Deviation Actions
Description
The Provinces
West Highlands: Highest elevated mountain ranges, containing the three largest mountains. Two of the three largest rivers start here from mountain runoff. Alpine and boreal woodland stretch up the slopes of the mountains far past the permanent snow line, of which the region almost entirely consists of.
Settlements
Meeve’s Tarn: Meeve, a spiritualist, lives here, his hut nestled at the base of a tarn lake on Mt. Ogath. A few dozen civilians and magicians live along Meechawaga lake below.
Subregions
Ocheecho Range: A relatively straight wall of mountains, dividing two streams which go on to become the Rotintin and Neomy rivers. Temperatures here rarely go above freezing even in summer. The only trees to grow along this range inhabit the narrow valleys.
Glacier: Lying north of Meechawaga Lake, this five mile long sheet of ice has carved a narrow canyon through the surrounding cliffs and grows smaller with each passing year.
Mount Nonin: The largest mountain in the region, it stands around 14,500 feet above sea level and has snow year-round. Its northeastern face consists of rocky boulders and cliffs carved by glaciers. Its range is fifteen miles long when counted with its foothills and Mount Tarkann.
Mount Bicorn: The second largest mountain in the region, it stands around 13,200 feet above sea level and has snow for most of the year but no permanent snow line. It is named for its two twin peaks and resemblance to a bicorn hat. The mountain itself is roughly five by seven miles across.
Mount Ogath: The third largest mountain in the region, it stands around 12,500 feet above sea level and has snow for half the year but no permanent snow line. Its southern face consists of sheer cliffs carved by glaciers. The mountain is roughly four by eight miles across.
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East Highlands: Taiga biome on the western slopes, gradually becoming cedar hemlock mixed with various types of pines.
Subregions
Covenant Bluff: Rising sandstone bluffs face the ocean, confined within a peninsula of sheer exposed cliffs. The tallest bluff stands around 500 feet above sea level, and served as a meeting place where the native inhabitants and Nedazzar’s generals agreed to numerous treaties, and later a military outpost, giving the area its name.
Carn Crest: A sandstone ridge rising sixty feet from the surrounding hillside, giving way to a series of plateaus with similar heights. Snow is common here from fall to late spring, and high-altitude wild grasses are the only plant life to survive with the frequent cool winds.
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Ocheecho: Temperate forests situated along the Neomy River Valley. Subtropical meadow along the region’s southern edge following the river. The southeast corner transitions to desert prairie, grasses long and yellowed nearly year-round. The western edge transitions to a rocky plateau. The mountains within the region’s border contain no permanent snow lines and are moderately warm in winter.
Settlements
Liberty: Formerly a loosely inhabited floodplain, Liberty was named for Wilfred von Hymer’s defense of the region and negotiations for peace between warring tribes. Its name is seen as a mockery by some, After being put on the map after Wilfred exposed the local corruption within the government and the region’s own defense force, he convinced the few thousand residents to crown him king. The constitutional monarchy would not last long due to strategic failures managing the region (tbd). Liberty is the sole settlement in the region to entirely ban alcohol and conscripted military/defense service of any form.
Subregions
Giant Steps: A series of cliffs face Winding Bow Creek, the lower of which were carved out by glaciers and later, seasonal flooding centuries ago. The upper cliffs have been smoothed around low points, and for a brief period in spring give way to slow-running muddy waterfalls. Due to poor soil nutrition the steps contain little besides drought-tolerant grasses and the occasional shrub. Rain isn’t uncommon, though the hard rock has hardly any soil to retain any of it before it cascades down.
Sandy Forks: One of the most unique microregions, this land remains largely untouched due to excessive dryness even despite its mild temperatures. It is believed that these mountain foothills were once covered in soil, washed away by decades of drought and torrential downpours in the past, giving way to the layered colors of white, orange, red and brown rock seen today.
Painted Plains: Bordering the desert south of the Neomy River, Painted Plains contains similar exposed, sandswept rock as Sandy Forks, with hues of red, pink and orange dominating the landscape between yellowed fields. The river meanders through rocky, sand-clay soil, becoming a marshland at points. Shrubs and the occasional tree grow along runoff trails, and a mesa and handful of buttes divide the border to Chianu.
Mount Tarkann: A small mountain range branching off between Mount Nonin and Sandy Forks. Its eastern slope contains a rain shadow and fire-ravaged woods.
