Continent of Mahador
The continent of Mahador and the sub-continent of Sarama colectively form the largest landmass in the known world, possibly only rivaled in size by the continent of Osian, since the later's total land area is unknown. Because of Mahador's immense size, it's home to many wildly different cultures living in equaly diverse biomes, filled with unique species of plants and animals, not seen anywhere else in hysal.
Geography
Mahador is a vast land, which can be divided into 6 distinct geographical regions: The island of Is'qhaloa, the Samaish mainland, the tomboran plateau, the Great Sh'maari, the north east and the south-east.
The Island of Is'Qhaloa: Is'Qhaloa is the largest island in the known world. Separated from the mainland by the Qhilyan straits to east, the island's interior is flat and dry, made up of savanna and grasslands, while the western and south-eastern coasts are shaped by the Sunset and Purple mountains respectively. The Kalus river flows from the southern sunset mountains and runs through the interior towards the north. The Darnian word "Samara" used to designate only the island, but by the end of the First Age, it began to also include the nearby mainland, up to the vursan mountains. Is'qhaloa, the island's Khartian name, began being used instead.
The Samarish Mainland: Considered a sub-continent of Mahador, Samara is largely dry and lightly populated landmass. The coast along the Darnian and Khartian sea is somewhat temperate, composed of grasslands, savannas and even some tropical forests, while the interior is made up of salt flats, sandy deserts and dry mountain chains, such as the Painted Mountains, famous for their coloured rocks.
The Tomboraani Plateau: Between the Vursan and Great Goraani mountains lies the Tomboraani plateau, it's named taken from the Kingdom which occupies most of it. This region is characterized by high elevation and rugged terrain composed of deep valleys, high peaks, and large lakes. Despite it's location along the equator, it is neither a dense jungle biome like in the east, or a very hot and dry desert like in the west, but instead a temperate region with alpine fauna and flora unique to this specific region.
The Great Sh'maari: The Great Sh'Maari is the largest desert in the known world, occupying most of the southern half of the Mahadorian continent, stretching over 3500 kms, from the southern Vursan mountains in the west, to the Juh'tan hills in the east. It is an inhospitable and dangerous region of the world, devoid of most life and under the whims of months-long seasonal dusts storms, which are particulary virulent in the region known as the marching dunes, where winds are so strong it moves entire dunes west, into the Khartian sea, which slowly expanding the continent in the region.
The North-East: This region of Mahador includes both regions that are well known to outsiders, such as the Golcai river valley and the Wyvern Island, but also very mysterious places, such as the Xejukan wilds, or the Calderus sea. The coastal regions are mountainous, while the interior is flat, covered in dense jungles, that grow denser and wilder the further east one goes. Many large rivers also flow through the region, and the source to the mighty Golcaï River is presumed to be located somewhere in the region.
The South-East: Until about 500 years ago, this region remained semi-mythical. It wasn't until The Carathengian Empire expanded in the regions by establishing colonies along the basilisk coast and in the Hydrask Isles that contact with the kingdom of Asderaan, and the wider region was made. The Tarankema is a vast savanna, where hordes of wild beasts roam free, such as zebras, antilopes and elephants. Further south, the Brittle mountains form a tall range along the Shattered coast, a windy region prone to constant earthquakes. Few live here, and the land becomes very inhospitable as we approch the water channel known as the breach, which separates Mahador, from what is presumed to be the eastern edge of Viuzhul. This breach was opened following The Long Winter, and is very dangerous to travel.
The Island of Is'Qhaloa: Is'Qhaloa is the largest island in the known world. Separated from the mainland by the Qhilyan straits to east, the island's interior is flat and dry, made up of savanna and grasslands, while the western and south-eastern coasts are shaped by the Sunset and Purple mountains respectively. The Kalus river flows from the southern sunset mountains and runs through the interior towards the north. The Darnian word "Samara" used to designate only the island, but by the end of the First Age, it began to also include the nearby mainland, up to the vursan mountains. Is'qhaloa, the island's Khartian name, began being used instead.
