The Empire of Lucarcia is formed of four main islands. Ibini in the east is populated by a snake venerating people. It is home to the most deadly snake in the world, the lethal naja snake. Northern Ibini is home to the vast majority of the population as this is the fertile region. Southern Ibini is entirely jungles, but this is the location of the Verdant Palace, ancestral home of the Jade House.

The recent revelations that House Jade was responsible for the opening of a gate to the Void and the summoning of the Naga into the lands, coupled with the death of Lily Jade and her daughter Kululu, leaves this island in a state of limbo. The three barons who rule northern Ibini appear to have stepped up measures against one another in a bid to become the most powerful force on this island.

The northern region of Ibini is the fertile area and where most of the approximately thirty thousand inhabitants live. It is a land controlled by three barons, from their estates. Though each technically swore fealty to the Verdant Queen, her recent death has opened a power vacuum. As such the barons have grown bold and are each eyeing the others' territories.

Five hundred years ago the Rainbow Empire was at its height in this region. High Magi of the Jade House specialized in nature magic, specifically in enhancing the powers and longevity of natural predators of the region. The infamous naja snake, a local and deadly venomous species, was a firm favourite with the High Magi, and legends tell they had perfected spells which gave these snakes exceptionally long life spans, whilst adding unusual powers to them. One legend tells that one of the High Magi settlements was guarded by a gigantic naja as big as a horse.

When the Sundering occurred around five hundred years ago, most of the High Magi were killed, and Emperor Lucar degreed the practice and study of all arcane magic banned. It is said that the few High Magi who lived in this region did not give up their powers and instead went into hiding. Legend has it that they exist still, practicing their arcane arts in the shadows. The major settlements they inhabited in the region were abandoned and slowly fell into disrepair and ruin. However the rumours of magically enhanced creatures with near infinite lifespans remained. And of course the rumours of powerful magical artefacts from that long-distant empire also remain. The few souls brave enough to enter one of these ruins and actually return are forever changed. Most will not talk of what they saw, and those that do tell tales which make them sound as madmen.

There are four major ruins from the era of the Rainbow Empire in Northern Ibini, though it is likely other, smaller ruins and remains exist in places. The major ruins are dotted around the territory – with one in each of the Barons’ lands, and one up in the mountains. Ask a dozen different people about them and you’ll get a dozen different answers. But all agree on one thing – they are not to be entered lightly.

With the creation of the fledgling Republic of Lucarcia, the ban on the practice of arcane arts has been lifted. However the population have been so used to the arcane arts being seen as a terrible evil, it is unlikely that they will return to the region very quickly and without a great deal of distrust from the common man.

The village of Aeer serves as one of two ports of call for the barony of Baron Isla. It is nestled in a large bay which makes it easy to approach and is also situated alongside a large swath of very productive arable land. The only concern for the villagers in the relatively close proximity of the mountains which are known to be inhabited by evil creatures.

The village itself is quite typical of the region. A road runs in from Barusi. Farmlands lie mostly to the north, encircled by the road. A small forest lies to the south and a big one off to the east, beyond the road. Beyond the forest the looming mountains look down over Aeer like an angry sentinel.

There is a fairly large dock here and more warehouses than would be expected for a settlement of this size. Guild ships are common here all season from early spring to late autumn. This is probably the most commonly visited location in Ibini for Guild ships along with its sister port of Carmelo to the north.

Baron Isla’s Enforcers are common here as she is keen to make sure the place feels safe for visitors and locals alike. The captain is called Eric and is a firm favourite of Overseer Emilia who appointed him personally.

A small chapel of the Light is central to the village and overlooks the docks. The tavern of the Favourable Zephyr is large and simple, but kept clean and wholesome. It is often the first place visitors to Ibini stay in, and as such Baron Isla gives the innkeeper, Sora, a small stipend every month to encourager to keep the place in good condition and very welcoming.

A large market square is surrounded by local businesses like a small smithy, baker and general store. These have close ties to the warehouses. Unusually the Guild of Master Merchants and Seafarers has recently set up an office here. So they now have a permanent presence here. People wonder if this is the beginnings of the Guild trying to expand its influence into the region, or if it signifies an alliance between Baron Isla and the Guild.

