The Crotch

The Crotch is the relatively warm, south-facing concavity in Not Holbia which has finally given purchase to the explorers and settlers of humanity. The region is home to Bloodmarsh, land of a thousand interesting ways to die, and is bordered by frontier regions of lesser commercial and military value, named Mercaea, Rhaul, and Bighornia. All Human-inhabited lands in the Crotch can be referenced collectively as Bloodmarsh, but this is falling out of favor as the populations of the frontier regions increase.

Geography

Bloodmarsh Proper

The landscape of Bloodmarsh is characterized by wide glacial valleys leading toward the sea, separated by high country and mountains. The south border is along the coast, and is generally made up of rocky cliffs and treacherous hidden reefs. However, there are gravel beaches low enough to serve as landing points, and there is one major inlet which forms an ideal natural harbor: the Red Bay in the west. This is the most valuable stretch of land on the continent. The Red Bay hosts the only suitable harbor for stocking and harboring largem ocean-going ships. Without this, the Bilateral Trade crossing the Interstitial and, by extension, the economic viability of the Taking, would not exist.
Bloodmarsh proper is home to everything resembling settled society in the Crotch owing to its deeper history and greater economic value. The City is largely just a collection of vertical buildings built at the top of a hill of horizontal (demolished) buildings, but it still offers the economic draw to keep the highest population density on the continent. Sutyr is the oldest city, having its first foundations laid even before the War of Cons and Souls, though it hasn't been intermittently depopulated by incursions of Immortals since then, particularly the glory-seeking Gnoll hoards of Darkclaw "Shadowsoul" Silvermoonfang.

The Crests

The high country between the two major glacial troughs in Bloodmarsh are called the crests by the locals, and they pose a constant and irritating obstacle for trade in the region. Thick mists often wreathe the lowlands, reducing sunlight but also deterring dragon attack, but the high and isolated crests lack this modicum of protection. Throughout the Taking, working up the foothills of the crests has proven so difficult that their high shoulders are still blanketed with Old Growth forests and associated HMZs. East-west travel must always take account of these imposing fortresses of the Mysties, and the looming presence of these upland warrens forever keeps man's grip on the Crotch in check.

Northern Bloodmarsh and Bighornia

The north border of Bloodmarsh is at the edge of the Bighornian Highlands, which are mostly just high plateaus cut by deep ravines and craggy mountains.

Mercaea

To the west of the Marsh lies Mercaea, a less-populous frontier land stretching beyond the mountains of Faggot Thicket and spilling now into Louddesert on the far side. The whole region is a sort of amorphous, distributed network of interreliant forts in the traditional style. Since Mercaea is still under expansion, many missionaries from the Southlands come here to fulfill their oaths to the Taking. Progress has been good for the last few decades, though contact with the furthest outposts of the mountains or desert is frequently lost. Along with the outposts.

Rhaul

The eastern frontier is settled by folk attempting a new, more organized approach to the Taking compared to the traditional methods first suggested by its spiritual founder, Fingerprick the Golden. Throughout the narrow strip of land held by the Rhaulites are the fortified cantons, each with a rudimentary government and an ancestral fastness. These are stretched more or less directly east from Fingerprick's Pass and give access to the Forest of Vague Unease and the distant Plane of Certain Discomforts. Rhaul's cantons are loosely organized under the Hegemon who nominally holds power to raise armies for the common offence, or the common defense if everybody's feeling lazy.

Daishe Ruins

Ruins and refuse of The Daishe's archaic habitation remain strewn about the Crotch, especially in Bighornia and Bloodmarsh, but scattering well into the east and west. Though now functionally extinct, this civilization once exhibited all the signs of a great culture. Their written language has been deciphered from correlations between runestones of Bighornia and of the Lowhut islanders of the south.

Fauna & Flora

A major benefit of the settlement of the Crotch is the bounty of new plants here. The comfort plants (Solanum sp.), whose tubers and berries are now staples of cuisine throughout the civilized world, are only the firstfruits of the botanical exploration which continues to this day. Other medicinally or culinarilly important plants include Blood Apples (Forkplant Bulbs), Brevifolia breviceps the sheep symbiote fungus, harrigan, nortral, fingerwort, and the herbs nelip, horst, benon, and sedrake.
Animals native to Not Holbia tend to be smallish and timid, but a few have been found to suit mankind in one way or another. The development in the crotch of Bloodmarsh Sheep has had a major impact on rural communities in the dangerous intercrest valleys. Procotyles or Procs are now being exported overseas to fill out menageries in all major cities.

Natives

Like all lands still infested with Mysties, there remain vast, untapped gold reserves beneath many of the surfaces of the highlands which create natural HMZs (High Magic Zones). These, like elsewhere, are encrusted with Old Growth trees which enfold cavernous glades within evergreen skies. In these dim, irradiated enclaves still dwell many Immortals, especially battle-hardened by centuries of fighting Humans. All travelers must beware, and every town has to have advanced precautions in case an elf or centaur or gnoll approaches. Even one such aggressor is sufficient to slaughter the inhabitants of an unprepared hamlet unless warning or aid come soon enough. An unprecedented but undeniably effective stratagem has come into constant use in the Crotch as the only means to permanently reclaim lands from the Mysties, and that is the burning of the Old Growth. The great trees of the mystic forests, especially where they stand upon the treacherous highlands, are very difficult to fell by conventional means due to the belligerence of the natives; either an army must stand by to screen for every crew of lumberjacks, or the vast value of the wood must be forgone for expedience by the use of fire. The latter choice has been found to not only demoralize but also to actively repel the Mysties, their fear of fire being greater than their jealousy of land. Reclaimed HMZs now constitute almost half of the settled lands in the Crotch, and though anti-irradiation precautions must be in place for full-time habitation, the gains in real estate have been an enormous boon to the Taking since the stratagem's institution.

Natural Resources

Bloodmarsh has rich deposits of gold beneath its former HMZs, as well as open veins of coal in the Highlands. Metals of the iron-magnesium series are found in second-epoch strata in the southern deep mines as well as shallower bores in the north and at the roots of the crests. The highly-arable lowlands of the Crotch are a boon to its inhabitants, who at least never have to worry about food shortages.

A physical detail of Bloodmarsh, the principal joint colony in The Crotch on the continent of Not Holbia. Note the glacial valleys which provide convenient farmland for the inhabitants. Note the dense, dark Old Growth forests which run down between them like cracks in a boat. Damn.

A political map of the Crotch, including the near edges of the frontiers.

Alternative Name(s)

Bloodmarsh, Not Where I Want to Be

Type

Region

Location under

The Overlooked Regions