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Description
This new version is much simpler than the previous version and from now one is the accurate version to be seen. Scale is in both metric and imperial for good measures, with the largest island, Tzunar having an area of about 3.18 million square kilometres [or slightly smaller than India].

The Empire of Olm once held the entirety of the Isles besides those of the Yamachai and the eastern half of what is now Xu under its control. It started about two thousand years before our main story. At a time when the various states, human and Vrain, only used bronze weapons which was difficult to make and harder to find resources for, the Olmese were the first people to use steel weapons, supposedly as a gift from the gods themselves, though historians now believe they either got it through discovering a secret trade route with Ikr, or developed it by accident. Whatever way it was, the Olmese conquered a vast sway of land with their superior weapons. one of the first peoples to swear fealty to the Emperor were the Philharts, a formerly nomadic group of people found across the eastern lands, who were facing problems against the iron-wielding Zekun, ancestors of the Jazyart. Centralising themselves under multiple dynasties of emperors, the Olmese regime seemed prosperous on the surface, but cracks were showing. An attempt to subjugate some of the eastern kingdoms under Sykron IV in 213 years Preceding-the-Fire (PF) ended in disaster, causing a civil war between the Emperor and his younger, more diplomatically minded brother, which ended in victory for Yaabin II. Under the latter, waves of immigrants of centaurs from the east came in, challenging the human-supremacist mentality that dominated the Empire. The Philharts reformed themselves into civilised peoples, and became the Phurzi, who in time would dominate the isles. But the realm was already in slow and steady decline. The last and most tyrannical of all the Emperors was Kreknys III, the 'Red Emperor', who attempted to invade the island kingdom of Huyuuun in the far north. Assembling a great fleet with over fifty thousand soldiers onboard, he sailed to conquer the small but well fortified island from his smaller island territories. But while the circumstances are a matter of debate whether it was natural or a curse that transcended the barrier between the world and magic, a massive volcano erupted, wiping out both Huyuuun and the Emperor's invasion fleet. Ash spread across the world as far south as Hartstone and as far east as the Kiying Peninsula, and the world was plunged into a winter lasting more than a decade, as ash and soot blotted out the sun. The Fires lasted sixteen years, and by the time the weather started to return to normal, Olm was gone. Over three hundred years of war and chaos erupted as many catastrophes ensued. An outlaw Vrain colony assimilated its neighbours to an unpresidented scale, forming the Black Swarm, which ravaged the north-east of Tzunar for more than forty years. The previously prosperous kingdom of the Isles collapsed utterly, taken over by pirates, warlords or the jungle. In addition, migrants from across the Sapphire Sea revived the Zekun into the Jazyart, viciously sacking Olm itself and further preventing centralisation from occuring. Using an improved method of gathering crops, Phurz handled the crisis better than most, and from the trading city of Forkton, they gradually expanded into its neighbours, soon becoming the most powerful nation in the Forbidden Isles.

The crimson on the map is the Phurzic Dominion, the largest power in the islands. A partially elective oligarchy, the Dominion is run by ten figures known as the Decarchs, elected for ten year long terms and each controlling a significant aspect of the government, such as the legal system, trade, diplomacy, the army, the navy, finances and other such things. In practise, most who are elected come from the nobility, whether it be Phurz itself or from the colonies, with more successful merchants or lowborn also being elected at times. The core lands of Phurz are much larger than they were in the days when they were subservient to Olm, and the lands outside of Phurz are given some autonomy in how they rule, as long as they continue to pay taxes and contribute their military in times of war. It has the largest navy of any of the powers as well as an impressive army, with a professional division of murk-riders serving as extra-large cataphracts. Their soldiers are known for their iconic dark-green armour with golden rims, as this is their Grand Army, for though the Governates are allowed to hold their own armies, they are forbidden from [openly] warring amongst one another, and must contribute some of their manpower to the capital in exchange for more autonomy in political and economic affairs. It possesses some of the largest cities in the Isles or even the known world, such as Umbroke, the city with the mightiest walls in the Isles' history, or the capital, known as the 'City with a Thousand Names', for depending on your social class or group, it can be known as Phoz, Great Phurz or its old name of Forkton, named for its location at the fork of the river Olm and its tributary the Phiz, as well as many other names. It has a land area of 1.71 million square kilometres [slightly larger than Iran].

