Oprak

One of Avistan’s newest nations, Oprak’s nationhood was hard-won by the Ironfang Legion, a hobgoblin army that scourged northern Molthune and southern Nirmathas throughout 4717 ar. Its leader, General Azaersi, first rose to prominence as the commander of one of Molthune’s non-human mercenary companies. She patiently attracted hobgoblins and other monstrous mercenaries to her side, ultimately swelling her troop into an army. When she had taken all the recruits Molthune could offer, she broke with Molthune and led her army into Nirmathas. With the aid of a powerful artifact called the Onyx Key, Azaersi and her troops made their base in a strange castle deep within the Plane of Earth called the Vault of the Onyx Citadel. From there, she could create dimensional pathways to any location she chose, allowing the Ironfang Legion to move supplies and troops with ease.

Azaersi’s legion rapidly conquered much of southwestern Nirmathas, and she would have extended her domain further if a group of heroes had not raised a militia to halt her advance. The militia commanders eventually confronted Azaersi in the Onyx Citadel and convinced her that her relentless warmongering would bring nothing but destruction to her people. Exhausted by the toll the war had taken on her army, her friendships, and herself, Azaersi elected to withdraw her troops into the mountains and use the Onyx Citadel to establish Oprak as a homeland for hobgoblins and other creatures seen as monsters.

Azaersi carved her lands on Golarion from a sparsely inhabited section of the Mindspin Mountains between Nirmathas and Nidal. The general and her advisors—the Enclave Council—were careful when drawing their borders to exclude the dwarven free city of Kraggodan, but Azaersi all but dared her neighbors to contest her claim. Representatives from the Umbral Court of Nidal were the first to meet with Azaersi and acknowledge the hobgoblin general’s sovereignty, agreeing to a 3-year nonaggression pact. Shortly thereafter, Forest Marshal Dardinna Yallis of Nirmathas approached Azaersi under heavy guard to discuss diplomatic relations, and agreed to peace for 4 years. Yallis hopes that because the hobgoblins are scheduled to end their peace with Nidal first, they will look west rather than east for military conquests.

General Azaersi maintains the military arm of her nation—still called the Ironfang Legion—but has solidly shifted her nation’s focus to developing a robust economy. Due to the extraplanar nature of the Onyx Citadel, Oprak is currently the safest nation in the region from the threat of the Whispering Tyrant, and Azaersi is currently avoiding military conflict in order to fully develop her new homeland’s resources and tactical advantages. Hobgoblins and other creatures willing to serve as explorers, miners, smiths, and alchemists have been flocking to the fledgling nation.

Although Oprak is little more than three hundred miles across and consists primarily of forbidding mountains, the hobgoblins have substantially more resources than they have revealed to the rest of the world. The Onyx Citadel rests in a large, verdant cavern that the hobgoblins call the Onyx Vault, which is even larger than the territory Azaersi claims on Golarion. Created long ago by a powerful species of terraformers called xiomorns, the Onyx Vault has a variety of terrain, its own day and night cycle, and even clouds and rain. The hobgoblins are industriously taming this strange land, negotiating with powerful elemental natives, and mining the profusion of gems and ores in the wondrous place.

Golarion’s connections to the Onyx Citadel—paths known as the Stone Roads—are guarded by legions of watchful hobgoblins. Five such entrances exist throughout the mountains of Oprak, the largest being the obsidian tower in the new capital Hunthul’s heart. Azaersi’s diplomats have placed another in the militaristic hobgoblin nation of Kaoling in Tian Xia, and have opened diplomatic relations with that nation.