Drakar Highlands

"For the most part, I take exception to those who claim religious devotion. In the name of faith, they either do too little or too much. Harmony, ironically, is difficult to find in the devout. But the Drakar are a host within a mind. I find their deities nonsensical, for I have personally met what they claim to be divine and I must disagree, but one cannot claim they do not use their faith better than most. Now if only they had no love of war." - from the memoirs of Lewin Von Treet, Vault: the Land of Stuff and Things

The highlands of Vad are home to the Drakar people and their three holy sites, Oga, Skala, and Huggtand. The Drakar people are vehement adherents to the Dekad Draconum Scripture, which claims the ten elder dragons were the true inheritors of the divine power wielded by the gods of creation during the Constellation War. They believe the gods have no more power in the material plane and the elder dragons must claim their place as gods of the world.

The Highlands themselves are a gorgeous but harsh landscape of jutting rock, skyscraping peaks, and abyssal valleys. The terrain is nigh impassable and the Drakar have developed ways of traversing their homelands that take a lifetime to master. Despite its unforgiving landscape, the Drakar Highlands have a majesty unrivaled. The cries of raptors across the ranges, the swift winds against a cerulean sky,

and the verdant plateaus against rushing rivers is unspoiled by industry and the sprawl of cities. The history of Vad has taught all its denizens, including the Drakar, an unforgettable lesson: "the taller the spire, the greater the fire." No city is worth the lives of its people, and no community feels the need to grow beyond its means. This sentiment has begun to change in some places in Vad, but the Drakar feel it as true today as it was before the elder dragons came.

To that end, Drakar, being on the westward side of Vad, has long held as a rampart against the forces of Highcroft. Alongside Nemesis, the Drakar have put their devotion to their deities into action on numerous occasions. They made up the primary fighting force during Hellfall's campaign to retake the dragons' homeland. Their mastery of draconically infused magics, devotion to draconic martial arts, and their bonds to drakes as mounts and allies made them a formidable foe. But their reliance on their "god" turned into a liability when Hellfall was captured, deflating the morale of the Drakar, and removing them from the war. The end of the Firetide War soon followed.

For the last 130 years, the Drakar have re-evaluated what is important to them, and have welcomed Rosegloom as a necessary replacement for Hellfall. While the people of Nemesis are infuriated by this, which they consider an unforgivable betrayal, Drakar has benefited from Rosegloom's encouragement of peace, self-discovery, and not to mention her protection from outsiders who would wish the Drakar harm.

Now, the Highlands are a place where Drakewardens alight the mountains, monasteries teach wisdom and awareness, and the people worship in peace.

Rosegloom's fey influence can be felt, however, and it is not to the liking of the Drakar. The idea that one of the gods of the material plane could be so enamored with the Feywild is uncomfortable at best and sacrilegious at worst. The hearts of the Drakar people are in constant flux between devotion to their god and a certainty their god has lost her way. In recent times, this conflict has been vocalized more and more often, but it falls on Rosegloom's deaf ear. It is whispered that Hellfall's return would be welcome, uniting Vad once more in the wake of Rosegloom and Esperwake's disastrous reigns, but the Drakar worry the way of life they've cultivated over the last century would be in peril under Hellfall.

And there is reason to worry.