Ur-Dun

Ur-Dan

The region known as Ur-Dun was once populated with vacation homes, tourist towns, and their supporting municipalities from the capitol of the Empire-That-Was back when that power stretched continents and mortal beings still possessed the spark to achieve such peaks of grandeur. In the epochs of the following aeon, the region has collapsed from holiday destination into petty and in-fighting, self-styling "City-States" which possess delicate truces with obtuse elfin courts, are besieged by rebellious Sea Kings to the Southwest and fierce Amazonian tribes to the Northeast, and whose wilderness are riddled with dangerous monstrosities. Some might say times are bleak but, hey, the sun is going to die soon anyways.

Sourwood Marsh

Situated in the center of the region, the wetlands known as the Sourwood Marsh once provided some of the richest farmland in all the Empire-That-Was. The land had been drained and filled but with the collapse of Empire, it has slowly returned over the epochs to its natural state. While the remnants of a great imperial road still traverse the heart of the marshes, the halfling clans orbiting the dreary shire of Bog's Hollow are the only civilized people that travel the area with even a passing familiarity. The lanscape of Sourwood may be dotted with pipeweed farms and hunting lodges but most of it is dangerous wilderness. Not only does the swamp home to a variety of fearsome beasts but it is said that salientian beings stalk among the reeds and the marsh waters grant a new unholy life to those that parish in them.

The Sunset Praire

Stretching north and east of the Barrier Dunes and Sourwood Marsh is a seemingly endless rolling sea of dark red grasses known as the Sunset Praire. Once, it is said that these grasslands were a great forest whose trees were over-harvested to make the fey vessels that the Sunset Elves sail across the lands here. The Freecity of Barbasso, situated at the mouth of the Rusted River, is the last stop in civilization for leagues until travelers hit the frontier of the Holy Empire-That-Is. In between, only heavily armed trade caravans and free holders bound in ancient contracts with the elves that sail the grasses are the only safety those from Ur-Dan come hope to find. Harpies, wild cats, giant-sized insects, and beastmen (once engineered soldiers for forgotten kingdoms now turned feral) are only a few of the perilous waiting to catch those that get lost among the waves of grass.

The Barrier Dunes

These mountainous mounds of sand, sandwiched between the Principality of Kouz and the Illumined Keep, known as the Barrier Dunes shield Sourwood Marsh from the sea. This area is seldom traveled as may dismiss it as just a dead but treacherous land. There are strange things a foot if among the sands.

The Gloaming Hills

Arching east from the Sunset Praire to form a crescent around Sourwood Marsh until it meets the Cerulean Sea are the Gloaming Hills. Heavily wooded, these hills have hill dwarves, gentleman bandits, witches, and ogres as just a few of the beings that claim it as home. The most notorious hill dwarf settlement is Soothill. Once, the shores of the Cerulean called the feet of these mounds its beaches and ruins lay scattered, buried and overgrown, left abandoned when folks moved to lower elevations to live in new harbors. Somewhere in these hills, it is said there is a hole to hell itself.

The Slumbering Mountains

Tired and broken, the Slumbering Mountains raise out of the Gloaming Hills. Once, they were greater, but the world has ground them down with its weariness. They, however, are still mighty enough to protect Ur-Dan from the ravages of the the deadlands that stretch east of their peaks. The children of dead gods, hippogriffs, Amazon reavers, and more hungrily roam these rocks. Hidden in one of these peaks is said to be the greatest magic-users seclusium. All are weary of traveling to the eastern face of the ridge else they face the ill and glowing winds that choked the lands below.