Lying east of the Cinderlands, Belkzen is an unforgiving wasteland filled with shrub brush, steep mountains, and uneven badlands, where water is scarce and generally limited to the seasonal Flood Road. The only thing harsher than the landscape are its savage inhabitants, the countless feuding orc tribes.

The region takes its named from the fabled orcish warlord Belkzen, who overran the ancient Dwarven sky citadel of Koldukar and made it his capital, Urgir. Since Belkzen’s death, the default state of his “nation” has been internecine warfare of orc against orc. Yet every so often a powerful leader will bind the tribes to his will and send them rampaging into civilized lands.

The most powerful of these leaders was the Whispering Tyrant, the mightly lich who once threatened to cover all of Golarion in darkness. When the followers of Aroden, including the then-mortal Iomedae, defeated the lich lord in the Shining Crusade, they founded the nation of Lastwall to serve as a watchful guardian against the tyrant’s return.

But Lastwall also shared a border with Belkzen, one that the orcs immediately began to push back. In the many centuries since that time, the warring tribes of Belkzen have continued to expand their domain at the expense of Lastwall, acre by blood-drenched acre.

The orcs have also come into frequent conflict with the Shoanti of the Cinderlands, but the harsh environs, harsher people, and lack of any suitable plunder have thus far deterred a full scale invasion.

High along the eastern tip of the Kodar Mountains in northern Belkzen, perched on a caldera island, lies the accursed Castle Scarwall, a place where even orcs fear to tread.

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