The Forsaken Land
The remnant of Ageond, now known as the Forsaken Land, is an island-continent slightly larger than Australia, and through the power of the dark gods, it is a land shrouded in dark clouds.
Danaij, Danaij’vai, humans, vampires, and Asath that managed to survive the war rebuilt their nations that had been wholly devastated and began their societies anew. The land is broken up into several nations divided by race, but they all share the same religion of darkness.
Contents
Desert of Black Sand
In the heart of the Forsaken Land is the Desert of Black Sands. In the sinking of Ageond, the center of the southern tip of the continent was a sink for lava flows, swept by tsunamis, and generally ravaged by the Cataclysm. Black volcanic glass was ground to sand in sweeping dunes. This desert is not a place of scorching sun and sapping heat, but it is a cold, arid wasteland where few plants can find a foothold to grow, and though it is perpetually covered in clouds, it sees little rain and ravaging windstorms.
Rivers flowing from the mountains have gradually cut their way through the desert and deposited sediments to enrich the soil, but this process has been slow and painstaking. Many north-flowing rivers find their way into this basin, and at present, the Naslip river from the northern end of the Ormiss Mountains has shaped the northwestern edge of the desert and spreads into a delta to empty in the sea. Rivers from other mountain sources further north join with the Naslip, and have confined the desert to the central-east region of the continent.
East Coast
The Forsaken Land's east coast is home to predominantly human-ruled nations that were established in the aftermath of the Cataclysm or as colonies from Thiskel. As the Desert of Black Sand fills much of the center of this side of the continent, these nations claim land in the northeast and southeast corners, and along the coastline. When the continent was resettled during the Cataclsym, the Danaij took shelter on the western side of the continent under the protection of the mountain ranges (at least, those that were not actively erupting).
Paddarrain Mountains
The northeastern tip of the Forsaken Land is defined by the Paddarrain Mountains that dominate the center of the region. This range is the end of a pre-existing mountain chain from Ageond and was especially seismically active after the sinking of Ageond, leaving the region uninhabitable for several hundred years until the volcanoes settled. On the east side of the range is the country Rilema, established by exiles from western Thiskel and thriving as the strongest intercontinental trading post in the Forsaken Land. Rilema claims several notable islands off their coast.
Two notable rivers are sourced off the Paddarrain mountains. The river Chemelt flows to the east through Rilema. The north fork of the river is in the heart of the country, while the south fork defines their southern border.
Over the last several hundred years, newer human-ruled nations have arisen on this tip, including Rhude to the north and east of Rilema, Amiroth on the eastern side of the Paddarrains, and Gondon to the south of Rilema. Further south, along the coast and desert's edge is Dubrainia, which has staked claim to as much arable land as it can, as well as claiming the more verdant island of Zirzik which sits at the edge of the Forsaken Land's perpetual cloud cover.
South East
Much of the land between Dubrainia and the much further south Farmaith is sterile desert. Farmaith is a young nation, emerging from ambitious humans and hybrids escaping the vampire-ruled state of Kromnathly. The two nations are separated by the Neasit River that flows southward off the Ormiss Mountains. The southern tail of the Ormiss Mountains falls within Kromnathly's borders and the nation is home to dense, dangerous, but fertile forests that are mastered by the vampire lords that rule the land. Kromnathly shares a short, southern border with the Danaij nation of Kiran at the short Ernil river that flows off the south arc of the Ormisses.
Kiran
On the south side of the Ny’skel is the northern border of the Danaij nation of Kiran which occupies the rest of the east. There is a small human nation ruled by a vampire lord that is carved out of Kiran and sits on the east coast. The borders of Kiran to the north are narrow, keeping a distance away from the desert before it broadens into the heart of the nation, which is nestled in a valley between the southern arc the long Ormiss mountain range that goes down the west coast and an offshoot called the Kixes Mountains.
The nation of Kiran also contains two major rivers; the Neasit which flows from the Kixes Mountains, going northeast from the mountains to empty into the ocean on the east coast; and the Aldeti which flows from another source on the southern side of the Kixes, cuts across the southern part of the valley and flows into the ocean on the southeast. The Aldeti also provides a natural border for two nations of Danaij’vai, which are further separated by broad, but short, river that flows down from the Ormiss Mountains and merges into the Aldeti.
Most of the Kiran lands, as well as the rest of the continent, is forested with dark-needled conifers, though there is some open space between the edges of the desert and the forestland. The northern reaches of Kiran are steppes and hilly prairie until it rises into higher altitudes and transitions into forest.
West Coast
Ormiss Mountains
The Ormiss Mountains are a long, high, craggy mountain range that follow along the west coast and down to the south of the Forsaken Land. When the continent of Ageond was whole, they reached several hundred miles further north, and the remains of this lost portion can be found as islands just north of the Forsaken Land.
There are two off-shoots of the Ormiss Mountains; the northern range being the Fisay, and several hundred miles south is the Kixes range. The valley between the northern arch of the Ormiss and the Fisay is occupied by the small Danaij nation of Nalxad; between the Fisay and Kixes is the nation of Mairax, and between the Kixes and the southern arch of the Ormiss is the nation of Kiran.
Rivers
The Ormiss and its connected ranges are also the source of many rivers. Starting from the north is the Samim and Hatal rivers. The Hatal River starts in the west of the Fisay Mountains and flows northwestwards through the heart of Nalxad, then forks north and northwest, the northwest becoming the Samim River, which cuts through the north of the Ormiss range, creating a deep canyon, then empties into the sea on the northernmost point of the continent. The Hatal continues on slightly northeasterly, and is joined by a short river that flows from the end of the Fisay range before emptying into the sea.
The largest river in the continent is the Nasip, which has its source in the Kixes Mountains, flowing from the Mairax nation and cutting straight through the center of the island, through the desert, and emptying into the ocean from the central north coast at the lowest point of land, where it fans out into a delta.
In the lands of Kiran, there are two major rivers. The northern river, the Neasit, flows from the end of the Kixes range on a mostly easterly path where it empties into the ocean in the east coast. The second and southernmost river of the Forsaken Land is the Aldeti, which flows from a southern point of the Kixes and cuts a natural border through the southernmost point of the Kiran valley, separating Kiran from the Danaij’vai lands. There is another small river that follows from the Ormiss Mountains and merges into the Aldeti, which then flows on a southeasterly course and empties into the ocean in the south.
