Jégoria

Description

To the south/southwest of Vörövisz lies the region of Jégoria, bordered by icy seas on all sides. Being closer to the rimside it is much colder here and the terrain ranges from coniferous taiga forests in the northern parts, to the central cold tundra and even plates of ice in the very southern part.
The taiga is home to a decent amount of wild-life but the soil is rather acidic which makes farming difficult. Similarly the tundra is not well-suited for large-scale agriculture either. Thus most societies here consist of meat-eaters and they rely on hunting and fishing to earn their meal. Even with divinities being tied to their hallow, many of the societies here are either more nomadic or more dispersed. It is a hard life out here, but they are making it work. Or they were at least, until the Chaos War happened.

Chaos War and The Retreat

The stories have become a little garbled over the years, but the war was raged less than a decade ago, so the main event still lies fresh in the minds of many. Among the many divinities there were two very powerful divinities who both contested the domain of Chaos. Naturally they went to war, but this turned out to be catastrophic. In the final moments of their battle one made a gambit which allowed him to strike down the other divinity, but he himself also took a mortal blow. They both died in each other's arms, both too weak to absorb the other's essence. This large concentration of divine energy pulsed with no one near to absorb it. It built and built up, the different energies and aspects interacting with each other, until it reached critical mass.

The result was devastating. The energy had mutated beyond something the others divinities could absorb and it washed over the entire region, a roiling mass of terrifying, chaotic energy known as the 'káoszmag'. It lingers still, a supernatural radiation that can alter, mutate and even kill those who spend too long in it. In some (rarer) cases a concentrated amount even altered the landscape, which now contains curiosities such as weeping trees bleeding tears of ichorous sap, colorful fens containing high amounts of salt, or pools of miasmic slime.
A few divinities were powerful enough to raise a ward around their city and at least create a safe haven, but many were not. They were abandoned, their people all fleeing in The Retreat to the Downside ('Lefelé') where they could be safe. Now the Topside ('Felfelé') is home to mutated creatures and people, a land of cold and madness where strength rules.

The Downside and The Ascendance

One of the more interesting parts of Jégoria has always been the Downside, a large natural, subterranean cavern system with interconnected caverns and tunnels that stretches many kilometers. The passages and caverns can be several hundred meters in height, large enough to form its own weather system. The Downside was known and even partially explored and settled before The Retreat, but only to a very limited extent. The issue is of course, that this dark environment is home to many dangerous predators that are superbly adapted to the conditions here. It is also home to some very dangerous plant-life, such as fungi capable of controlling corpses. What it does offer over the Topside though is warmth. As it is located closer to the planet's crust and geological activity is high on this planet, the temperatures here are naturally higher.
At least that provided some reprieve for those who fled the effects of the káoszmag. But still many died shortly after they arrived here. Those who survived usually did because they were able to reach either an already existing town, or found the hallow of a still undiscovered divinity. This large influx of people catapulted some divinities so far ahead in terms of new worshipers, that two of them even attained the status of major divinity in a very short period.

Interestingly enough, the Downside is not all dark. The majority of plant-life in the Downside is fungal, and many of these fungi are luminescent to attract herbivores that can spread their spores. They are also immensely varied, with sizes ranging from a few centimeters to several meters in size. There are even some predators that use this relationship by disguising themselves as fungi using a vague luminescence and drawing in prey that way.
All in all this is a very dangerous and also very isolated region, both the above and the below. Due to the káoszmag and the fact that most people have sought their reprieve in the Downside, there is little contact with the divinities of Vörövisz for example.

Overview

Themes and Keywords

Transformation, arctic wasteland, post-cataclysm, mutants, subterranean refuge, giant fungi.

