Hazlan
Precis: Mageocracy
through a Gothic lens.
Conspectus: A land
of grassy hills turning to rough and rocky terrain; Hazlan is ruled
by Hazlik, the Red Wizard; those who displease Hazlik are taken to
“the tables,” laboratories in which Hazlik and his apprentices
practice hideous arcane experiments on still-living human beings;
Hazlik has ordered the construction of a city named Ramulai—it is
to serve as a center for the teaching of the magical arts; Hazlan is
also home to two other cities: Toyalis and Sly-Var; the people of
Hazlan are divided along ethnic lines; the majority of the people are
Rashemi, a sturdy lot who make up the working classes; the elite
ruling class are the Mulan, a tall and fine-boned people who shave
off all of their body hair and tattoo their bodies with runic
symbols; strangely, wizardly apprentices can be drawn from either
ethnic group; the only sanctioned church in Hazlan is that of Bane,
the Lawgiver; a young Rashemi woman named Eleni appears to be the
most promising student of the occult ways that Hazlan's schools have
yet produced.
Interesting. The names would suggest they were going for some Pan-Orientalism (if they names are there's) that would sort of fit the Gothic setting.
ReplyDeleteI think the pan-Orientalism may have crept in through the Forgotten Realms setting (if I'm remembering right Hazlik is from there) but it's cool how that pan-Orientalism assumes a different, more menacing cast when you put it in the context of Ravenloft.
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