The Samarish Mainland: Considered a sub-continent of Mahador, Samara is largely dry and lightly populated landmass. The coast along the Darnian and Khartian sea is somewhat temperate, composed of grasslands, savannas and even some tropical forests, while the interior is made up of salt flats, sandy deserts and dry mountain chains, such as the Painted Mountains, famous for their coloured rocks.
The Tomboraani Plateau: Between the Vursan and Great Goraani mountains lies the Tomboraani plateau, it's named taken from the Kingdom which occupies most of it. This region is characterized by high elevation and rugged terrain composed of deep valleys, high peaks, and large lakes. Despite it's location along the equator, it is neither a dense jungle biome like in the east, or a very hot and dry desert like in the west, but instead a temperate region with alpine fauna and flora unique to this specific region.
The Great Sh'maari: The Great Sh'Maari is the largest desert in the known world, occupying most of the southern half of the Mahadorian continent, stretching over 3500 kms, from the southern Vursan mountains in the west, to the Juh'tan hills in the east. It is an inhospitable and dangerous region of the world, devoid of most life and under the whims of months-long seasonal dusts storms, which are particulary virulent in the region known as the marching dunes, where winds are so strong it moves entire dunes west, into the Khartian sea, which slowly expanding the continent in the region.
The North-East: This region of Mahador includes both regions that are well known to outsiders, such as the Golcai river valley and the Wyvern Island, but also very mysterious places, such as the Xejukan wilds, or the Calderus sea. The coastal regions are mountainous, while the interior is flat, covered in dense jungles, that grow denser and wilder the further east one goes. Many large rivers also flow through the region, and the source to the mighty Golcaï River is presumed to be located somewhere in the region.
The South-East: Until about 500 years ago, this region remained semi-mythical. It wasn't until The Carathengian Empire expanded in the regions by establishing colonies along the basilisk coast and in the Hydrask Isles that contact with the kingdom of Asderaan, and the wider region was made. The Tarankema is a vast savanna, where hordes of wild beasts roam free, such as zebras, antilopes and elephants. Further south, the Brittle mountains form a tall range along the Shattered coast, a windy region prone to constant earthquakes. Few live here, and the land becomes very inhospitable as we approch the water channel known as the breach, which separates Mahador, from what is presumed to be the eastern edge of Viuzhul. This breach was opened following The Long Winter, and is very dangerous to travel.
Localized Phenomena
Electric Sandstorms of the Great Sh'Maari
Massive sandstorms periodicaly rip through the Great Sh'Maari desert, especialy through the region known as the marching dunes.These storms are highly energetic and produce intense winds and lightning strike.Climate
Samara and the Island of Is'qaloa
Most of the subcontinent is locked in a desert, semi-desert or savanna/grasslands climate/biome. Thanks to the Vursan mountains to the east, the shape of the land and the drying up of the Dying sea, the subcontinent has a chronic lack of water, especialy in the Interlands. Because of its position along the equator, it does not have much in terms of seasons, and it stays sunny, hot and dry all year, with some exceptions in Is'Qhaloa, as portions of the massive island get abundant seasonal rains.Northern Mahador
Unlike Samara to its west, northern Mahador is a luch region, covered in alpine forests on the tomboraan plateau and surrounding mountains, and dense jungles in the golcai river valley and the Xejukan wilds further east. Tropical cyclones can brush the northern coast of the region, along the illynian sea, before they turn towards Arros. Because of its position along the equator, most of the region doesn't experiences seasons, meaning that it stays hot, stormy and humid all year round.Southern Mahador
Much like Samara to the north west, the vast majority of southern Mahador, excluding the easternmost quarter, is deserts. The vast Great Sh'maari desert occupies most of the interior, and together with the numerous Samarish deserts to the north and ending at the darnian marches, forms a transcontinental desert belt. However, in the east, a large savanna and even a tropical rainforest along the coast, fed by the seasonal rains and tropical cyclones from the Great Eastern Ocean and the sea of Storms.History
Prehistory and the origins of Mankind
Click to expandHumans are generaly though to have originated from either Mahador, or Samara, though more evidence suggest Mahador. Whatever the case may be, we know very little about what these early groups of humans were, what they believed in and what language they spoke. That is, until about 4000 bc, where it is though the ruined city of Ayashaan, located near the centre of what is today the Great Sh'maari desert was built. We know its at least that old since Kharteen merchants and later Kharteen explorers discovered it around 3500bc, long abandoned to the dunes. Some suggest it might be as old as 6000 bc, when the Sh'maari was perhaps not a desert but a vast grassland, which their is evidence of in the form of cave paintings in the nearby Whistling Hills. It is also thought that the culture who built this city are the ancestors of both the Tomboraans and Asderaani peoples.
