The Overlooked Regions

The Overlooked Regions are a sequence of six continents spread across what seems to be a large, nearly spherical ellipsoid. This ball of basically just dirt and rocks (named "The Earth" after the plentitude of dirt to be found at hand) twirls endlessly around some sort of hot burning hole into heaven whence the life-giving heat of sunlight originates. A roundish chunk of rocklike waste is trapped on some invisible armature to perform perpetual oval circuits about the Earth, glaring down at each continent almost daily as the inhabited orb turns. For its resemblance to a pasty derriere exposed at a dark window as can be seen by nobles passing through slums throughout the world, this pale object has been named "The Moon".

Research wizards have been able to determine that the earth and the moon each exist within a vast and simple void or empty space, but show greater complexity than their vast surroundings, almost like an detail inset on a blueprint, and thus are named the little plans (or "planettes" in the Criminean tongue). The Overlooked Regions are indeed a strange and arbitrary place, showing the overall indifference or contempt of the Gods which walk the Earth. If they can ignore the logic of the place on such a large scale, leaving huge voids completely deserted while fiddling so minutely with the anatomies and lives of their Created Peoples, the Immortals , this world and its little sun and moon are Overlooked indeed. Thus the name.

Geography

Underlying Structure

Earth, upon which the Overlooked Regions are smeared, seems to be composed of some heavy and plastic inner sea of dark, hot matter named the Meer Heirunter by Daishe runestones, from which monoliths much knowledge of the world beneath can be deciphered. Upon this roiling liquidous sphere slowly glide cooled chips of the same stuff - flattened, solid lumps of the least dense effluvium of early creation. These wandering, grinding chunks are known as The Rind, which float on the Meer and slowly cycle above and below one another in a random dance of eons. Most of these floating lumps of stone are thin and dense, and so are surmounted by a thin layer of salty water a few miles thick. A few places show the less dense felsic and silicious material precipitated up from the Meer in huge solid piles high enough to erupt from the surface of the water into the thin ocean of air above, often rising to high craggy peaks where it has been folded upon itsself. It is fortunate that so much rock is so uplifted, as all mortal folk are proven to descend from ancestors which never could have arisen below the surface of the sea.

The Continents

There exist six continents, broadly thought of in two categories: the Northern Ones and the Equatorial Homelands. Either by some dimly understood centrifugal mechanism, or by random chance, four continents (the Homelands) are spread in a conveniently straight line just south of the equator, providing a comfortable range of climates and plenty of sunlight. The Northern Ones are enormous - Holbia is as big as the next three continents put together by some estimates - and both are perennially covered with ice nearly south to the 60° N latitude. Not only are these inhospitable for cold, but also they are now the most densely-inhabited by hostile Mysties. It is feared that so many such natives remain living in these lands that they could overrun all of Mortal civilization if they but discover the craft of raft-making.

Criminea and La Froche

The homelands of the Mortals are two huge masses of long-settled mortal habitations, nearly purged now of major Immortal presence of the past, whereas other continents are veritably swarming with fey hooligans. These two sister continents are shaped like large bulbs only separated by a narrow strait, laid out in a west-east line arching from the dense jungles of the Gulboon, to the windswept arid Skaagerak peninsula, to the long, subtropical spit of Panagra. On the western curve of Criminea lie the opulent Kingdoms of Criminy, with other major civilizations of the Mortals laid out westward into La Froche and south to the warlike fiefdoms of Skaagerak. Ancient settlements throughout these continents host the heights of Human society and art.

The Respite Isles

The Isles actually comprise a mostly sunken continent, though only linked geologically by the failure of the sea floor to fall away lower than a few dozen feet below sea level. This strange archipelago east of Criminea has been settled by mortals of ancient and uncouth stock, with dark skin but generally agreeable if uneducated manners. These quasi-Criminoids now comprise a sizeable minority in other Mortal lands, and especially factor in The Crotch. Their mariners have some secret to navigation or chart-making that enables them to cross wide bodies of water without the exhaustive process of heading-correction diagrams. This is, of course, a closely guarded secret of the Respite Islanders, but they have been instrumental in quickly ferrying volunteers from all over the civilized landscape to Bloodmarsh to fight.

Occalia

This is a smallish continent (or a massive island) recently discovered at the end of the Alimar island chain. Its wide, verdant forestlands are broken by igneous prominence of magnificent size, and the reddish dirt has been found very arable. There seem to be very few Mysties native to this land, and those who have been found seem to be more reluctant to join open war than in other places. They have been largely ignored where they offered no resistance thus far. Perhaps they can be captured and studied, or even taught civilized ways and integrated into decent society some day. There also exist alongside these peculiar Mysties a population of strangely redolent lowhuts who have maintained a somewhat isolated attitude toward outsiders. Their tongue has been studied and linked to that of the ancient Gilland Island cultures in the Celetian ocean, suggesting that these islanders actually spread the long way through the sparse islands west of La Froche.

Holbia

Holbia is a vast and mysterious continent, stretches down to nearly reach the western spit of Higgen's Bottom, but mostly lurks across the pole like a brooding giant. Beyond the narrow chain of Killagain isles lies a brooding cliff-lined shore which stretches away westward as far as any craft has yet ventured. One large island, Corkscrew, has been successfully settled, now that Malneau's sequence has been taken. However, the shore of Holbia which it parallels looms with menace to the north, still untamed. A few of the Alimar islands which sprinkle south of the further shore have been settled. West beyond these lies only a bitter curve of craggy coastline leading to the great northern ice sheet. The glacier-notched coast north from Higgen's Bottom has been explored cursorily, but the cold and storm-tossed seas there lead only to an infinite icy expanse of polar wasteland which has never been crossed successfully.

The Eastern Continent, commonly known as Not Holbia

Long discovered but only recently contested by Mortals, Not Holbia is not as big and not as scary as Holbia. Thus the name. Through the Taking (an ages-long, bloody crusade), we have managed to secure a foothold in The Crotch, a sheltered and uncharacteristically fruitful inlet in the wide, east-west continent. The westward bulge of the continent is far too densely inhabited by Mysties to afford any safety, and indeed many early explorers who alighted and disembarked here were killed by the local savage elves and centaurs. The Crotch, specifically at the tightly-held fortress-cities of Bloodmarsh, offers great gain of land and booty for those willing to pay in blood, and so centuries of Criminean and Frochois travellers have given their lives to the task.

Maps

The Overlooked Regions
This document contains a painstaking speculative assemblage of all the latest portolan charts of the Homelands, Brobag's Contour of Holbia, and the Seyjelli maps of Kroon detailing Not Holbia and the eastern corner of Holbia as far as Brobag's Discontinuity. Polar floes are depicted in their summer extent. Note that coastal azimuths are reliable only for coastal journeys. The cartographers disavow any liability to unexpected deflections across open water where no Crossing Azimuths are recorded.

A political map of The Crotch, showing Bloodmarsh and the frontiers known as Mercaea, Rhaul, and Bighornia. 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 has been intermittently depopulated by incursions of Immortals since then, particularly the glory-seeking Gnoll hoards of Darkclaw "Shadowsoul" Silvermoonfang.

Type

Star System

Included Locations