Grazz’d (pronounced: Gr-a-zst)

History

The island country of Grazz’d was formed during the Dawn War, as a place to rally Lolth’s troops in preparation for an incursion into the elemental chaos, the end result of which was the defeat of the primordials.

As the Dawn War came to a close and the Gods retreated to the Astral Sea, taking the vast majority of their angels with them, Grazz’s found itself without a host and with an infestation of Lolth’s creatures as well as a sizable population of drow. The drow, eager to be recognized as a race worthy of trade, began to enamor themselves with the legions of good, many of them renouncing Lolth as their god. This was met with a distrustful eye from the other races, especially the drow’s kin, the Elves.

The elves began a political campaign against the Drow, in which the elves began to short change the drow in trade goods, the drow eager to please, took this opportunity to strengthen their bonds with the ever more resentful elves. This forced many drow into poverty, causing the once proud race into slums and homelessness. There were few champions for the drow, many of them drow themselves, there were however, a party of elves, five in all, who fought for their kin, arguing that they had as much right, as descendants of the fey as the elves themselves.

Fervor grew as this party began to draw encouragement from the drow until eventually the leader, Faeil Farhinon was assassinated by another elf.

This assassination sparked outrage and the drow began an uprising against the leaders of Grazz’d. This civil war was heavily one sided with the elves, dwarves and humans along with a few of the other, rarer, ‘good’ races joining in against the stereotypically evil drow.

The massacre left a few hundred drow out of the thousands that had existed. These drow went into hiding and sought forgiveness and respite in the arms of their long lost god.

Lolth upon hearing her followers pleas was moved into action, transforming no more than fifty of them into powerful priests of Lolth, with command of contingents of her army, this turned the tide of the battle, for with Lolth and her armies at their side, the drow fought the forces of the allied good to stalemate.

After nearly a decade of war, and heavy losses on both sides, for with only five of the mages were left and the allied good having lost a majority of their armies, a treaty was reached. This treaty granted the five mages a dominion over their own lands, which constituted half of Grazz’d and fair trade with those within and outside the borders of Grazz’d. In return, the drow, whilst able to worship their god, would no longer be able to practice her arts.

Peace was once again a resident of Grazz’d, however it was not to remain. With such great losses on their side and with a treaty so much in favour of the drow, the allied good felt disdain towards the other parties involved. This harbored animosity and led to squabbles between them, ultimately leading to the alliance of good breaking down. Whilst no war broke out, for the drow would not allow their hereditary land to be stained with blood any longer and hatred remained.

Three centuries later, the drow dominions have become sprawling cities of trade and order, highly successful by any measure, the humans, too, recognizing the virtue of this had partnered their kingdom with that of the drow and have become in themselves a large and bountiful, yet, heavily corrupted, systems in themselves.

The elves domains have become increasingly feral and the kingdoms themselves are near impossible to reach, though, rumors have led to the belief that the elves have attempted to recreate their long forgotten homes in the feywild, resulting in the mutated monstrosities being seen in the woods of Grazz’d.

True Grazz’d dwarves are rarely seen anymore as in their stone mausoleums they have become secluded and dig ever deeper, ridding the shame of their treaties with the drow.

Major Kingdoms and Cities
The largest cities in Grazz’d are the drow cities, however, many of the human cities are growing in size and will soon be equally if not more large.

The five remaining mages, known as Five of the Third (in reference to the drow being a third of Lolths initial elven creations, along with the Eladrin as well as of course the elves themselves) were each granted kingship of their own kingdoms, which they conjoined to create a co-governed super kingdom with its capital Alham located on the east coast of Grazz’d. Each of the King’s hometowns have been canonized into cities as well, each named after the Kings themselves.

They and their respective cities are:
Drael – Alham
Kruett – Spli
Dhra’ahm – Calerueg
Frazts – Steenwijk
Mrunahie – Bej

Their lesser towns are colloquially named after their fallen kin, though none are large enough to be called cities.

The human kingdom, which is, now of equal size to that of the drow’s is headed by one king, Rewen Irryl, whose city Anturr is said to be the most glorious of all in Grazz’d, namely due to the money gathered through the kings corruption. The town is nearly as large as Vard and contains large mineral deposits beneath it that belonged, once to the dwarves.

Geography

Lolth’s occupation on the island, even for the short time she had stayed had a vast effect on the land, with great variances in weather and topography throughout the land. The center of the land is mountainous and quite treacherous to travel into, it is here that a few of the older dwarven strongholds were built. The foothills of the mountains are covered in thick forestry and call themselves home to the elven population of Grazz’d (this further cemented the Elves and the Dwarves alliances).

There are also small deserts in Grazz’d whilst they are few and far between, they are treacherous to travel and are seldom approached during the summer months, thankfully however, there are very few who choose to take purchase there and those that do, tend not to do so for long.

The coastal areas are those that are home to the cities, making them difficult to travel between usually due to their distance from each other. Their proximity to water also makes the land lush and there is sprawling farmland that provides industry. Majority of the coast consists of beaches with large docks for trade as well as for fishing. There are a few coastal which aren’t beach fronted but rather are beside cliff faces which due to their lack of farm land and docking facilities are home to many schools of magic and religion, some of which are highly regarded in the material world.