Itharan Locations

Regions

The Flame Steppe

The savannah in the northwest of Ithara, bordering the Chikan Jungle. One of the areas least affected by aether storms, but home to many dangerous creatures nonetheless.

The Bone Wastes

The Bone Wastes are the prime example of the raw power of aether storms. While appearing at first as miles of white sand in southern Ithara, in truth, every grain of sand in the Bone Wastes has been transmuted into salt. Rainwater and springs, already exceedingly rare in the desert, are immediately tainted on contact with the earth. The bones of creatures who lived in the wastes before they were transmuted still lie scattered among the salt; fish bones line the shores of pools like pebbles. Even stranger, fierce beasts have adapted by aether and evolution to endure in the wastes, living off of what little they can take. Stretching between the northwestern and southwestern settlements of the nation, it made any sort of trade a perilous or impossible journey.

It was only thanks to the ingenuity of the Merchant King Vishal Kurkani that the Bone Wastes could be tempered. While the beasts and dangers of the Bone Wastes are largely intact, Vishal has implemented many wells of pure, self-refilling and self-cleaning water kept safe from aetheric corruption, and the great city of Maruthala Moti sits as a perfect oasis in the heart of the Bone Wastes, greatly easing travel for the average person. It is rumored that one of his grander projects is a device to reverse the warping of the Bone Wastes, a project that could revolutionize life in Ithara.

The Great Sand Sea

A wide expanse of loose sand dunes stretching over southern Ithara. Arid and inhospitable, home to free-roaming balhut and falak, with few oases in between.

The Turquoise Serpent

While the majority of Ithara’s geography bends to the whims of aether concentrations, the only exception is the Turquoise Serpent, a single massive river flowing from the northern Peaks of Azul to the southern coast. For reasons still not fully understood, no changes have been recorded to the river’s water or the area around its shores due to aether fluctuations. Due to the extremely valuable nature of the river, the Merchant Kings have therefore decreed that they are not permitted to interfere with the main river through developments or large settlements, a decree that the beastfolk with their more localized communities are generally exempt from. In the modern era, most establishments are therefore small fishing or shipping industries, and any significant tampering with the river is a crime punishable by imprisonment and years of hard labor.

Many communities have developed beliefs around the great river, ranging from its ability to cure curses or illness to it being an actual, ethereal serpent spirit. Several beastfolk cultures in particular hold the Turquoise Serpent as the foundation of their beliefs, including the adamdun and sobekites.

The Thornveld

A large scrubland in East Ithara, surrounding the Rukh's Garden and the Spires of Song. The primary home of the apollian beastfolk.

The Rukh's Garden

Badlands of redstone that form massive mesas, spires, and archways. Home to several species of harpies, as well as the known roosting place of the anzu.

The Spires of Song

A collection of redstone spires and plateaus surrounding an offshoot of the Turquoise Serpent.

Ersetu, the Corpse-Mirror

Miles below Ithara lies the underworld, Ersetu, choked in aether and filled with myriad horrors. This continent-spanning chasm of dim, shimmering light is separated from the surface only by a ceiling of stone and sand that seems to act as a cap on the incredibly dense aether below. Indeed, some scholars have suggested that the source of aether is, in fact, somewhere within Ersetu, and it leaks up from the underworld into Ithara in relatively smaller concentrations.

As fallen kingdoms sink beneath the sands, many of the oldest fall through the porous ceiling of Ersetu, crashing down in mounds of rubble and ruin and corpses. Unparalleled riches through history could be found in Ersetu, but rumors abound that any riches that touch Ersetu’s foul air are immediately cursed.

Entering Ersetu unprotected is almost inevitably a life-changing event. The highly-concentrated aether warps anything that enters, living or dead, into a twisted fiend and bends their minds into a frenzy that knows nothing but terror and fury. These fiends, referred to as gallu in ancient texts or rakshasa in contemporary discourse, terrorize the surface when they manage to claw their way out of Ersetu or are intentionally summoned. At the same time, some holy entities such as the ammit live to hunt these fiends and reside in Ersetu themselves, though as a result they are no less ferocious and bloodthirsty.

Fortunately, save for those few places that touch Ersetu’s sand-sky, Ithara is mostly safe from the underworld below. As a consequence, not many details are known about Ersetu, and most Itharans are content to keep it that way.

Settlements

Kuvuka Mpaka

The city of the Merchant King Njeri Kariuki, a trading hub connected to many settlements both inside and outside Ithara.

Maruthala Moti

A marvel of Itharan ingenuity, this citadel lies in the heart of the Bone Wastes and is led by the Merchant King Vishal Kurkani. A magical water source in the salt flats, and home to artificer and magic schools.

Ta'alaq

A large city in the western Sand Sea, led by the Merchant King Idir Baga. The staging ground of the yearly festival where Itharans attempt to harvest the most precious ores and gems from a wild balhut.

Bad-Sahr

A massive port city built on the Spires of Song, set up for both airships and river ships. Led by the Merchant King Fayruz Hashmi, and home to a prestigious pilot school.

Al'Hayadiq

A large and relatively recent trading outpost in the Thornveld, where the Turquoise Serpent cascades down through the Peaks of Azul. Headed by the Merchant King Khendu Nikare as a trading post with Tron Daurat.

Nekheb

The oldest still-stannding city in Ithara, home to massive libraries and museums detailing Itharan history. Sitting at the mouth of the Turquoise Serpent and headed by the Merchant King Maatkare XI, the latest in a line of ancient Itharan royalty.

Fallen Kingdoms

In the time it has taken for the Merchant Kings to develop and distribute reliable countermeasures against aether storms, many kingdoms have risen and fallen in Ithara.

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