Alodia

Alodia is the most remote of the three Nubian kingdoms. It extends south from the fifth cataract to beyond the confluence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers. The capital of Alodia is Soba. The king of Alodia is a great king, like that of Makuria, who rules over several subkingdoms from his capital at Soba; in Alodia's case, these number nine: Atbai, Bayuda, Butana, Gezira, Kabushia, Kassala, Keraba, Meroë, and Soba.

An Old Man of the Forest surprises the characters by suddenly appearing in front of them. This magical elephant considers himself the guardian of the Valley of Elephants, and he has become apprised of a plan that threatens the resources of his species. A local king plans to drain the marshes where the sweet rushes grow, making the land available for agriculture, and hopefully driving off the elephants. The Old Man of the Forest tells them that the sweet rush is hateful to the giant serpents of the surrounding gorges; if the king goes through with his plan, then humans and elephants alike will fall victim to the serpents' ravening hunger. The characters may have to negotiate with the king on behalf of the elephants, but he will be difficult to convince of the alleged threat. Is the Old Man of the Forest telling the truth? Can perhaps a compromise between elephants and humans be reached?

The Dihi are the offspring of intermarriages between the Blemmyae and humans. They live in the northern portion of Atbai. A first generation Dihi appears similar to his human parent, although like a Blemmyae his ears are located on his upper torso rather than his head. However, when the Dihi first experiences an extreme shock or excitement, his head falls clean off his shoulders. While bizarre, this does not harm the character, and he can reattach his head to his neck, assuming he survives the shocking encounter with both body parts intact (some lions in Atbai have learned to target Dihi by surprising them since the headless bodies make very easy prey). After the initial detachment, the character's head is prone to falling off during any strenuous activity or emotional turmoil.

If a Dihi has been careful and not had his head detach prior to having children, they do not inherit his condition; but an afflicted Dihi has similarly afflicted children. Most Dihi consider their condition to be a curse, but some have managed to find inventive ways in which to take advantage of it.

Dihi characters should take the Lesser Malediction Flaw to simulate the inconvenience of a detachable head, especially if one's enemy knows of the curse. Under situations of physical or emotional stress roll a stress die; if the result is 9 or more then her head detaches. Further, if the character ever botches a roll on a physical activity then her head also falls off and may roll away in addition to any other effects of the botch. The head is completely deaf, and the body is completely blind, but if the head can see her body the character can shout commands to attempt to reunite his disjunct body parts. It takes a round to reattach the head to the body. Dihi characters often also have the Magical Blood Virtue (Realms of Power: Magic, page 46) to balance their Lesser Malediction.

As a nation, Alodia is considered more powerful than Makuria: it has greater wealth due to rich deposits of gold; the land is more fertile; the territory controlled is larger; and the army is more numerous and better armed.

Atbai

The easternmost and most arid of Alodia's nine kingdoms, Atbai is also the poorest, having no mineral resources to trade. The Atbaik people are mostly pastoralists, although there are several fishing communities that make a living from the Red Sea.

The northern border of Atbai is contested with the Blemmyae; the king of Atbai has had to compromise with what territory he feels he can afford to defend, and has left the rest of the villages to the mercy of the Blemmyae.

Goz Regeb

Atbai's only town of substantial size, and the seat of a bishop. Goz Regeb's cathedral is decidedly modest by Alodian standards.

Taflin

A fertile area amidst the arid land of Atbai, Atbaik nomads bring their flocks to Taflin during the rainy season, and there is a month-long festival as stock is traded and marriages arranged. Ball games are discouraged, in deference to the Dihi (see insert).

Unlike the other subkingdoms of Alodia, the Bayuda is not centered around a single city, but instead consists of innumerable small villages scattered through the sandy desert and into the Gilif Hills. These "highlanders" are an unusual people: each village appears to have its own language, which is entirely unrelated to any of its neighbors or to Nubian. Any outsider attempting to learn the language of the highlanders discovers that they all speak the same language, but due to a magical curse, cannot understand another native Bayudan speaking this language. They have no trouble understanding a non-Bayudan speaking this language, regardless of from which village he learned it.

Gilif Hills

Consisting of deep ravines between jagged crags, the Gilif Hills are an unforgiving landscape that is reportedly the haunt of leopard spirits. It is true that the region is home to an uncommon number of leopards, and some of them may have supernatural powers. For the statistics of the Gilif leopards, use the statistics for the lion (The Book of Mundane Beasts), but reduce Size to +1; this also subtracts 2 from Strength and adds 1 to Quickness.

