Kara-Tur

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Kara-Tur

Beyond the emptiness of the Hordelands lies a mystical and magical land known as Kara-Tur (Kah-rah-TOUR). It is a region very different from the lands of the Realms, and in the past only the hints of whispers of legends have come across that land to this. With the coming of the Horde and the wave of refugees pressed before it, more facts, legends, and tales of this land have passed from talespinner to talespinner. Many stories that cannot be placed elsewhere are said to come "from Kara-Tur when the world was still new."

The more amazing of the tales, of mortals passing through walls without magic, steam-breathing dragons, or warriors with hidden powers, are easily discounted or explained. However, it remains that the lands of Kara-Tur are very much unlike the native Realms. Kara-Tur is known for two of its great nations, Shou Lung and Kozakura.

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Koryo

Koryo, known for its cold winters, is an isolated peninsula at the northeastern reaches of Kara-Tur. Comprised of three former countries now unified under a single king, Koryo is populated by a proud and fearless people molded by a history of war and foreign invasions.

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Kozakura

Comprised mostly of towering but largely extinct volcanos and fertile lowlands, Kozakura forms the western part of a chain of islands to the east of the Kara-Tur mainland. Kozakura is known for constant political power struggles and warfare among the nobility, even as a hereditary emperor nominally rules.

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Malatra

Malatra is a land in the southeastern part of Kara-Tur, known for dense jungles and misty mountains. Malatra is comprised of the three states of Purang, Laothan, and the Kuong Kingdom, each quite different from one another.

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Shou Lung

Lying between Kara-Tur and Faerûn was the Dragonwall, a great wall of stone. According to legend, a wu jen was tasked by the emperor with finding a way to keep the Tuigan hordes from raiding Shou Lung's northern provinces. The wu jen stole the Jade Mirror from the sea dragon Pao Hu Jen, whose body was thousands of kilometers long. The wu jen led the dragon on a chase across the border, and at a certain point stopped and held up the Jade Mirror to the dragon's eyes, which instantly turned him to stone. After his petrified body fell to the ground, the emperor had his engineers carve fortifications into it so that it could serve them as a defensive wall.

In Shou Lung, it is said, the temples are roofed in gold, and the Emperor presides over a court of a thousand kings and a million swords.

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Wa

Wa forms the western part of a chain of islands to the east of the Kara-Tur mainland. Comprised mostly of towering but largely extinct volcanos and fertile lowlands.

Whilst Wa is ruled by a titular emperor, the real power lays in the hands of a Shogun, who rules over the other nobles.