Joda

The Joda Desert lay to north of the Jasper Peaks and was home to several tribes of Desert Elves. The most numerous were the Kur’casna (Band of the Stallion), who made a semi-permanent home for themselves in a small desert city also called Kur’casna. Raiding between tribes was very common, though unnecessary killing was frowned upon. Young Males were usually required to steal a stallion from a competing tribe in order to prove manhood. Several tribes joined on festival days to trade and rejoice. They also joined together when needed to fight a common enemy. Several of the tribes were linked through family lines and inter-tribal marriages were commonly arranged.

An uneasy peace existed between the desert elves and the Shroud until the occupation of Joda by several Shroud Elders who had remained neutral during the Shroud Civil War. After Krell was released from his prison, these elders were aware that their neutrality had most likely displeased him. They levied an army in Greystone and marched out to Joda to make war on the desert elves, partly to ingratiate themselves with their master and partly to keep out of the way of the purge in Greystone. They allied themselves with a group of dark elven Hesterites. The dark elves of Haarp in the Joda Desert were the most powerful of all Hester’s congregation and had long harbored designs on Kur’casna. By allying with the dark elves these elders played a clever game: if the Shroud Loyalists acted against them, they risked either alienating Hester or handing the desert over entirely to her followers. Neither option would have pleased Krell who needed Hester, but hardly trusted her. The desert elves paid a high price for the generals’ strategical manoeuvring and were ground mercilessly under the heel of the new overlords, who installed a new High Junta on the throne of Kur’casna. All attempts to resist the occupation were brutally supressed, and the desert elves’ Water Temple ransacked.

A few miles from Kur’casna one of the main gnomish societies, known as the Dour Gnomes or Warcrafters made its home in the Joda Desert. These Warcrafters built up a devastating arsenal, unheeded by the world: they planned on becoming a force to be reckoned with in Joda.

Elsewhere the desert bristled with dangers. Strange abominations roamed the sands: some whispered they were failed experiments of the Hesterites.