The Abode Of Departure

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egyptian-hieroglyphics-kom-ombo-temple-aswan-egypt/

The inhabitants of this fortress-town on the northern fringe of the Three Lands call their home The Abode of Departure. This town is the gateway to the oasis-lands north of there, which lead to the Great Basin. The locals call the lands to the north The Abode of Life. Both the name of the town and of the realm it guards have an ominously Sixth Kingdom ring to the ears of folks from the Three Lands. These names conjure up memories of the Long War.

While the inhabitants of The Abode of Departure are dark skinned and definitely of the same Kirsi stock as the people of that northeastern land, there are some unsettling facts about the town that make most Spears depart quickly - or explore further, in secret:

4th Grade student art installation
Richfield Public Schools

• The long-worn walls of the town reveal the tell-tale trace of Sixth Kingdom hieroglyphs
• The locals seem diffident at best, and sometimes become visibly agitated, when the Long War is mentioned
• The town was neutral during the Long War, but not because they are cowards. The town and the entire realm of The Abode of Life is vigorously defended by mounted warriors. Many ride tall, swift moving beasts that are foreign to the Three Lands - and no one in the town will say where these creatures come from... 
• Visitors who stay overlong - more than a week, really, tend to disappear. The same is true of visitors who try to sneak north without paying their locals' steep fees for passage and protection on the oasis-trails
• There are several old, abandoned structures in the town that may lead underground to tomb-houses

The Three Lands, the Kirsi, and the Sixth Kingdom are part of the default setting of Kevin Crawford's medieval African pastiche RPG, Spears of the Dawn. This post expands on that setting  for use with both Everway and Spears of the Dawn, and was written to comply with  the non-commercial usage guidelines on the Sine-Nomine blog.