The Land of Jet and Jade
The four cardinal points direct us in our daily lives. The west wind, gentle and warm, teaches us the joys of life. The southern wind, chilled and persistent, teaches us that serene action must be taken to achieve ones goals. The northern wind, still and powerful, teaches us that one must contemplate action before commiting oneself fully. The eastern wind, powerful and raging, comes screaming from it's home to warn us of the danger it preceeds.
-Imperial philosophical saying
A continent on the eastern edge of the known world, the Land of Jet and Jade (also known as the Jet/Jadelands, depending on the exact location upon the continent) is a varied landmass that holds a collection of strong cultures that often clash with each other and borrow from each other in equal measure.
The lands themselves are somewhat oddly arranged, with the summer and springlands forming a sort of core to the west and southwest, and autumn and winterlands arranged to the north, east, and south in a sort of... armor or covering.
If one is traveling from the west, the only way one could for now as any possible lands farther east remain a mystery, one will inevitably see the Jade Pillars of the Nine Heavens which are generally referred to as simply the Jade Pillars, or the 'Gate of the East'. These pillars jut out of the ocean in a vast forest with varying distances between them, creating a maze for those who don't know how to navigate the Jade Pillars to get lost in. At times, the waterways are large enough for two warships to sail through abreast, others, they thin out so quickly that ships will get "grabbed" by them if they're not careful.
Navigate past the Jade Pillars and you'll finally see the mainland continent. Continuing east and you'll find that the landscape does not get much easier to traverse for quite some time. It is broken up by many mountains that seem to just out of the ground just as suddenly as the Jade Pillars, but as the distance east is traveled it becomes less and less common, though the grade never truly levels out. It remains hilly and mountainous nearly the whole way across.
This difficulty in traveling is part of what inspired the construction of the Silk River, a massive artificial waterway that cuts directly through the center of the continent from east to west, and branches off in many directions it's whole length. Constructed by the Old Empire as both solution and experiment, it remains a vital part of the operation of the nations of the continent.
On the eastern edge of the continent, curling up to the north, the land becomes much cooler, but not much less mountainous. Passes and natural valleys become bogged down with snow or simply scream with the shrieks of the chill wind.
Alternative Name(s)
The Land of Two Emperors, Gate of the East, the Land of Silk TIgers,
Type
Continent
Included Organizations
Inhabiting Species
Comments