First Age
Click to expandUnlike Enask and especialy Osian, where civilisation development was explosive in the First Age, this was not the case in Mahador or Samara. It started slow, with the conquest of southern Darnia by the Nakish tribes, which brought civilisation to northern Samara. A few centuries after that, the Khartian Empire forms in the Island of Is'Qhaloa around the year 3000 bc, and rapidaly expands outwards. They establish colonies on the western coast of the island, and along the southern coast of Samaria. On the other side of the Vursan Mountains, the kingdom of Tomboraan is founded around lake Tyana, on the tombaraan plateau. About 3 hundred years later, the kingdom of Vakaan is founded on the other side of the continent, and a few centuries later, nearby Mount Kimali exploded, and the kingdom collapsed.
The Long Winter
Click to expandAs temperatures dropped and the skies became grey, civilisation in Samara and Mahador fell appart quickly, with only a few exceptions. These exceptions are the city states of Khadyrah, the kingdom of Vakaan(Though it was greatly reduced) and the Kingdom of Tomboraan, which actualy expanded to the south and north. Elsewhere, civilisations went quiet for about 2-3 centuries, until the Second Age
Second Age
Click to expand
Samara: For most of the second Age, Samara remained divided, as the Khartian empire was gone and no country managed to unifie the region again like they had done in the previous age. Hegemonies where established, where one city state would more or less rule over a large part of the region, but in an indirect way. This would change at the tail end of the Second Age, as the Kharthian empire would funaly reunifie to counter the expansion of the Essanian empire in northern Samaria.mn.
Mahador: Meanwhile, in Mahador, the kingdom of Tomboraan continued to slowly grow, converted to Choranism after many dragonkins from Enaksia settled in the country, and finaly, they saw the rise of the Ak'aaran city-states, who would spend a good chunk of the second age fighting each other until they unified into the Brotherhood of Ayoxal, better known as the Ak'aaran confederation in order to face the Essanian empire, who sought to expand it's reach there too. Much further to the east, the kingdom of Asderaan was born from the ashes of the kingdom of Vakaan. During the Long Winter, its population changed drasticaly, as they underwent Etherial Proliferation and became mostly Shapeshifters. The remaining humans fled north to form &&&&&, and these two states spent most of the second Age fighting each other.
The Fall and the Third Age
Click to expandWhile the events of The Fall were dramatic all around the world, Samara and Mahador remained largely unscathed, say for some regions of northern Samara, which were devastated. However, the devastation elsewhere in the world had ripple effects that are still being felt to this day. In samara, the Neo-Khartian empire barely survived the turmoil of the early Third Age, and has since even expanded into the colonial cities in Western Samaria, however, the other city states on Is'qhaloa remain stubburly independant. In Mahador, the collapse of the Essanian Empire removed the unifying force unduced onto the Ak'aaran city states, and they began fighting again, at least, until the Arbitians showed up, and they reunified again to fight them. Further east, the collapse of the Carathengian Empire created an ecomonic crisis in Asderaan, and the country was soon plunged into civil war. After the war, it began agressively expanding its borders to the north and west. Meanwhile, with the absence of the large Carathengan navy to keep them in check, pirates began swarming thr Hydrask isles and plundering the asderaani coast. Peace has returned to the region in recent years as the pirates have formed a sort of trading republic, not too dissimilar to the Merchant Republic of Arba.
Maps
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Map of Mahador
A map of the continents of Mahador and Samara, as of the year 370 AC.
Type
Continent
Included Locations
Included Organizations
Contested By
Inhabiting Species
Related Myths
Related Materials
Very thorough umbrella article ! Thanks for sharing!
Haly, the Moonlight Bard
Rhapsody by Moonlight , a daily email worldbuilding newsletter.
Thank you!