Mkinti occupies the southwestern portion of Erpeus Island, a land of glittering mountains and labyrinthine underground cities. This is Ohblex territory, gem gnomes who were born from the precious stones themselves and who guard the secret of clockwork jealously. The surface is all jagged peaks and treacherous passes; the real civilization lies beneath, in tunnels that sparkle with embedded gems and hum with mechanical precision.
The Gemstone Peaks
The mountain range that defines Mkinti, named for the gems that riddle its stone. Every color of precious stone can be found here: rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and stranger things without names. The Ohblex have mined these peaks for generations, for trade and for sustenance alike; they consume gems instead of food.
The surface settlements cling to the mountainsides, but they're mostly facades. The real cities lie underground, connected by tunnels that twist, branch, and trap. Outsiders who enter without guides don't come back.
Underground Mkinti
The surface settlements are the visible fraction of Mkinti. Below ground, the gnome cities spread through natural caverns and carved tunnels, lit by phosphorescent fungi and gem-light, connected by passages that only residents can navigate.
The underground cities contain:
- Workshops: Where clockwork is crafted, in secrecy that borders on paranoid
- Gem halls: Where the Ohblex consume their sustenance and assess new finds
- Trap galleries: Where the mechanisms that protect each city are maintained
- House vaults: Where each family stores its wealth, guarded by devices that would make siege engineers weep
The tunnels between cities are even more dangerous than the cities themselves. Wrong turns lead to dead ends, or just dead.
Relations with Neighbors
Mkinti shares Erpeus with Lier to the north and Azuros to the far north. The Ohblex view both with condescension. Lier's humans are too direct, too honest, too easy to manipulate. Azuros's monks are fascinating in their alien simplicity but ultimately irrelevant.
Trade flows through Lier: Mkinti's clockwork and gems for Lier's agricultural products and access to broader markets. What crosses the border is finished work, never the making of it; a Mkinti clock can be bought wherever its traders reach, but copied nowhere. The relationship is profitable and mutually suspicious, as the Ohblex prefer.