Blue Hills: The western slope of Mount Tarkann facing the Nonin Pool and the surrounding slopes from Mount Nonin contain a microregion of blue grasses and blue-green conifers.
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Chianu: Among the most diverse regions, Ninety percent of the region is considered a desert, though this is due to much of its dry climate, and the region is not known for exceedingly hot temperatures save for the months of June-August. The western half of the desert is subtropical; mist and shade between buttes and mesas provide life for dozens of native species of low-growth flora, including mosses and ferns at the far eastern range. The canyon is even more humid, slow-moving and transitioning to rapids for three miles before reaching the village of Otin.
Settlements
Otin: On average there’s under 1,000 residents here, situated at the edge of the Chianu rapids as they slow down to a crawl. Once a bustling glass-smelting company town, Otin serves as a lawless town for bandits to seek refuge in, and rests on the edge of the frontier where mountains traverse to desert. While they do have a police force, laws are so lax that most of anything deemed illegal anywhere else is accepted here, short of murder or theft.
Fort Fonter: Within the walls of an abandoned abbey lies a few dozen men, rumored to be thieves, traffickers, cannibals, or worse.
Subregions
Dry Steps: A series of mini-cliffs similar to Giant Steps in Ocheecho, but with little growth and sand-polished rock.
Chianu Canyon: Roughly ten miles long, with its widest width being half a mile wide. Millenia ago melting glaciers flooded the river and carved through eighty feet deep. Today it’s humid year-round, especially around the rapids. Its churning roar can be heard two miles away, echoing like distant thunder. The babylonian hanging fern is native to the area and prefers to nestle between cracks in the cliffs close to the rapids.
Albiron Steppe: Bordering Painted Plains, this region contains the same blanket of yellowed grasses and no trees. Low-growing cacti take up its southern and eastern borders. To the northeast narrow ravines between rock have worn down over time as the clay soil is often too dry to absorb the rare downpours.
Lowlands: Lacking a formal name, the lowlands have always been scarcely inhabited, and up until a few decades ago, were nothing more than marshes and bogs. With an elevation peak of just thirty feet above sea level, few trees not designed for wetlands survive, with most species being of the poisonous marsh muskberry and tombberry species, as well as willows. Anything that has died quickly succumbs to rot, with mosses and fungus quickly fighting for space. The goliath snaresucker can be found here, and is known to trap and kill animals as large as adult rabbits. The black death vine is also native here and can kill nearby undergrowth up to two feet from its root nodes.
Fern Seep: As the name implies, the region is partially submerged, with its highest elevation being a meager two feet above sea level. The whole region is prone to frequent flooding and no trees stand here. Duckweed vies for sunlight and kills most growth below, but the occasional lilypad and native six-pointed tree fern can be found here.
Witherwood Forest: Nestled within the nook of Baine’s Claim, this forest is almost entirely made of dead trees of varying species, and the witherwood species which has adapted to the environment with slow-growing, thick-based, red-barked fruiting trees. Most undergrowth consists of mosses and fungi, as well as humid-thriving plants.
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Nonjh: This region is cool year-round, and the few trees that call the northern half of the region home struggle to survive with such high winds through half of the year. Glaciers carved out the loch and deposited rich soil in the southwestern half of the region, missing the eastern half entirely. There, the land has remained mostly undisturbed for millenia.
Settlements
Soul of the Springs: Hot springs where a few hundred native secularists and spiritualists reside, at the base of a mountain. They were forced fifteen miles uphill by Nedazzar years ago. Frog’s Spittle, a plant with magical properties, grows in abundance in the springs.
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Tharjvite: The region contains mountains, valleys, and a forest along the Neomy River, and receives frequent erosion from mountain runoff. Only around Cantenvale has the rocky soil been tilled for farming, leaving the rest almost entirely untouched.
Settlements
Cantenvale: Around 2,000 residents. The town survives off the lake to the right and river to the south, and their economy is focused around mining clay and farming cold-tolerant crops.
Subregions
Black Mounds: Hills rise 700 feet to the west of Cantenvale. Based on the Black Hills of South Dakota, these mounds consist of smoother rocks and less tree cover.
Nonin Forest: Forty square miles of deciduous woodland and limited aspens stand north of the Neomy River, traveling up Mount Nonin and around Black Mounds.
Deermoss Flats: Gentle sloping fields of deciduous trees along the river take up this region. Deermoss is common in clearings, and the banks are humid year-round.
Tharjvitian Range Forest: Containing the same trees as Nonin Forest, the forest entirely covers the range and surrounding foothills.
