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Vendhya

The Ruby of the South, Vendhya crouches in the jungles and coastal rivers deltas like a purring panther, beautiful and powerful, a magnificent civilization of ancient mysticism and pent vibrancy. Its villages are uncountable, its cities crowded and bustling. The hot sun and monsoon rains make it a steaming, mist-shrouded land of tropical splendor, decorated with squawking, colorful birds, indigo butterflies, and hauntingly enormous flowers draped in rich, dense foliage.

Like Turan to the north, it is a land-wealthy country, with vast stretches ripe for agricultural exploration as well as deserts, steppes, and mountainous regions. Rivers cross it everywhere, and despite the tropical heat in southern Vendhya, it is a flourishing, rich and cosmopolitan country, taking influences from Khitai to the east and Iranistan and Ghulistan to the west.

Vendhyans are dark-skinned people of unmatched beauty, often adorning themselves in garlands and jewels, unashamed and unafraid to celebrate their country’s enormous bounty. Even the most common of Vendhyan peasants are wealthy by Hyborian standards, and the country’s ample bounty ensures that few go hungry. The ruins of many long-forgotten cities lie between the villages, their stones toppled, and overgrown, and stained idols of unnamed gods stand as silent sentinels over quiet crypts where the wary fear to tread.

Though they are largely worshippers of Asura and Hanuman, there are countless gods in Vendhya, and the cultures of the land are as diverse as the land is large. Westerners tell tales of opulent cities where monkeys run freely in the streets, and enormous elephants are harnessed like oxen or adorned with tapestries and jeweled howdahs. A thousand spices waft through the markets to mingle with perfumes and the aromas of street food simmering everywhere, and Vendhya does trade with Khitai and other lands further east, unknown or only thought legendary in the West.

Lands of the Hyborian Age

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