Tellus: The Dragon Khanate

The Dragon Khanate is on the decline, yet its power remain nothing to sneeze at. In the current age of Tellus it is the main rival to the Sheradilan Empire when it come to sheer scope and might, yet the Khanate is also very much a different beast altogether from the Empire. It is also the last great world power to be primarily ruled and populated by non-Ulma, namely the people of the Dragon Clans. The Dragon Clans are not a dying race by any mean, certainly not in term of numbers (barring a world-spanning genocide, they won't be gone anytime soon), at least not within the next few centuries. However it is safe to say their territories and overall might has severely declined in the current age which is Ulma-dominant.

The Dragon Khanate

Art by Charlotte Kuger.

The Dragon Khanate operate primarily from the southern continent and various smaller islands around it. Its heart is the aforementioned southern continent and the various, disparate populations and clans of the Dragon-blooded men and women living on it. Some clans are mercantile, some are pirates and some are purely warriors with a few composed nearly entirely of mystics of some stripe or another. It has allies and tributaries all across the southern seas, spanning many cultures including many offshoot of the Ulma which are far removed from the mainline culture of the other continents, such as the tropical islanders and mariners or the mysterious people of the far eastern lands.

In theory all those are vassals to the great Dragon Khanate, last great power on Tellus not controlled by Ulma. In practice it is a little more complicated, as the Khanate  is nowhere as strong or as unified as it used to be. Without a strong leader, the various clans have returned to their bolder, more independent ways as the boundless energy and pride of the Dragon Clans are hard to contain. In older times, the Dragon Clans could raise great armies composed of Dragon-men, tamed giant beasts, war-mages and more while calling upon the seafaring skills of the islanders to help them raise great fleets of dragon-prowed boats. In the current age, they are an increasingly disparate people and the great armies of old are nowhere to be seen. Not that it stopped them from kicking the Empire's ass multiple time, as inferior numbers and infrastructure hasn't stopped the Khanate warriors from trying to fight, casualties be damned. After all, the Dragon Clans are notorious for fighting their hardest when cornered.

This is the state of the Khanate today: it is still very much alive and very much a raging fire, but it is not a unified bonfire and more akin to a thousand smaller torches. Some of their ports remain open to strangers for trade, large and lively exotic bazaar which deal in so many odd curios. Small fleets of pirates and/or merchants prowl the oceans. However, should the Dragon Clans fail to unify their fire will slowly fade as the Ulma overtake them....