Barusi is one of three towns in Northern Ibini. Ruled by Baron Isla, this town is walled and surrounds the manor house of the local lord. She is an imposing figure, strong and intelligent. All the farmlands in the south west of this region are under the control of this town and its lord. Being the closest to the island of Manabas this Lord's lands are the first port of call for many Guild ships, which makes Baron Isla the richest of the three.

Barusi is the most opulent of the three towns in Northern Ibini. It is home to the biggest and most comfortable inn of the region, The Crafty Fox, which is a nod to the rich Guildsmen who often stay there. Curiously there is no church in this town. This is because the late Baron Abund was greatly opposed to the clergy of the Light. He was a devout man but did not agree with the practices of the holy men in Ibini. However his wife, the new Baron, understands that the people need hope in these darks times and so she has begun construction of a new Church here. As the town is walled and short of space, Baron Isla has given the church permission to build the church on a part of her land. She is also shrewd enough to know that having a powerful organisation like the Church of the Light being in her debt is a good idea.

As well as the Fox, there are two other inns in Barusi. The Drunken Mermaid and the Purple Parrot. Both have recently been renovated such that all three inns are now pleasant and comfortable establishments, offering cosy rooms. Rumour in the town is that Baron Isla subsidised the owners to carry out these upgrades, in a bid to make her town very attractive to live in. Perhaps she is trying to attract investment into the town from the Guild.

There are a myriad of typical shops and businesses inside the walls and more still are cropping up outside as the town grows too big to contain its populace. The best Smith in the region is based here, a man who claims to have been trained in far off Honshu, though he is clearly a local and not a foreigner. The usual bakers, food merchants and general stores are here. As are a series of warehouses where goods are stored for the Guildsmen. Each of the Guildsmen in the town is allowed to use these buildings and unusually a small detachment of a half dozen Guild mercenaries guard the warehouses. These men are well trained and well equipped. Rumour has it Baron Isla has asked them to help train her Enforcers. A large market square completes the business quarter, with the gallows here a constant reminder of Baron Isla’s pledge to protect her people.

A proper road leads south out of the town down to the wealthy farmlands and the village of Aeer. A less travelled track leads out to the north west and the villages of Carmelo and Epiedes. Travel in this region is perhaps the safest of anywhere in the north, with the roads regularly patrolled by Overseer Emilia and her Enforcers. The Overseer has taken the unusual approach of planting a large blue banner every mile down the road system, making a constant reminder to travellers that they are in Baron Isla’s territory and under her protection. Any bandits caught in this area are brought back to Barusi and hanged in the market square as a constant reminder that she will tolerate no attacks on travellers near the town.

The River Odd flows down into the Inner Sea next to the town, but outside its walls. The Odd Bridge spans the river here and links Barusi with the south east of Baron Isla’s lands. Wagons of food stuffs and produce commonly rumble over the bridge in both directions; bringing food into the town, or distributing goods from the further reaches of the continent to the outlying farmsteads and the village of Aeer.

Because Barusi is not a port it relies on the port villages of Aeer and Carmelo to connect it to Manabas and beyond. Baron Isla sees that as a major block to the development of the town, and so is in the planning stages of building a large dock just downriver from the Odd Bridge, where Guild ships could moor up. Experts think she would have to expand the river a bit too, for the bigger carracks to be able to navigate it.

Observers wonder where Baron Isla is getting all the money to fund her recent upgrades and improvements. She has renovated two inns, is building a church and is drawing up plans to build an entire dock outside the town walls. She is either spending all her reserves or must have some source of income unknown to most people. It is clear that if she can afford to continue this process Barusi will rapidly become the premiere location of Northern Ibini.

The best Smith in the region is based here, a man called Kastor, who claims to have been trained in far off Honshu, though he is clearly a local and not a foreigner.

A series of warehouses where goods are stored for the Guildsmen. Each of the Guildsmen in the town is allowed to use these buildings and unusually a small detachment of a half dozen Guild mercenaries guard the warehouses. These men are well trained and well equipped. Rumour has it Baron Isla has asked them to help train her Enforcers.

