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Qaroo
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Qaroo is a ravaged land.

Rain and storms often beat themselves out against the high cliffs ringing much of the island, rarely managing to bring their life-giving moisture inland. Only in two places do the cliffs that guard Qaroo fall away. One area is around the bay where lies Gabal, and the other is along the Azheer Sundering. The Azheer Sundering is a deep channel dividing the island, created during one of the more devastating wars in Qaroo's bloody history.

Qaroo has only two large cities built by the qurshan, with the rest of the population divided between smaller towns and roaming nomadic bands. Small mining villages line the cliffs in the southeast, and a few border towns guard the Azheer Sundering. The ancient city of Kharahl is not habitable by the qurshan, and is in fact, inhabited by the qurshan’s arch-enemies, the khahl.

The lands of Qaroo are harsh, long ago blasted by powerful magic, and challenged further by naturally arid climate conditions. Plant life is not lush, but some varieties do proliferate and take root, providing sustenance for the denizens of the land. Animals and strange beasts, often tainted by the magical forces unleashed a millenium ago, roam the barren wastes, making travel across the desert plains a matter of survival and sheer necessity. No one travels "for fun" on Qaroo. There are no tourist spots along the Azheer. The qurshan peoples tend to be wary of outsiders, but are willing to enter into agreements that might aid them in their constant struggle with the north. The Khahl have evolved into something... less than human... and will kill any intruders on sight.

Looking at Qaroo from the sea, one sees a striking island of reds and golds, with looming cliffs that appear to guard its interior secrets like a vault protecting its treasure. The entire island seems to hum with a magical undertow, though most modern-day mages agree that the magics were so depleted during the Azheer War that the hum is but an after effect of the great magical abuses wrought in ancient times. There is something very haunting and compelling about Qaroo, but only the most brave and the most foolhardy dare to tread its arid plains in search of the fabled lost treasures of the original islander race.
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