Cohrmas

The common folk of Fenria tell stories about this lifeless volcano infested land. But if you ask me, our continent is a beautiful synergy of the elements.
— Samatra Zardinakova

Geography

Cohrmas is a continent made of Islands. It has six inhabited big islands. The biggest Ostrunic, the shoeformed Strenkiv, the smallest Nyc, the one with the second biggest crater Ondrakivic, the most eastern Werik and the most north one Arktruva. The more north east they are the closer and hotter the islands are. They also get flatter and has less elevations. Cohrmas in general has only a few elevations and most of them are around the 100 meter mark. Nevertheless on Strenkiv one big mountain range formed. These are high enough that the peaks can be seen in the mist on a good day from whole Cohrmas. That got them the name Misty Peaks. Elevation that goes in the other direction has Cohrmas way more. There are many craters and deep volcanos. Those make some of the land very fertile but especially close to bigger craters the land is rather burned than fertile. The heat produces lots of steam. Thus many clouds form over Cohrmas which shed their moisture over the ocean or in Cohrmas it self. Where the water comes down it slowly washes the grey layer away. That reveals the dark green covered ground.

Nature

The visible plant life in Cohrmas is sparse due to the many volcanoes. The remaining plant life fled from the heavy rainfalls and the hot debris to safe depths. There are many roots and underground fruit and grain plants. The plants that cover the ground are less diverse, but they are strong enough to survive the burning hot stones from the sky. That makes normal forests not as dense as on other continents, but a big part of the tree population is the rare and slow growing zirconic zypress. Another usually rare tree that grows in Cohrmas is the Kotrimciak. This is a tree that needs strong magic around it and it usually sheds, like other plants its leaves in the winter, where less magic is around. But in Cohrmas the leaves only turn orange or red, but they don't fall to the ground. This makes dead tree imitators like the snagger rare. It also lets Cohrmas bloom with color. In the winter there are fewer volcanic eruptions than in the summer which makes the winter quite pleasant. In the summer on the other hand can be multiple eruptions a week.

Fauna

With many plants and fruits and grains under the ground herbivors have digging claws. Only some eat the sparse plant life above the ground and those who do are big enough to sustain long journeys and defend themselves against predators. These predators have the height to hunt the big plant eaters. These hunts can be days and sometimes if the hunted is good enough these can last weeks. On this timescale, the speed is not important, rather perseverance. If such hunts fail the predator sometimes dare to attack villages. But that is dangerous for the animal and some decide to dig for roots and grains. Some grains don't want to get eaten by carnivores though, because of their different digestion. They have a brom hull which can be cracked by the herbivor digestion. These hulls hermits use to protect themselves from the predators. Small predators have the advantage of being able to search in tunnels and build lairs of small herbivores. Many small herbivores live close to villages to be closer to their fields.

Civilization

The size of the predators and the sparse food for them keeps the people of Cohrmas together. They mostly protect oneanother from the rough wildlife and this reflects on the villages. Many villages have a small walkable wooden walls around their homes. The smaller part have palisades and only some have ditches and sharpened poles around their village limits. But they even have some rangers who patrol the defenses. If someone finds a lonely hut far from civilization, it is mostly a lair for beasts or worse. But there are some people who have a great understanding of the nature and a deep connection to the land they live in. Some even created a save zone around their humble home which carnivores avoid.
The homes of the people of Cohrmas are built very solid and have strong roofs. These need to withstand the force of incoming debris from nearby volcanoes. To further increase the efficiency of the roofs their tips are pointed in the direction of the nearest volcano.
As the civilisation moved to the steam era, the important role of magic got clearer and explained the many ruins and remains of an ancient civilization. Many were found, but lost to time again. But a book, the "Ecyclopedia to Cohrmas", was found in an old monastery which described the civilisation in the year 573 after the voyage (av). In this book is also a map from that time.