Common Fauna

Topside/Felfelé:
Trolls, caribou, arctic fish, csamcsoga, vadrúsz, sentient oozes, mutants, bagolyszarvas, hókígyó.
Downside/Lefelé:
Staukata, skinwalkers, deathsteeds, nészárnyú, sentient oozes, shellfish, páncelbogár.
Brief Descriptions.
Bagolyszarvas. An aggressive giant owl/bat hybrid with antlers and powerful talons.
Csamcsoga. Carapaced mammals that seem strangely resistant to mutations. They possess powerful jaws that can snap through mid-sized trees, and a second row of teeth that can chip wood. They also possess a special gut enzyme that can break down the cellulose to obtain the necessary energy.
Deathsteeds. A favored creature of Kélet which serve as incredibly fast mounts.
Hókígyó. A gargantuan subterranean snow serpent. They gain most of their nutrition by scouring the soil, but when hungry or angered they will come up to feed on other animals.
Nészárnyú. Also known as stingflies, these tiny four-winged insects are horrid predators that eat anything smaller than them, and when displaying swarm behavior, anything larger too.
Páncelbogár. Large insect with sharp claws and a sturdy carapace it can retreat into. Frequently used for transport or herded for its carapace and meat.
Staukata. A large insectoid predator with a stinger containing a paralytic poison.
Vadrúsz. Warthog/rhinoceros hybrids with a foul temper, sometimes used as battle-mounts. It is paler than the Vörövisz variant, and has thicker fur to protect against the cold.

Unique Flora

Topside/Felfelé:
To be expanded.
Downside/Lefelé:
Izzágomba. Literally translated to 'glow fungus', this is a type of giant fungus found specifically in the Downside. These several meters tall mushrooms possess auto-luminescent properties that they use to lure in herbivores to spread their spores.
Lebegomba. Also known as floating fungus, it consists of a large white-greyish ball that contains a lighter-than-air gas that is held down by thick fibrous stalks. To spore they detach from the stalks. Many animals and insects live among their stalks, and the stalks are also frequently used as building material since they are quite sturdy.
Paradentétes. A brighly colored fungus found in the Downside that somehow seems out of place and unremarkable at the same time. It is an instinctive feeling that seems to affect all people, but no one has been able to pinpoint why it happens. The paradox itself is known to cause psychic pain to those who ponder the plant for too long.
Róthas. A very small black fungus also known as 'tarbone' that is present in the soil of the Downside. It is rarely seen as it is mostly present in small amounts until a corpse falls near it. In response to the nutrients seeping into the ground it grows upwards towards the body and moves into it by peeling back the skin, muscles and tissue and eating into the bone where it calcifies. Once it has devoured all the marrow it uses these nutrients to grow long, thin hyphae along the ground to spread its spores as far and wide as possible. Those with an artistic mind have likened it to a giant black flower of death with the corpse at its center.

Points of Radiance

Major Points to be described later.

Minor Points of Radiance

Smaller divinities tend to either be consumed by the larger ones, or their hallows are overrun by creatures of all kinds and they are never discovered. Many of the divinities in the Downside have been deprived of followers or weakened tremendously by constant raids of predatory creatures, while most of the Topsiders have suffered tremendously under the Chaos Wars and the káoszmag. Those who have managed to survive are mostly making do, or somehow taking advantage of the unique features created by the chaotic energies.
--Topside/Felfelé:--

• Édesgar Falls: The Licorice Falls (formerly Édéle's Falls) are a strange place, what was once a town built at the mouth of an arctic waterfall, is now a black sugary structure settled at a mirror-like lake of liquid licorice. The sweet-stinking penetrant smell is one thing, but the change of the water has made this a difficult place to live. Only few people have survived, and that is purely because they are mutants of a particular strain that are able to digest this excessive sugar content efficiently.
  
Their divinity Édéle, once a vibrant Life divinity representing Comfort and Healing Waters, has ironically turned stark, raving mad as a result of the káoszmag. She has locked herself in an underwater palace at a bottom of the licorice lake, and her people are content to leave her to her ramblings as long as they don't need her. Because even bringing her attention to a threat might backfire on them.
• Strzapa Flood: This was once a thriving city, built around an Earth divinity representing Stability that seemed to be on the ascendance. But when the Chaos Wars happened, said divinity was unable to block the wave off káoszmag sweeping the land and it ruined the land. It turned into a mudslide of treacle of all things, which left the city half-flooded. Only the tallest buildings survived and the survivors live atop these. This has ironically made it a very defensible position, but the population is struggling to survive.

