Far beyond the shores of Atercia across the vast Mesarian Sea is the massive uncharted continent of Jurin. Lying along the planet's equator most of the continent is home to a sweltering rainforest of gigantic trees and foliage so thick, light rarely penetrates through to the forest floor. This realm of shadows and flickering lights is home to a staggering variety of animals, plants and fungi that have developed in complete isolation from anything else on Calera. Mysterious titanic creatures roam within these unforgiving lands, most are hostile or contemptuous to any smaller species they encounter. In fact, almost everything on the continent is larger by several factors of size than anything else in the world, colossal trees and plants, rivers systems of dazzling maze like complexity, deep ravines and towering plateaus that remain hidden behind an ever present mist. The thick rainforest is all encompassing and stretches from the northern, western, and eastern coastline unbroken. Only in the very southern part of the continent does it thin enough for harsh savannahs, mangrove swamps and arid grasslands to exist due to the slight drop in temperature and lack of rainfall. These southlands can be even more dangerous than the rainforest, as the megafauna of the continent roam here as well and find it far easier to spot humanoids out in open.
The tectonic plates on Calera move slowly and thus Jurin has been separate and isolated from the rest of the world for over one hundred and twenty million years. The rainforests plants and animals have evolved into strange and exotic designs compared to animals found elsewhere. Gigantism affects almost everything on the mainland but seems to have less of an effect on any outlying islands. While evolution has no doubt played a significant role, the pure scale and size of so many of the continents species have lead some to believe there is something else at work here. Even insects and other comparatively small animals grow to monstrous sizes and the truly titanic monsters of the rainforest can tower to over two hundred meters in height. The diversity of the plant life is just as colossal, with towering trees in the deep rainforest easily reaching two hundred and fifty meters and even bigger specimens might exist in the uncharted depths. Below the canopy, bright orchids and bulbous flowers, thick vines, fungus, and fruits of every shape and color can be found in thousands of varieties and different species can be found after travelling surprisingly short distances.
Very little of the continent is mapped or explored, in fact only the north western islands have been impacted in any meaningful way by the arrival of humanity twenty seven years ago. The first human to set eyes on Jurin was the explorer Salina Aspen and her crew aboard the Charston. No one from the kingdoms and human realms of Aterica had ever considered such a large continent to exist sailing east across the Mesarian Sea, but Salina was firm believer and convinced her father Henry Aspen to fund the voyage. In the year 937 of the New Kessian calendar, Salina set out eastwards with a handpicked crew of hardy men and women. After a grueling four month voyage they came ashore at the now aptly named Salvation Isles. The continent of Jurin was clearly visible on the horizon even further east and from such a distance the discovery of such a massive new land stretching out to the north and south was beyond anything they had imagined.
Captain Aspen had wisely recruited a number of explorers and scholars to accompany the expedition and they quickly set about documenting the new discoveries on the scattered islands. Some of these men and women including crew members quickly found themselves at odds with the wildlife and geography, become lost in the thick jungles, falling foul of poisonous plants and vicious animals. I was only after the deaths of one such group, the optimism and excitement of discovery began to fade. Four days later, the crew had resupplied the food and water stocks on board the Charston and Salina convinced them to sail closer to the what they would soon discover to be the mainland.
They quickly realized with awe that the mainland was a realm unlike anything they had ever seen, with trees dwarfing the large ocean-going Charston. Sailing cautiously around the the coast, avoiding the razor sharp reefs and underwater forests of seaweed and kelp they came across another startling discovery. Inset into the cliffs and seemingly sliding into the ocean was a series of utterly massive spires of rock. Salina and the historian Molas Kafer agreed such spires were not natural formations and thus were no doubt made by something or someone. Rumors and conjecture swirled for two days while they dropped anchor in the bay, keeping their distance and only sending a small dingy towards the closet spire to examine its features. Upon this closer examination they realised that each spire was in fact made up of blocks, blocks nearly twenty meters in length. Aged and weathered, the blocks should have collapsed and fallen apart given the odd angles most of the spire were leaning but bizzarlying they still stood. It was during the return trip to the charston that the small dinghy with Salina, Molas and a keen explorer named Gilles Werem saw the first of them. Striding onto the beach a titanic creature of both scales and fur emerged from the trees, reaching an astounding height of nearly a hundred meters it stood watching the Charston in the bay for time before lumbering back into the darkness of the rainforest.
The Charston set sail for home immediately and it would be another four months at sea before finally reaching port. Some of the crew fell prey to a strange sickness during the voyage but while deadly to a few, most recovered and by the time they reached home, most of the crew had sworn to never return to that accursed land. But the stories, collections and specimens bought back from the giant world of Jurin had a very different effect on others. An even larger expedition was quickly organized a few years later to return and lay claim to a land rich in resources. In the year 941 the shipholds of the Exploratory Conterian Fleet set off with fifteen vessels, four of them were massive shipholds and combined the fleet held over a thousand men and women. Once again they landed after four months at sea on the Salvation Isles and set about making a home for themselves along the beaches and small streams of the islands.
Spread across several of the isles, Each shiphold become the center of a new town, and civilisation began to take root. Teams of explorers, hunters and would be adventurers began the very first expeditions into the mainland rainforest, most would never return but a few made it out with tales so outlandish they were rarely taken seriously. The explorer Giles Werem was the first Human to set foot on the mainland and was credited with a huge number of finds over the next two years before disappearing into the depths of the rainforest in 943. The rest of the towns on the Salvation Isles began to flourish and expand slowly over the next few decades. Even so those islands remain incredibly dangerous, and ever since their arrival humans have ventured tentatively from their shipholds to explore at great cost. Despite the extremes these budding explorers have thrived albeit with a now cautious attitude towards the new land.
