The Shattered Sun Dominion
Name and Placement
Moksun is the northernmost kingdom of the Cathall continent, nestled between the enchanted woodlands of Feywick to the west, the mountainous reaches of Hob to the south, and the forbidding realms of Zonga and Bonkus along its eastern flanks. Much of the northern border dissolves into frostbitten barrens and glacial plateaus, where only the hardiest flora and fauna cling to life. Despite its inhospitable climate, Moksun is one of the oldest and most enduring kingdoms in Mernac, its power rooted deep within the earth.
Most of Moksun’s surface is windswept tundra and ashen plains, but the true heart of its civilization lies below. A vast labyrinth of sunken crypt-cities, sacred quarries, and fortified caverns stretches beneath the crust like a second, inverted realm. These subterranean structures serve as the homeland of the Troll race and are believed to be some of the first dwellings ever carved by intelligent hands on Cathall.
Geography and Environment
While the surface of Moksun remains a stark and unwelcoming wilderness, with only sparse glades of frost-hardened trees and geyser-fed oases, the true geography of Moksun lies below. Its subterranean underlands consist of carved basalt corridors, hollowed stone temples, and natural chasms repurposed into mighty fortresses. Massive stalactites hang like chandeliers in underground halls while glowing mineral veins provide natural light, illuminating ancient frescos etched by claw and chisel.
The Plains of Throm’kul, a flat expanse of snow-scoured stone, is riddled with breathing holes and stone-wrapped trapdoors leading into the Trollish undercities. These trapdoors are often guarded by towering statues of warlike ancestors or monstrous guardians carved into the rock. The River Szemek, flowing beneath the surface, is the lifeblood of Moksun and is believed to be a gift from Tellen himself. Fed by heated springs deep within the world’s belly, the river flows through most major underground cities and sustains both crops and life in the cavernous dark.
Aboveground, the few settlements that exist serve either military or ceremonial purposes. The Spires of Grolm, a fortress-temple complex half-sunken into the snow, marks the beginning of the Pilgrim’s Spine, a road etched into black volcanic stone that connects Moksun’s many sacred sites. These regions, though cold and quiet, hum with a reverent energy.
Races and Inhabitants
Moksun is the ancestral home of the Troll Race, and its society is strictly divided between the two castes of their people:
- Mountain Trolls are massive, hulking beasts often rivaling Giants in height. Standing well over three paces tall and built like upright siege engines, they serve primarily as laborers, shock troops, and builders. Though they lack refined intelligence, their loyalty is unwavering, and they revere the smaller Cave Trolls as divine emissaries of Tellen. Clad in stone-plated armor and wielding oversized weapons, they form the outer bulwark of any Moksun force.
- Cave Trolls, on the other hand, are cunning, disciplined, and deeply spiritual. Roughly the size of the average Human or Elf, their strength lies in intellect, strategic thinking, and magical ability. They form the entirety of Moksun’s priesthood, nobility, military command, and scholarly elite. It is they who devised the Runic Doctrines of War and Balance and who lead all religious rites and burial ceremonies.
Outside the Trollish majority, the Azemen maintain a presence in the far northern stretches of the kingdom. They are a wild and brutal people, tolerated only for their martial skill and loyalty to the war cause. The Frost Giants, who dwell in the frozen mountain ranges and glacial valleys, are semi-nomadic allies that honor a blood pact with the Trolls of old. They are respected for their ancient age and power, but rarely participate in governance or ceremony.
Government and Power Structure
Moksun’s ruling system is known as The Way of the Bluesteel Throne, an authoritarian theocracy where faith in Tellen, the Father of War, is woven inseparably with law and command. At its head sits the Varrik’Sha, the High Strategos and living Voice of Tellen, always chosen from the Cave Troll caste. Beneath the Varrik’Sha are the Thirteen War Chaplains, each leading a Circle-City, the vast underground population hubs that define Moksun’s territory.
Cave Troll scribes and architects maintain strict order through Stone-Law Tablets, massive carved codices that dictate the social roles of every citizen. Every Troll, whether Mountain or Cave-born, is assigned a Circle-Duty at birth: to build, to serve, to lead, or to die. Mountain Trolls are typically bound to physical duties, while Cave Trolls serve as commandants and overseers.
Although the society is rigid, it is not without fluidity. Feats of exceptional strength, cunning, or piety can elevate even a laboring Mountain Troll to positions of ceremony or command. However, those who fail in their duties are often sacrificed to the Pits of Renouncement, where their blood is said to empower Tellen’s essence in the stone itself.
Culture and Society
Moksunese culture is austere, martial, and profoundly symbolic. Art and architecture are expressions of religious devotion and military reverence. Their temples are built to last millennia, with ceilings held aloft by immense statues of ancient war heroes or deified kings. Symbolism dominates Moksunese visual language: circles represent unity, broken circles mean betrayal, and the sword-pointed triangle is used in every war banner.
The dead are entombed in grand Soul-Pyramids, massive ziggurat-like structures that rise from the ground like jagged teeth. These tombs serve not only as burial sites but also as magical conduits to the underworld, where priests conduct binding rites to prevent the spirits of the fallen from wandering.
Moksunese music is slow, rhythmic, and thunderous, usually played on bone drums, echo flutes, and lava harps carved from cooled volcanic stone. Music is considered a sacred offering to the gods and is often performed before battle or during spiritual rites. Dance is militaristic, performed in lines or formations meant to mimic war tactics or summon divine favor.
Despite the Mountain Trolls’ warlike nature, Moksunese society for most Cave Trolls is deeply contemplative. Meditation chambers, memory gardens lit by glowing moss, and oral storytelling around underground fire-wells are common social practices, especially among Cave Trolls.
