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No-Dan-Kar

The goblin nation of the Paths of Destiny — the source of the coin in everyone's purse.

The goblin nation of the Paths of Destiny under the Rat totem, No-Dan-Kar is one of the four official embassy powers and, in its quiet way, the most important of them — because its currency, the klû, has become the standard of trade across all Aarklash. Every refugee who washes up in Cadwallon "klû-less," every merchant settling a continental account, is moving No-Dan-Kar's money. (Cadwallon's own coin is the local ducat — "my kingdom for a ducat" — but cross-border, the klû rules.)

The goblins are the continent's unequalled inventors and the great promoters of the written word, and with the dwarves of Tir-Nâ-Bor they drove the technological revolution Cadwallon enjoys. Their reach is woven into the very language and calendar: goblin navigators named the four navigation constellations — Nerea, Sylhea, Elion, Olhim — long ago. Where the goblins themselves come from is genuinely uncertain; most say the swamps of No-Dan-Kar, some the Aegis Mountains, some the dawn of the world. Their clergy blame the mutants and brats that began appearing around 820 on the wrath of the Rat god, the god of the multitudes.

In Cadwallon

  • Embassy in The Embassies district of Den Azhir — one of the four official seats.
  • One of the oldest communities in the city — goblin exiles settled Kraken Harbor in 255, the earliest date on Cadwë record, centuries before the founding. Goblins shape the city's very geography, which must account for their small size and high birth rate.
  • Little Klûne — the goblin district in Trophy (its name echoing the klû), where goblin merchants and wholesalers dominate the produce trade.
  • Guild allies — the goblins ride with the Goldsmiths, Thieves, and Cartomancers, fitting for a trade-and-information power. One of the four embassy tongues, too.

Relations

  • Tir-Nâ-Bor — fellow Paths of Destiny; together the goblins and dwarves are the engine of Cadwallon's economic and technological advances.
  • Syharhalna — a grim historical link: goblin stock (with human) was the raw material from which the Syhars made the orcs. No-Dan-Kar bears no alignment with them.
  • The orcs — distant kin by creation, now their own people.
  • Guild of Goldsmiths / Guild of Cartomancers / Guild of Thieves — guild allies.

Canon & scope

Drawn from the Cadwallon PHB. No-Dan-Kar's swamps, its government, and the Rat-god clergy belong to the Confrontation / Rag'narok line and aren't table canon until we adopt them. What's above is the Cadwallon-facing nation: the klû, goblin inventiveness, the oldest-community status, an embassy.

See Also