Scytharia (Skith-ar-ee-uh)
The Frozen Frontier
The farthest south any sane humanoids are willing to inhabit, the frozen peninsula of Scytharia is home to smallish rocky mountains, thick evergreen forests, fishing villages and nights so long and cold it sometimes feels like a curse on the land.
Geography
Scytharia is a peninsula jutting out from the mainland of southwest Al-gon, into the West Sea. Its name comes from the scythe-like shape of the peninsula, with its tip pointing west and the blade curving towards the north.
The channel separating the southern coast of Scytharia from the Vredesbyrd ice cap is known as the Waveless Strait, a very slow moving body eternally filled with floating islands of ice sheet that are home to seals, polar bears, and stranger denizens of the antarctic waters. To the east is Peshtigo Bay, a deep, cool bay. Projecting west from the tip of Scytharia is an archipelago known as the Ice Sickle Islands, mostly rocks so wind-blasted and snow-covered that they're of no value for habitation.
The interior of Scytharia is occupied by a narrow strip of mountains called the Bjornheim Range, with its foothills and lower altitudes choked in thick, expansive evergreen forests. The coasts are mostly rocky sand, littered with seaweed and tangles of driftwood.
The channel separating the southern coast of Scytharia from the Vredesbyrd ice cap is known as the Waveless Strait, a very slow moving body eternally filled with floating islands of ice sheet that are home to seals, polar bears, and stranger denizens of the antarctic waters. To the east is Peshtigo Bay, a deep, cool bay. Projecting west from the tip of Scytharia is an archipelago known as the Ice Sickle Islands, mostly rocks so wind-blasted and snow-covered that they're of no value for habitation.
The interior of Scytharia is occupied by a narrow strip of mountains called the Bjornheim Range, with its foothills and lower altitudes choked in thick, expansive evergreen forests. The coasts are mostly rocky sand, littered with seaweed and tangles of driftwood.
Ecosystem
The flora and fauna of Syctharia are largely defined by the cold weather and rocky soil. The trees are overwhelmingly coniferous, and the natural animals are largely divided between large herbivores like moose and elk, large to mid-sized carnivores like wolves and bears, and small burrowing mammals, such as chipmunks and ferrets. At lower altitudes, some areas have hardy grasses that spend most of the year buried under snow, but most smaller vegetation takes the form of bushes and shrubs.
Growing crops common to the rest of the continent is difficult even with the aid of greenhouses, and effectively impossible without it. The summer is far too short for most edible crops to mature, and the soil is rocky, frozen and lacking nutrients. Most humanoid food gathering comes from the sea, in the form of fishing, whaling and seal hunting.
Ecosystem Cycles
The warm season of Scytharia lasts just under three months during the summer, during which the sunny part of the day can reach up to six hours long, and some snow melts away in some places, allowing patches of thick, hardy grass to take hold.
During the warm season, larger whales migrate in from the north, to feed on the local aquatic wild life, and even the local pilot whales become more active, making summer prime whaling season for coastal Scytharians. For more inland settlements, the warm season represents a good time to set aside the usual mining and logging tasks to focus on hunting and foraging to make food to store for the next year. More animals are active, and more edible plants in bloom, during the warm season, and the partially thawed snow is much more difficult to move across with the sledges these settlements use to move their goods to the coasts.
Localized Phenomena
Sightings of auroras are commonplace in Scytharia. These bands of light across the sky are sometimes called "Astral Curtains" by locals, and some shamans and priests associate them with the Astral plane drifting closer to the Prime Material plane, and they are believed to make the performance of divination rituals more successful.
Climate
The climate of Scytharia is overwhelmingly cold. Most of the land never thaws, and there is a permanent layer of snow over much of the peninsula. Occasional storms blow in from the sea, making things even worse with high winds and even more snow. With only four hours of dim sunlight per day for much of the year, the nearly perpetual night brings even more chill to the air.
Survival outside the confines of a heated and lit village is extremely difficult. Travel between villages for human-sized creatures involves wading through waist deep snow in the dark, with few places to shelter, and the constant risk of predation by roving packs of beasts and wandering monsters. Hypothermia is near constant risk, and without suitable clothing, death can come a matter of an hour.
Fauna & Flora
The ecology of Scytharia is heavily dominated by wolves and similar pack predators. These predators outnumber traditional prey animals to the degree that predators frequently begin to hunt each other during the particularly lean months before the warm season. Entire packs of wolves going to war with each other just for the right to eat the corpses afterward is an occasional occurrence, and the terrifying racket will keep most inhabitants of any nearby settlements awake all night.
A few species of large herd herbivores such as elk and reindeer do exist in Scytharia, but are known to sometimes disappear from a local area for decades at a time as a result of overhunting by both wild predators and local inhabitants. The most plentiful animals are burrowing rodents and the burrowing animals that hunt them, like ferrets, polecats and foxes. Bobcats and lynxes are fairly common, and the rivers are host to muskrats and beavers.
The vegetation is almost entirely large trees and berry bushes, such as lingonberry, elderberry and cloudberry. Some particularly tough grasses can be found in small pockets that tend to nearly fully thaw on most years, especially near natural hot springs. Mushrooms are commonly found in forested areas, and are a staple food source in the region for beasts and people alike.
A few edible plants have been found to be able to survive the harsh environment of Scytharia, and are important to the diets of the local inhabitants. Lyme grass is plentiful along the sandy coasts, and its grain yields a surprisingly nourishing flour. Farther inland, the flowering rumex plant has edible seeds similar to amaranth or quinoa, as well as leaves that can be cooked to stave off scurvy, although excessive consumption of the leaves can lead to weak bones. Skirret, or sugar root, yields edible, slightly sweet roots that can be served raw like a carrot or parsnip, or fried in goat or yak butter.
Natural Resources
While the environment is harsh and life is brutal, Scytharia is a land teeming with resources.
Most of the lantern oil, timber, coal and iron to be found on the western half of Rhyduania comes from Scytharia. Whale and seal oils are extracted on the coast, and logs and ores are moved seasonally to the port towns from the interior on great sledges pulled by Urskan warriors.
The mountains are rich in iron, and occasionally a shaft encounters other metals and minerals. Usually silver, tin and gems. Mithril is exceedingly rare, but not completely unheard of.
With wolves and similar monsters being unnaturally common in the region, their pelts are a major export, and a Torvari clan has established itself in the region by transporting them east to sell to the Khal'res elves and the Khalvar dwarves, who often find them useful in making clothing suitable to their own mountain climes.
Type
Peninsula
Included Locations
Related Ethnicities
Comments