The church in this town is still under construction. This is because the late Baron Abund was greatly opposed to the clergy of the Light. He was a devout man but did not agree with the practices of the holy men in Ibini. However his wife, the new Baron, understands that the people need hope in these darks times and so she has begun construction of a new Church here. As the town is walled and short of space, Baron Isla has given the church permission to build the church on a part of her land. She is also shrewd enough to know that having a powerful organisation like the Church of the Light being in her debt is a good idea.

The Crafty Fox is the most comfortable inn in the region. The Purple Parrot has recently been renovated such that it is now a pleasant and comfortable establishment, offering cosy rooms. Rumour in the town is that Baron Isla subsidised the owners to carry out these upgrades, in a bid to make her town very attractive to live in.

Carmelo is a small town port on the north western end of Ibini. A few hundred people, maybe a thousand, live there. The primary trade there is fishing – they supply most of the fish for the region. The harbour itself is bigger than average for the size of the town and is deep, so it is a common stopping off point for traders from the Guild. As such there is a lot of wealth going through the town. The region does a lot of farming and much of the excess produce is sold to Guild traders who take it off to Manabas where farm lands are scarce and farm produce rarer.

Eli is the northerly most settlement on Ibini. It gains some shelter from the bay into which it nestles, and is Baron Arbek’s primary shipping port for his easterly produce. The villagers here are constantly concerned about attacks from Baron Gilbert’s men to the south, but so far nothing has materialised. Perhaps it be because Gilbert realises his farms are worth more than those of his northerly neighbours.

Eli has one very distinct landmark - a sixty foot tall lighthouse. The structure is built on a promontory which juts out into the Northern Ocean and is reachable only by boat or a causeway when the tide is out. A small house on the island is home to the lighthouse keeper.

Other than that, Eli is mostly just small homes where the locals live. There are the usual little shops and businesses here which cater for a settlement of this size. A baker, smithy and general store can be found near the centre of the village and the one inn is called the Shining Light. It is located next to a small church but the sign dangling from the inn's front shows it is named more for the lighthouse than the church.

A large warehouse is constructed here and is used to store some of the produce collected in the neighbouring farms. Baron Arbek has a series of warehouses outside of the village where the eastern produce is collected, so this warehouse is used as a temporary store for food which comes into the village to be sold onto Guild ships and also for any special Guild items which are unloaded here.

The farmlands around Eli village are not hugely productive and do not generate anything like as much consumables as those of their rivals to the south. It seems that the lands here are simply not as fertile.

Grunal is the most easterly of the three baronies in the region, which makes it the furtherst from the centre of the continent and the hardest for the Guild ships to reach. However Baron Gilbert, who rules here, controls the largest farming and arable lands on the whole of Ibini. So it is certainly worth the Guild ships with large holds making the longer journey to this far barony. Grunal is a walled town with a 15' tall wooden palisade surrounding the whole settlement. The walls have two gates - the southern one leads out towards the village of Zaneth; the northern one leads up towards the hamlet of Hillsend. The fast flowing River Ardeth flows into the town and out the other side, effectively splitting the settlement in half. Two wooden bridges span the river. The manor house of Baron Gilbert sits on the eastern side of the river and naturally this is where the nicer properties are located.

There are two inns in the town - The Torrent, which lies on the eastern side next to the river, and The Shack on the western side. The Torrent is more upmarket, but is still only pretty rudimentary. The Shack is as bad as its name implies. It is ramshackle, under disrepair and in need of some care. However the food, as cooked by the owner Mrs Ramsbottom, is exquisite. Rumour has it the Baron has tried to recruit her to his kitchens but she has always refused. Food in The Torrent is acceptable, but the overall ambience of The Torrent makes it the eatery of choice for most.

The town boasts a few simple shops and businesses - notably a smithy, a baker, a general goods store and a coal merchant. All of these buildings display the fox and scales symbol of the Guild somewhere on their premises, indicating their membership of the ubiquitous organization. There are two warehouses, one of which stores coal, the other stores farm produce from the surrounding area. Trade tends to be centred around coal and farm produce exports with imports being most everything else. A fair amount of fish also finds its way into the town from the port of Zaneth.

