Eastern Empires

The east's name is a holdover from an era long since passed. The 'empires' that resided here were not true empires: rather they were a number of connected city-states that were ruled seperately, but traded closely with one another and had many interwoven treaties of war and peace, promises to aid or defend. These were the most dramatic of satyrs' and humans' lands. Now, they are ruins, interspersed with rebuilt towns shadowed by their former heights.

Arbur Lowlands

The Arbur Lowlands occupy the northeastern portion of the continent, named in recent history for its satyr populations. They did not employ living material in their architecture in the way that the satyrs of Yañaiveut did, as these cities were relatively younger and, integrally, a transplant from their origins in the west. There were some satyr cities in these lands pre-cataclysm, but they likewise fell with the Winter that hit them particularly hard for their northern position. However, this is to where many satyr populations returned after the catacylsm, as it occupied part of their ancestral ranges without the fear of the mountain looming over them as visibly. Likewise, with human cities comparitively closeby to their south, satyrs could inhabit the north easier- with help. Still, many of these cities are a mix of humans and satyrs both, as much of the east is, now.

The lowlands are boreal forest, and are met on their northern and western sides by the Maitsov Highlands. The highlands bar the way to the Palzhou Peninsula, which is inhabited by a population of satyrs isolated by the cold and distance of their land.

The east coast of the lowlands meets the Sea of Ghosts, an area of high human and satyr ship traffic, mostly ferrying to Griffon's Roost and the Tomb Isles. This is named for dangerous waters- commonly fraught with ice that sinks ships readily. The name is human in origin- satyrs don't believe in ghosts in as simple of terms.

Homonic Floodplains

The Homonic Floodplains are areas of low elevation in the southeast of the continent. This is where many human cities that has historical relations with satyrs lived. They are known for their monsoon seasons, and are typically wetland. Most human cities now are built in the Dragon's Claw Valleys to the southwest, as the wetlands were wounded by the effects of the cataclysm, and being a more vulnerable ecosystem than further south, took longer to recover and be able to reasonably host human activity once more.

Bay of Glass

The Bay of Glass is aptly named for its remarkably still waters, as it is protected from the waves of the open sea by the Glass Eyelet¹, the narrow channel from the bay to the ocean. The unique geology of the Bay of Glass is due in large part to the uplift of old, igneous rock between the Homonic Floodplains and the sea. The area of higher elevation, the Hfojon piedmont, is comprised of mostly granitic rock, wheras the Homonic floodplains are mostly calciferous rocks (limestone and dolostone) and mudstone, the result of the shallow sea that covered that area during the most recent interglacial period when sea levels were higher. The Bay of Glass is a drowned river valley- resulting from a raise in sea level during the last 15,000 years or so. The rivers that, during the last glacial maximum, ran through the Homonic floodplains and into the sea did so over a meandering path. This, along with regular flooding and track shifts, eroded a wide area. This same broad scope of erosion did not occur in the Hfojon piedmont, however, because the granite was not as easy to erode, igneous rock being denser than sedimentary. Therefore, the river cut its path through the piedmont via the path of least resistance and then stuck to it, not able to meander as easily. This constant track eroded a deep valley through the piedmont- over one path rather than many. Because of this history, then, the Bay of Glass resulted as the sea levels rose to what they are in extant times. The Glass Eyelet is the only area of the piedmont low enough to allow seawater through, but once it did, it allowed the sea to flood the area of the plains with the lowest elevation, resulting in the broad range of the Bay in sharp contrast to the narrow channel of the Eyelet.

The Bay of Glass is an area of much ship traffic, as its easy sailing provides a good place to cast off and dock in, and makes ferrying across the bay a safe venture for those carrying cargo and passengers alike. However, this traffic all but stops during the winter, when fog, ice, wind, and other labile weather patterns turn the Eyelet into a death trap. Therefore, towns along the bay are characterized by busy warm weather activity and lots of trade, while simultaneously having slow, quiet, independant winters.