Khar’tep, City of Mountains

Home of nomadic clans scattered across the northern mountains, they are a people both united by cause and divided by stone.  

from High Plains Samurai: Legends

There is a reason why the Five Cities have not turned to outright war due to so many harsh words and threats exchanged between them. When it comes to Khar’tep and its current warlord, Khar of the Hawk Clan, there is the slight matter of scaling the rocky mountains in which this City lies. While not a City in the traditional sense, what it known as Khar’tep is in truth a nomadic gathering of barbarians relocating from one peak of the mountains to the next as conditions demand. Out here, change is a constant. Even the name of the City is altered when a new warlord is proclaimed – its former name was Roth’tep in favour of its previous warlord, Roth of the Goat Clan.

Life is firm and unrelenting in the heights of the northeastern mountains. While each clan tends to their own, they all form groups of hunters, gatherers, parents, gardeners, and warriors working apart but for the same purpose: the survival of the clan. Only their clan elders engage with the other clans and ensure little to no violence breaks out between them. Such peace between the clans is only maintained because of Khar’s wishes as he prepares for the days of total war with the other Cities.

Home to a gathering of numerous clans, Khar’tep maintains order through might alone. These people have been raised to live a warrior’s code: what is desired is taken and fought for. While not as organized and dutiful as the soldiers in Monsoon, they are indeed a force to be reckoned with. All manner of harsh crimes are permitted when raiding parties are sent out, and few that oppose them are left alive. Ruling them all is their unchallenged warlord. Never defeated in battle, it is told, this hulking warrior has slain ten people for every year of his life. The youngest of all the warlords, his quick temper and swift reactions make him the most feared of them all.

Never underestimate the barbarians of Khar’tep. Art by Kieron O’Gorman.