THE ZARYKANS

Zarykov lies northeast of Eisenwäld, between the Northern Sea and the Inner Sea. Winter governs much of the year. The soil yields roots, tubers, and whatever else can be persuaded to grow before the frost returns. Zarykan cuisine has consequently discovered more uses for the humble turnip than nature likely intended.

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The country has belonged to several masters. Sarynth conquered it first and made it the northernmost province of the Empire. Horse nomads from the distant east later seized it in turn. The Zarykans eventually expelled their conquerors and became a free people, though every road, fortress, tomb, and family carries some remnant of those occupations.

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Their customs remain rooted in the knightly traditions of Herculanum, while their architecture and funerary rites bear the unmistakable influence of Egypt. Timber halls and royal castles stand beside obelisks, pyramidal tombs, and necropolises covered in snow. Foreign scholars attempt to classify Zarykov as belonging to one world or the other. The Zarykans have wisely declined to become simpler for their convenience.

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Mitra is worshipped by seven people in ten, making Zarykov the only great culture where the old god commands a majority. His priests and priestesses uphold light, truth, sacred oaths, discipline, and the struggle against darkness. They are not merely temple keepers but the great heroes of Zarykan tradition.

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The remaining people largely follow the Egyptian Pantheon, with a small Olympetic minority. Zarykan kings and queens still employ knights sworn to the Herculean Code of Chivalry, although the Order of Hercules itself does not operate here. A knight may therefore honor Herculean courage while receiving a blessing from a priestess of Mitra before defending a tomb built according to Khemuran custom. No Zarykan considers this especially confusing.

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There are darker reasons the light of Mitra is cherished. Baba Yaga, the First Witch, is believed to move through the forests and forgotten roads of Zarykov. Her name is spoken cautiously, if at all. Zarykans fear her with a depth that outsiders sometimes mistake for superstition. Outsiders are encouraged to test that judgment without local company.

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Agents of Koschei the Deathless also cross the mountains and wild country. Giants and stranger servants of the yellow king of giants appear in old accounts and recent warnings alike. Between witch-haunted forests, brutal winters, and the ambitions of neighboring powers, Zarykov has never lacked enemies.

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This has made the Zarykans difficult to rule and harder to frighten. They are a people assembled from conquest without being defined by conquerors: knights beneath sun emblems, northern halls beside desert tombs, and free villages standing where empires once drew provincial borders. Their country is cold, poor, and haunted. It is also theirs.

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—Lantern of the Thirteenth Word