Zulucan
Current Month: Julwar 2nd: 209, The Fifth Age
Zulucan is a large, tropical region east of the D'shar Desert located on the continent of Midway. It is considered to be the rightful domain of the Yuan Ti race, though this is contested by its lizard folk and tribal human inhabitance.
For many ages of the world, the mysterious lands of Zulucan has remained hidden to outsiders. This is due in part to its geographical oddities; The Manacar Mountains to the south are all but impenetrable, the desert to the west, endless, and the human tribes on the eastern shores have proven to be quite hostile to outsides. Additionally, its northern coast is riddled with barrier reefs, hidden rocky depths that ruin ship keels, treacherous tides, typhoons, and sea monsters native to the region.
While the waters surrounding Zulucan are perilous, the whole of the enormous subcontinent is one of the most hostile regions in the entire world. The majority of its landmass is covered in jungle, a dark abode where death comes in myriad guises. Mighty, prehistoric carnivores rule the forests — some actively stalking their prey, while others lurk in ambush, awaiting whatever wanders close.
No less deadly are the jungle’s smaller killers; everywhere, debilitating parasites lurk, awaiting their opportunity to latch onto a new host, and the humid air buzzes with swarms of blood-sucking insects so voracious they can exsanguinate a man before his body can collapse to the forest floor.
Only the Yuan-ti, Lizardfolk, and the native dark-skinned Human inhabitance, as well as other cold-blooded creatures, can endure the stifling heat and humidity for long; other races eventually sicken and die.
To its natives, however, Zulucan is a haven — a deathtrap to invaders and a bulwark against the disorder set loose in the world with the end of the The Second Fall.
Zulucan contains mighty rivers, vast tracts of unbroken swampland, arid deserts, soaring mountains and a vast and fertile plain - deep grasslands and savannahs that stretch beyond the horizon. Yet one feature dominates all others.
At least four-fifths of Zulucan is covered in jungle so thick that its many levels of canopy block out the sky. Even the high peaks and plateaus are blanketed, and it is said that arboreal creatures can cross the entire continent without once stepping upon the ground.
In places, the trees soar many hundreds of feet in the air and are older than the races of Man. The jungle floor is choked by dense undergrowth and there are few true paths beyond animal trails. Visibility is limited and the air is thick, often wreathed in drifting mists.
To an outsider, the claustrophobic jungles of Zulucan are much the same, but to its native creatures, nothing could be further from the truth. The dense fern tree valleys, the titanic skywoods and the moss-covered flood zones each offer their own deadly perils.
To creatures that have lived their lives braving such dangers, it becomes instinctive to identify the hundreds of different environments, anticipating the types of plants and creatures that might lie in ambush. In the jungle, you are always being stalked - knowing by what can mean the difference between life and death. For intruders, however, it is an alien landscape, a singular green hell, where anything (or everything) is trying to make a meal of them.
A great amount of the plant life of Zulucan is carnivorous – grasping creeper vines, blood-hungry spore clouds, and impaling spikethorns all seek the unwary. Yet even the omnipresent dangers of lethal flora pale in comparison to the many creatures that make the jungle their hunting ground.
Every hanging vine might be home to fist-sized stinging insects, and prides of scale-maned reptilians wait in concealment, ready to pounce upon passers-by.
Great hunting cats, cannibalistic monkey-kin, and the buzzing swarms of enormous insect life make the jungle a constant battle zone, where survival is an hourly struggle, but most dangerous of all that hunts beneath the canopies are the giant reptiles. These beasts have long been extinct from the rest of the world, but in Zulucan, they rule supreme.
Swift-moving colonies of bipedal razorbeaks scurry through the underbrush, while packs of giant cold-blooded lizard kind hunt the game paths, seeking fresh meat. From the canopies above swoop down Teradons and all manner of lesser winged reptiles. The jungle floor trembles with the tread of the mighty Stegadons, their passage uprooting trees and making short lived roads through the jungle. Enormous Sauropods stretch their necks to pluck creatures out of even the uppermost branches, while plodding Thunder Lizards actually penetrate above the canopy, seeking to swallow entire cloud banks, altering weather patterns for miles around in order to charge the fearsome attacks they use to kill their prey.
In the deepest jungle, rarely seen even by the lizard folk, lurk strange, feather-winged serpents, multi-legged behemoths, and the mysterious Arcanadon. Yet all of these creatures know fear when they hear the roar of the Carnosaur – for none are safe from the relentless ferocity of that king of savage killers.
Zulucan is also home to the smallest of all Human races, the Pygmies, which live in small tribal groups. it is rumored that Pygmies are the progenitor race for the Gnomes, for deep within the Zulucan jungles lies the fabled home city of the Gnomes, Gnometerasu said to be a secret haven for technology and marvels.
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