Halinor (Continent)

Geography

Across the width of Halinor the landscape is as varied as its people. From the west its salt flats and arid desert mesas give way to savannahs and taigas, gradually gaining in moisture and greenery as one migrates eastward. The north loses cold as quickly as the south gains heat. The temperate Fauconwoods gradually grow wetter, swamping before turning into proper tropics outside Avosa Tevosa. That peninsula boasts the best coasts on the continent, much of the rest outside D'yadya being too rocky for plentiful trade. There to the east one can see the island Shurevaire on a clear day.
The center of the continent is open land, gentle rolling hills and bountiful plains. The tall grasses and easy-going elevations make for good farmland but historically land too lacking in natural fortifications to easily control. Rivers, creeks, and wetlands help with this, but history proved the stakes too high and the land too broad to easily control from afar. Far more profitable to allow the villages and small cities that spring up to manage the day to day; trade with the lordlings and mayors has been far more profitable for the kingdoms surrounding the center of Halinor. At the center once sat a great lake system since given way to the Sticean Abyss.
The homeland of the dwarves, Tarwa'kem, separates the greenery of central Halinor from the salt flats and savannahs of D'yadya. The mountains and mesas governed by the Sultanate are rich in minerals, treasures, and threats. D'yadya is far flatter, less rocky, and makes an easier pass until the flat coasts of the Silver Expanse. The lakes there must have once been filled with salt water, but now they make for easy access salt deposits that all the tribes and peoples of D'yadya once shared. That and the trade with the west has since been captured by the Vociran Empire.
The eastern border of the Sticaean Abyss gives way to a great reach of old woods straight to the base and climb of the Chilneauan mountain range. Though those snow covered peaks reach into the mists of the sky, the trees stand tall even on their stony peaks. The Fauconwoods surrounding Aqualonde's lands are old as the land and have grown tall and dense. The land beneath them shifts, coastal toward the south and boggier in the north, but the trees remain the true monarchs of these lands, sure to outlast all the transciencies of mortalkind.
There in the north, further than Brittlereach and past the Warrenburg pines the salty bog of Frostmire turns colder, snowier. Carinthia lies further still, ancestral home of the elves. Their mountainous island homeland is connected by the frosty, spindly stretch of the Crystal Bridge, a tenuous grasp on Halinor's mainland. This is difficult land to survive on for man, beast, or vegetation, but the Carinthians have carved out a hard life for centuries. The snows grow thicker, the ice more unceasing. The floes of icebergs in the coldest parts of the Wandering Sea are homes to the enemies of mortalkind, the dread wyrms held at bay only by Carinthia's mountains and spears.

Climate

D'yadya and Tarwa'kem sit in the hottest parts of the continent, fronts from the south of the Silver Expanse channeling through the Dagger Canyon and drying out the eastern mesas. The heat turns milder as the soil darkens at the [[RIVER]] Valley, but it's not until the Renaut Hills stretch out across the land that Halinor turns properly temperate. The influence of the northern weather systems trapped between mountains on the west and east keep the center of the continent wet and generally warm, but this turns to snowy winters on a regular basis.
Aqualonde never gets properly hot or completely frozen thanks to the shelter the east takes from Chilneau and the Fauconwood, enjoying mild weather the year round and moderate snowfall. Nothing like their northern cousins where even the summer months are chilly--the winters there are stuff of legend, comparable only to Vociran lands.
On the other hand, Halinor's south never sees snow, and even their winters are comfortable enough for light clothing. Such tropics make for a bounty of interesting fruits and vegetables that thrive nowhere else in Halinor thanks to their penchant for the high humidities of Avosa Tevosa. By the time the weather systems cross the ocean to Shurevaire, the winds have cooled again, letting Shurevaire enjoy similar temperate patterns as Aqualonde.

History

The history of Halinor is deeply entwined with the litany of the Cataclysms, chorus after chorus of destruction and reconstruction. In the grand picture of the continent's great score, this is the theme most influential, wiping away petty lords and Navarresean empiresses alike. These Cataclysms were not all limited to Halinor of course, but their impact was felt dearly on this soil to the point where Shurevairan scholars have taken to dividing the passage of time on their comings and goings. Stygian Ages or Eras are the times when these Cataclysms hold sway; their Radiant counterparts when mortalkind begins to pick up the pieces.

More information on Halinor's History is available to the studious mind.

Type

Continent

Included Locations

• Laconia

Included Organizations

• Aqualonde (Nation)
• Avosa Tesota
• Carinthia (Nation)
• D'yadya (Nation)
• Shurevaire (Nation)
• Tarwa'kem (Nation)