Western Coast

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Argos is one of the Hyborian kingdoms that rose out of the ashes of Acheron when it fell 3,000 years ago. Situated on a coastline with natural seaports, unlike Shemites, the people of Argos have become master sailors, crafty pirates, and powerful merchants. Argos is a small nation with a population of just over seven million people. With a command of the sea and the trade-routes, Argos has become a wealthy kingdom. It is wealthy enough to be able to raise armies for war or to hire assassins, spies, and diplomats for its own brand of intrigue and subterfuge involving the other kingdoms.  

With a keen weather eye on the western horizon, one can almost spot the steamy jungle islands of Baracha from the coast of Jerida, Zingara—the verdant visage an ominous reminder of the black and red sails which are so often associated with it.  The most recent attempt—poor as it is—of civilization on the island began decades ago with Argossean smugglers using the island chains as safe havens to escape authorities and hold illegal goods.  The dense tropical jungle and ancient, cavernous ruins beneath the soil made it a paradise for smugglers, thieves, and sea-bandits, who over time built a city which shares the same name as the main island: Tortage.  A haven for outcasts ill content to hide from the world, the pirate stronghold of Tortage holds more than just avaricious sailors in its emerald harbour.  Savage aboriginal Picts, voudou practitioners, and cultist seekers of Acheronian mysteries all find a home in the Barachan Isles, to say nothing of those who dwell in the waters beneath it.  Civilization holds a tenuous grasp, ruled with an iron fist by the Red Brotherhood lead by Captain Bor’aqh Sharaq whose talent for violence more than make up for his lack of administrative skill.  

Known as the fiercest of all the savage races of Hyboria, the Picts are a warlike race of barbarians, strong and shadowy. They are a remarkable people, with a dark and gruesome culture. Unrivalled in their ability to live off the land, the Picts have a unique pattern of trade, their own types of food and the ability to travel swiftly. With barbaric tribal markings and a terrifying style of warfare, all of this is only rivalled by their powerful religion based around the darkest of gods, demons and spirits.  

Once there lived a king who ruled the lands from the capital of Kordava, but as the petty battles of the prince, nobles and bordering Poitainians began to escalate, the country descended into a bitter civil war utterly collapsing in on itself. Less than half of the population remained after the war had ended, the kingdom itself falling to ruin as it failed to support itself. The agricultural lands of Zingara had been wiped clean, its standing armies reduced to a near non-existent level and yet the proud country began anew. Zingara’s future lay within its major shipping industry, rivalling even that of Argos. The Zingarans managed to trade along the Pictish Wilderness, despite the intense ferocity of the Sea-Tribes and further south past the Barachan Isles, where an attack from the deadly pirates could happen at a moment's notice. Yet this did not deter Zingara from becoming a maritime giant with a naval force to be reckoned with