The town is controlled by the enforcers, led by Overseer Varnell. The enforcers typically wear light armour and carry an assortment of weapons. They are easily recognised by their orange bandanas or waist sashes. Varnell is easily recognised by his facial scar and missing eye. The enforcers are generally protective of the populace, proud of their role in defending the Baron's territories. Varnell is one of few people in the town to own a horse - which was a gift from the Baron.

Hillsend is a small hamlet, settled by miners who mine the coal mines of the nearby mountains.

Paradin is the northern-most town in Ibini. Reachable up river from the Northern Ocean, it is a regular stop for Guild ships. The entire northern stretch of the region is under the control of this town and its ruler, Baron Arbek. But he is probably the poorest of the three barons, and rumour has it he is looking to expand his influence in the region.

The lands around Paradin are the least fertile of this region. Only one small region of farmland lies between the town and the sea, following the River Charant as it flows out of the mountains and down into the Northern Ocean. The green bandana-wearing Enforcers of Baron Arbek are often seen in this region.

Baron Arbek’s lands are spread thin across the Northern Ocean here. A long road links Paradin in the west and the village of Eli in the east. This road follows close to the mountains and it is not a very safe place to travel. Desperate bandits often waylay travellers on this road from their base in Charant Forest, and sometimes worse things than bandits come down from their mountain lairs to feast on the unwary. Overseer Titus and his Enforcers are trying to make this a safer place but they are hard pressed and under resourced.

Paradin is the oldest and most rundown of the settlements in Northern Ibini. It was first settled back in the early days of the Rainbow Empire, when one of the first High Magi of the Jade House erected a tower here and moved in. He extended an offer to the locals to come and build houses near his tower and he would protect them, in exchange for a small fee. Thus Paradin became one of the first examples of feudal living in Lucarcia. The tower is still the most significant and dominant structures in the north, but has been abandoned since the fall of the Rainbow Empire five hundred years ago. It is locked and warded with ancient arcane magics which mean no one has been inside in living memory. The tower, like many other things in this region, is crafted to look like a giant naja snake, with its crest flared, poised to strike. It is made of the same strange green rock that Paradin Bridge is constructed of.

The next most significant building in the town is the Manor House of Baron Arbek. It’s also old and run down like most of the town. It is the biggest of the three baronial mansions in the region, but much of it is uninhabitable and deserted. The baron and his family live in one small section of the structure.

Paradin is not walled, unlike Grunal and Barusi, and as such is quite a sprawling settlement. The buildings run right down to the river where a dilapidated dock provides anchorage to the Guild ships which visit. Paradin has the advantage of being the only town in the region which also functions as a sea port. Warehouses abut the River Charant, and store all the foodstuffs grown across the north, ready for departure to Manabas. Incoming treasures from the empire are stored here before being distributed out into the region. The Baron used to buy most of the items coming here but lately more and more goods are being picked up by enterprising land merchants and shifted across the region.

The Naja Tower is one of the most significant and dominant structures of Northern Ibini. It stands just over 60 feet high and is crafted to look like an erect naja snake poised to strike. The tower even has a crest which is flared like the snake. Created nearly a thousand years ago by a High Magi of the Jade House, this tower is built of a rare and unusual stone quarried somewhere in the southern jungles of Ibini. The location of the quarry is now lost in the mists of time and it is no longer in use. The nearby Paradin Bridge was also quarried from the same stone.

The tower was abandoned at the fall of the Rainbow Empire just after the Sundering, five hundred years ago. It is locked and warded with powerful and ancient arcane magic, which means no one has been inside since its owners abandoned it. The tower faces the river and stands like a giant sentinel over the docks. Rumour has it that should the town of Paradin ever be threatened the Naja Tower will come to life to defend it. Mind you the same is also said of the Paradin Bridge.

