Beasts
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Sage’s Tears Islands
The climate of this region is hot. Monsoons arrive at the end of the summer, bringing an angry relief from drought before continuing in a more mild tone through the end of the fall. A great profusion of islands and reefs host many fish, much as the extensive upland and lowland forests are home to…
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Buzzard Peninsula
The climate of this region is mild, with rains from late spring through the end of the summer. Though much of the “bald head” of the peninsula is a baking savannah, its many river systems help sustain antelope, caimans, panthers, and peccaries. There are two cultures here—Purple and Green. Purple are a modest people, living…
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Crab Archipelago
Although the climate here is mild, this arid region enjoys only a brief period of rain toward the end of the spring. The sierra that connects the northern peninsula to the mainland blocks much of this precipitation, encouraging a broad inland desert. Despite the terrain, the area supports varied wildlife, including wild dogs, mountain goats,…
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The Unicorn Peninsula
This cold region boasts a high glacial shelf on the “horn” of the unicorn, fed by heavy snows that begin late in the winter and last well into spring. The earliest of the three cultures found here took hold in a time beyond memory, in the river valley fed by the glacier. Two other cultures…
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Hemicynes – Healfhundingas – Langobards – Angamanains
I often think about who the people are in these maps. Or I don’t, or not often enough, or not seriously enough, because the one basic question I continually ask myself is—are they beast people? Like, with the heads of dogs or birds. Because wouldn’t that be interesting? So, maybe not a powerfully existential “Who…
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The Big and Little Horse Islands
The mild climate and native pastures have made these islands particularly hospitable to horses. The rainy season begins late in the summer, with increasing intensity until its culmination at the end of fall. Hurricanes are poetically compared to stampedes. Four horse-loving cultures prevail here, some of which experienced great turns of fortune when the last…
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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…
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Four-river Veldt
Four-river veldt has a temperate climate. The rainy season lasts from late fall to early spring, with only occasional snows in deep winter. When the rains end there is a regular, sudden onset of torrid weather. There are two cultures here—silver broadly on the eponymous veldt, and a syncretic city-state in the archipelago to the…
Five and One Fifth Lights 