Vystrilik is a trading nation situated at the base of the Tambrielle Mountains in the central-western jungle. The Tambrielle range forms the nation's spine, rising 5,000–7,000 feet where the jungle meets the highland. Several passes cut through the range, all controlled by Vystrilik; caravans crossing between the Emerald Coast and the eastern seaboard must use Vystrilik's routes or take longer, more dangerous paths.
This geographic chokehold has made Vystrilik prosperous. The capital Vystril sits at the base of the passes and maintains extensive warehouses where goods are sorted, taxed, and transferred between jungle canoes and the pack trains that cross the mountains. The city's architecture reflects its crossroads role—influences from the coast, the jungle interior, and the eastern seaboard blend in its buildings and marketplaces.
The nation takes its name from the Vystrilik, an old people who stood with Gaea's children at the Last Line against the Gray Prince, Hykravones, in the Shattering. The modern federation claims descent from them, though the claim reaches across so vast a gulf of time that little but the name carries it. The Shattering destroyed nearly every civilization on Alaria, and no merchant house keeps an unbroken ledger back that far. What has come down is the name and the right to it, not a documented line.