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Islands
Fanil | Hasch | Med | Midian | Nesch | Restaril | Roc | Silarin | Tamore | Toth
FANIL
Covered in a mixture of temperate and jungle forest, Fanil is one of the major homelands of the Nemar people. It is currently relatively peaceful, other than the occasion raid from Sirens, as it is situated a long way from the war-zones further south. It is, however, the closest island in the South to the Magus Council controlled lands. Should the Council choose to come south, Fanil is the logical place to site a new Jump Gate community.
The island itself provides a good deal of the wood that is used by the other races of the South, making it the Nemar’s primary export. Though other islands are covered in forest, most of it is mangrove or pine instead of true hardwoods. Most of the tribes of Fanil live in small, tented communities or in more permanent huts built on the forest floor and feeding themselves from the fruit and wild creatures that call the island home.
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HASCH
Home to the Temple of Asgar and the newly birthed Morain race, the island of Hasch is a relatively harsh, desert land. Golden sands slope up from the hot blue seas to wend their way around large, stone spires that protrude high into the air. The Morain use the hot thermals from the sand to glide long distances between spires or to hunt, though there is little animal life amidst the dunes. What life does live here is generally reptilian or a few very hardy birds, these creatures making their way between the few watering holes that exist. Unfortunately for them, the Morain have picked precisely these locations to settle.
A small colony of Nemar clings to the savannah on the north-eastern tip of the island, and it was through them that the Morain came to be aware of the rest of the world and their place within it. Ships regularly sailed from Hasch to Toth and Tamore, bearing precious gems pulled from the stones by the Morain or rare meats taken from the desert animals.
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MED
Primarily mountainous and volcanic, Med is home to numerous tribes of Bronze, Stone, Copper and Red Ancient DragonLords, with the highest peaks occupied by those of the White and Silver breeds. Beyond the city of Tilish there a few signs of civilisation on this island. Deep valleys mix with towering peaks, home to Dragons and Wyverns that sometimes even hunt the Ancient DragonLords themselves.
Source of a lot of the stone used to build the Ancient DragonLord capital, Sintai’s Rest, this is Med’s primary export to the surrounding islands, though naturally the Conflaris have plenty of stone of their own. Tilish itself was made from several phenomenally huge slabs of stone hauled from the mountains by several of the few Ancient Black DragonLords in the South, most of them having remained by the side of Drake FrostHeart, their FirstBorn, in the East.
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MIDIAN
A frozen wasteland of tundra and glaciers, Midian is a harsh environment for anything to live in. Yet the Venris call it home and several large mammals also make their slow way across the ice, following the slow melting of the snow and growth of plant life in the islands brief summers. These woolly nemarchs, huge six-legged, bison-like beasts with massive, ground sweeping horns they use to clear the snow, are the Venris’ primary food source, beyond snow berries and netted birds. Indeed without the hides, bones, horns and meat of the nemarch’s life on Midian would be untenable.
Fortunately the Venris are aware of this and the hunting of these great beasts is highly ritualistic, with a single downed beast requiring the co-operation of at least half a dozen Venris. Even then the hunt is incredibly dangerous but the meat will feed a tribe of a dozen or more for nearly a month. Other animals do make their way across the snows, such as the lethal daggercat and the agile, jumping lischa, but they are harder to catch and provide less meat for the effort.
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NESCH
Home of a multitude of Ancient DragonLord tribes, Nesch is perhaps where the people are closest to how their ancestors lived before the coming of humanity and the Great War. The island possesses a broad range of terrains, from temperate forest to mountains and grassland, making it ideal for a variety of DragonLord breeds. The island has no exports or imports, the tribes living isolated lives unless called to war by Sintai AcidSpitter.
In fact Nesch is one of the safest of all locations on Tal’Vorn, provided you aren’t a human. The only real threat to the Ancient DragonLords on the island is the occasional longboat raid from the Venris and the very occasional Siren abduction. Beyond that the only true threat is the other Ancient DragonLord tribes, but real war is very scattered and Sintai has a tendency to put a stop to it in a fairly terminal manner.