The blue nation shown is the Vulgar Empire. It has an area of around 648,000 square kilometres [slightly larger than Austria-Hungary], making it the second largest nation in the entire isles, and though it is smaller in area than the Dominion, it has a some of the most fertile land in the isles, due to a warm ocean current coming from the north-east, so it can summon a proportionally larger army, at the expense of a limited navy. Formed following the ex destruction of the Black Swarm in the Scouring, Vulgar started as a union of tribes, some of which came over from Svotz following the Fires, hoping to find opportunity in the isles, but centralized over time in the capital of Great Vulg, a well fortified city by land by the surrounding valley, and the bridges that keep it safe. The plains of the interior to the north are home to by far the largest population of Tuskers, the four tusked beasts [see Stegotetrabelodon in RL] used often in the Vulgar army as suppliers and as war-mounts that even Murks [themselves as big as four horses and fiercer] fear to tread against. Once a giant race of Tuskers [as big as Paleaoloxodon namadicus] also existed, but the Olmese Empire over-exploited them and they died out in time; the last two died alongside three smaller ones in the last battle against the Black Swarm at Kovnigrod in 289AF (After-the-Fire), and the first Vulgar Emperor, Vochislov I, forged their skulls into the iconic Tusked Throne, the envy of many a rich man throughout the known world. Wearing armour painted bright blue wherever possible, they tend to use mostly mail armour with some plating over vulnerable regions, though full plate tends to only be reserved for high ranking military officials.

The brown nation is the Hrmz Swarmocracy, a dominantly Vrain nation. Living off anything on the island, there is little to no room for humans or centaurs on this island, and so the Vrain can express their many cultures here without interference from the other races. Seeing their brethren in the Dominion as elitist and too human-like, they prefer fluid identities that fluctuate across the mass of intelligence throughout the island, adding to a collective intelligence. Despite the pathological hatred the Vulgar have for them, they have never been invaded, as the Vrain swarms here build some of the finest fabrics and clothes in the known world, and they much prefer to trade rather than wage war. It has a land area of 31,000 square kilometres.

The dark green are the plains of the Jazyart. A nomadic culture, these people are not it’s usually a single people but at most a loose confederation of tribes that feud with each other and launch raid against their neighbours. Descended from Porpudan refugees escaping from slavery by the centaurine Scut dynasty, itself declining thanks to the Great Fires, they took the collapsing empire of Olm by surprise, and viciously sacked Olm itself, causing the ends of that. In the last eight years, the tribes are once again being united under the rule of a Yart, the Great Cyxi, with the help of lamellar armour imported from Xu. Cyxi now wishes to turn west and finally bring Evergnon to heel. Perhaps his benefactors will give him the means to do so...

Green represents the centaurine kingdom of Xu. Formed out of exiles from Porpuda to the east, driven out by competition and kept there following the Great Fires, the Kingdom of Xu is the more direct rival to the Dominion through its powerful fleet, rich land, and powerful ruling family. With their heavily armoured centaurs, trained as the strongest archers in the known world, their signature appearance of black scale armour with multi-coloured feathers on the helmet makes them instantly recognizable. Their culture is an unusual synthesis of the culture they had before being driven west by rival dynasties and the old natives of the isle, who were barely used to Olm's presence. With most of the human natives of the isles marginalized or even enslaved, Xu is not too well regarded amongst the other nations, though few are eager to accept natives fleeing to their lands. On top of their naval and financial strengths, they have recently purchased a major tactical advantage from the east, and are ready to use it for the first time in the history of the Isles. It has a land area of about 571,000 square kilometres ]or around the size of modern France].

