Hex Crawl 23 General Lore 8: The Vassal Kingdom of Wahattu

Our hexcrawl will now move west of the Scarp, and enter the kingdom of Wahattu once more, starting in the Dhuga hills and moving across-down, and up again until the cities of Gesshed and Eryptos together with their hinterlands have been described.

Wahattu

(demonym: Wahatti)

Wahattu lies to the east of the central plain of Urighem, its arable watersheds mingling with increasingly dry and rough land as one moves south and east. The eastern border of the land is officially the long, high, and difficult ridge known as the Sickle Scarp. The actual eastern limit of land defended by the Vassal King, though, is marked by the dryland town of Gesshed, the fertile province of Pnokath, and the line of defensive towers maintained along their edges. Eastward of this line is an uncertain, sparsely settled, and somewhat weird land where the near-abandoned Road of Flowers, Nam'aa, leads between hill and desert to the Scarp. To the south of Wahattu is the forbidding Akebi desert, and northward lie abandoned lands fronting on the inhospitable Sea of Salt.

Map scale: 1 hex = 25 miles

Wahattu's easily entered western border has ensured its status as a vassal of Urighem for millennia. With the decay of the Urig state in recent centuries the Wahatti kings have comported themselves more independently, though always with the careful deference that forestalls outright clampdown. When the last refugees from the abandoned and overrun land of Dulsharna trickled through the Notch of Alakran a year ago, this only intensified the already existing sense that Wahatti were the last human resource saving the Empire from its own indolence.

The Wahatti national character is striving, resolute and forward-thinking, within the limits of its millennia-long servitude to the Ilu-Barag. Their military might is not composed of hordes of soldiers, which might be threatening to their sovereigns, but depends on highly trained strike forces adept in irregular and mobile warfare, mostly disposed along the eastern border. Long spears, slings, thrown weapons, and fast bird cavalry and antelope chariots disguised as "hunting societies" are most of the order of battle. The polity is menaced by the Hyena Mother gnoll tribes who mass on the far side of the Scarp, and by disorganized groups of dekanter goblins, desert lizard tribes, and lawless bandits in the wild places. Many weird phenomena can be seen in these lands, a by-product of the long history of the place as a refuge for powerful eccentrics.

Wahatti both male and female curl their hair if it is straight, often to shoulder length, and the men wear long plaited beards. Clothing is of goat and camel wool and felt, dyed in earth tones, with linen reserved for underclothes, and occasional bright accessories. The young and attractive delight in showing off tunics and skirts of net and macrame.

Produce is a variety of dryland grains (sorghum, millet, buckwheat, amaranth), orchard fruits and nuts, and garden crops. Goats and occasional sheep are raised for meat, milk, and a kind of thick, chunky yogurt. Game is often on the menu, and little escapes the plate, from birds to snakes to lizards and even jerboas.

Mitraism is dominant, and Set's cult is accommodated but little enough in evidence. A few fanatical Mitraist communities exist, and some Odausian hermits have come this far to find true solitude in the wilds.