Geography of Eamon

Eamon — commonly pronounced /ˈiːm(ə)n/ rhyming with demon — is a magical world in a largely non-magical realm. Formed in the mists of antiquity by deities from the Elemental Planes, the region of the Material Plane that Eamon occupies has only a very weak connection to magic, except at rare points where powerful cosmic currents converge. One such confluence lies near the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, and it's this point that Eamon occupies, the currents imbuing the planet with wild and varied magic and giving rise to frequent spatial and dimensional rifts. These rifts connect Eamon to otherwise non-magical worlds across the galaxy (including Earth), as well as to worlds in many other spaces, dimensions, and planes.

The creator deities ultimately fought to the death in Eamon's seas, leaving the world to grow wild and untended for countless millennia, its lands shaped across the ages by erupting mountains, churning seas, and swirling magical rifts. Blessed by a rich diversity of life, blighted by the arrival of the Great Old Ones, and lashed by the holy fire of the gods who finally drove them out, the landscape bears the marks of Eamon's long and tumultuous history.

In ancient times the striking of the Plane Chime spawned reflections of Eamon in other dimensions, giving rise to the parallel worlds of Diurla, Zagora, Imyn, and others.

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Location

Eamon is the largest and innermost planet orbiting a white star near the core of the Milky Way Galaxy. The inhabitants of Eamon usually refer to this star simply as the Sun, but also identify it as Eldur — or sometimes Great Eldur to distinguish it from Little Eldur, a distant golden companion which orbits the rest of the system. The world is slightly smaller than Earth, with an equatorial circumference of roughly 23,000 miles, and is orbited by three moons and a handful of small asteroids.

Being near the crowded core of the galaxy, Eamon's night sky is a spectacular sight, densely strewn with nearby stars and alive with vast, colorful nebulae. Addar's scholars have charted the heavens in great detail and have an accurate understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodies around Eldur, though little is known about these other worlds.

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Landmasses

Scattered across Eamon's broad oceans are seven known continents and numerous islands and archipelagos, with many of the most significant events in the world's history occurring on or near the continent of Addar. Though Addar's scholars possess a rough understanding of the rest of the planet's geography, details are few and many regions remain mysterious.

• Addar, also known as the Continent of the Great Houses, has a diverse landscape and a rich and varied ecology. The majority of its inhabitants are human, but it's also home to thriving populations of elves, orcs, trolls, gnomes, dwarves, giants, and other races. Addar lies in the northern hemisphere and is roughly the size of Europe. See a map.
• Veldith lies west of Addar across the turbulent Sea of Death. Some human communities are known to exist along its eastern coast but its interior is unexplored.
• Tyrna lies north of the Sea of Death and northwest of Addar. Its climate is inhospitable and it's believed to be uninhabited by humans. Ancient accounts describe it as the home of giants.
• Ja'gala is a tropical supercontinent that lies south of Addar across a narrow Silver Sea strait and stretches far to the east above and below the equator. Eamon's largest continent, its sprawling jungles and plains are home to a variety of human and non-human civilizations including a complex society of Cat People.
• Karune is a U-shaped continent in the southern hemisphere bordering the Silver Seas. It's known to be rich in precious stones and metals; nuggets of silver may be fished with nets from the surrounding seafloor.
• Orashta is a distant and little-known continent shaped roughly like an hourglass, located somewhere far to the east of Addar.
• Naelend, sometimes known in Addar as "Northland", is the smallest continent and lies north-northeast of Addar. It's home to both human and goblin societies descended from Addaran emigrants.

A large landmass known simply as the Floating Island hangs in the sky two miles above the northeastern quarter of Addar. Kept aloft by gravity-repelling minerals in its strata, the island is largely unexplored, as is the frozen and perpetually shadowed waste below it.

Archipelagos stretch eastward and westward from Addar into the surrounding oceans. Weyren's Belt, a chain of small islands lining the western Malphigian Sea, is the domain of pirates who prowl the trade routes in and out of Evenhold.

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Regions of Addar

The Continent of the Great Houses, Addar, includes the following geographic regions.

