The East

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Kambuja lies to the south of Khitai amid a steaming jungle. Where the ancient jungles give way to the flat wet plains of the Kambuljan Marches, a lawless place scourged by bandits and clan wars. The marches are grey, vaguely hilly and lashed by strong, year-round rains. In the summer the marches are unbearably hot, the heat broken only by the daily downpours that cause flash-floods and mudslides. In the winter the temperature drops so that the ground freezes and the rivers and streams become sullen with ice. Merchants trading with the Kambujan capital of Anghkor with its fabulous market for gold, silk and jade have no option but to pass through the marches, braving the monotonous terrain, its dreadful weather and the threat of predation bandits and tribal people. 

To most Hyborians Khitai is an alien land with unfathomable people. Even the Turanians find them unnervingly inscrutable. The people in general are called ‘kindly’ by Yag-Kosha but the few who leave Khitai to wander the West are rarely described so generously.  Khitai is an insular kingdom; few ever leave it. The common people are taught that the cheng-li, the white people who live outside the Great Wall, are cannibals. Their first reaction to such people is likely to be fear. The ones who do leave are scholars and sorcerers. That they are yellow-skinned worshippers of bizarre gods and demons is not to be doubted, however. Their eyes have a typical Oriental look and their hair is dark.  

Vendhya is older than the kingdoms of Hyboria, far off in the east. Of ancient gods, whose original worshippers are lost to time. With vast jungles, plains and farmlands, its soil is rich and plentiful. The cities of Vendhya are great, entire royal palaces as large as a Hyborian capital. Gilded and made of startling white stone. The jungles are filled with all manners of beasts, and the Hillmen make it their life to tame them. Its original native peoples are long lost, and forgotten to time – slaughtered.  

Yamatai is a region made of lush jungles, golden coastlines, and vast grasslands. The swamplands in the far North are considered nearly uninhabitable, as it is found to be plagued with ravenous, uncivilised Pictish tribes - The town of Kunisaki and surrounding villages frequently find themselves under attack, and the loss of Yamatai women is common. Their ways are strange, even by Pict standards, their gods the beasts of the swamps and their diet consisting primarily of mushrooms. The Yamatai people stand at short to average height with pin-straight dark hair, dark eyes, and a skin tone ranging anywhere from pale olive to a medium tan. Most are born with monolids, though the frequency of double lids, as well as textured hair, has become more common in Southern Yamatai due to Manui crossbreeding. Facial hair grows seldom on Yamatai men; Hence, a well-maintained goatee is a sign of strength and balance.