Lìrna (/ˈlɪɹnaː/)
In the interior of the continent of Felora lies a largely abandoned region, almost the size of the Feloran Successor States combined. Once ruled as three provinces of the Feloran Empire, and today nominally part of the Sovereignty of Soren, the lawless, wild region is rife with reclusive nomads, isolationist outposts, and lost Feloran treasure. The influence of civilisation is weak, touching the outer northwest of the region but practically nonexistent past the Cliffs of Crandreshel. Located in the central part of Felora and the southernmost region of Northern Felora, it is the only part of the subcontinent to have southern coastline, as part of the Sea of Griswold.
Geography
At its northwestern corner lay the Crandreshel cliffs, a series of cliffs almost a thousand kilometres long, stretching from Mount Tèlbraì to the southwest and the Dotharan Mountains to the northeast. They are considered the borderlands of Lìrna. It represents the main physical barrier to accessing the interior of the region, although the approach to the midpoint is gentle enough to allow for the construction of roads. The Yèlbraì̯ & Sëir Rivers both feature cascading waterfalls where they each meet the Crandreshels, where they continue onto the Palm Plains and into land controlled by the Sovereignty of Soren. The Sëir river extends onto the Chàlnan plateau, before splitting into the Dëlsëir and Jollìsëir rivers. The flat land between these two branches makes for the region's most fertile land.
Separating this half of the region are the Jollì Mountains, which curve from the Dotharan Mountains before veering westward to link up with the Tèlbrai (geologically, they are all one long north-south range of mountains spanning the bulk of Felora). Where the two ranges meet, there is a wide mountain pass known as Jùlhè Flanì. Control of this pass historically has determined access to the rest of Lìrna from Northern Felora. Beyond the pass is the southern half of the region. Southern Lìrna comprises a majority (65%) of the region's landmass. It is home to Foh, an expansive desert that continues onto the Carabar Peninsula. In total, the region is approximately 1,700,000 square kilometres in size. The southern half is bounded to the west by the Tèlbrai Mountains and to the east by more cliffs. There is one major river in the south, which winds its way gently southeast before emptying into the Sea of Griswold.
Localized Phenomena
Lìrna is famous amongst the denizens of the Feloran Successors due to it's mythic position as lost Feloran provinces, as well as it's innate connection to the feywilds, with abnormally high concentrations of fey portals and gateways to the Dàlùnsten. Lèlbrìkèrn Vesàris once referred to the region as even "partially entwined" with it in ways inexplicable and unseen anywhere else in the Known World. As such, many regions of Lìrna feature impossibly dry deserts, unexplained localsied weather phenonema, and a myriad of other oddities.
Theories have been supplied in modern times, especially by Dotharan Academics at the University of Melnor, such as the lingering impact of the sorts of rumoured martial magic wielded by the ancient elven empires. Two notable examples of the impact this entwinement has on Lìrna are the Forest of Lost Souls in the Dotharan Mountains, where abnormally frequent dissapearances in the cloud forest, constantly shrouded in fog (even by cloud forest standards and Lake Drèrn, where it is rumoured that the bottom of the lake contains a portal to the realm of twilight, created by Vegrëflas, the high spirit of freshwater in Ëlhyaean tradition.
Fauna & Flora
A massive region with multiple ecostystems and climate types, the flora and fauna of Lìrna number in the thousands. The most barren places are the Joh Desert and the sundered Feloran cities, where the abandoned urban cores are conspicuosly absent of any animal or even plant life.
Lìrna is perhaps most famous for it's massive buffalo and antelope herds, which support the resident semi-nomadic Sashen, who follow their migratory and grazing patterns. The buffalo are known to congregate in large herds, themselves made of infinite small groups, mingling into columns by the hundreds of thousands to migrate. The Sashen know to plan for this, their trade routes and transport links blocked for up to 3 days by these beasts.
Many supernatural fauna from the echo of the material plane known in common as the "feywilds", such as the Giant Hyena, are found in higher than usual numbers, due to the region's many connections to that realm.
History
The earliest reference to the region in the Feloran Imperial Canon is from -4305 EIE, during the Expedition of Möt Yèu̯traŋ, led by the eponymous quarter-Orcish son of the Yèu̯traŋ noble family to find the remaining two unknown sources of the Sëir and Yèlbraì̯ Palm Rivers. Scaling the practically vertical Cliffs of Crandreshel after following the Sëir river to the base of its falls, Möt named the horizon he saw "Lìrna" for majestic horizon. Finding it largely devoid of any inhabitants in the plateau, Felorans of the Early Imperial Era gradually settled the land along the Sëir River and named it Öra Chàlnā, for it was above horizon of the homeland. The land would eventually become the site of conflict between the Felorans, who began to irrigate more and more of the land, eventually encroaching into the foothills of the Tèlbrai Mountains, territory belonging to the Vöth, a mountain and cave-dwelling Elven people.
For much of its history after the final vanquishing of the Vöthar, the region was the firmly tamed provinces Chàlna, Fyala, and M'Ëŋbi of the Feloran Empire, however as the Northern Invasions stretched on, the land began to be neglected as more were sent to fight and maintain order both in the colonies and in the empire proper. This intensified with the collapse of the Empire after the Tealastrian flight, and the Great Suffering. In the subsequent centuries, the land has been reclaimed by much of the fey creatures and forces that the Felorans had controlled, as well as settled by other peoples. People still living near the rivers are mostly Elves with distant relation to the Feloran Empire, and it's population has been largely sustained by the steady increase of those leaving the lands controlled by the Sovereignty. Further away from Soren and Sëir, the less Feloran the people are. The forested areas have been settled by tribes of wood elves known as the Sashe, who scorn contact with outsiders, often watching travlers on the road from the sidelines, following them into their small villages and demanding to know why they have come to their domains. It is estimated that there are 8,000 living in the region, although these numbers only reflect the river settlements.
Maps
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Lìrna
The open region of Lìrna, once part of the Feloran Empire.
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