gestaltist wrote:First time I've seen mention of Darennallie. What is that place?
It is one of the countries of Narutanea, the Eastlands, beyond which are the countries of the western marches and the wilds of Siviria beyond. I'll give you a quick geography primer.
The great axis of orientation in Eosphora (the great landrealm, or continent, in which we find the lands of Narutanea situated at the eastern extreme) is the Great Road. It is a very ancient, though probably not inherently magical, highway of very drab grey stone; well graded and cambered and certainly wide enough for two broad oliphant drawn pantechnicons to go side by side rather comfortably. And if you've ever seen an oliphant drawn pantechnicon, you will instantly realise this is a broad highway indeed!
We'll orient ourselves in one of the chief cities of Auntimoany, Pylycundas, for it is here the Great Road has its eastern terminus -- a great stone jetty that juts out into the waters of the great bay to the east beyond which are the waters of the Ocean of Sunrise. Standing upon the Golden Mile, at the intersection of Long Street, for that is the name of the Great Road within the confines of the city, and King Street, which comes down from the north, to our left, and passes to the south, on our right. Looking downhill towards the sea, we can clearly see the end of the road; if we look to the north, King Street will eventually take us out of Auntimoany altogether and into the lands of the Rumeliards; if we look to the south, King Street will become the Kings Highway and take us down into the rest of Auntimoany proper. But we will turn around and face the West:
With the Ocean of Sunrise behind us, all Narutanea is laid out in front of us. To the right is the land of Iconia, a thin Rumelian country that rests between the waters of the bay and the highlands of the Whythywindle Hills to the west. Further north, beyond Iconia is the Teyorish land of Pylar the Hidden and beyond the marches of Pylar lie the ancient Forests of Shalamar -- and that place is just boggy with magic, I can tell you! Shalamar sits at the northern point of the bay and encompasses the northern stretches of the Whythywindles. Across the waters of the bay is the Pelagian Peninsula in which is another Rumelian country called Rumnias. Rumnias is actually a kingdom within the Empire of Auntimoany, but that's really for their own good. There are several wee Rumelian countries to the north away and beyond their marches lies the Desolation of Ania.
Now, Ania was, during the times of the last Age, a mighty Empire, one of the so called
archaic empires of Men, and they got into fighting with the other great empires of the region: Oriata (which we'll come to presently) and Hoopelle (which we'll come to eventually). They hacked away at each other for a good long while, which killed most everyone off, then they got all plaguey, which did everyone else in. And thát was for their own good. Archaic empires now safely out of the way, this opened much of Narutanea up for the recent immigrants who had come out of the distant lands of the Uttermost West -- the Thiets (Germanic speakers), the Galts (Celtic speakers), the Rumen (Rumic speakers) and the Gypts (Missereans, supposedly of the Atalantean sort) -- who will eventually make up the countries we're now passing over.
To our left, still standing at the Golden Mile, is the vast stretch of Auntimoany itself. Pylycundas is the northernmost of its principle cities. There are also Pottenne (a city almost entirely of Daine), Pycleas (the capital of the Empire, and also known as the City of Auntimoany), and away to the south, Dyllsburg. South beyond the border lies the archonate of Mentolatum; even beyond Mentolatum lies the land of the Nibukians. Beyond their marches is the mighty river Wikang and the lands of Irinsurea -- hot jungles teeming with ancient magic and infested with less than civilised Wildings, though there are truly civilised realms in the Southlands. The Daine of the Empire of Syansyan are quite civilised indeed!
Walking to the westwards out of Pylycundas, along the Great Road, we will first come to the Gap of Angera. To the north are the Whythywindle Hills, a broad range of green forested hills, home to several kindreds of wild Men -- the Dhargs principally -- but mostly it is the lands of the Commonwealth of Withwandiê. Comprising several queendoms of Daine folk, their lands stretch all along the hill country from the Gap of Angera up to Shalamar's very verges of verdantry. Although Shalamar is inhabited by Daine and Teyor thedes, they are not part of Withwandiê. To the south lie the foothills of the Arnal Mountains of western Auntimoany. Craggy and sharp, there are no roads through the Arnals; the deeper lands are the home of Dwarrows, wild men of various sorts and dragons of course, in all their venom spitting glory. Angera, the land through which the Road travels, was once an independent archonate and very much renown. For who hasn't hear of jolly old King Coal and his fiddlers three? Twas this same happy fellow, his Angeran name was Croewel, that devised the now famous Law Code which provided sure and swift justice for men. Women and Daine of all sorts need not apply. Passing through the city of Narfoun of Angera, we will now head downhill into the lowlands of the Westmarche.
The Queendom of Westmarche is a realm of Daine; its deeper name is Harathalliê. The Daine here speak a very strange kind of Thietish language, though mixed with many Teyorish and ancient Daine words. The Road through Westmarche runs through the northern ridings of the land -- the Eastriding and the Westriding -- and parallels the course of the caravan way. A little way to the north runs the Severn River, tumbling down out of the Whythywindles. Beyond the river are the kingdoms of Ylluria, Teleran, Husick and Hecla. Husick and Heckla are successor states of that archaic empire called Oriata though anymore the people speak mostly a language akin to the Avantimannish. Beyond them towards the unspeakable north lie only waste lands: the Desolation of Ania, the Wastes of Weem and the Wilds of Siviria. To the south of Westmarche lie the Wild Marches which are the homelands of several thedes of Wilding and some Galts though were once well tilled lands called Narnen. The Daine of Westmarche love their gardens, orchards and farms and the whole beautiful country is just as green as can be. But bugger all if they haven't caught the fancy for speed and flight! Most Daine, anywhere in the World, like nothing more than to keep their bare feet planted squarely upon the loving soil of Gea; but it's the Daine of Westmarche that have put the homunculus motivator to use in a kind of wooden hobby horse on wheels, and don't the boys careen up and down the country lanes upon their
automotivated horses just as fast as ever they can go! They've also invented no fewer than four different kinds of airships. There's one kind that swims in the upper airs suspended from a kind of great bladder; and another with two decks and eighteen wings, like a great ship of the air. They also fly smaller airships that look like birds in flight, the feathers of their broad wings outstretched and their graceful tails fanning out behind.