Tharjvite Foothills: Containing two sizable villages, this region houses a few lumber mills and virtually no flat land outside of its valleys and waterways.
Mud Creek Valley: A dried riverbed that experiences seasonal flow. Trees here serve as a wind barrier from Chianu. Grasses transition to small prairies in high spots, and are somewhat yellowed from summer heat.
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Zzar’s Dish: North of the Rotintin river lies Nedazzar, densely populated and gently sloping southward. To the east, Covenant Bluff is loosely forested on its coasts with salt-tolerant trees of varying species, increasingly bare towards the middle ridge. South of the river, roughly fifty square miles of farmland feed the region’s people. The eastern edge here also contains numerous bluffs facing the sea, and scarcely anything more than grassland and scattered shrubs along runoff trails.
Settlements
Nedazzar: Largest population at some 45,000 residents, including a military some 8,000 strong and three train depots, two for civilian use and one for military. The area is roughly the size of half of San Francisco’s downtown peninsula, with densely packed homes rising six stories high, and sparsely populated farms and wineries at the foothills of the mountains. The seat of government lies here, with Nedazzar functioning as a trading colony for the emperor of Miezko. As such, pro-Miezko propaganda is rampant and protests quelled.
Subregions
Copper Slopes: This region is named for the orange hue of its native grasses and is primarily used for farmland. Two train depots are located here.
Barnaby Grant: This region contains the same geography as Copper Slopes, and was annexed by Heden from Nedazzar.
Winterberry Rise: These hills rise a few hundred feet and consist almost entirely of winterberry trees and shrubs. Some of it has been cut down to build Nedazzar; it used to expand across half of Copper Slopes, and little pockets of it do exist around boulders and land poorly suited for farming, like ravines. A railroad passes through it.
Nedite Valley: Situated between three ridges, this valley has only recently been deforested for mining ventures and marks the farthest westward expansion of Zzar’s Dish. A railroad passes through it.
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Harvan: The northern third depends on farming, while the remaining area depends on mining and timber in the dense, rugged ponderosa pine and temperate deciduous forests. The coast is sandy and much of it marshland, with little port access.
Settlements
Heden: Second largest population at around 7,000 residents, many living within the annexed ‘Barnaby’s Grant’ section which had been purchased from Zzar’s Dish at the time of the story. The area is home to hundreds of fisheries and farms, in addition to a sizable port. Truly a progressive town in its era, Heden claims it has the perfect balance of civil liberties and social order, and is the only town to ban public executions, corporal punishment, and permit unmarried women to vote.
Vima: Just under 1,000 residents call the riverside village and surrounding hills their home. The local economy depends on timber and coal mining, and a few water wheels provide electricity for basic street lighting. A train depot is located within a mile.
Tinhorn Crossing: Around 500 residents in this agricultural hub and trading post. The area is named for a strategic merging of paths that follow along the river at the edge of the foothills, along with a train depot.
Subregions
Heden Hill: A small slope directly west of Heden, and extension of the Winterberry Rise range. A railroad tunnel passes within it.
Granite Hill: A large hill primarily composed of granite, with a steep north face overlooking Winterberry Rise, and a gentle slope southward.
Red Range: Granite Hill’s southern slope, containing narrow ravines and sparse stands of trees.
Red Ridge Overlook: An extension of Granite Hill, with a sheer cliff twenty feet deep at its widest point.
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Baine’s Claim: This plateau contains scrubland in the west and high, grassy plains in the east. Like Ocheecho, it is dry but not particularly hot. The entire region is separated by a massive cliff overlooking Chianu and the East Territory.
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East Territory: Loosely forested birch woodland surrounds the interior blue-gray ridge of rock far from the grassy, salty coast.
Subregions
Larned’s Plot: A swath of formerly native land that has recently been forcefully taken from the native population and used for questionable means. The land has strategic value in that it borders the Greater Chianu River and a railway.
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Water Features
Meechawaga Lake: Roughly six square miles of pristine, mostly frozen glacier water.
Rotintin Spill: Runoff from Mount Ogath and Mount Nonin, which forms the Rotintin River. Roughly five square miles.
Twin Falls: Fueled by runoff from Mount Nonin and Mount Bicorn. Spills into Neomy Glade.
Neomy Glade: A still pool roughly one square mile, cool through summer and shallow all around.