Pink is the kingdom of Evergnon. A feudal kingdom, Evergnon has long had to deal with the raids of the skirmishing Jazyart, and so have developed increasingly deadly armour and fortifications to face off against the nomads, opting to build great castles and have some of the best armour in the world, including plate armour. They are the only nation in the world to have plate-armoured cavalry, known locally as knights. Rich in farmland and stone, their people are well fed, and even with the rigid social hierarchy compared to its neighbors, Evergnon has managed to become quite prosperous. Nevertheless, it has not been easy to mantain this, as they have had to build mighty forts to protect their borders from Jazyart raiders. It has an area of 406,000 square kilometres, with the autonomous Duchy of Hydric having an area of 107,000 square kilometres, [similar to the combined areas of Italy and Ireland].

Light pink shows the isles of the Yamachai. Under the rule of the High Priest, elected for life from among the Ones who Kneel, the Yamachai mostly keep to themselves here, as the internal conflict between the priesthood and the landed nobility, and between noble clans, ensures they mostly mind their own business among the other islands to the north. The only part of the isles not a former part of the Empire of Olm, they repelled multiple attempts at invasion thanks to typhoons that wrecked the enemy fleet, as well as the mountainous terrain of the islands. It is home to a number of beasts found nowhere else as well, such as the terrifying apostates and extinct giants, both kin to the Yamachai. The isles have a combined area of around 170,000 square kilometres.

Deep pink represents the Grand Duchy of Hartstone. A neutral power home to some of many of the world's precious stones, they have grown immensely rich of these and sell them for supplies and resources from all around the world, even as far east as Vongchou. Hartstone is also full of good farmland in the lower valleys guarded by mountains and forts among these. An attempt was made by the Dominion to take the island over four-hundred years ago in the Quarrel of the Stones, but the spectacular destruction of the Phurzic Fleet at Flekburn put an end to this. Ever since, it has been a place for many exiles or fugitives from the law to go to invest their money while they're away. Even corrupt politicians are known to do the same thing, regardless of the diplomatic situations of their countries. It has an area of about 77,000 square kilometres.

The other nations in the south are the Southern Alliance. Not a single nation, they are instead an alliance of nations opposing both the Dominion and Xu while maintaining a principle of mutual self-interest. Once warring amongst one another, they have come together under the southernmost kingdom of Vunk, who nevertheless often has to intervene in the other members of the alliance to prevent it from falling apart. It has an area of 337,000 square kilometres with all nations put together, including the isolationist Xiphos, who is a pariah even among their ranks. The opposition to the major powers is just about the only thing that keeps this alliance together.

The powers of the east don’t feature directly in the story, but there is the human Svotz Republic, distant kin of the Vulgar, once city states that united together after the Fires, and immensely rich from trade and natural resources, and the physically immense Empire of the Silver Sun, a centaurine nation ruled from Vongchou, that is the world’s most powerful nation. The latter’s vast resources and many cities means the nation has had multiple capitals over the centuries, previously Vongnai, Vongslin and even Yinmin for a brief time. The ruling Kyung dynasty has not been without adversaries over the years, from peasant and slave revolts, to the occasional ambitious general or noble who tried to overthrow them, such as when General Ling Lio declared himself the Diamond Emperor in 504-508AF, causing a rebellion which killed millions of centaurs, humans and Vrain alike, causing the power of Vongchou to be challenged. It has been many years since such a challenge has risen against the Kyung dynasty faced such discontent, though rumours of it are not unheard of in the current year of 756AF.

In between them lie multiple regions by the sentient races, such as the Thulizza, open woodland home to the Thul, eight-to-nine foot tall beings similar in proportions to humans but broader, hairier and with big jawlines to chew grass, along with scissor like extension to their thumb and index to cut it. Living in tribes, they are mostly left alone when in their own lands, but encroachment from the Svotz has increasingly drove them into smaller territory, and some are captured and sold as slaves for various purposes, even illegally into the isles, though any who do buy them keep them discrete whenever possible.

The thick forests of Myun are home to the tallest trees in the world, and are full of unique beasts, deadly predators, and young colossataurs, or Taug as the Vong know them. They are poorly mapped, due to the terrain and varying thickness of the forest, with those going into the deepest, darkest interior almost never returning. Those that do come back as madmen, claiming to have seen demons and ghosts more frightening than any scythebeast, and Nameless things that prey on unlucky travellers.