At last, the Road brings us to the ruins of Old Hoopelle, the once mighty City that stood for ten thousand years at the heart of the ancient empire. Empty now and devoid of all people, it stands as a reminder to the Daine of their formerly low state and as a reminder to Men of the ire of Daine when aroused! But it not a place entirely avoided: for the great
hou an niman, the Hall of Women, is in the old city, as is the ancient marrying rock and seven sacred springs are still buried deep under the city. Through the city runs the Canasawack River, coming down from the north country; she runs to the southwards for some time, to the Sea of Khaz, flowing through Honh Beyna and the entirely illnamed Empire of Orr in the regions of which, turning to the eastwards, she runs down to the waters of the Ocean of Sunrise in Auntimoany.
Crossing the graceful grey stone arches of the bridge, we begin an upward toil, for we have now reached the Holy Hills, a line of very old mountains, now pretty well worn down, that run up from the southwest, pause momentarily at the watergap through which runs the Canasawack, and then take up their northward run again, but known as the Crags of Caldul. Our road takes us up in to the foothills, though, and away from the river. Here by either side of the Road we see four statues: two Daine women on either side -- well, probably women, anyway -- two facing east and two facing west, their hands raised in sororial and convivial greeting. This is the border between Harathalliê and Darennalliê. More properly known as Dar Irennalliê, this is a land of the bonniest woods you'll ever set your two bare feet upon! Daine here are great wood crafters and stout warriors. They managed to keep their independence, at least in part, where others failed and became the slaves of Men. To the north of Darennalliê are the neo-Nibukian realms of Harunn and Arcordia; the lands of the Woodsmen beyond them. To the west of Darennalliê are the western Marches of Narutanea and the Daine lands of Car Maramno, Marunnalliê, Car Chandron and Minduon, all along the Great Road and on and beyond the gentle western slopes of the Holy Hills.
Beyond the Marches, of course, the Road goes ever on. But beyond Minduon, we would pass into the Uplands of Siviria and the Great Northern Forest. If you trek perhaps a day's march north of the Road, you will come to lands utterly uninhabited by Daine of any kind. These forests have never known the tread of feet, bare or booted, and have only heard dark stories told by their southern and western kin. A brooding land in Siviria and its trees are dark and unwelcoming. Things wander the deeper woods that it were better not to meet. To the south, the woodlands are friendlier and less brooding. Eventually one may come to the lands of the Yttuun and the Turgun. Well beyond the southern verges of the Northern Forest are the Wastes of Alanea -- steppelands mostly, though there are ruins that speak of ancient kingdoms and happier times. There also are the lands of the Warlords, violent and dark places; places Daine will not go except to bring cheerful war to them who know no other way, for the Warlords have no other industry than reaving and plundering and destroying. Surely if it were not for the mighty warriors of Harathalliê and Darennalliê, especially, they would spread their own brand of darkness far and wide!
Beyond the lands of Siviria, the Road eventually comes into the ruins of a very ancient land indeed, and none other than the lands of the Four Queens of the World, where once was a beautiful city of emeralds and rubies and brilliant white stone by the warths of a blue sea. Now, there are only tumbled ruins and the choked and brackish waters of the Mere are more swamp than sea. Here is the hall of the Great Orrery, a curious Device that is both model and blueprint of the worlds that circle a star called Sawel. A place of many dimensions beyond the few we are generally familiar with; it is a place both Here and Elsewhere. It is from this place that one may travel to other places by means of the Gates and one may see any place and any time by the proper manipulation of the Orrery. No living spirit being has found the secrets of the Orrery, not since well before the time the Four Queens ruled the World, for the Orrery is very ancient indeed. It is probably not a coincidence that the Great Road runs right by this ancient wonderwork!
We shall travel along the Great Road for only a short distance now. Beyond this place of tumbled ruins, in the land called Alna, we will leave the bug ridden miasma that is the Mere behind and begin a steep rise. For if we look up into the west, we see before us the mightiest mountains in Gea, the Spine of the World. And our road takes us right up into the foothills, and then into the footmountains beyond. And just when we thought a mountain couldn't rise any higher, we see beyond the highest peaks of all. Perilous indeed the journey through the high Pass of Damronand, for the Spine is a land of fell creatures and bloodthirsty peoples. Hotai are the worst of them, and their lust for destruction makes the Warlords of Alanea look more like a picnic of happy families! Here we'll pause for a moment, taking in the great sweep of the green and black forests of Siviria behind us, the steppes of the south. Ahead lies the Uttermost West, the lands of Hespera and Atelante; the lands of Demeteia around the Midworld Sea and beyond them all, Afareia and the Uttermost South, the homeland of Men. In Hespera is the homeland of Daine kind, though the land is now sunken under the Sea of Tormented Waters. Beyond all lands is the Ocean of Sunset, and if we walked far enough, we would eventually come to another land of green fields and orchards and lovingly watched flocks; a Daine land called Morvallia. And there is a city called Crindio, and it is there in that city where the broad grey stones of the Great Road at last jut out into the dark glas waters of the Ocean of Sunset, a long stone jetty that points into the west.