Central

This fertile region surrounding the Sea of Dreams encompasses a diverse landscape of forests, plains, grasslands, hills, and low mountains. It's enclosed on the west by the towering Great Mountains, on the north by the Aevinn Range, and on the east by the Jarlschlager Range and the Wyvern Mountains. Within this region are numerous human nations, the largest being Evenhold, Dorier, Rhyl, Trillium, and Agimen. The only major non-human cultures are the reclusive Troll Kingdoms which occupy a sprawling network of tunnels and caverns beneath the Aevinn Range (in the north) and the caves and high valleys of the Sax Mountains (in the south), but other races are well represented in many smaller pockets.

This region has been continuously inhabited by human civilizations for almost 20,000 years and is rich with ancient fortifications, ruins, and artifacts from ages past. Some of the most impactful events in Eamon's history took place at sites within the region, including the advent of the New Pantheon at Lumen in 487 BA and the final engagements of the Great Battle of Darkness in 1 BA. Evidence of Terza's Scourge — miles-wide columns of solar fire that struck the planet during the climactic final battle — is still apparent in the fused stones and soil of the territory of Burnmarch.

North

A vast expanse of forested hills and plains known as the Northern Reaches covers north-central Addar, stretching from the highlands near the Kingdom of Evenhold all the way to the shores of the North Ocean. The region is flanked on the west by the Great Mountains and on the east by smaller scattered ranges, and gradually descends as one travels north.

The coastal plains bordering the North Ocean are more sparsely wooded and riddled with innumerable marshes, streams, and shallow lakes, making travel through the area difficult and slow. The Sayell River, one of the longest on the continent, meanders through the region and ends in a broad, swampy delta.

Numerous clans, tribes, and small nations of (mostly) humans live in settlements scattered across the region, most of which are united in a loose alliance under a supreme warrior king or queen. Known collectively as the Northern Kingdoms, its inhabitants tend to be combative and distrustful of outsiders, but they have been known to enter into treaties and trading agreements with outside kingdoms. Orcish states exist in the mountains of the northwest, with the oldest and most populous being Nostrum, while other races tend to live in smaller and more isolated pockets.

A trade road stretches through the region, entering the Reaches in the Davelmar Forest and terminating at Andport, the largest city on the north coast.

Northwest

The northwestern portion of Addar is a broad horn of land that juts from the Great Mountains, descending to a rough coastline of jagged capes and inlets along the North Ocean.

The southernmost third of the region is extremely mountainous and has only a sparse human population, with scattered orcish kingdoms and tribes occupying some of the high valleys in the east, and gnomes living in the valleys and foothills of the west. The central and northern portions of the region are known as the Land of Ta, a treacherous and war-torn realm inhabited by a mix of humans, dwarves, orcs, elves, and other races in a complex network of feuding kingdoms. A chain of large lakes dominates the eastern landscape.

Trade with Northwest Addar is limited and Evenhold's scholars know few details about its inhabitants or the internal geography of this rugged and dangerous land.

West

The western portion of Addar is a vast swath defined by the sweeping arc of the Great Mountains in the north and east. The range's westernmost spur ends at Mount Imagery, a prominent massif that towers above the surrounding landscape. Dense forests in the northern and eastern foothills give way to steppes further south, and ultimately to a region of dry badlands west of Tanjid and Kzorland.

Home to the continent's largest population of elves as well as societies of humans, gnomes, orcs, and other races, the region has a rich culture that flourishes despite centuries of conflict with the Ilvithri. Also known as the Storm Wizards or Darklords, the Ilvithri are an expansionist culture led by practitioners of dark magic who have gradually conquered much of the southeastern portion of the region, incluing the former kingdoms of Cyrak and Kalos. Countered by the magically adept elves in the west, the two dominant powers coexist in a cold-war-like state and share a long and uneasy border.

The Curse of Talon, an affliction unleashed by the last ruler of Cyrak, is endemic in the lands conquered by the Ilvithri and is most deadly to humans. Orcs, elves, and most other races are less affected by the plague but can act as carriers.

Interior

The interior of Addar is a vast realm of steppes and low mountains that stretches from the Horn and Jarlschlager ranges in the west to the border mountains of Knieriem in the east. Between lie the Spicelands, a broad expanse of hills, grasslands, and savanna considered mysterious and exotic to those in the west despite a longstanding trade route connecting it to the central kingdoms.

At the near end of this region are the nations of Nexdor and Sicilia, the former an ally of Evenhold's and the latter its longtime adversary, along with a number of smaller kingdoms and independent city-states. Nexdor and Sicilia have themselves become allies in recent years in order to better guard against the incursions of the rogue Darklord Skeleus, whose northern forces have been advancing against Sicilia. The enormous Shadow Wall, a magical barrier cast by the Darklord several years ago, provides cover for this advance while separating Sicilia from its partner. Areas close to the wall become grey and withered from its influence.

