On the Subject of Kunark

[Sevel]

Only the Strongest Survive. That’s what they say.

Only the strong survived the uprising against the Shissar in the days of our forebears. Only the strong survived the perilous exodus to New Sebilis during the ruin of the Dragon War. The weak are only dead weight to the strong, and so the weak are unwelcome in Cabilis.

The Rise of New Sebilis

~Xerotahs Amminat


In the shimmering sea of Creation there stands an island. Vast in its reaches, and treacherous in its climates, this is the island of Kunark. Very little is known about Kunark save that it is inhabited by the territorial Iksar people. Limited evidence gathered by outside exploration suggests that in millennia past, other beings may have been the ruling society of this land, possibly even dragons, at some point in the island’s history. The Iksar own it now, and while many reaches of the island are perilous even for them, they patrol the borders of their isolated world with paranoid diligence, shunning all outsiders with near-religious fervor.

At the heart of the island, near the great Lake of Ill Omen, stands the city of Cabilis. Nigh impregnable, the city stands behind high stone walls in defiance of the surrounding landscape. With jungle and swamplands to the south and east, scorched desert plains to the north, and the lake itself to the west, Cabilis stands as a bastion of strength in an uncivilized land.

The threats that occupy the lands beyond Cabilis are many and varied, but the counterthreats to those who would threaten Cabilis never sleep. For in this city, Strength is the cost to live, and each inhabitant has proven themselves stronger than the dangers of wild Kunark. Iksar society is strict and exacting, forged by generations of warring for survival. With their strength and their resolve, the Iksar enjoy a disciplined and relatively peaceful, if competitive internal society, untroubled by and uninterested in the world outside their walls, much less beyond their shores. Each day that smoke rises from the volcanic summit of the “Overthere” beyond the lake, the Iksar are content to let things continue on as they are.