Adricine Scrublands (/ædrɪsi:n skrəblənd/ (Aeillan: /θalasaxortu:/))
θάλασσαxόρτου
The Adricine scrublands represent the far eastern edge of Aeillan territory. It consists primarily of the arid territory east of the Tyros roughly along the cultural boundaries of Aeilla and the Hadar lands, stopping just west of the high deserts leading into Qua'adar proper. These lands are relatively empty, bereft of activities of the lands further to the west.
The Adricine Region is host to some two hundred thousand peoples, scattered over a truly vast area. For the most part, the population lives in small, semi-nomadic groups, with a handful of towns scattered along the trade routes that cross the vast scrublands. The region can lay claim to no major cities, and only a few proper towns.
The Adricine region has largely been seen as a wild frontierland, home to populations of herdsmen who want little to do with the internecine politics of the interior of Aeillan civilization. It is however, a buffer zone between Aeillan core realms, and the lands of the Hadar peoples. For this reason, it has been maintained even in the post Imperial era.
Geography
The Adric Scrubland is vast territory covering virtually the entire eastern border of the Aeillan region. Its northern reaches are bounded by the foothills of the Indric Mountains, its south by the Tealestrian Sea. To the west of the Grassy Sea is the Tyros river region, and to its east lies the deserts and arid mountains that make up western Qua'adar.
The lands of the grassy sea are incredibly flat. The region lacks many hills outside the frontiers of the region, and is largely free of woodlands that break up the broad grassy plains. Only a few low lying ridges striating from the north to the south. The land is also not exceptionally fertile with few areas especially well suited to agriculture.
Ecosystem
The grassy sea is dominated by a single major ecosystem. That ecosystem is the hot summer, arid scrubland. The region sees very little rain, with the interior being fully arid. When the rains do come, the region blooms green, at least for a short while before the heat of the sun sucks away the moisture once more. The areas where agriculture are possible are ruthlessly exploited by the peoples living in the Adricine region, becoming fully cultivated.
Fauna & Flora
The lands of the Adricine Region are largely bereft of any great biodiversity, with the bulk of the species consisting of hardy, drought resistant grasses and shrubs, and the creatures that feed on them. Camels bearing a single hump do range as far west as the Adricine, though the deserts between them and the central river valley of Qua'adar keeps most of the wild herds at bay. The region is host to many hearded animals, mostly those capable of surviving the lack of water, and indeed the vast herds of animals with few other natural predators has made the land the idea hunting ground for wyverns.
Natural Resources
The region of Adricia is largely bereft of any meaningful natural resources. It is a difficult, though technically arable region to farm, and it lacks much in the way of noteworthy plants to cultivate or harvest. It is also lacking in significant mineral wealth. The only resource of note in the Grassy Sea is its invaluable location being flat and easy to cross and bordering two prosperous realms, makes the area vitally important to overland trade.
History
The existence of the Adricine region has been known for a long time, with Yulan-Tai records mentioning the vast prairie to their east, which it is thought was the Adricine in a wetter time. The region largely went unsettled, lacking the waterways sufficient for widespread Yulan-Tai settlement, though frequent slave raids would abduct the natives of the region. The climatic change that heralded the War of Frozen Scales dried the region considerably, and most of the peoples that lived in the region fled to greener pastures in the Yulan-Tai heartland.
In the post-Yulani times, the Adricine was resettled, though never quite to the same widespread extent as before. Thanks to the expansion of early Qua'adar, and the the Tyroi, and trade between the two, numerous trade posts and small towns were established in the region to service caravans traveling to and from Qua'adar. The region would fall under the control of the Ilosi Republic starting in the late forging period, and gradually incorporated into the realm even as it expanded into Qua'dar propler.
With the decline and fall of the Aeillan Empire, the Grassy Sea regained its former status as the borderland between two civilizations, and the towns that once crisscrossed the region stabilized even during the chaos of the early days after the empire. In the modern day, the Grasy Sea is seen as the wild frontier between Aeilla, and the great deserts of Qua'adar.
Alternative Name(s)
The Grassy Sea
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