A rumour has started in Paradin recently, telling of strange glowing lights being seen coming from the eyes of the Naja Tower. These tales are always third hand. You can never find someone who claims to actually have seen it themselves, it's always passed through a few people first. Some say that with the creation of the fledgling Lucarcian Republic and the lifting of the ban on arcane magic, the High Magi have returned and are practising their fell arts in the tower once more. Others say they never left…

The bridge which links Paradin and Eli provides a critical section of the Baron's infrastructure. It is made of stone and was constructed back in the days of the Rainbow Empire. The bridge was crafted to appear as a pair of gigantic naja snakes intertwined. At each end of the bridge the giant jaws of the two snakes are open and a traveller has to pass into the open mouth of the giant snake to cross the bridge. The quality of the carving is such that first time visitors to the bridge are often quite unnerved by the prospect of crossing it. The bridge is made from a strange green rock which historians would tell you was quarried deep in the jungles of the south lands of Ibini. The bridge is covered with relief carvings of various predators along its base. Rumour has it that if Paradin is ever threatened the two snakes will magically animate and come to the town’s defence.

The Ardeth flows down out of the mountains, past the small mining community at Hillsend, through the town of Grunal and out into the Eastern Ocean. It is a short and fast-flowing river along most of its length. During the summer it's used as a method to ship coal down to the town from the mines. During the winter months, the river becomes very fast at times and it's generally not considered safe to use it to travel. A rutted road follows the river, linking Hillsend and Grunal. This is the main form of transport when the river is considered too dangerous to use.

Spilk is a tiny hamlet on the south eastern shore of Northern Ibini. The people here pride themselves on being the most remote settlement in the continent (though impartial outsiders might point to the secluded Verdant Palace or the mountain fortress of Stoneheart as being more remote). The people here live off the land, farming and fishing to sustain themselves. They are under the protection of Baron Gilbert to the north and visits from his enforcers are common. Guild ships rarely make the trip this far south but at least one will do so each month. These are usually causes for great excitement in the hamlet.

Zaneth is a busy fishing port. Most if not all of Gilbert’s considerable farm produce flows through this village, as well as the fish which comes into it from the eastern seas. The road to Grunal is usually teaming with wagons going in both directions. It is perhaps the settlement which is furthest removed from the centre of the Lucarcian Continent.

A culture clash is underway in Zaneth. The old era is typified by superstitious fishermen, who are coming into increasing conflict with a new breed of ruthless merchants. It’s becoming common for an entire fish harvest to be bought out by a single merchant, and to be sold on at a profit without (from the fishers’ perspective) doing any real work. Construction is underway to “improve” the harbour i.e. make it more suitable for merchant vessels, but with less space for the fishing boats. So far the tension mostly manifests when coincidence means that a bountiful fishing season clashes with a particularly busy time for shipping. But the problem will only worsen with time, as the Guild influence continues to grow.

The southern half of Ibini is a mass of jungles. Covering the whole of the island from the mountains to the tip where a thin strip of tiny islands almost connects the island to Granita, this region is virtually uninhabited – at least by humans. It’s home to a huge amount of dangerous and deadly creatures, the most famous of which is the lethal naja snake. The Verdant Queen makes her home in the middle of the jungles in the Verdant Palace.

The Verdant Palace is well named. Covered with Verdigris, vines and trailing plants, it is difficult to make out the palace structure beneath the foliage. The building itself is constructed of white marble, which is now crumbling in places. The creepers and vines are slowly pushing their way into the cracks and literally pulling the palace apart stone by stone. The intense micro-climate of this region doesn't help, with the combination of mountains and verdant flora combining to ensure that little moisture escapes the area and that it is permanently wet or raining here.

From the outside it is possible to see that the palace is covered with soaring towers and minarets, and the centre of the whole structure is dominated by a huge glass dome, which once would have looked resplendent but now is tarnished and green, with moss covering its northern side. The Verdant Palace looks more like an abandoned ruin than the home of the Queen of Ibini.

The central glass dome rises nearly four hundred feet into the jungle skyline and the marble building itself stretches off into the near distance on both sides to be lost in the jungle. It is impossible to say exactly how big the place is. In what appears to be the centre, one can make out a pair of ornate looking double doors made from the same marble. The doors are carved with swirls and frescos which look chipped and tired. A trailing ivy vine climbs up one side of the doors and meanders across the top to disappear up into the canopy overhead.