River Valley Campaigns of Glorantha
Pavis sits at the edge of the known world — east of Dragon Pass, beyond the Eiritha Hills, at the point where the last river in Prax gives out into the Wastes. It is a place of endings and strange survivals: a city built inside a ruined giant, occupied by nomads and outcasts, briefly claimed by an empire that does not entirely understand what it has taken.
The Zola Fel — the River of Cradles — is the only permanent watercourse in all of Prax. It flows south from the Rockwood Mountains through the Big Rubble, past New Pavis, through the Sun County barley fields, and on to the delta at Corflu where it dissolves into the coast. Everything that survives in this desert does so because of the river, and nearly everyone in the region is, in some way, fighting over it.
In the Second Age, the God Learners and their EWF allies raised the city of Pavis as a centre of sorcerous scholarship and trade on the edge of the Praxian Wastes. The builder Pavis himself was a great hero who made a compact with the giant Robber, whose corpse now forms the walls of the Big Rubble — his bones the streets, his ribcage the Great Market, his skull the most dangerous quarter of the ruins.
When the God Learners fell in the Closing, Pavis was abandoned. The nomads of Prax moved in, the ruins settled into themselves, and stranger things took up residence in the deeper chambers. For centuries the Big Rubble was simply a wilderness of broken stone and dangerous magic.
New Pavis was founded outside the Rubble walls in the early Third Age — a smaller, more practical city drawing on trade along the Zola Fel. In 1610 the Lunar Empire conquered it, and since then a tense coexistence has obtained between the Lunar garrison, the Pavis cult priesthood, the Pavic citizens, the nomad tribes who camp outside the walls, and whatever lurks inside the Rubble itself.
"Pavis welcomes all, as it always has. The Lunars, the nomads, the Mostali, even the Chaos things in the deep Rubble — all are the city's guests, whether they wish to be or not."
— Saying attributed to the Pavis cultThe Zola Fel is sacred to the river god of the same name — a minor but locally significant deity whose cult maintains the waterway and mediates between the desert tribes and the settled peoples of the valley. The river's spirit is ancient and strange; its upper reaches near the Rubble run through flooded chambers and sunken ruins where odd things drift in the current.
The river earns its name from the cradles — enormous wicker and hide boats, large enough to hold a small village, which drift down from the north carrying giant infants to the sea. These cradles are deeply sacred to several cults and an enormous temptation to anyone with the resources to plunder them, which creates one of the recurring crises of the valley.
Along its banks: the fishing villages of the Zola Fel cult, the farms of Sun County in the south, Corflu at the delta (a miserable Lunar trading port), and the ruined wharves of the Big Rubble where river creatures come ashore at night.
The ruins of old Pavis cover several square miles inside the walls formed by the giant Robber's skeleton. Entry is theoretically controlled by the Lunar garrison, but in practice the gates cannot be properly sealed and dungeoneers, nomads, trolls, and worse come and go as they please. The interior is divided into rough quarters, each with its own dangers and occasional treasures.
A flooded district of canals and half-submerged buildings from the Second Age. Inhabited by dragonewts who have claimed the area as sacred territory and react badly to intrusion. The canals connect to the river below Rubble Lock.
The Uz — trolls — have occupied the darkest and most underground sections of the Rubble since the fall. They trade grudgingly with outsiders and jealously guard their territory. Dark trolls, cave trolls, and the occasional troll shaman hold court here under Kyger Litor's blessing.
A defensible ruin used as a camp by the Zebra tribe and allied adventurers. One of the few relatively safe stopping points inside the Rubble walls, though "relatively safe" carries significant qualification in this context.
The great temple of the city god still stands, maintained by the Pavis cult against all odds. The priests walk a delicate path between the Lunar occupiers, the old Pavic families, and the god's own demands. The temple cellars go very deep.
The ancient wharf district, partially flooded, where the Zola Fel laps against crumbling stone. Fisherfolk camp here during the day. At night something else uses the old loading bays.
The lower levels of old Pavis — basements, tunnels, and God Learner vaults that few dare enter. Chaos creatures, animated constructs, and stranger things haunt the darkness below the broken streets.
Prax is the vast arid steppe surrounding the valley — home to the nomad tribes who follow their herds and their gods across the Wastes. The tribes are perpetually at war with one another, periodically united against outsiders, and universally contemptuous of city-dwellers. Each tribe follows a different sacred animal: the Bison Riders, the Sable Riders, the High Llama Riders, the Impala Riders, the Morocanth (herd men), and the Basmoli — the lion people, who ride no animal at all.
The occupying force — professional soldiers of the Lunar Empire, bolstered by Lunar-aligned mercenaries and cult auxiliaries. Competent, under-resourced, and deeply unpopular. Their grip on New Pavis is firm; their grip on the Rubble is theoretical.
Worshippers of the city god maintain the temples, mediate disputes, and preserve what can be preserved of old Pavic civilisation. Their relationship with the Lunars is one of careful mutual tolerance. Their deeper allegiances are older and less easily read.
The peoples of Prax camp outside the walls, trade through the gates, and raid when opportunity presents. Storm Bull cultists among them hunt Chaos in the Rubble. The Lunar authorities tolerate their presence while working to undermine their independence.
Pavis has always attracted those with something to prove or nothing to lose. The Rubble offers real danger and real reward. The combination draws treasure hunters, cultists seeking lost holy sites, scholars after God Learner texts, and those who simply have nowhere else to go.
South of the city, the Yelmalio cult maintains a rigidly ordered agricultural society in the river valley — disciplined spear-militia, strict law, and enough grain to make them a power worth cultivating. They dislike the Lunars, distrust the nomads, and are polite to almost everyone.
Dwarves. A small enclave of World Machine faithful maintain a workshop somewhere in the Rubble, conducting repairs to reality that no one else understands. They sell metalwork at fair prices and ask no questions, which makes them very popular with adventurers.
Campaigns & Characters