Locations
Verduran Forest
Nearly a thousand years ago, the druids of the Wildwood Lodge approached the emperor of Taldor and presented a simple request: give the Wildwood Lodge some autonomy to protect the last dominion of the blackwood trees, and in exchange the druids would ensure that Taldor had ships for the duration of the empire. Tired of losing patrols to fey raids and largely unable to control the forest anyway, the emperor agreed, though the treaty allowed for the River Guard to create a harbor on the Isle of Arenway so that its sailors might continue patrolling the Sellen River and Verduran Fork even while the druids and their fey and gnome allies took over governance of the forest. Today, the portion of the Verduran Forest that resides within Taldor’s borders is a semi-autonomous prefecture of the Taldan Empire and the monarchy still honors the Treaty of the Wildwood. The parts of the forest that fell to Andoran and Galt have not been as well maintained, as neither of those nations was interested in protecting the wood—rather, they hoped to harvest it quickly to build ships and feed the revolutions of both nations. The Wildwood Lodge allowed the gnomes to build the city of Wispil so they could establish a lumber industry around the druids’ positive maintenance of the forest and keep the Imperial Shipyards at Cassomir supplied with raw timber for the fleet. The only other permanent settlement in the Verduran Forest is the unnamed River Guard harbor on the Isle of Arenway.
Though it’s controlled and watched over by the Wildwood Lodge, the Verduran Forest still contains many dangers. Ettercaps, bands of obnoxious fey, dragons, and river pirates are among the more obvious dangers, but sentient and flesh-eating plants, shambling mounds, treants, and other plant creatures also present a danger, as do massive colonies of giant wasps and giant ants.
The Sellen River and the Verduran Fork
One of the longest rivers on Golarion, the Sellen River ends its 1,200-mile journey by spilling into the Inner Sea at Star Bay. Fed by dozens of tributary rivers and thousands of high mountain lakes and streams, the Sellen moves more water than all of the other rivers that touch the Inner Sea combined. Fed as it is by such a large number of sources, the Sellen doesn’t experience typical flooding and dry seasons like most temperate rivers. It simply flows, as faithful as the sun rises. In Taldor, the Sellen flows south from the Galt border to Cassomir, separating Andoran from the empire and splitting at the Isle of Arenway, ancient home of the Wildwood Lodge druids and their summer solstice Moot of Ages, when Old Faith druids from all over Golarion gather to bring their discoveries before the entire druid community. The river that meets the Sellen River at the Isle of Arenway is known as the Verduran Fork and winds 240 miles through the forest, emerging into the Tandak Plains at Falling River, a rough, rapid little river that falls more than 15,000 feet from its headwaters in the World’s Edge Mountains. From there the Verduran Fork turns north, growing thin and rough, though still passable by flat-bottomed boat traffic. Once it hits the great caravan-city of Yanmass, though, it transforms into a mountain river, with huge tumbling rocks and waterfalls before it splits again at its confluence with Fog Creek.The Sellen River and the Verduran Fork are heavily patrolled by the Taldan Imperial Navy, using small, sleek clipper ships that make up the brunt of their River Guard fleet. Inside Taldor’s borders, the River Guard is the ultimate authority on the waterways, and its sailors frequently board ships to search for illicit activities—and, it’s rumored, to take their cut before the goods hit Star Bay and fall under the greater umbrella of the Taldan Imperial Navy’s capital ships. The River Guard maintains a harbor on the Isle of Arenway, though by the Treaty of the Wildwood, sailors are not allowed to stray beyond the walled port. Most ships traveling the Sellen River stop here to have their vessels blessed by a druid, a blessing they believe offers them protection from the dangers of both rivers.
Hazards are few and far between along the length of the heavily trafficked Sellen, but the Verduran Fork is far more dangerous. As it travels through the most sparsely populated areas in Taldor, the Verduran Fork is home to four organized pirate brigades who split the length of the river into zones established by a verbal treaty. The largest band, comprised primarily of gnomes and fey, raids ships for sport—an annoyance for the other bands of pirates who raid ships for spoils and plunder. The River Guard Fleet stepped up patrols recently, to little effect—with so many hidden waterways and so little population, the pirates are experts at striking and melting into the forest before the River Guard can even muster a response. Ships traveling down from Yanmass are typically bristling with mercenaries to guard against the pirates, but even these tactics don’t stop the Verduran Fork brigands. They’ve taken to filling the ranks of those mercenaries with their own people, who quietly take over and plunder a ship once it reaches the pirate band’s territory. In any given year, these pirate bands plunder nearly 10% of the traffic that travels the Verduran Fork, a fact the River Guard wishes to keep secret.
Cities
Maheto
In the northern foothills of the World’s Edge Mountains rests the city of Maheto, the heart of Taldor’s weapons manufacturing. This heavily fortified city is home to a sizable population of dwarves who lend their skills in metal-crafting to the empire in exchange for open-ended mining rights in the World’s Edge Mountains. Many young rakes in Oppara wield Maheto—crafted rapiers—not carrying a Maheto blade is a source of embarrassment among the youth of the senatorial and noble classes. The trade roads and canals that run from Maheto to the Verduran Fork are some of the most heavily patrolled routes in Taldor. Ten full legions of the Taldan Phalanx and two legions of the Taldan Horse call Maheto home.
Wispil
At the heart of the Verduran Forest, the semi-autonomous gnomish town of Wispil is the capital of Taldor’s woodcrafting and lumber industries. The gnomes work hand-in-hand with the druids of the Wildwood Lodge to carefully harvest enough trees throughout the forest so that Taldor’s hunger for lumber is fed, but the forest still remains large, healthy, and vibrant. Wood cut near Wispil is hauled overland to the Verduran Fork and floated by gnomish steersman (called “boomrafters”) who tie the massive logs together and float them to the Cassomir shipyards. Taldor is primarily a human nation, so it’s rare to see non-humans walking the streets in major cities, but in Wispil humans are the minority and the population is largely comprised of gnomes, half-elves, fey, halflings, and a smattering of dwarves.