Climate: Maritime, warm summer
Terrain: Lava plateau, cuesta land, flood plain, cliff shore, gravel shore
Government: Feudal Republic (Council of Lords)
Alignment: Lawful Evil; Civilized, Cultured, Immoral
Exports: Grain, salt, volcanic glass, iron, tools, weapons, armor, copper, silver, gold
Approximate Population: 800,000
Cities: Halkorma (capital), Jerdyng, Amshir, Cirlat, Yurlat, Bair, Poane, Tadon, Lanankh, Rirdyng
Official Currencies: gold branankh, silver ilat, copper nanankh
Deities: Vashath (wealth, law); Daya (expansion, pride, civilization); Pnyesh (secrets, mysteries)
Afvghen men sometimes reach 6’ in height and are of a strong build, and while the women average less than 5 ½’ tall, they are also strong. Skin tones range from pale pink to light brown. Hair is mostly black or brown, with an occasional sandy blond or brown-red. Afvghen eyes tend to be narrow and closely spaced, and the most common colors are brown and green, although Afvghens may have blue, black, or even dark yellow eyes. Both men and women wear their hair long, and braids are popular with both genders. When men begin to lose their hair, the custom is to shave the head entirely. Elderly men are often bald with ornate blue or black tattoos covering their heads, and this is considered a distinguished feature. Facial hair is very rare and considered uncouth; this feeling is connected to the Afvghen prejudice against dwarves.
The people of Afvghe are proud and consider themselves the progenitors of civilization. Even though the modern Republic of Afvghe has become a client state of Garmorg, the Afvghen calendar, which predates the Garmorgian one by a century and a half, has become the standard calendar of human civilization.
A defining feature of Afvghen civilization has been enmity and war against the dwarves of Gourb to the north. This racial feud has its roots in disputes over ownership of the iron found in the mountains. From their first city and capital, Halkorma, the Afvghens began to mine the Frakun Ridge, to the west. They met dwarven resistance; the dwarves claimed all of Gourb—the southwestern corner of the immense Gordur—as their ancestral homeland. They had been working the mountain for thousands of years.
The Frakun War lasted for a generation of Afvghen history—from 468 to 499. The dwarves were pushed back into the mountains, and the border city of Tadon was established by the Afvghens in 497, leading to the end of the war. The Afvghens could not have achieved this victory without the aid of a group of renegade Evokers from Nejem, who became mercenaries for the Afvghens beginning in 496. The end of the war came with massive dwarven losses and a full retreat into the deep caverns of Gourb.
The Frakun War is the longest war in Afvghen history, although other defining wars have occurred. In 515, the army of Halkorma marched against the independent city-state of Lanankh. The battle was short and violent; the inferior defenses of Lanankh, a young city with its attention turned inward, fell quickly. The Afvghens colonized the city and killed or enslaved any natives who remained. Similarly, the cities of Bair and Poane were founded in a violent expulsion of nomadic people that were descended from the same racial stock as the Afvghens.
In 562, the Afvghens met their match when they encountered the armies of Garmorg, which had subjected all of the neighboring Guna Confederacy to its rule in a span of 50 years. After six weeks of battles and skirmishes along the river Edirriltse, the Garmorgians marshaled an invading force to overtake Poane and, from there, Bair. Cirlat fell to the armies of Garmorg in 564, but this proved to be an overextension of available forces. An Afvghen counter-invasion of Cirlat reclaimed the city soon after, and the two nations observed an uneasy stalemate for the next year.
The conflict was ended when a team of Garmorgian assassins infiltrated Halkorma and murdered the Afvghen ruler and his advisors, which sent ripples of chaos throughout the land. In early 565, the armies of Garmorg swarmed through Cirlat once more, then continued on, eastward, towards Halkorma. Martial law was imposed for the next 5 years. By 570, the Garmorgians had colonized Afvghe, and although it nominally remains a Republic, rather than a province of Garmorg, the appointed lords of Afvghe are of Garmorgian stock.