every syllable. These temples and the good works of those within are defended by the nagaji who live outside, facing the monsters of the swamp and attacks by marauding lizardfolk out of Tholaqua, as well as investigating the sunken ruins that fill the jungle mire.
History
What is today L'r Tost was once the place where pilgrims and scholars on their way to the Isle of Stone would stop to rest and see to their...less academic needs. When Chakzinatl emerged and devastated the renamed Isle of Fire, the linnorm monsters he released rampaged wildly, many of them tearing across the southern reaches of Isle Tymot. In their wake was only wreckage and death, the salt swamps of their passage growing over with hardy mangrove and ferns and crawling vines.
The land would remain vacant, the haunt of deadly monsters without humanoid prey, until refugees fleeing the rise of Geddephron in the north found their way to the small islands off of Tymot's western shore. Here, they discovered a beautiful temple seemingly untouched in the middle of a fetid swamp that had claimed half their numbers in the trekking. Inside, they were received by the naga, who recognized the settlers as nagaji, their ancient kin and so had allowed them to find their home.
It is from that fateful meeting that the whole of L'r Tost grew, with the nagaji discovering their old ancestral roots and taking up the teachings of the naga as their own. They spread north and east across Tymot until they came up against the villages of Marukeem. Upon meeting outsiders, they decided to focus instead on building and defending the lands they had claimed and so the work on their great temples began, which is a labor that continues to this day.
Foreign Relations
L'r Tost, like many nations in modern Zenáthras, is fairly insular, though they are not outright hostile to foreigners. They have civil discourse with their Marukemi neighbors and also permit ships from the Tide Princes to dock at their ports, though few merchants have found profit enough there to encourage much interchange. They also welcome any pilgrim who wishes to come and study at the feet...err, coils...of the naga and learn their arts of meditation and introspection. Their only actively aggressive relation is with the lizardfolk of Tholaqua, with whom they in a constant state of conflict as the lizardfolk send raiders in long war canoes to try and destroy L'rin Tost settlements and desecrate their temples.