Finally, to the north, the vast grasslands and sparse trees are home to vast herds of taurolopes, to the centaurs what sheep and goats are to men, and the vast adult colossataurs, who are so large they fear only the dreaded hell-mouth, biggest of all the scythebeasts (the oldest adults don’t even fear these) and each other. Vong princes will ritualistically go into the plains and either slay or capture a ‘Taug’ to demonstrate their transition from boy to man. Most are adolescents, though especially skilled princes have been known to kill or enslave adults as well. More general raids by both the Silver Sun and Svotz are made to capture slaves, either for labouring in building great architecture, or for fighting, whether in the arena or in war. Primitive centaur tribes are also known to dwell here, still using stone tools to gather grass or hunt their prey.

There are said to be other nations further north, such as the legendary Golden Kingdoms of Krejnustra, or Zylosth, the City of the Cyclopes, though noone of the Dominion has yet verified these reports.

A nation which is verified to exist is the Commonwealth of Oldburg, a humid wetland nation dominated by the swamptaurs, semi-aquatic kin of the centaurs with bulky bodies, webbed feet and hands and a greater size, among other things. With massive floating reeds, forming floating towns they dwell in between the grounded cities, the semi-nomadic swamptaurs have quite a uniform culture, as their quick mobility makes it difficult for distinct subcultures to develop in time. They mainly trade with the other nations of Porpuda, though their silk is particularly prized in the Dominion’s aristocracy.

South of Svotz and north of the Silver Sun lies the small and isolated Nyinganavi, the land of the Golden Yamachai. While the Yamachai most know are Silver of skin and gold of eyes, these have the opposite traits. Founded by the legendary prophet Vyokamawu untold centuries ago, what first separated those people from the isles of Yam is long lost to us, but we know they have no cultural boundary against riding on mounts, nor do they worship the same gods. But their interaction with the isles, despite their proximity, is quite limited, and so the Dominion’s scholars are rarely allowed into their cities.

The old version is here for reference and further lore: www.deviantart.com/forbiddenpa…

Description
This new version is much simpler than the previous version and from now one is the accurate version to be seen. Scale is in both metric and imperial for good measures, with the largest island, Tzunar having an area of about 3.18 million square kilometres [or slightly smaller than India].

The Empire of Olm once held the entirety of the Isles besides those of the Yamachai and the eastern half of what is now Xu under its control. It started about two thousand years before our main story. At a time when the various states, human and Vrain, only used bronze weapons which was difficult to make and harder to find resources for, the Olmese were the first people to use steel weapons, supposedly as a gift from the gods themselves, though historians now believe they either got it through discovering a secret trade route with Ikr, or developed it by accident. Whatever way it was, the Olmese conquered a vast sway of land with their superior weapons. one of the first peoples to swear fealty to the Emperor were the Philharts, a formerly nomadic group of people found across the eastern lands, who were facing problems against the iron-wielding Zekun, ancestors of the Jazyart. Centralising themselves under multiple dynasties of emperors, the Olmese regime seemed prosperous on the surface, but cracks were showing. An attempt to subjugate some of the eastern kingdoms under Sykron IV in 213 years Preceding-the-Fire (PF) ended in disaster, causing a civil war between the Emperor and his younger, more diplomatically minded brother, which ended in victory for Yaabin II. Under the latter, waves of immigrants of centaurs from the east came in, challenging the human-supremacist mentality that dominated the Empire. The Philharts reformed themselves into civilised peoples, and became the Phurzi, who in time would dominate the isles. But the realm was already in slow and steady decline. The last and most tyrannical of all the Emperors was Kreknys III, the 'Red Emperor', who attempted to invade the island kingdom of Huyuuun in the far north. Assembling a great fleet with over fifty thousand soldiers onboard, he sailed to conquer the small but well fortified island from his smaller island territories. But while the circumstances are a matter of debate whether it was natural or a curse that transcended the barrier between the world and magic, a massive volcano erupted, wiping out both Huyuuun and the Emperor's invasion fleet. Ash spread across the world as far south as Hartstone and as far east as the Kiying Peninsula, and the world was plunged into a winter lasting more than a decade, as ash and soot blotted out the sun. The Fires lasted sixteen years, and by the time the weather started to return to normal, Olm was gone. Over three hundred years of war and chaos erupted as many catastrophes ensued. An outlaw Vrain colony assimilated its neighbours to an unpresidented scale, forming the Black Swarm, which ravaged the north-east of Tzunar for more than forty years. The previously prosperous kingdom of the Isles collapsed utterly, taken over by pirates, warlords or the jungle. In addition, migrants from across the Sapphire Sea revived the Zekun into the Jazyart, viciously sacking Olm itself and further preventing centralisation from occuring. Using an improved method of gathering crops, Phurz handled the crisis better than most, and from the trading city of Forkton, they gradually expanded into its neighbours, soon becoming the most powerful nation in the Forbidden Isles.