Winding Bow Creek: Drains from Neomy Glade and meanders through a series of falls, about five miles down reaching a large fall where it drains into an unnamed pool north of Liberty and becomes the Neomy River.
Neomy River: Flows through the regions of the West Highlands, Ocheecho, Tharjvite, and Harvan before emptying into the sea via the Neomy Alluvial Plain.
Neomy Alluvial Plain: Some of the most fertile soil in all of Harvan. The plain experiences occasional flooding and as such, there are few trees or dwellings within its expanse. Those that are tend to be built on stilts.
Nonin Pool: A natural mountain reservoir, poisoned from the exposed mines polluting it. An unnamed river flows from it into the Neomy.
Chianu Basin: A shallow basin supporting little animal life.
Mud Falls: A runoff trail that becomes a temporary river/fall after heavy rain or spring.
Chianu River: A mostly northeast-flowing river that slowly crawls, then winds, then falls through a series of rapids, then settles around a swamp before exiting into the sea.
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Points of Interest
Signal Point: A fire watchtower situated near the Ocheecho border.
Fort Tribelanke: A small military fort for Liberty, with a few lookout towers arching high above the foothills.
Mudslide: A swath of land that has collapsed from the snowline, exposing a half-mile wide path of destruction to the banks of the Neomy Glade.
Silver Ridges: The permanent snowline of Mount Nonin, appearing as melted silver in the reflection of the Nonin Pool.
Chatenay Glen: A wide valley between the foothills of Mount Nonin. A few homesteads dot the landscape dominated by natural wildlife and the homes of some successful businessmen.
Abandoned Mine: Orange acidic water drains from the mouth of this mine and into the Nonin Pool.
Iron Range Forge: A group of mining camps, factories and a trading post outside of a few mines in operation.
Scorched Wood: A section of the Nonin Forest that has been burnt to the ground in times past.
Sky Glass: A meter-tall pole of glass, nearly completely straight and consistent in thickness, rooted within the sand near the Neomy River.
Four Horses Cave: A small cave with red, black, white, and gray horses painted on a wall within. Fanatical writings can be found suggesting the inhabitant(s) believe the world was supposed to end in 1837.
Weeping Man: A yellow-brown rock resembling a crying face.
Gray Hare: A largely gray-white set of rocks, resembling a rabbit grooming itself or in prayer, with arms folded in front of its face and ears standing up together.
Dupont’s Misery: A bridge across the canyon that was never completed, and to this day stands. It was funded half a century earlier by investors upon learning the cave across the canyon had an abundance of iron ore. The only way to reach this cave at the time was by walking along a narrow foot-wide cliff edge from the other side of the canyon, so a bridge would save a few day’s time for the miners. After construction began the temporary mine collapsed, killing eight of those working on the bridge.
Lover’s Leap: A canyon cliff dropping some forty feet to the beginning of the rapids. The rock got its name from the publicized suicide of a cornered gang leader and has since gained a reputation for being a dumping grounds for bandits.
Witch’s Geode: A giant boulder that has rolled into the Witherwood Forest and split open.
Big Hands: A rock formation standing forty feet tall which resembles a hand, or from an angle two hands that are held together.
Cat’s Toes: A top-rounded rock formation that has split down the middle and cracked vertically in places, giving the appearance of a gray paw.
Chianu Trestle: A bridge for a train and civilians to cross.
Brehrmenn Guild: Vima’s local woodworking guild, where furniture makers and carpenters alike get their experience.
Record Rock: A rock marking an unknown date with an unknown set of names.
Vereanne’s Plight: A shipwreck.
Aen’s Mouth: A dormant volcano.
Atoll: An uninhabited string of coral reefs and seagrass.
Rotintin Trestle: Trestle arching across the Rotintin River to Nedazzar.
Mile Pass Bridge: An old bridge that was constructed to bypass the need for traveling three miles around across the narrow Rotintin River at its shallow point before it becomes a mile wide.
Fort Bilsap: Nedazzar’s military fort and prison, located just over their territorial border.
Lock: A manmade pass in the river, allowing for ships to circumvent the waterfalls in the Rotintin river and travel up and downstream.
Vereanne’s Vision: A rock where a self-proclaimed prophet once stood, and reportedly had visions of a coming ‘city on a ship’ to save Nedazzar’s inhabitants from destruction.
Trading Post: Once used for boat access before the construction of the railroad, this storage building has seen better days.
Crater: A half-mile wide scar that has left rock beneath the foothills exposed to the elements. The meteor itself is about 15 feet wide.