Farther north is the proud warrior culture of Larboria, closely aligned with the Northern Kingdoms, and the horse-riding tribes of Perrenor. Near them lies the Carnivorous Forest, thick with aggressive trees that catch and devour passing fauna.

South

South Addar is a protrusion of land bounded on the west by a chain of high mountain ranges and on the east by the long Gulf of Hedrin. Kept dry by the rain-shadow of the western mountains, the region is dominated by the Plain of Srevi, a semi-arid and mostly uninhabited expanse of steppes and grasslands that gradually transitions into the sandy Desert of Terza in the northwest. Farther south the land becomes hillier and more wooded.

Eamon's earliest human civilizations formed along the forested shores of the Gulf of Hedrin before spreading out across the world. Tasavalta, the first known human republic, once stood near the mouth of the gulf but was utterly obliterated in the First Ruin. The cataclysm collapsed the land it occupied and allowed the sea to rush inland, creating what is now the gulf's long northwestern arm. The ancient land of Kor and its city of Ishvatur later arose at the northern end of this arm; it's now held by the forces of the Darklord Skeleus.

Modern lands in this region include Saxavania, Norsax, and Tornio along the southern coast, the Southern Troll Kingdom in the Sax Mountains, and a handful of petty kingdoms and city states such as Alvard.

Southeast

The easternmost section of Addar is best known as the home of the technologically advanced human nation of Knieriem. Occupying the lands around the coast's many large bays and inlets, the crafters of Knieriem are masters of steam power, metalwork, and the fabrication of complex clockwork mechanisms. Steam-driven locomotives, naval vessels, and airships are common in the nation, and the understanding of how to create them has begun to spread to other parts of the continent. (The Kingdom of Evenhold recently piloted its first railroad line.)

South of the mountains bordering Knieriem, the land breaks into a complex archipelago of hundreds of islands that stretches down to the northern coast of the neighboring continent of Ja'gala. The islands are inhabited by a mix of peoples, some sophisticated and open to outside trade and others aggressive and insular.

Northeast

The northeastern corner of Addar is a desolate and sparsely inhabited area loomed over by the Floating Island, a vast slab of land that levitates miles above the surface of the continent and adjacent ocean. The perpetually shadowed area beneath it is variously referred to as the Bitter Black, the Frozen Waste, the Frozen Desert, or often just "the Black", and gets increasingly dark, dry, and cold farther in. Darkness near the center of the shadow is total and temperatures are lower than anywhere else on Eamon, including the poles.

Given its position in the northern hemisphere, the areas up to and even just below the southern fringes of the Floating Island remain mostly sunlit and habitable, though the tremendously cold air that seeps from under the island often provokes violent storms around the periphery when it mingles with the much warmer air outside.

Those who've returned from expeditions into the Black describe a desolate and almost impassably rugged landscape, strewn with fields of stony debris shed from the underside of the mass above. Precious stones and mineral formations unlike any other on Eamon may be found among the rubble and retrieving them has become a lucrative but extremely dangerous trade. The priceless Star Stone is believed to have been found here in antiquity.

Despite the seemingly unlivable conditions, some have reported signs of activity, though the nature of the beings residing there is a mystery.

Floating Island

The levitating mass known as the Floating Island is thought to have arrived on Eamon during a prehistoric riftstorm and is not native to the planet. Most of the island's strata contain gravity-defying minerals that keep it naturally aloft, but some veins of less buoyant material have been partially shed over the millennia, leaving debris fields on the frozen landscape below and treacherous cracks and holes that run through the body of the island.

The difficulty of traveling two miles up to the island has left its surface mostly unexplored. Orcs riding specially trained zlanbeasts are known to have landed on it, and a handful of human expeditions have mapped some its periphery using airships. Without flight or teleportation, the only known route up from Eamon's surface is a peak in the shadowed Mountains of Anguish whose summit rises to within a few hundred feet of the island's lower surface near its western edge; some ancient chains are said to hang there, dangling from a hollow that leads up through winding caverns to the island's surface.

Chunks of the floating minerals from the island are considered rare and desirable curiosities in Addar; one large sample is held by the Museum of Natural History in Evenhold. When properly refined the minerals may be used in the production of airships.