The crimson on the map is the Phurzic Dominion, the largest power in the islands. A partially elective oligarchy, the Dominion is run by ten figures known as the Decarchs, elected for ten year long terms and each controlling a significant aspect of the government, such as the legal system, trade, diplomacy, the army, the navy, finances and other such things. In practise, most who are elected come from the nobility, whether it be Phurz itself or from the colonies, with more successful merchants or lowborn also being elected at times. The core lands of Phurz are much larger than they were in the days when they were subservient to Olm, and the lands outside of Phurz are given some autonomy in how they rule, as long as they continue to pay taxes and contribute their military in times of war. It has the largest navy of any of the powers as well as an impressive army, with a professional division of murk-riders serving as extra-large cataphracts. Their soldiers are known for their iconic dark-green armour with golden rims, as this is their Grand Army, for though the Governates are allowed to hold their own armies, they are forbidden from [openly] warring amongst one another, and must contribute some of their manpower to the capital in exchange for more autonomy in political and economic affairs. It possesses some of the largest cities in the Isles or even the known world, such as Umbroke, the city with the mightiest walls in the Isles' history, or the capital, known as the 'City with a Thousand Names', for depending on your social class or group, it can be known as Phoz, Great Phurz or its old name of Forkton, named for its location at the fork of the river Olm and its tributary the Phiz, as well as many other names. It has a land area of 1.71 million square kilometres [slightly larger than Iran].

The blue nation shown is the Vulgar Empire. It has an area of around 648,000 square kilometres [slightly larger than Austria-Hungary], making it the second largest nation in the entire isles, and though it is smaller in area than the Dominion, it has a some of the most fertile land in the isles, due to a warm ocean current coming from the north-east, so it can summon a proportionally larger army, at the expense of a limited navy. Formed following the ex destruction of the Black Swarm in the Scouring, Vulgar started as a union of tribes, some of which came over from Svotz following the Fires, hoping to find opportunity in the isles, but centralized over time in the capital of Great Vulg, a well fortified city by land by the surrounding valley, and the bridges that keep it safe. The plains of the interior to the north are home to by far the largest population of Tuskers, the four tusked beasts [see Stegotetrabelodon in RL] used often in the Vulgar army as suppliers and as war-mounts that even Murks [themselves as big as four horses and fiercer] fear to tread against. Once a giant race of Tuskers [as big as Paleaoloxodon namadicus] also existed, but the Olmese Empire over-exploited them and they died out in time; the last two died alongside three smaller ones in the last battle against the Black Swarm at Kovnigrod in 289AF (After-the-Fire), and the first Vulgar Emperor, Vochislov I, forged their skulls into the iconic Tusked Throne, the envy of many a rich man throughout the known world. Wearing armour painted bright blue wherever possible, they tend to use mostly mail armour with some plating over vulnerable regions, though full plate tends to only be reserved for high ranking military officials.

The brown nation is the Hrmz Swarmocracy, a dominantly Vrain nation. Living off anything on the island, there is little to no room for humans or centaurs on this island, and so the Vrain can express their many cultures here without interference from the other races. Seeing their brethren in the Dominion as elitist and too human-like, they prefer fluid identities that fluctuate across the mass of intelligence throughout the island, adding to a collective intelligence. Despite the pathological hatred the Vulgar have for them, they have never been invaded, as the Vrain swarms here build some of the finest fabrics and clothes in the known world, and they much prefer to trade rather than wage war. It has a land area of 31,000 square kilometres.

