A map of Katapesh and surrounding regions:
Katapesh is a nation dedicated to trade and little else. Its bazaars are known across Golarion not just for their size, but for their incredible (and sometimes immoral) variety of wares. No item is too rare or taboo to be found somewhere in the tents, shops, and wagons of the nation’s merchants: magical reagents, forbidden spells, holy relics, and deadly poisons. In Katapesh, those with the gold make the rules, and the only question is whether one can afford their desires.
Strangely, Katapesh was founded by a group of Sarenite refugees. Fleeing south from pogroms in Osirion, these devout settlers founded two cities that would eventually become Solku and Katapesh. Yet life was hard on Katapesh’s plains, and constant assault by gnolls, bandits, and destructive sandstorms led subsequent generations away from the faith, seeking salvation in something more concrete.
They found it in pesh: a rare cactus growing in the nation’s interior, the sap of which could be distilled into a powerful euphoric drug. Trade boomed as residents of the Inner Sea region clamored for the new drug, and with the influx of money came warring gangs and pesh dens full of helpless addicts. As the economic boom and influx of foreign trade allowed local merchants to expand into other wares, the fundamental anarchy of a drug-fueled economy continued under a loose consortium of corrupt merchants and outright criminals.
The Pactmasters changed that. Seven feet tall, robed and masked to hide their forms, the Pactmasters arrived from parts unknown and took control of the city of Katapesh—and by extension the nation—in a bloodless coup that no records can explain. Though they didn’t end the city’s freewheeling approach to trade, they stabilized and formalized it. Under their guidance, usually filtered through humanoid mouthpieces like Pactbroker Hashim ibn Sayyid, the nation has become perhaps the largest black market in the world, its independence maintained by economic ties and a constabulary of metal constructs known as aluums.
