Seiforh is a region in Pretheya located directly south of the Belyrian subcontinent, serving as a border between Belyria and the Asutoan peninsula to the south. Tales of the land without rain circulate across the continent, alongside legends of the mysterious circumstances that lead it to become that way. Aside from its bizarre climate, it is best known for its forests of great trees known as
Cloudboughs; gargantuan trees that stand four kilometres tall each and absorb clouds that pass through the region.
A great catastrophe occurred during the Karvina Invasion of Seiforh in the 13th century Re that saw the central third of the region's Cloudboughs burned down. The resultant lack of water lead all plantlife within the region to die off in the following years, leaving it as a dessicated wasteland in the present; the only place on the continent even less hospitable than
Zemet. It is rarely spoken of by foreigners in the present day save for as a cautionary tale, and even the machinations of great states and countries steer clear from it.
Controlling Polities: TBD
Racial Majority: Tveirfotr
Minority Races: Thousandforms
Ethnicities: TBD
Inhabitants Demonym: Seif
Notable Cities & Landmarks: TBD
Average Rainfall: 0 days a year
Snow in Winter: None
Temperatures: Vary wildly by location more than by season. Has extreme swings between day and night in most areas, going from scorching hot in the day to below freezing at night
Geography
The geography of Seiforh is heavily distinct in the west, east, and centre of the region. Its western and eastern portions both still resemble the geography it developed after the introduction of the Cloudboughs in the mid-4th century Re, while the centre is defined as the portion of Seiforh that became dessicated after the destruction of its Cloudbough forest during the Karvina Invasion of Seiforh.
Weather
The defining characteristic of the Seiforhan region, and the factor that has been used to determine where the area starts and ends, are its weather patterns. Seiforh does not receive any rain whatsoever: Any clouds that pass overhead in the region, no matter how laden with water, will never rain until they pass off of Seiforhan soil. This has allowed it to develop a border which is much less arbitrary than that of other geopolitically defined regions, with the boundaries of Seiforh being defined as 'any part of south-eastern Pretheya which never receives so much as a drop of rain.'
By extension, this lack of rain means that it also never snows in Seiforh. The only common form of weather is dust storms which can occur in the region's dessicated centre. Despite this, surface water in both western and eastern Seiforh commonly freezes at night, and ice is a common sight. In addition, certain parts of the Seiforhan Cloudbough forests never receive any cloud cover at all; as the trees adjacent to them consume any nearby clouds before they can reach them.
Temperature
Temperature within Seiforh is highly predictable in the west and east of the country compared to elsewhere in Pretheya due to the near total absence of clouds in these areas. The 4,000 metre high Cloudboughs that cover the west and east of the country both consume the majority of the clouds in the area, and cast gigantic shadows that can cover dozens of kilometres worth of space per tree. This results in an environment where parts of the country are near permanently in shadow at all times, while others are in uninterrupted sunlight throughout daylight hours.
This often results in massive temperature discrepancies between these areas, and also has a significant impact on the ecology of places that are either permanently dark or permanently light; leading to the creation of numerous microbiomes throughout the country. In addition, the lack of clouds in the west and east of the country means that there is nothing to slow or mitigate temperature changes caused by sunlight. This means that days in these parts of Seiforh are often blisteringly hot for much more of the year than is true of anywhere else in Pretheya, and then become freezing cold at night as the heat almost immediately dissipates when the sun goes down.
East & West Seiforh
The eastern and western portions of Seiforh are largely similar both geographically and ecologically. The area immediately around the Cloudboughs' bases consists of large stretches of steppe and taiga; with non-great trees almost completely absent and most plants being limited to grasses or hardy bushes. Lush patches of jungle where the majority of the region's flora and fauna reside can be found further away from the trees, where the soil is more nutrient-rich.
Both east and west are dominated by the forests of four-kilometre tall Cloudboughs scattered across their surface, which are the only way these regions receive water given the total absence of rainfall. The Cloudboughs are spread far apart so as to allow their root systems not to interfere with each other, and it is these in-between areas where most of the region's wildlife reside. Their enormous sizes enable them to be seen from dozens and potentially hundreds of miles away; often giving the impression that they take up the majority of land within Seiforh even when this is not the case. The region's climate and ecology are defined by the Cloudboughs' presence, which influence them in the following major ways:
Water Provisions
All water present in Seiforh comes from the Cloudboughs; which absorb moisture from clouds through their leaves and then deposit it at ground level through large tap-like holes in their roots. The amount of water produced by absorbing entire clouds is roughly equivalent to that of some of the largest rivers elsewhere in Pretheya, and as a result, Seiforh is one of the wettest places on the continent. The water that comes from the trees, however, is much less evenly distributed than that of rainfall; spreading out instead from the trees' root systems to form rivers of varying sizes.
Because of the lesser ability for water to travel from these rivers, the trees make up for this by having extensive root systems that spread across most of the surface within several dozen kilometres of them. The surface of Seiforh is therefore covered in not just rivers, but streams; varying from small trickles of water to brooks that children might play in. The prevalence of these waterways has lead to the land around the Cloudboughs becoming muddy and swamp-like, and the entire region is constantly in a state of erosion.
Light Blocking
The size of the Cloudboughs is such that they block light in a large area opposite to the trajectory of the sun. This means that certain swathes of land near where they have been planted may receive very little sunlight throughout the day; while some receive no direct sunlight whatsoever. This leads areas which would normally be fertile beds of life to be unable to sustain plantlife due to a lack of sun with which to photosynthesize. Even those parts of the region which are swamped with water and so should be teeming with wildlife instead resemble little more than treacherous mud pits.
This quirk has lead to the development of Seiforh's entirely unique and decidedly peculiar landscape; where one patch of land will be a veritable jungle filled with plants and animals, and another a mere half dozen miles away will be barren and completely devoid of life. The reverse also applies: Some parts of the Seiforhan countryside are in direct sunlight for the entire day until the sun goes down. Temperatures in these regions swing wildly between times of day; often reaching highs of 40c in the day, and lowering to below freezing at night. As a result of this, only the very hardiest of plants can survive there.
Central Seiforh
The centre of Seiforh, like the east and west, was once home to its own forest of Cloudboughs. During the Karvina invasion of Seiforh which occurred in the 13th century Re, the Karvina forces laid siege to the then-capital of
Saga the Kinslayer's
Ofirar kingdom; the city of Ashkelon. During the siege, the Karvina army employed the usage of incredibly powerful invocations of Theos in an attempt to literally melt the walls of the city. So great were the firestorms conjured that they caused a Cloudbough near the city to catch alight; which eventually spread to the other Cloudboughs near it, and from there to the next set of trees; eventually setting the entire forest on fire. The conflagaration caused by this event came to be known as the Years of the Burning Skies, and the fire would not be fully extinguished for another 14 years; by which time every Cloudbough in central Seiforh had been burned down.
The resultant devastation wrought by this event was total. In absence of any water coming from the Cloudboughs, the entire central third of the country rapidly began to dessicate, as all plants that lived there withered away and died. In the present, the area remains completely uninhabited and devoid of even the smallest forms of life. All settlements that had once existed there have long since fallen to ruin, and the area is only walked by travellers journeying from one side of Seiforh to another.
