Briss did not begin as a nation so much as a stubborn refusal to accept the limits of the desert. Where other peoples clung to what water they were given, the early circles of Briss chose to make water instead. At first, their work was modest, small gatherings of druids walking the edges of an oasis, calling brief rains from clear skies through repeated invocations of Create or Destroy Water 1st Level (Transmutation)
You either create or destroy water. . Day after day, season after season, they layered rainfall upon rainfall, allowing the soil to soften, then hold. Over generations, this practice became ritualized. Entire communities were built around coordinated castings, timed with planting cycles and guided by careful stewardship of the land.
The sand has not vanished, but it lies broken and subdued, gathered into low, wind-shaped ridges between wide belts of rooted life. Groves of date palms rise in irregular clusters, their canopies casting long, shifting shadows over undergrowth that would not survive elsewhere in Cortenmaas–dense mats of hardy grasses, wax-thick succulents, and low, flowering shrubs that bloom briefly after each coaxed rainfall. The air carries a faint, persistent humidity, enough to soften the harshness of the sun without dulling it, and the ground, though still dry at the surface, often yields dampness just beneath.
Briss is the living heart of Cortenmaas. Governed by archdruids and defended by all other nations but Den’sall (whose leaders view this subjugation of the desert heretical to the natural environment of Cortenmaas), Briss exports crops, dates, and other plants to help the neighboring nations survive. It is a nation of peace and prosperity.
Jad’elle
The capital of Briss
Other Cities
- Telaan
- Okesul
- Urien
- Ishfand
- Bursien