Sankhar is the easternmost of the three human kingdoms in the North-West of the known world.
It is a vast country nearly four times the size of its neighbour,
Reetland, but with roughly the same population much of which is concentrated in
its southwestern corner. Its main geogrphical features are its endless grassy plains and the huge inland sea,
Tangara Naji. In the west and north it is bordered by mountains but in the
east its border stretches across the plains making it very difficult to defend.
The nation is really a confederation of five distinct cultures which were all defeated by the Great Khan and
melded into an administrative unit. On the plains are two different horse breeding (and other livestock rearing) nomadic cultures, the Marwhini and the
Logath. In the south the country is populated by
Southerners who control the country's largest city,
Tammarik. Around the
Tangara Naji a hybrid racially mixed trading culture has grown up, the
Kenzin, who many see as the glue that keeps the country together. Finally
in the southwestern vales the conservative farming community is made up mainly of people of
Reetish descent.
Sankhar has had a tumultuous history after securing independence from the Khans in 57. It has endured two periods
of foreign domination by its neighbours; firstly by the Western Khanate in 442 - 483 and then by Reetland in 514 -
572. Briefly in between these periods it was a republic.
To add to the challenges facing the country the Western Khanate collapsed in 622 under pressure from the
Gnoll Horde and Sankhar was hard pressed to defend its own borders.
The Gnolls erupted as a threat again in the period 819 - 830. The presence of the Gnolls on its border has meant
that trade to the East has collapsed making the importance of Tammarik as a trading hub clearer than ever.
Magic is used more freely in Sankhar than in Reetland and Cambria and the prohibition against using magic in warfare
has been waived for battles against the Gnolls. Each of the five cultures in the country has its own language but
Reetish is used as a Common Language.