The dark green are the plains of the Jazyart. A nomadic culture, these people are not it’s usually a single people but at most a loose confederation of tribes that feud with each other and launch raid against their neighbours. Descended from Porpudan refugees escaping from slavery by the centaurine Scut dynasty, itself declining thanks to the Great Fires, they took the collapsing empire of Olm by surprise, and viciously sacked Olm itself, causing the ends of that. In the last eight years, the tribes are once again being united under the rule of a Yart, the Great Cyxi, with the help of lamellar armour imported from Xu. Cyxi now wishes to turn west and finally bring Evergnon to heel. Perhaps his benefactors will give him the means to do so...

Green represents the centaurine kingdom of Xu. Formed out of exiles from Porpuda to the east, driven out by competition and kept there following the Great Fires, the Kingdom of Xu is the more direct rival to the Dominion through its powerful fleet, rich land, and powerful ruling family. With their heavily armoured centaurs, trained as the strongest archers in the known world, their signature appearance of black scale armour with multi-coloured feathers on the helmet makes them instantly recognizable. Their culture is an unusual synthesis of the culture they had before being driven west by rival dynasties and the old natives of the isle, who were barely used to Olm's presence. With most of the human natives of the isles marginalized or even enslaved, Xu is not too well regarded amongst the other nations, though few are eager to accept natives fleeing to their lands. On top of their naval and financial strengths, they have recently purchased a major tactical advantage from the east, and are ready to use it for the first time in the history of the Isles. It has a land area of about 571,000 square kilometres ]or around the size of modern France].

Pink is the kingdom of Evergnon. A feudal kingdom, Evergnon has long had to deal with the raids of the skirmishing Jazyart, and so have developed increasingly deadly armour and fortifications to face off against the nomads, opting to build great castles and have some of the best armour in the world, including plate armour. They are the only nation in the world to have plate-armoured cavalry, known locally as knights. Rich in farmland and stone, their people are well fed, and even with the rigid social hierarchy compared to its neighbors, Evergnon has managed to become quite prosperous. Nevertheless, it has not been easy to mantain this, as they have had to build mighty forts to protect their borders from Jazyart raiders. It has an area of 406,000 square kilometres, with the autonomous Duchy of Hydric having an area of 107,000 square kilometres, [similar to the combined areas of Italy and Ireland].

Light pink shows the isles of the Yamachai. Under the rule of the High Priest, elected for life from among the Ones who Kneel, the Yamachai mostly keep to themselves here, as the internal conflict between the priesthood and the landed nobility, and between noble clans, ensures they mostly mind their own business among the other islands to the north. The only part of the isles not a former part of the Empire of Olm, they repelled multiple attempts at invasion thanks to typhoons that wrecked the enemy fleet, as well as the mountainous terrain of the islands. It is home to a number of beasts found nowhere else as well, such as the terrifying apostates and extinct giants, both kin to the Yamachai. The isles have a combined area of around 170,000 square kilometres.

Deep pink represents the Grand Duchy of Hartstone. A neutral power home to some of many of the world's precious stones, they have grown immensely rich of these and sell them for supplies and resources from all around the world, even as far east as Vongchou. Hartstone is also full of good farmland in the lower valleys guarded by mountains and forts among these. An attempt was made by the Dominion to take the island over four-hundred years ago in the Quarrel of the Stones, but the spectacular destruction of the Phurzic Fleet at Flekburn put an end to this. Ever since, it has been a place for many exiles or fugitives from the law to go to invest their money while they're away. Even corrupt politicians are known to do the same thing, regardless of the diplomatic situations of their countries. It has an area of about 77,000 square kilometres.

