The Plains Against Magetower

This small continent features a cool climate with abundant rain in the late fall and early spring, and consistent snows in the winter. Prospects for farming are modest in the rocky soil, but the land offers sufficient pasture and herbage to sustain a robust population of large flightless birds. The flock-dwelling ‘pack birds’ are plentiful due to the intervention of people, whose arrival on the arid coast long ago put a check on predation by leopards and wild dogs. Three cultures now spread across the northern part of the continent—Gold, Gray, and Green—all of whom rely on these birds for their livelihood.

The Gold capital piles upon itself, looming over the arid lower plain that faces the inner sea. Once a colony of the southern kingdom, they have ridden the old trade networks in a rise to prominence following the earthquakes the leveled the old country. Rumor has it the founders unearthed rituals for blood magic from ancient desert ruins in the early days of the colony, and that these were the cause of a generation of woe throughout the continent. The magocrats of the city have recently sent forth an expedition to their homeland, in the hopes of taming the wilderness that now overruns the old cities.

Nearby on the northeastern plateau lies the Gray city. Despite some historical resentment of the colonists for their usurpation of local resources, the city has experienced prosperity in the trade they share, particularly in pack birds. Once a nomadic people who roamed the high plain above the old delta cities, the Gray take pride in the culture of bird breeding they continue to practice, and even perfect. These are traditions they share with the western Green people, who still wander the grassy lowlands as their mutual ancestors did long ago.

Like their Gray cousins, the Green people of the far west have faced scarcity with the rise of the Gold wizard city. This has led to a recent expansion north into the delta where the nomads’ hub cities once thrived. While some still carry fears of the decimating plague from generations ago, their need is great. The settlers now vie with bandits, bears, and leopards as they tend the old gardens and discover the occasional treasure in the peat they cut for fire. Green oral histories relate that they were the first to domesticate the pack bird—a claim they feel is reinforced by the exquisite murals that still grace the walls of the old hub city on the northwest coast.