Kalyr Today

Most kandar now live in fortified cities, surrounded by vast human-worked plantations. They tend to be arrogant and superior, and look down on other races. They have a caste system, the four castes being Nobles (exclusively kandar), Citizens (almost all kandar), Freemen (mostly human), and finally Slaves (all human).

There are now three main kandar nations. In the South, conservative and decadent, lies The Great Kandar Empire, which once ruled a much larger area. In the north-east is The Konaic Empire, a militaristic expansionist tyranny. In the north-west is a federation of three semi-independent city-states, Filgeth, Calbeyn and Ravenah.

Life in a kandar city varies according to social status, which is in turn largely dependant on race. At the top of the heap are the kandar nobles. They receive an excellent classical education, and will have been expected to look down the lower orders, especially humans. Beneath them are the Citizens, the professional caste, mostly kandar, living in the better (but not quite the best) part of town. Such people work as city administrators, merchants, senior guild officials, priests, wizards, artists, architects, career soldiers or physicians. They are likely to have received a good education. Beneath them are the Freemen. The better off Freemen are the, guildsmen, a mix of kandar and human, craftsmen or shopkeepers, belonging to the appropriate craft guild. At the bottom of the heap are the poorest humans. They struggle to make a living, not necessarily always managing to stay on the right side of the law. They live in decaying tenement buildings, possibly underground, maybe partly collapsed. Life can often be nasty, brutish and short, and such people need wits and street skills to survive.

The cities are surrounded by "civilised" areas, dotted with farming villages and plantations that exist to supply food for the city. Most people outside the cities are agricultural labourers, either workers on a kandar-owned plantation, tenant farmers struggling to earn enough to pay the rent on a piece of poorer- quality land, or free farmers scratching a living on the poorest quality land on the very edge of the civilised area. City dwellers tend to regard people from outside the city walls as "hicks".

The wilderness areas beyond the farms are not totally unoccupied. Large areas are thinly populated by communities of humans and other races, many of which were founded by escaped slaves. Life in these communities is hard, under constant threat of attack from bands of outlaws, or by the kandar trying to eradicate outlaws. Anyone from outside the "bounds of civilisation" will be looked down upon in any kandar-ruled area.

The Zughru still live in their warrens beneath the mountains. Very little is known about the zughru kingdoms, but there are rumours of fabulous wealth and wondrous devices. There is a long-running border war in the supposedly mineral-rich foothills of the mountains between the zughru and the kandar of Calbeyn and Filgeth. There is little real fighting, but there are quite frequent skirmishes. These skirmishes are just about the only time zughru are ever seen above ground.

There are still survivors of the kandar's earlier slave races around. The reptilian Lesardaan have now reverted to savagery, but the small purple Uleem are occasionally encountered in kandar lands, often as merchants and traders, or as thieves. In the wilds, the savage Vordral may be encountered, hideous warped creatures who first appeared during the times of darkness. There are rumours of other, stranger races living in remote areas.

The landscape is full of relics of ancient times. Ancient ruins litter wilderness areas, many of them reputed to be haunted. One might encounter a devastated area where the very rocks have melted, or a line of decayed towers, purpose forgotten, marching across the horizon.

-- Tim Hall - 09 Nov 2002