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Geography
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San'Dora is a medium sized world with many massive mountain ranges
and correspondingly large land basins and plateaus. There once were 2 great landmasses
named Danoshorvas to the west and Runorshorvas to the east, and two smaller island-continents
of Iandras and Hordras.
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About two millenia prior to the modern age the entire vast continent
of Runorshorvas was sunk to the bottom of the Ocean via the might of the Machtig-Baelvolkerung's
Druids (although this fact is not generally known), leaving behind only some scattered
"islands" that were once the tips of mountain ranges and a couple of small
plateaus barely capable of sustaining life.
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The sinking of Runorshorvas also touched off global flooding collectively
called the cataclysm which consumed many of the smaller islands and left most of
the larger islands fractured into smaller pieces, including the continent of Iandras.
It also severed Danoshorvas's upper portion from its lower portion where it was
thinist, at the Equator, by submerging easily a third of the Gersage landbridge
and effectively creating a new continent which was later named Ullushorvas after
the only powerful Empire left remaining on that landmass after the Cataclysm.
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The Cataclysm also caused the planet to tilt in its orbit a bit,
and the climate has been markedly warmer in the ensuing 2000+ years than it had
been previously, leaving parts of nothern Ullushorvas too hot to sustain most lifeforms
for much of the year. On the other hand, the increased clemency of the weather in
other regions has ensured that the last two millenia have been remarkably bountiful,
with long seasons and very rare flash freezes.
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REGIONS
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For ease of reference the world can be broken down into several regions
for purposes of reference, largely determined by large Mountain ranges and the national
heritages of several predominant races and sub-races of people.
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VORGAANESE BASIN
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The entire western portion of Danoshorvas was once a single massive
Empire, called Vorgaa. Currently inhabited by splinter nations originating from
that Empire's collapse and a large wasteland jealously claimed by Kor-vashi, this
region is large and many of the nations in it are influential. The Aberon Mountain
range begins in the north and curves down to join the older Dregga Mountains to
complete a curtain running the length of the continent and seperating the basin
from the eastern portion of the continent.
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Technically two of the Vorgaanese successor nations, Ieshali, and
Folgetova, lie either completely or partially to the west of the Dregga Mountains,
but are seperated from the continent by the minor Ollasandor mountain range which
connects the Wundvolding and Dregga ranges. As a matter of convenience these lands
are included in the conceptualization of the Vorgaanese Basin.
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DREGGA MOUNTAINS
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An older range of mountains arcs across the continent, a remnant
of an ancient plate shift. Collectively this range is called the Dregga-Therrak
Mountains, but though really one long range this range is referred to in two parts;
the southern and western portion is called the Dregga Mountains, while the shorter
northern and eastern portion is called the Therrak Mountains. This range has borne
other names as well over the long toll of history, but they have been the Dregga-Therrak
range for more than four millenia.
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The Dregga range also connects to the Aberon range from the north,
and the minor Ollasandor range in the south. The Therrak range anchors itself into
the Dursha range to the east where they both meet at the edge of the continent.
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The Dregga-Aberon arc contains the greatest concentration of Var
remaining on the planet, and the mountains are riddled with tunnels and Varholds
both inhabited and abandoned. Further, this arc defines the seperation between the
Vorgaanese Basin the Undari Plains, and the Northlands. For this reason this arc
is sometimes called The Grand Verge by the Vorgaanese.
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UNDARI PLAINS
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A vast plainsland boxed in between multiple mountain ranges, this
region starts in the east and south where the Dregga, Ollasandor, and Wundvolding
(called Lorgorat by the Undari) ranges run together, and arcs to the north
and east between the Dregga-Therrak Mountains to the north and the Wundvolding/Lorgorat
Mountains to the south, and finally bounded by the Dursha Mountains to the east.
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This sweeping land was once completely controlled by the Undari Empire,
but in the modern day is home to Undari splinter nations, displaced Kor-vashi, and
Undari splinter nations annexed by the Zadeshi Empire to the east.
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Due to its unique geography, being boxed in by Mountains, these broad
plains have strange weather patterns with alternating droughts and torrential downpours
some years, but overall the land is very arable and many different types of crops
can be grown there, though mostly at the substinence level.
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NORTHLANDS
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On the northern side of the Dregga-Therrak mountains from the Undari
Plains and the eastern side of the Aberon mountains from the Vorgaanese Basin lies
the Northlands. Bounded to the north by the arcing Amovar mountains, these
lands are very cold and snow-prone in the winter but have temperate summers and
are fairly rich lands. The north half of these lands are higher than the southern
half, and covered in a massive evergreen forest that is viciously guarded by the
largest hold out of Haelfinan on the continent, while the lower half is mostly rolling
farmland. Numerous rivers originate in the Northlands and flow through the Dregga-Therrak
mountains into the Undari Plains.
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This region is dominated by a group of large humans known as the
Nordmanner, but also contains some Eld folk as well as Haelfinan and some of their
subject races.
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THE VOLD
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A subcontinent attached to the southern edge of Danoshorvas and divided
from the main continent by a range once called the Lorgorat Mountains, but now known
as the Wundvolding range. This land is completely inhabited by the Machtig sub group
of humans. A rich and lush land, it is still very wild and rugged in most parts
of it, and due to the traditional isolationism of it's primary inhabitants it is
largely avoided by outsiders.
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ZHAIIRIA
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The splinter nations and states of the ancient Zha'iirian Empire,
this region is not as geographically-oriented as most of the others. When referred
to it simply means all of the lands that used to be Zha'iir, which is primarily
the north western portion of Ullushorvas but includes several city states along
the Gersaan peninsula on Danoshorvas as well.Once very influential, this region
still hosts a powerful nexus of maritime trade.
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ULLU
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The counterpart of Zhaiiria, Ullu refers to the remnants of the once
great Ullu'shu'ran Empire, fractured by the Cataclysm. Collectively taken to mean
Sys'an'sris, Lrss'ur'a, and the much reduced Ullu'shu'ra itself, all home to the
Ullu lizard-folk.
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