Goliant Waste

This vast forested region north of the Humblet Reach on the western edge of the continent of L'Ahr'Thresi was once the homeland of the elven civilization. It was filled with vast forested lands and many of the elves "Living Cities" were found among the huge trees. The forest actually spread almost full length across the continent, covering half of what is now the Lachendon Empire, and far north of this region into the vast wild lands in the northern portions of the continent. The area called the Goliant Waste today covers the region near to the Humblet, and ends at the Cloud Crowned Mountains on it's northern border. The wild lands beyond those mountains are unnamed and mostly unexplored.

The Goliant Waste is a place of wild danger, with natural beasts of all kinds mixing with huge numbers of monstrosities, some dragons, and many evil humanoids. There a few cities near the edges of the forest, and some dwarven citadels in the southernmost mountain ranges, but the vast majority of the land is deadly wilderness, and few expeditions to the area ever return. The most successful expedition deeper into the forest in recent times was a full military expedition with over 150,000 soldiers sent to clear enough land of threats to found a city. It succeeded in founding the city of Learsi, but it cost over 15,000 soldiers' lives and defending the agricultural region around that city continues to require almost 25,000 soldiers in a permanent garrison.

Points of Interest

There are several known points of interest in the Goliant.

1. The Grey Ooze Mountains are a large mountain range somewhat east of the center of the region, and with a large natural lake, called the Eye of the Ooze in the center. The mountains are named for their appearance on maps, but, other than long-distance images, nothing is known of the mountains. The general unreliability of divination and scrying magics anywhere in the Goliant Waste makes mapping them a difficult and manual task.
2. The Copper Scrags are a mountain range in the northeastern section of the waste, adjacent to (and slightly crossing) the Great Ward of the Empire. These mountains are filled with danger, and surrounded by highly chaotic wind currents. Only two expeditions have been made to map these mountains, and neither has returned, although the second one did manage to report the possibility of trade with sort of local civilization before they disappeared.
3. The Gnome's Boot Mountains are a mountain range in the central Goliant which resembles a giant boot on maps. This range is completely unexplored, and the only things known about it are that some expeditions from nearby Jerisi report being attacked by javelins dropped from great height as they approached the mountain range.
4. The Five Cities are a group of cities on the western edge of the Goliand near the ocean. These cities represent the largest and most successful of the near-to-shore cities surviving on the edge of the Goliant, and some of those cities even manage trade with mines several hundred miles upstream in the Goblin's Shield Mountains.
5. Bander Bully Warguns is another city on the shores of the Humblet Reach, and is known for it's wizard college and rule by the wizards' council.
6. The Revenant's Jaw is a mountain range on the shores of the Humblet Reach in the south-central Goliant. This mountain range is thought to contain several dwarven citadels and mining operations, but there is no major trade with the region, and there are rumors of terrible dangers to anyone who might explore the area. The five expeditions to these mountains have all either failed to return (three of them) or returned having been driven insane by their experience (the other two). Recent divination magics employed to determine the cause of the expeditions' failures have, however, suggested that the expeditions themselves brought their failure about, rather than some inherent danger in the mountains.
7. The Goblin's Shield Mountains form the western boundary of the Goliant Waste, and while some mines exist on the southeast slopes, the majority of the range is far too untamed for any safe exploration. It is known that vast hordes of goblinoids inhabit the range, and roughly 2,000 years ago the last great goblin horde marched out of these mountains into the Golian Forest. The horde lost 90% of it's soldiers in the forest due to beasts and monstrosities, but still arrived in the area which would later become The Five Cities with over 500,000 goblinoids, enough to easily overwhelm the entire region. Only the assistance of many allies, including the wizards from Bander Bully Warguns and a pair of ancient Gold Dragons managed to defeat the horde and prevent the total destruction of the small cities and towns then present in the area.

Type

Region