Thitherland

Thitherland is a small country, barely incorporated, that lies just north of a rain forest. It is a loosely affiliated nation of Cities and Villages. It is organized mainly around trade. There is no military and very little government sponsored law enforcement. Instead, the people of the towns work together to keep the peace.
Thitherland is a loosely governed nation based mainly on agreements of trade. Its landscape is fairly varied: a green lowland rising to red-clay hills, with a lush semi-tropical forest beyond that. Even further is a deeper forest, slightly higher up in elevation. It is a place few people have truly explored, and it remains a fascinating mystery to those below.
In trade, Thitherland relies on a number of unique materials that come almost exclusively from their own land and soils. The most expensive of these are the beans of the Ragwood plant, which can--when combined with a gnomnsh fungus--be made into the beverage called "Groggin-cubby." Wealthy people the world over will pay high prices for this beverage, and it is hard to find good Groggin-cubby for cheap. A thriving underground system distributes it through deviant channels. Thitherland has no organized trade association, so these global abuses go fairly unchecked.
More about the Ragwood: Ragbean and Groggin-Cubby

THITHERLAND RESOURCES

Towns at the edge of the Hills sometimes have modest mines for the Red Clay. The resource is recognized as precious beyond gain in trade, so it is taken carefully and not too greedily. The forest is almost never encroached or felled for these mines, but rather they operate at the base of hillsides a few miles or more away from the where the trees grow thick.
Lumber would be a good source of income for many of the towns, and there are many who push for this to happen. So far, the people of Thitherland have resisted the urge to begin cutting. The wise among them fear some mysterious and aggressive reprisal.
Recent discoveries of iron ore in the vicinity of the red clay has boosted mining efforts. Tessinae from the north, along with some catfolk fleeing slavery, arrive here by the day, looking for a new life and a means of earning money. Those who know keep a sharp eye on the forest, lest there be too many (or any?) that might decide to move in.
The Thitherlanders of the Hills take great pride in their animal husbandry skills, and those that herd Giant Goats are particularly revered. Herding and managing herds is an art passed down from generation to generation, sometimes for a century or more.
Now, with the discovery of iron, the Thitherlanders are finding their skill as blacksmiths, creating a variety of instruments, implements, and simple weaponry.
Hide, Tallow, Wool, and Textiles are also brought in from Kapprivious in the north, and produced more modestly in Thitherland itself.

Geography

“Hills” are really more “old, old mountains”--rolling, blunt-top, but still In some places they are very steep, as any hiker or rider who’s traveled through them knows. The hills are steep, and the altitude can get high enough that nights in the winter are very cold. Trails up high here are twisty and can change very suddenly and rapidly in elevation.
Red Clay, weathered bedrock–heat and humidity and angle of bedrock–bright pink-red clay appears in many places, weathered ground among the grasses.  The region is marked specifically by its deposits of pink-red clay, which are mined for use in all kinds of valuable pottery. Grey Mudstone also a part of exposed strata.
Many brooks babble down from the higher country here, down through the hills to gather in larger rivers–the great river basin of the Wastwash–that run to the Frostwash Sea.
Streams, glades, valleys… Birds calling away through the forest, the rush of a small stream nearby.

Climate

Hot and Humid almost all year (sort of accepting Sept. and Oct.), with rain. More rain in the winter, and cooler temperatures, with some thunderstorms. [Our adventure begins in July, the height of the heat, and thick humidity.]

Fauna & Flora

There are a number of plants that thrive fairly specifically in the climate of Thitherland. The summers are warm--even sub-tropical--and humid, and the winters are cool, with mists and light rain off the coast.
From this perfect combination, a number of plants and animals thrive here, and there are agricultural products that can be found almost nowhere else.
The first of these is the Ragwood, the primary ingredient in what is known now as Groggin-cubby. Ragbean and Groggin-Cubby

Links to More Information about Living Things in Thitherland:
Thitherland Creatures / Bestiary
Thitherland: Animals / Zoology
Thitherland: Plants and Botany
Thitherland: Humanoid Creatures
Humans Speicific to the Thitherland Forest: Older Ones of the Tessinae 
Other Miscellaneous Information
Thitherland, Settlements
Thitherland: Stories and Adventures

Some History of Thitherland...

The Grip0li have been here longer than anyone knows, and their stories put them here at the very beginning of the forest’s own life. They know the forest so well that their movements through it come like breathing. They are amphibious creatures, so they very much value the small lakes and ponds throughout the forest. Even to this day, some of them are ambivalent about the presence of the humans, but many good things have come as well, and the humans seem at very least friendly. There is some Bellourian blood in the Tessinae that trickled in here 500 to 300 years ago, very slowly meeting the Gripli and gradually proving that they are trustworthy. Their skin is slightly lighter than the Tessinae of the north, and their hair is more bristled, and sometimes even brownish. Their beards grow thicker as well.