Pesh¶
"Whole towns and cities are carved of the plentiful red granite ... This has earned it the nickname, the Red Kingdom." — the Compendium (S372)
Pesh is the ancient kingdom of Danara, "located on the large island of Danara in the South Broken Sea". "This kingdom is ancient. It has recorded histories and bloodlines traced back almost twenty thousand years, before the Broken Sea cut off the island from the rest of Numenia. Most consider it the heart of the Danari people, their homeland." With Dalmar it was one of "the great powers of the West" and of the Thalatian Kingdoms in the Age of Magic. In the Fifth Age it is a ruin on the Isle of Danar, "utterly destroyed during the age of the Dark Sun".
Also called: the Red Kingdom; the Kingdom of Pesh.
The Red Kingdom¶
"The oldest of the pure Danari Kingdoms. Their cities are more than a thousand years old and filled with intricate art and craftsmanship. Their lines of nobility can be traced back for 20 generations or more." Its towns and cities are carved from "the plentiful red granite, which is found in the mountains that dot the landscape". The Danari social order of peerage, gentry, freemen and serfs described on the Danari page is Pesh's.
Pesh kept a navy: "The last attempt to attack the city [of Azmeran] was nearly 40 years ago, led by the Peshian Navy, and was a disastrous defeat for Pesh" (see Azmeran and the Pirates of Azmeran). With Dalmar and "many other nations" it supported the Keepers of Valnyr on demonblighted Amarin with "money, supplies and manpower".
Gap
No source names Pesh's capital, its kings or the mountains of red granite, and the Compendium's own nation entry leaves the island's name as a placeholder in its earlier draft.
Ruin¶
"Pesh and the other kingdoms on the Isle of Danar were utterly destroyed during the age of the Dark Sun. However, their legacy of abundant magic lives on in the countless Hollows that dot the ruined landscape." In 617 SM the Sancturi Empire's Nightshade Legions planted a settlement "at a second location ... (Pesh)" on the island; it was abandoned in 652 SM before "the Wights and their armies of corporeal and incorporeal undead, as well as undead plagues, blights and roaming monsters".
Earlier accounts¶
The unfinished gazetteers of Numenia (S499, S548) place Pesh "on the large island of XXX in the South Ruined Sea" and say the Ruined Sea, not the Broken Sea, cut the island off from the continent; the later Compendium supplies the island's name as Danara.