Austal

A continent of contrast, Austal is dominated by the vast expanse of the Jem’Hal desert on its eastern side, the verdant, lush landscapes of the Kal’Panar jungle on its north-western tip and the Alm’Izra wetlands in the south-west. Life can be found thriving in all of its climates, including in the jagged mass of the Stiletto Mountains that break the continent apart, but the harsh life of the desert and mountains has always seemed a million miles away from a life lived in the verdant, green west.

Geography

Partitioned by the Stiletto Mountains, the continent of Austal is split into three parts:
The majority of the continent is covered by the expanse of the Jem’Hal desert, which stretches over the whole of Austal’s eastern reaches. The Jem’Hal is a harsh place to exist, but its isolated oasis do provide enough islands of green to sustain life amongst its dunes and seas of sand. Because nothing lies between the desert sands and the southern reaches of the Malcont Ocean, storm systems that blow up over the ocean cause massive sand storms to form in the desert, which are sometimes so large that they can create a whirling maelstrom of sand over the The Strait of Carboni to the north, which can be devastating and deadly for any ships unfortunate to be caught up in it. Like its sister desert in Euristan, the Kaldara, the Jem’Hal still supports life and a thriving humanoid population, with the City-State of Promellion and the Sultanate of Qish located on its northern coasts, and numerous communities resident within the desert’s dunes.
The north-west and south-west of Austal, by contrast could not be more different. Austal’s north-west is a verdant expanse of rainforest called the Kal’Panar, whilst its south-west is an enormous area of wetlands, known as the Alm’Izra. Life has been able to flourish in these western regions so much more than the rest of the continent through the sheer luck that the majority of the riverine systems that flow down from the Stiletto Mountains fall to the west, rather than the east. Ironically, however, both of these areas are far less populated than the Jem’Hal desert is, principally because the heat, humidity and rather voracious flora and fauna of both areas makes them difficult to live in, let alone establish large communities. The only large settlement in Austal’s west is the Earldom of Karant, which clings to the south-eastern tip of the Alm’Izra.

Type

Continent

Included Locations

• Alm’Izra
• Jem’Hal
• Kal’Panar
• Stiletto Mountains

Related Ethnicities

• Jem’Menar

Contested By

• City-State of Promellion
• Earldom of Karant
• Sultanate of Qish