With the Labyrinth Worldbook recently released by Kobold Press, I thought I would publish a few posts and share some more information about my campaign setting, the Lands of Parsantium, one of the core worlds featured in the book. This all-new post describes Phokris, an island in the Corsairs’ Sea ruled by minotaurs.
Phokris
The mountainous island of Phokris lies in the southern part of the Corsairs’ Sea and is home to a kingdom of minotaurs with a storied past. Once a mighty maritime power, the Golden Horned Kingdom of Keftios claimed dominion over Cervenna, Phokris, Valkyros, and the many smaller islands of the eastern Corsairs’ Sea for several centuries until its conquest by first the Caliphate of Aqhran, and later the Bathuran Empire. After the death of Corandias the Magnificent, Phokris remained part of the eastern Empire, ruled from Parsantium until 1443 when Queen Bansubira the Indomitable declared independence.
Today, Phokris is ruled by two married queens, Queen Tarima and Queen Jadone, who come from the kingdom’s wealthiest elite families. Tarima is hot-tempered and passionate, while Jadone is calm and considered. Together they defend Phokris’s interests and ensure their kingdom is not disadvantaged by its more powerful neighbours.
The royal palace of Phokris is built at the summit of the hill overlooking the harbour and its roof is adorned with a pair of tall horns of white marble. Beneath the palace is the Grand Labyrinth, a bewildering maze of hundreds of rooms, halls, passages, and stairways, home to the majority of the city’s minotaur population. Certain passageways within the Grand Labyrinth are said to lead to the Great Maze that connects the Ten Thousand Worlds. Others lead outside to the hillsides and hidden valleys where the minotaurs graze flocks of goats and sheep, grow figs, grapes, olives, and wheat, and cultivate bees for their sweet honey.
The Grand Labyrinth played an important historical role in Phokris’ defence. When the Bathurans invaded the island, they were able to seize the harbour, but the minotaurs withdrew to the Grand Labyrinth. Here, their attackers were ambushed and slaughtered by bands of fierce minotaur warriors or killed by the fiendish traps scattered throughout the passages and halls. Eventually the Bathuran general Maurianus sounded the retreat. Less than ten percent of his soldiers survived. Laying siege to the Grand Labyrinth proved equally ineffective – the minotaurs’ subterranean storerooms were well stocked and secret exit tunnels allowed them to replenish their reserves. Although the Bathurans laid claim to Phokris, they never truly defeated its inhabitants.
The minotaurs of Phokris are expert sailors and traders, and their merchant ships undertake regular voyages to Parsantium, Aqhran, Loranto, and the other islands in the Corsairs’ Sea. Phokris’s harbour is busy with minotaur ships coming and going, and with merchant vessels from Aqhran stopping off en route to and from Parsantium. A bronze colossus of Queen Bansubira stands at the entrance to the harbour; ships must sail beneath her legs to enter the port. A large crack runs through the middle of the statue, showing where it has been repaired following a mighty earthquake. Large pairs of horns of wood or stone decorate the rooftops of the harbour buildings.
The minotaurs worship several of the same gods as the Bathurans, always depicting them with bovine heads in their statues and frescoes. Unsurprisingly, Amphetia, Queen of the Sea, is the island’s patron goddess, but many minotaurs, particularly those hiring themselves out as mercenaries, worship Martek the warrior god. Amarani the All-Knowing is revered in the Grand Labyrinth’s vast underground library, which is said to contain maps and directions to many obscure pathways through the wider Labyrinth. The minotaur librarians who serve in Parsantium’s Library of All Knowledge honed their bibliographic skills here in Phokris and guard the valuable books and scrolls vigilantly.
Zana the Maiden, goddess of nature, is also worshipped. Her temples are found in remote locations in the island’s wild interior. Some are isolated stone sanctuaries built atop mountain peaks; others are sacred caverns in the forested hillsides presided over by druids. Zana’s rites are shrouded in mystery, but are sometimes attended by satyrs and wood nymphs and are rumoured to involve drunken, frenzied, even violent revelry.
Inland from the town of Phokris and its orchards and farmland, the island’s landscape is arid and mountainous, with occasional areas of woodland. Deer and miniature elephants, standing just three feet tall at the shoulder, make their homes in these woods, where they are preyed on by basilisks and chimeras. Several gorgon herds are known to graze on the hillsides, and huge rocs nest atop the mountain peaks.
Adventure Hook. The scholarly Parsantine noble house of Megaris is offering a large chest of gold bezants for an accurate partial map of the Great Maze. Can the PCs sneak past the minotaur librarians into the restricted section of the library and make an illicit copy of a map of the Labyrinth?
Adventure Hook. Rumours are spreading throughout Phokris that a monstrous karkadann (Tome of Beasts 3) is at large somewhere on the island after a number of poor elephants were found dead with stab wounds, as if from a large horn. Since a karkadann’s magical horn can be used to craft a staff of healing, the high priest of Martek is offering a reward to anyone brave enough to track down and slay the creature.
Lands of Parsantium map by Jared Blando.
If you enjoyed this post, download a free preview of Parsantium: City at the Crossroads to find out more about the setting, or, better still, buy Parsantium from Drivethrurpg.
Discover more from Richard Green | Game Designer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Richard Green | Game Designer 