The Armlands
For how long Eldûra’s history stretches back into the past, many hinterlands still exist in the nooks and crannies of the world. On the Arm of the Continent, a large peninsula juts out and curves down from the north-west corner of the main continent (name TBD) where Talnor, Dazuvell, the Independent Landgraves, and Eldondi can be found. The Armlands stretch across the length and breadth of the peninsula, and all around the Towering Pine Mountains and its offshoot, the Crescent Ridge Mountains.
No one can really say when the Armlands were first discovered.
The dwarves love to claim that they were the first to settle the land, though—“settle the land” is a bit of a stretch as they stayed to the mountains and their mountain halls of the city of Jacynth Deeps when they first came to the area. The dwarves did not stray from their home until curious dwarves went in search of gems and veins of metal that could not be found beneath the mountain (name TBD) where the city is housed. Over several months, they followed the mountains south and west until they came to the westernmost point of the Crescent Ridge Mountains.
The mountains there were adorned with rivers of rusty red that spoke of an abundance of iron—a metal that was rare and hard to find in the Jacynth Deeps amongst the silver, copper, and gold. They decided to settle down there, even if iron was all they would end up finding there.
They named their settlement Iron Hold and quickly began to work at the stone in the hopes of extracting the iron. And for the first couple of years, they quietly extracted the iron and sold it to the craftworks back at Jacynth Deeps. But then they found something.
Miners in the deepest mineshaft broke through to a massive natural cavern with a wide river rushing through the middle of it. There was a strangeness to the space. The river rushed away into the darkness down below, away from where they knew the coast lay and in a totally opposite direction from what water should have flowed. There was an eerie feel to the place, though it was a feeling that was too strong for it simply to have been caused by the strange river—but they didn’t understand why until they placed braziers throughout the cavern and lit them.
To their astonishment, the walls were covered by gleaming green gemstones. They looked like the olivine that they had found in an isolated pocket deep under the Jacynth Deeps, but possessed a strange texture comparable to snakeskin. They had never seen such a gemstone as that before.
A few months after the discovery, Iron Hold’s name was changed to the Serpentine Depths, its name changed to reflect the discovery and the beauty and worth of the gemstone. It is the only known source of serpentine in Eldûra.
The town of Cardinal Creek was established around 300 years before the present time. It’s populated mostly by humans, but it isn’t all too strange to see members of other races mingling about, as the large town is something of a holiday destination amongst those from Talnor.
Cardinal Creek was settled by a group of humans who traveled west through the mountains south of the Ice Gate and down onto the hinterlands of the Armlands. They were fleeing from the tyranny inflicted on their homeland of Eldondi by the Sorcerer Queen as she conquered the land and slaughtered their beloved royal family. They wanted to put as much distance between them and her strangling clutch, so they followed the shores around the bay that would one day be known as Bikkalis until they were on the far side, where they settled down next to a tranquil creek that flowed from a narrow valley to the west. Salmon spawn up that creek every autumn, providing a decent source of meat that could be preserved for the harsh winters. Their settlement, which would one day be named for the birds that loved to perch in the trees above the creek, planted deep roots and flung its doors open wide to all those fleeing the Sorcerer Queen’s oppression and all the misfits that fit nowhere else.
Armlands map
by
M.R.R. Shelswell
Hi-res map of the Armlands, a Frontierland located on the Arm of the Continent. Created on inkarnate.com.
Geography
The Armlands are home to a vibrant taiga biome, blessed with expansive boreal forests (not pictured on map). The forests are home to paper birches, aspens, and multiple species of pine and fir.
Localized Phenomena
The Gloamingfell Vale is an ominous valley tied to much superstition and worry. The sun never touches the floor of the valley and the walls of it are far too steep for anything to grow. But the skeletons of trees starved of sunlight spoke of a time when light used to bless the valley, but no one was there to witness why that changed.
Climate
The climate of the Armlands is comparable to plant hardiness zone 3b and down (3a, 2, 1, 0). These average growing conditions are similar to what can be found in northern Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the strip of land in Alberta that runs along the Rocky Mountains and the northern quarter of the province.
The area is prone to hot summers (with temps up to +32ºC / 89.6ºF) and freezing winters (with temps down to -40ºC / -40ºF and -50ºC / -58ºF during worse winters) that experience ridiculous amounts of snow due to its proximity to the ocean.
Natural Resources
The Armlands are rich in resources, all thanks to the fact that it was left mostly uninhabited for much of the history of Eldûra. The mountains are rich with a variety of metals and gemstones, and the forests provide a steady source of lumber and sap that can be crafted into syrups. Elk, moose, and deer roam the forests and mountainsides and are a good source of meat, especially during the winter. Bikkalis Bay is a good source of fish, but one must be very careful to not attract the attention of the Mayimvir that are said to swim in those waters.
Maps
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The Armlands
A hinterland on the edge of the known world, comparable to a no man's land that is as unknown as Canada was during the time of the Hudson's Bay Company and America was during Lewis and Clark's day. It's home to two dwarven settlements and one human settlement, a harbour, and a remote outpost that thinly links Cardinal Creek to Serpentine Depths.
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