Economy and Trade
Moksun is not a kingdom of flourishing marketplaces or vibrant trade fairs. Its wealth is extracted from beneath the earth and bartered through hardened emissaries. The vast Underspines, their expansive subterranean networks, hold veins of Bluesteel, smokeglass crystal, magma opal, and bloodstone, all highly prized for their arcane conductivity and structural resilience. Troll-forged Bluesteel is notoriously heavy and near-impossible to rework by non-Troll smiths, but it never dulls or shatters. The Rare exception to this is the Mountain Dwarves of Hob, who have mastered forging the metal. This has led to almost constant conflict between the two Races and the kingdoms they live in.
Surface agriculture is nearly nonexistent due to the frostbitten climate, but within the undercities grow luminescent fungus crops, hardened root-tubers, and nutrient slimes. Stonevine lichen and ash-worm meal form the basis of the Mountain Troll diet, while Cave Trolls consume richer dishes infused with alchemical extracts to enhance vitality and vision in the dark. In times of war, they are also known to eat the organs of their enemies.
Trade with the outside world is rare but highly strategic. Moksun deals primarily through fortified emissary towers located at the edge of its borders, often near Zonga or Feywick. Trollish goods, particularly armor, weapons, and memory-etched obsidian tablets, are exchanged for fresh meat or livestock, spices, Kellian Ink and other spell inks, scrollwork, and certain rare surface herbs.
Internal currency exists, but only in ceremonial form. Instead, Moksun’s economy functions on the Honor of Writ, a bartered economy based on contribution to the war state, completion of Circle-Duties, or accumulated merit offerings to the priesthood. Outside traders are expected to abide by this system, or leave with nothing.
Religion and Temples
Seen and the living embodiment of the sun and thus all life, Tellen, the Father of War, is the predominant Patron of the Troll Race and is revered above all in Moksun. Every decision, from civic architecture to personal vengeance, is viewed through a spiritual lens of war-readiness and balance. Tellen is not worshiped through pleas or offerings, but through action: by building, conquering, and dying well.
Moksun’s temple structures are monolithic and somber, often located in subterranean sanctums called Warridors, sacred chambers built into the bedrock, their walls carved with battle hymns and illuminated by magma veins. Inside these temples, Cave Troll priests known as The Mourned Flame lead rites by lighting War-Pyres, where bones of the slain are burned in solemn celebration. Bone ash is sometimes used to paint war charms on the skin or inscribe defensive spells on city walls.
Despite this primary devotion, the Trolls of Moksun do acknowledge all 20 Divine Powers, and shrine-rooms to specific Mothers or Fathers are not uncommon, especially in personal sanctums or high military barracks. Barak, The Father of Darkness and Control, is held in esteem and frequently prayed to. Worship of Siberlee is rare, though some Cave Trolls whisper to her in secret, especially in times of personal crisis or birth.
Military and Defense
Moksun is built as a fortress, both literally and culturally. Its army, the Sable Host, is a fearsome war machine composed of multiple layers:
- Mountain Troll Phalanxes serve as the front line, equipped with massive bone-hafted spears and slab-shields reinforced with blacksteel.
- Cave Troll Strategists direct battles using intricate fire-tile maps lit by elemental stones, updating troop positions with colored dust trails.
- Ward-Claws, elite Cave Troll assassins and skirmishers, operate in shadow and silence, masters of tunnel warfare and ambush.
- Ashcallers, the magically gifted among the priesthood, wield war spells that conjure smoke walls, seismic shockwaves, and body-harden enchantments.
Defenses are layered across levels of stone. Spiral Ramparts in the deeper cities act as chokepoints, and molten channels can be unleashed to flood enemy-held caverns. Every Moksunese city is trained for total warfare; civilians, priests, and soldiers all have assigned wartime duties.
Even in times of peace, war is practiced in elaborate maneuvers and war games. Children learn the Doctrine of Blood Tacticum before they can read. Elders train Memory War games where historical battles are replayed in carved sand tables for study and spiritual cleansing.
Relevance
Moksun’s influence across Cathall and greater Mernac is more felt than seen.
The Trolls of Moksun have unofficially been at war with all Dwaves, particularly those of Hob, for a millennium. They believe the Dwarves stole their secrets of forging Bluesteel and have a duty-bound obligation to destroy all Dwarves and their cities. Besides this, its armies rarely march beyond its borders without cause, but its knowledge of warfare is sought by kingdoms preparing for conflict or attempting to understand the art of siege. Cave Troll advisors have been dispatched to Gilmore, Zonga, and even the edge of Brangrin and Ooloo to instruct foreign officers in Subterranean Defense Doctrine.
The kingdom’s religious devotion to Tellen has become fanatical in the south. A number of younger Cave Troll priests now whisper of visions, not just of war, but of a coming Balance Reckoning, when all of the Fathers will demand judgment for the blood soaked into the roots of Mernac. The troll who believes such things prophesies that it will be the Trolls who will lead the implementation of that judgment.
Moksun’s greatest threat is also internal. Whispers from the Deep Quarters of Urok’Zhal, an ancient subterranean ruin sealed centuries ago, speak of forgotten trolls who turned against Tellen and now call upon unknown Fathers. The priesthood denies it. But many of the Sable Host have begun sharpening their weapons not for enemies above, but for those in the dark beneath.
Quotable Lore
“We are not born of earth. We are carved. And if the stone bleeds, it is because we have earned its blood.”
—High Strategos Varrik’Sha the Fourth
“You worship your gods in temples. We worship ours in war.”
—Tomb-Priest Ugluth Moanskin
“Let others starve for light. The strength of Moksun lies where sun has never touched.”
—Stone-Law Tablet of Grum’Tellin, Circle-City of Skarvault