The other nations in the south are the Southern Alliance. Not a single nation, they are instead an alliance of nations opposing both the Dominion and Xu while maintaining a principle of mutual self-interest. Once warring amongst one another, they have come together under the southernmost kingdom of Vunk, who nevertheless often has to intervene in the other members of the alliance to prevent it from falling apart. It has an area of 337,000 square kilometres with all nations put together, including the isolationist Xiphos, who is a pariah even among their ranks. The opposition to the major powers is just about the only thing that keeps this alliance together.

The powers of the east don’t feature directly in the story, but there is the human Svotz Republic, distant kin of the Vulgar, once city states that united together after the Fires, and immensely rich from trade and natural resources, and the physically immense Empire of the Silver Sun, a centaurine nation ruled from Vongchou, that is the world’s most powerful nation. The latter’s vast resources and many cities means the nation has had multiple capitals over the centuries, previously Vongnai, Vongslin and even Yinmin for a brief time. The ruling Kyung dynasty has not been without adversaries over the years, from peasant and slave revolts, to the occasional ambitious general or noble who tried to overthrow them, such as when General Ling Lio declared himself the Diamond Emperor in 504-508AF, causing a rebellion which killed millions of centaurs, humans and Vrain alike, causing the power of Vongchou to be challenged. It has been many years since such a challenge has risen against the Kyung dynasty faced such discontent, though rumours of it are not unheard of in the current year of 756AF.

In between them lie multiple regions by the sentient races, such as the Thulizza, open woodland home to the Thul, eight-to-nine foot tall beings similar in proportions to humans but broader, hairier and with big jawlines to chew grass, along with scissor like extension to their thumb and index to cut it. Living in tribes, they are mostly left alone when in their own lands, but encroachment from the Svotz has increasingly drove them into smaller territory, and some are captured and sold as slaves for various purposes, even illegally into the isles, though any who do buy them keep them discrete whenever possible.

The thick forests of Myun are home to the tallest trees in the world, and are full of unique beasts, deadly predators, and young colossataurs, or Taug as the Vong know them. They are poorly mapped, due to the terrain and varying thickness of the forest, with those going into the deepest, darkest interior almost never returning. Those that do come back as madmen, claiming to have seen demons and ghosts more frightening than any scythebeast, and Nameless things that prey on unlucky travellers.

Finally, to the north, the vast grasslands and sparse trees are home to vast herds of taurolopes, to the centaurs what sheep and goats are to men, and the vast adult colossataurs, who are so large they fear only the dreaded hell-mouth, biggest of all the scythebeasts (the oldest adults don’t even fear these) and each other. Vong princes will ritualistically go into the plains and either slay or capture a ‘Taug’ to demonstrate their transition from boy to man. Most are adolescents, though especially skilled princes have been known to kill or enslave adults as well. More general raids by both the Silver Sun and Svotz are made to capture slaves, either for labouring in building great architecture, or for fighting, whether in the arena or in war. Primitive centaur tribes are also known to dwell here, still using stone tools to gather grass or hunt their prey.

There are said to be other nations further north, such as the legendary Golden Kingdoms of Krejnustra, or Zylosth, the City of the Cyclopes, though noone of the Dominion has yet verified these reports.

A nation which is verified to exist is the Commonwealth of Oldburg, a humid wetland nation dominated by the swamptaurs, semi-aquatic kin of the centaurs with bulky bodies, webbed feet and hands and a greater size, among other things. With massive floating reeds, forming floating towns they dwell in between the grounded cities, the semi-nomadic swamptaurs have quite a uniform culture, as their quick mobility makes it difficult for distinct subcultures to develop in time. They mainly trade with the other nations of Porpuda, though their silk is particularly prized in the Dominion’s aristocracy.

South of Svotz and north of the Silver Sun lies the small and isolated Nyinganavi, the land of the Golden Yamachai. While the Yamachai most know are Silver of skin and gold of eyes, these have the opposite traits. Founded by the legendary prophet Vyokamawu untold centuries ago, what first separated those people from the isles of Yam is long lost to us, but we know they have no cultural boundary against riding on mounts, nor do they worship the same gods. But their interaction with the isles, despite their proximity, is quite limited, and so the Dominion’s scholars are rarely allowed into their cities.

The old version is here for reference and further lore: www.deviantart.com/forbiddenpa…