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RESTARIL
The largest of the Southern islands, Restaril is the seat of power for the Ancient DragonLords and their leader, Sintai AcidSpitter. Here the population of Ancient DragonLords is at its densest and here they have their city, Sintai’s Rest. The island is relatively flat, being above sea level lava run off from a massive eruption sometime in the Weeping Eye volcanoes past. Pine forest dominates the southern expanses and rolling grassland grown from the ancient, fertile lava plain. Sintai’s Rest sits in the midst of some of this pine forest, nestled between rolling hills and straddling the major river of the island.
The island is by no means safe however, being plagued by raids from the Venris to the south, raids that are invariably repulsed, generally with minimal Ancient DragonLord casualties. It is however a thorn in Sintai’s side that the AcidSpitter is strongly considering removing.
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ROC
Mangrove swamp and low lying marsh dominate the island of Roc. It is extremely humid due to the amount of water in the area, and insects proliferate in the area. It is home to a number of dangerous amphibious and reptilian hunters, as well as the exceedingly dangerous Siren people and as such is not even remotely hospitable to an idle visitor. Indeed beyond being eaten or picking up some horrific disease, Roc doesn’t have very much to offer people other than the Sirens. Because of how undesirable the island is, whilst simultaneously being ideal for the Children of Dellimentai, it is a safe haven for the Sirens, away from the rigours of war.
High in the tall mangroves, above the damp, the Sirens have built treehouses, complete with delicate latticing to keep out insects and all the comforts of a home normally found in a more civilised location. These treehouses can be interconnected with rope-bridges or simply standing alone amidst a grove of others, but all have a few things in common, primarily a floor hatch and rope ladder to allow the Siren easy access to the water below.
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SILARIN
Far more pleasant a location for non-aquatic species than Roc, Silarin is the second of the Siren dominated islands. Primarily rolling, low-lying grassland and some jagged cliffs, Silarin does have its share of mangrove forest as well, but the amount is much less. Instead this island is the primary land-based farmland for the Siren race, producing animal feed and what little vegetable matter the predatory Children of Dellimentai eat.
Though occasional raids do occur from the Ancient DragonLords, these are normally only in response to Siren seduction and abductions, the Scions of Sintai having dim view of being preyed upon. Beyond that the Sirens have a generally fairly peaceful time of it, any trouble that occurs generally brought down upon their own heads. Storms sometimes wrack Silarin, but this is not an issue for an aquatic species and lost crops are not the end of the world either, simply meaning slightly less variety in the Siren diet.
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TAMORE
Homeland and seat of power of the Nemar, Tamore is a ring of grassland and forest around a single huge mountain peak. Large as this mountain is however, it still fails to rival the Weeping Eye, but it does form an impressive backdrop for the tent-city of Fer built on the plains at its foot. Cool winds from the ocean compete with the tropical heat to create a strange mixture of tropical and temperate forest on the islands northern edge, making it a home to a number of species that otherwise wouldn’t cohabitate.
Home to more Nemar than either of the other two islands they dominate put together, Tamore is also home to several Morain, a couple of Ancient DragonLord tribes and a few exiled Sirens too. Indeed, in-spite of their on-going war, there is even a village of escaped Venris from the very far south to be found on the eastern edge of the island.
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TOTH
Toth possesses the broadest range of environments of any of the islands, running from harsh desert in the north, to scrubland and savannah around a lazy, wending river, to plains, occasional patches of pine forest and mountains. All of this makes for an excellent environment for the Nemar to exist in, which is why they fight so hard to control the island. Indeed the southern tip has been assaulted so often by the Venris that it is riddled with fortifications and the ground has been reduced over the years to a boggy quagmire of water, blood and bodies.
The reason that the Venris covet the land so much is probably due to the difficulty of assaulting Restaril and its resident Ancient DragonLords. Angering Sintai AcidSpitter would be an unwise move, one that not even a creature as arrogant and powerful as the Shadow is willing to attempt. As such the island of Toth continues to become an ever spreading battleground, the Nemar being slowly pushed back, year by year, by the encroaching Venris forces.
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