Aquiba, the river realms
In the huge delta to the south of Slaagnia lies a place called Aquiba. It is a collection of small city states which have one thing in common. They all lie in the delta of the river “Teruo” and each city is build around a huge black pillar ending in two crossed rings. These pillars are crafted from black obsidian and has beautiful iconic carvings from top to bottom. In each of the two rings set about 50 cm apart there is a strange rune engraved. The runes may be from an ancient language or from some old form of spell craft, but no one was been able to decipher them in recent history.
Each city state controls a small part of the delta and is an independent government, their only relationship with each other is through trade and transportation. There are occasionally small local skirmishes between rival cities but otherwise the general attitude between the cities is quite neutral.
Many areas within the delta are still unexplored and there are rumors of hidden cities and temples build by the creators of the pillars in the deep delta. But since it is quite dangerous to venture into the unknown, not many have tried to claim what riches may be found out in the delta.
Almost all of the inhabitants of the delta city state are humans, and there are very few other civilized humanoid races. Most of the people here are shorter than other humans. Their average height is about 1.6 meters. They have light brown skin and dark hair.
Most priest in the river realms are members of a cult who worship the pillars as the tools of a divine being just known as the keeper of the old. There are a few druids who don’t share this faith but other priests are hunted down and either prosecuted for false beliefs or cast out. The cult of the keeper of the old has a lot of influence among the rulers and many people accept their preaching’s without questions. The cult is aligned with some greater power for the members are able to wield minor spell like powers through their prayers.
The pillars of the river realms
The pillars were created over 2500 years ago, by a breed of half lizards. They lived in a huge network of cities that were all build around a temple and a pillar. They communicated between the cities using the pillars and they also worshiped their god through the pillars. Each pillar is a minor artifact and they can not be destroyed by normal means. If one knows the right rituals or command words, this person can use the pillars to scry on other pillars, commune with the other pillars, teleport between the pillars, use divination and if all the pillars are activated at once create a dimensional portal to the realm of the keeper.
The fate of the half lizards has been lost over time, and very few recordings remain from the last final hours of their dominion. During the first years of the age of war large armies of Lizard men moved into the swamps. The half lizards tried to drive the lizard men out of the swamps by slaughtering village after village of them. But after a series of huge battles the lizard men defeated and killed most of the half lizard’s army. As a last desperate act the half lizards tried to call upon their god for help, but something went wrong with the ritual and almost the entire race was trapped in an alternate dimension.