Claw Marks
by hughpierre
Geography
An arid slip of land misplaced between the forest dense Northern Range and the rolling plains of the Garden Plot. It is so named for the four dry riverbeds that cut across the rocky ground from the direction of Lightning Lake in a south-westerly course and used to feed the land. Currently, they mark the trade routes popularly called the Shadow Pass that originates in Shadow Cast.
The Hook:
A cleared bed guarded by Toik forts, and slices the natural border between Dragonsgrave and the Northern Range and hooks towards Cast.
A cleared bed guarded by Toik forts, and slices the natural border between Dragonsgrave and the Northern Range and hooks towards Cast.
The Crooked Slant:
A narrow bed with dry bush clinging the sides of the deepest crack in the land.
A narrow bed with dry bush clinging the sides of the deepest crack in the land.
The Wadi:
A wide bed that is easy to transverse with even settlements built atop it.
A wide bed that is easy to transverse with even settlements built atop it.
The Arroyo:
A shallow bed mostly filled in with sand that rolls onto Garden Plot in small smooth dunes.
A shallow bed mostly filled in with sand that rolls onto Garden Plot in small smooth dunes.
Fauna & Flora
Shrubs/Bush: A small to medium sized plant with multiple persistent woody stems above ground.
Foxes: Smaller canines with unusually large ears.
Dung Beetles: A group of insects with a front pair of hardened wings.
Coyotes: A canine smaller than wolfs who rarely attacks humans.
Sidewinder Snakes: A horned and venomous pit viper.
Sun Spiders: Non-venomous jaws make up to a third of their body length granting it a painful bite. They chew their victims into pulp, then exude an enzyme that liquefies the flesh.
Deer: Cloven-hoofed ruminant mammals with compact torsos with long, slender legs and small tails.
Rabbits: Lives in burrows underground and prefer soft grasses and vegetables.
Hare: Larger than rabbits, with longer hind legs and ears with black markings. Their fur changes colour from brown or gray in the summer to white in the winter to eat hard bark and twigs.
Falcons: A common bird of prey known for its ruthless hunting skills, and is a dominant predator in its environment.
Eagles: A powerfully built bird of prey, with heavy heads and beaks and relatively longer and more evenly broad wings for more direct, faster flight.
A variety of lizards: A widespread group of scaled reptiles ranging across all parts of the world except the Cold Swamp.
Natural Resources
Petrified Wood: A special type of fossilized vegetation found in volcanic deposits and sedimentary rocks.
Turquoise: A lustrous stone with an exquisite sky blue or blue-green colour and delicate yellowish veins.
History
Desertification
There was a time before, from the memories of the mountain and river Toiks, where the soil was dark and fertile but became light and grainy as time moved on. Winds blow strongly through the East-West corridor on either sides of Tlopetla to remove the moist air around the plants and slowly grind the clumps of soil to sand. Narrow twisters are also more common here than any other part of the valley. Not enough to wreck the old crumbling buildings still scattered about, but able to carry dust across to meadow mere and pick up small creatures. This land is abandoned by most people for the most part, but its river basins form the connective tendons between the College of Birds and Salt Side as part of the Shadow Pass trade route.
Alternative Name(s)
Marks
Type
Badlands
Location under
Included Locations
Owning Organization
Related Ethnicities
Related Tradition (Primary)
Inhabiting Species
Related Professions
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