Arkania Geography

From the rock-stones of Windhag to the coast of Mendena it spreadeth, from the icy mountains of Ifirn unto the damp misty forest of the Mohas, and truly, it is a strange land. Charming sometimes, mild and full of good humans, but mostly rough and avenging, and permiteth no guileless wanderer. Some areas might only be roamed by those, who carry swords and know how to use it, other regions may only be explored by the most courageous of the courageous people. As an example I give you the steppe, where the ork tribes dwell. Whosoever is drawn to these lands, findeth only death and horror! But the Bornwoodt given the giant Milzenis in it is such a place or the desert they call Khom, where the pagans live. There Lord Praios follows the steps of ever man to send them heat and anger, to burn the skin of every living creature and dry the land from plants.

And high above in the far North it is not different for the people. Here Brother Firun the merciless brother of Praios covereth the land by his own armout, the ice and bloweth through the wasteland with a breathe so cold that birds fall from the sky dead and rigid!

Indeed, whosoever wandereth these lands from North to South, may enjoy and wonder, if he surviveth. But you shall never doubt the shores of our Arkania, cause the Twelve Gods gave it to us and they will know, why they created it this way and not another.
(quoted from the book "The curing herb - How to find and prepare it"; edited by the Ordained of Peraine, sister Larissa at Mendena in the year 80 BH.

The continent, that is the home of our heroes, is one of the small terrains on Dere, a world similar to Earth, but most Arkanias think of it as a discus rather than a bowl, although the idea has come up in the last few years, but there is no real evidence for it, since nobody ever sailed across the world, i.e. no Arkanian citizen. In the east Arkania is bordered by giant mountains, called the "Brazen Sword" more than 10000 steps high. On the west it is surrounded by the mighty ocean called the "Sea of Seven Winds". Beyond the sea lies the mysterious continent called the "Golden Land", that is the homeland of many a people in Arkania, but not may have ever made the voyage to Golden Land and for sure nobody knows what is behind those shores.

Arkania spreads on a length of 3000 miles from the jungles of the South to the far North - not a big distance for a continent, but an Arkanian would need 3 months or more for travelling this distance. But there are only few brave men with the exception of the players perhaps who would dare to do so, because they would not find any human settlement for weeks but would encounter the fierce orks and ogres and other creatures.

The far North of Arkania - if not covered by ice - is reigned by woodland and steppe. There are nearly no settlements at all, most of the humans you will find belong to the tribe of Niveses, the nomads of the steppe, who follow the treks of the Karein. In the Northwest, there is the the Orkland, a plateau bordered by many mountaineous areas, which is the home of Arkanian orks. There are quite a few smallscale wars between the different tribes for the best hunting areas and slaves. Only sometimes they come together to look for booty outside their region and wander as an army to the south to conquer the land of men. This happened last about five years ago and they could not be stopped till they reached the doors of Gareth, the capital of the Middle-Realm. But today there is only little danger from the orks as far south as that, because another danger has been awakened.

On the same latitude as the Orkland you find Thorwal in the far west, the realm of a ferocious and pirating people of seamen. By means of the one-mast-ships - called "Ottas" or "Dragon boats" - they roam all the coasts of Arkania. If there is a port anywhere and it is not sealed by a fortress they go looking for bounty and plunder it, if there is a sort of resistance they try to trade with them.

In the Northeast the Bornland spreads. The Bornland is very rich on woodland, known for its hard winters and their hard-laboring and tenacious farmers, who live as bondmen of a variety of Bronnjars, counts and princes to ease them their life. But the easy life of Bornland has stopped in the last two years since betrayal in their own rows, the contract with a black magician called Borbarad, has lead to a wide-spread civil war between the pro-Borbarad and anti-Borbarad campaigners or as some say the rich and poor parts of the area. The war has no results till now, it is a drawn, but it costed the lives of many a popular hero till now, not only those of the Bornland, but also the lives of some dukes and princes of the Middle-realm. Festum, their capital, till then, was known as one of the richest and most colorful, funny towns of Arkania. Today it is surrounded by war on land and demons on water.

South of the wood-zone and the mountains called Red and Black Crescent, where the disgusting goblins live, the Middle-realm spreads in a zone of average climate, a relatively high populated area with a very good infra structure. In the long history of the realm many forests wear burnt down, but near the mountains you will still find quite some woodlands around. Gareth is the capital of the Middle-realm and with its 120000 inhabitants the biggest city of Arkania. The mountains itself are the realm of the dwarves, in front of all the Kosch mountains, the Anvil and the Darkish Crest. East of the mountains they call the Black Crescent and the Troll hills the army of the fierce black magician Borbarad is roaming nowadays, a crowd of merciless invocators, demons, mercenaries and the Undead. These land were once called Tobria, but Tobria has gotten a Dark Tobria nowadays and evil things happen there every day. Many of the people fled only recently to the lands beyond and so you will find a lot of them surrounding Dark Tobria. The danger for these lands is not over yet. Everybody fears the dark power from the east these days.

The largest arkanian island, Maraskan is also part of the dark reign. For a lot of years people have fought in Maraskan to be freed from the governing power of Gareth by rebellion in their jungles. This was the seed for a disturbing power like Borbarad who took over the island with a waving of his hands. But the rebellion goes on and perhaps freedom will come to the island again.

South of the Middle-realm there is the desert Khom, home of the Novadi, a proud people of desert nomads. The desert is flanked by the Khoram mountains to the north, the Unau mountains to the south, and the High Eternals and the Eternals to the west. These two high mountaineous area keep away water from the desert Khom which drifts by the westwind.

So beyond the Eternals you find a quite rainy area called the Lovely Field. Their capital is Vinsalt and it is the area where the first settlers from the Golden Land set a foot on Arkania. The area around Grangor, Kuslik, Belhanka, Vinsalt and Silas is the most fertile region of Arkania. Here you find the most intensive farming and the richest settlements. Most cities and villages are able to defend themselves very well, because they always fear attacks from Novadi people rushing into their lands and pirates from Thorwal.

Southwest of the Eternals the Arkanian tropic zone begins. The region is covered by dense jungle and the Mountains of Rain are the only thing that points out of the green mass into the sky. The area is inhabited by originals called the Woodmen or Moha (although the Mohas are only one tribe amongst many) and some northern arkanian citizens on missions or escaping from their life as bondmen have also found their way into the jungle. The settlers usually live along the shores of the sea and the rivers, whereas the copper red Mohas live deep down in the jungle. Their poisons, herbs, tinctures and animal preparations are very popular in the whole of Arkania, in some cases the Mohas themselves are even as popular as a good to trade.

In front of all the south of Arkania is involved in this slave trade. They think it is chic to have a slave at home. The centre of slave trade is Al'Anfa, a city state at the southern peninsula. Therefore they call it the 'city of red gold' or more often the 'plague-boil of the south'. It is also known for the dynasty of Honak, whose son Tar-Honak tried to expand his realm to the North in recent years and failed - luckily enough for Arkania. Their direct enemy is the new kingdom of Trahelia at the south cape of Arkania, which has only recently gone into independence after being part of the Middle-realm for many a year. In the Southeast finally you find a chain of islands, the biggest among them being Token, Iltoken and Benbukkula, who are famous as spice traders but a rumour has spread that they are connected to Borbarad.