Lephia

Geography

From the coast this deceptively pleasant looking land appears to be ripe for settling. Rich forests line the edges of gentle beaches, with the land rising to tall mountains further inland. Rivers carrying clear water flow down from the mountains emptying into wide bays that seem perfect for a harbour.
However, a little inland a couple frequently smoking volcanoes dominate either end of island. Their regular eruptions have dissuaded many from trying to settle in the north or south, but they are far from the worse threat. The centre of Lephia is plagued by Abyssal Storms with an incredibly powerful one having created the gouge..

History

First Inhabitants

Lephia was settled early in The First Age, primarily by gnomes who travelled from mainland Pintra to avoid the humans. Most of the gnomes settled in grassland areas, but when halfings also migrated to the island one group of gnomes that would later become the Seeking Souls decided to settle in the forests further inland. The different communities were able to get along reasonably well and with an abundance of natural resources there was little need for them trade outside of Lephia.

Disaster after disaster

It was around the 320^th year of the first age when two of the large mountains began to smoke and the the land began to tremble. Those living near the two mountains decided to move elsewhere which proved quite wise as the volcanos began erupting on a regular basis for the next hundred years.
Around 400 years later a new disaster struck the island. The winds on the island had been increasing for several years with storms becoming fiercer and the occasional mass of swirling air that suck up anything it passed over. While these storms were dangerous and occassional deadly, the people of Lephia adapted to these changes, shifting how they constructed their homes and developing ways to protect their crops. But around 60 years after the storms first started to worsen they gained an even more deadly component. The new winds now seemed to carry a touch of death with them, withering plants and trees and ageing any creatures caught in them. The locals named them Abyssal Storms but while some fled back to the mainland others once again adapted, finding new ways to cope with these storms.

Humans arrive

In time the storms calmed somewhat, though they remained an occasional threat and the communities on Lephia expanded. Humans began to take an interest in the island and several fierce battles were fought between those who considered themselves natives to the island and these interlopers. Outmatched, the natives retreated inland, leaving the coastal regions to the humans. Over the next few centurues the humans made several attempts to expand beyond the coast but they were regularly repulsed by the combined forces of the halfings and gnomes and eventually an uneasy peace was agreed upon.
When the Abyssal Storms next began to blow regularly the humans were slow to adapt (and the gnomes and halflings had no interest in sharing their own methods). Most of the human settlements were abandoned or destroyed and the natives celebrated the departure of the humans. However, these celebrations were short lived as the strongest storm yet seen, the Howling Death, swept across the island laying waste to all before it. The storm was so strong and destructive that it cut a huge canyon, later known as the gouge, along the centre of the island.

Out to the edges

Following these intense storms the inhabitants of Lephia abnandoned the centre, or left the island entirely in the case of the Seeking Souls. The animals that once made their home in the centre were also forced to leave or adapt, and several new species emerged such as the Rocktoad. Away from the centre the methods for surviving the storms continued to work for the people of Lephia and life largely returned to normal.

Straight from the Abyss

Although Lephia was largely untouched by the War of Ascension the presence of an overlap with the lower planes meant it suffered the full brunt of the Years of Darkness. All of the settlements were overrun by demons before most countries were even aware an invasion was happening and no mortal set foot there for the next couple of centuries.
Explorers from The Empire found little to recommend it and it was left unihabited during the third age until it once again became a beachhead for the second demonic invasion.

Maps

• 

  Lephia

Type

Island

Related Ethnicities

• Seeking Souls

Inhabiting Species

• Collion
• Rocktoad

Related Materials

• Herun Wood