Orath is an island continent in the Northern Hemisphere.

Geography Climate Ecology Civilizations History

Geography

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Orath is an Island Continent with a total area of around four million square miles, (around the size of Europe, for all you Geocentrist Earth-chauvinists out there.) It extends from Cape Pael in the north to the Imic Peninsula in the south, covering around 60° of latitude. Cape Pael's northernmost extent is to the 67th parallel, (where it joins the Centruvian Ice Sheet) while the Imic Penninsula extends south almost to the Tropic of the Squid.
Orath is a land of contrasts, created by the on-going merger of two continental plates. The northern two-thirds of Orath is divided in two by the Bufalos Mountains, the great backbone of the continent, thrown up as the western and eastern plates merged. In the south, the mountains abruptly become the Basin of Givaly, where the plates remain separate. To the West lies the Salicios Ocean, while to the East lies the Sea of Octhoros and the Eight Hundred and Thirty Three Islands. It is separated from Daramus by the Straights of Coth to the south.

Climate

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Orath has a varied climate, with glacial conditions prevailing on the northwest edge of Cape Pael southward into the main continent, often only miles away from the dense, cold, coniferous rainforsts that are separated from them by the majestic Bufalos Mountains. As one travels southward, through the Western half, the glaciers give way to desolate steppes fed only by meltwater, and then to the cold, dry Sun Comos Desert in the Rainshadow of the Bufalos. The Sun Comos is geographically contiguous with the hot, arid Sands of Goronak, but due to the drastically varying natures of the two deserts they have been traditionally regarded as separate. In the south, as the Bufalos fade into the basin of Givaly, the deserts give way to hot, temperate savannah, and then to the lush, coastal forests.

In the East, though, the story is much different. Sinuous rivers wind through lush forests, carving out valleys and leaving clear, fertile floodplains in their wake. The Gorelmian Alps, much smaller and older than the towering Bufalos, carve a swath from the northeast coast to the Basin of Givaly, creating a broad plain criscrossed by rivers and surrounded by resources-forests to the north, east, and south, and mineral-rich mountains to the East and west. It was the perfect cradle of civilization.

Ecology

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Civilizations

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Orath has been inhabited by intelligent denizens for millennia, and is possibly the "birthplace" of humanity. Some of the oldest discovered traces of human civilisation are on Orath, and the continent is dotted with remains of medieval and stone age societies.
The Basin of Givaly is home to a population of Sun Lilithians, who farm silk from the Givaly Fern there and export it all around the world.
The western half of the continent is largely uninhabited, save for a few traders and Scut-fishermen along the coast. In the past, one or two empires tried to channel water into the desert, with limited results. Ice Lilithians inhabit the extreme, glacial north, along Cape Pael
The Eastern Half, though, has seen many prosperous civilizations. The most common races here are the Shadow Lilithians, Humans, Grand Lilithians and Mountain Dwarves. There used to be a large collective of Skyroamers too, but for mysterious reasons, they vanished three hundred and fifty years ago, leaving behind only a few relics.

History

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2210 AS - Estimated time the Skyroamers leave the land for unknown reasons.
2560 AS - Current Date

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