Notable Locations

Much of Topside may be arctic wasteland, but the káoszmag has had some interesting effects, causing unique landscapes that stretch the limits of the physical world and baffle the mind. Even without those it is a region full of mystery, and the Downside is even more mysterious. Most of the subterranean cavern system isn't even explored, and the parts that are show strange strange features like a seemingly bottomless pit or forests of luminescent fungi. Some notable examples of unique geographical features are listed below:

--Topside/Felfelé:--

Buborék Pools

There is a centrally located river that is at almost boiling temperatures year-round. The ground just around it is some of the only land that is not frozen or covered in snow in the entire region. It starts high on Hamikán Hill, and it ends in a grouping of several lakes or pools of varying sizes. Here they simmer and stir, and they release bubbles. But not just any bubbles, bubbles the size of foxes, the size of humans, some even the size of a full-grown vadrúsz. And these bubbles are sturdy yet light, flexible yet strong. The air inside the bubbles is thick and heavy, to the point things can float in it as if in water. If a bubble were to form around a person bathing in the pools (highly inadvisable considering the temperature), they would be carried off into the sky until it the bubble cools down enough and it bursts.

Lake Rejtiga

In the center of the Topside of Jégoria lies a giant iced-over lake where there was once an inland sea. It stretches to roughly 1 kilometer in radius and is the subject of much folklore and other occult tales. For sometimes you can see deep below the ice, giant metallic bones. Carcasses in the shape of no known creature that gleam far below the dark ice. These seem to draw fey and other supernatural creatures to them, which makes crossing the lake more dangerous than it already was.

Nullpont

Where once lay the town of Entrályvár, is now the epicenter of the Chaos War's great catastrophy. The ground has been torn apart and giant chunks of it now float in the air, still home to the ruins of Entrályvár. From the largest of these islands still flows a river that spills onto two other island before hitting the ground and pooling into a lake. These waters are no longer just water, but more like concentrated káoszmag that mutate any creature that touches it. Some believe it to have healing properties since its mutating properties are so strong that it basically reforms the entire body. Not that many have been able to safely gather any. Just getting near Nullpont already mutates or kills most living beings.

Retterdő

In the northern forests of Jégoria one part stands out above all. The dreaded woods to the east are devoid of all life except the mutated trees. Nothing comes here or wants to come here, even the animals avoid it. Observation from the sky through familiars or other magic has revealed that there seem to be some kind of ruins here, but of what no one knows.
For some reason everyone who even comes near this place suffers from panic attacks or hallucinations. Occasionally someone strong of will is able to travel further in, but they never return. They kill themselves. No one knows why, not even the divinities. They are warded out as well, they cannot approach. It is physically impossible for them. This confounds them, it scares people more. Nowadays almost no one goes near this place anymore. Only the foolish and suicidal.

--Downside/Lefelé:--

Kristály Caverns

The káoszmag is a powerful force of pure, unfiltered energy. But in such vast concentrations it is dense, and it isn't always fully consumed by the strange interactions it causes. The residual energy can often seep down into the Downside, affecting the entrances and the areas directly around them. In one such case it has turned a grouping of three caverns entirely into transparent crystal. It is beautiful, valuable and dangerous. Temperatures are incredibly elevated, strange crystalline creatures prowl around and oh, there's the occasional bandit group who figured it would be more profitable to ambush anyone mining the crystal rather than do the dangerous mining themselves.

Neighboring Regions.
Swamps of Vörövisz.

Alternative Name(s)

Chaos Wastes, Trollmark (for Topside)

Included Organizations

• Hávadtörsz, the Wolf-Kin Tribes
• Kélemenedék, the Putrid Caverns

Inhabiting Species

• Aldruín
• Bagolyszarvas
• Csamcsoga
• Deathsteed
• Hókígyó
• Láthatlan
• Mègatjá
• Nészárnyú
• Páncelbogár
• Staukata
• Vadrúsz