The kingdom of Butana lies in a privileged position, protected by Keraba to the north and Soba to the south. It is the main agricultural region of Alodia, well-watered by the tributaries of both the Nile and the Atbara rivers. The capital of Butana is Naqa. The Butanans have a reputation for hard work and are amply assisted by the alchemists of Soba, who rely on Naqan glass for many of their activities.

Naqa

Naqa is an ancient city of the same era as Meroë, and at the center of the Butana district. It sits on the Awateib, a seasonal river or wadi, at the point where many lesser wadis feed down from the Butana plateau; the Wadi Awateib flows west to the Nile, about thirty miles away. Naqa is an important trading city on the way to Ethiopia, and many of the slaves procured from the southern lands have Naqa as their first taste of civilization before being sent north, ultimately to Egypt.

Naqa is famous for its production of

glass. Particularly clean and pure sand around the Wadi Awateib results in a clear glass with a slight green tinge, which is formed into ingots before being traded northwards. Naqan glassblowers have a well-deserved reputation.

The most southerly of Alodia's nine kingdoms, Gezira lies between the White and the Blue Niles. Gezira is the least Nubian of the Alodian kingdoms, sharing blood with Ethiopians and Aithiopes. Gezira has a reputation for rebellion; they are the most recent kingdom to be added to Alodia, and do not have the wealth of the other nations. Many Gezirans see their vassalage to Alodia as a conquest rather than a mutually-beneficial agreement. The army of Alodia's great king has a substantial presence in Gezira in an attempt to keep the peace, but their presence may actually provoke more riots than are prevented.

Sennar

The capital of Gezira is home to a ruling dynasty who are descended from both Nubian and Megabaran stock (see Chapter 9: Mythic Aithiopians). Among the Gezirans, men and women have equal status, and the monarch of Gezira is as often a queen as it is a king. A quarter of Gezira's army consists of warrior women, who are quartered at Sennar.

Known as The Gates (that is, of Alodia), Kabushia is the northernmost of Alodia's subkingdoms, and one of the most heavily fortified. Responsible for guarding the kingdom from northern aggression, the city of Kabushia has a high proportion of warriors. Its outlying districts grow crops to supply the standing army, and there are whole villages of metalsmiths who turn bars of iron from Meroë into weapons.

Kabushia is no friend to Makuria. During the failed Umayyad invasion of Makuria in the seventh century, the king and his family were removed south for safety, but were taken into custody by the King of Kabushia, and ransomed back to his kingdom at an extortionate rate. The tiny subkingdom has never allowed its mighty neighbors to the north forget this shaming.

Kassala is home to Alodia's Mortuary Society, although there are offices of the society in every city. No trade routes pass through or near Kassala; just one road crosses the plain to approach the city from the west.

Kassala's business is the dead. The city has more dead inhabitants than living ones, sitting as it does amidst a plethora of tombs, cemeteries, and monuments to the deceased. Some of these graves are ancient, but most are from the Christian Alodia rather than pagan Kush. They belong to kings, patriarchs, noblemen, merchants; anyone who was deemed worthy of being remembered, either through their money or their fame. Those who live in the city make their living through the dead. Other cities pay the Kassalans to dispose of the corpses that the Nubians find so distasteful. A host of morticians' porters gather up the bodies and take them to their masters, who prepare the bodies for interment. Hired pallbearers take the body to its grave, and Kassalan priests perform few ceremonies other than the burial rite. Other residents are associated with the funeral trade: making and weaving linen for shrouds, crafting death masks, preparation of incense, professional mourners, grave guardians, and so on. As there is an insignificant congregation of the faithful, there is no Dominion aura in Kassala; indeed, some areas have developed a weak Magic aura instead.

The mortician's work rarely involves embalming; most Alodian dead are wrapped in simple shrouds and given a clay or metal mask. The shrouds and bandages of the deceased are often inscribed with protective texts which have significance in folk magic as well as religion. For extra cost, the flesh can be removed from the bones before burial. This latter practice has several purposes; it is supposed to speed the soul's journey to redemption, ward against the formation of ghosts, and prevent sorcerers from exploiting the dead.