The Great Prairie
The Great Prairie is the area in white on the map above.
Long ago, the whole continent of Yrth was populated, but the gods (or something) visited a catastrophe on the land, and the entire interior of the continent was blighted and devastated. One of the few unscathed places was the Elennian Peninsula on the southern edge of the continent. Refugees from all over came to this place, which is why you have so many cultures and states in a small region. That was hundreds of years ago.
Since then, some elves and humans set to work, leaving the peninsula, and taking on the task of reclaiming and healing the Blight. The elves have since disappeared, but the humans remain. These wild human tribes now roam the hilly grasslands between the Crying Woods and the the Blight to the north. There are two branches of these people: the People of the Green, or in their own language, The Mokingpu; and the People of the Brown, of the Blight, the Tasikpu. The Tasikpu are also known as the Ahote (the Restless Ones). Some of these people are herders, some are hunters following wild game. They do not farm much. The People of the Green have stopped directly fighting the Blight and have settled the Great Prairie that lies north and east of the Crying Woods. Both branches see the Ahote as a holy people because they live next to the Blight and work to cure it. Both branches live lightly on the land of the Great Prairie, since this newly-healed region remains in delicate health and needs tending and care.
Some sages and druids say that since the Fey King has returned to the Wold, the Blight is much less potent, and in some places is dwindling without any intervention. In isolated areas, perhaps in its death-throes, the Blight is actually worse, manifesting and attacking anything that lives whole and in good health.
The Ahote language, which both peoples speak, is an amalgam of Elvish and Common. If you know both, you can mostly understand it. Some of these people have elven traits, hinting at some half-elven ancesters.
Several shallow rivers cross the plains, mostly easily forded, sometimes shrinking to a trickle in the dry season.
Recently, a settlement of humans from The Floating City established a colony at Bryn Baraz, on the northern edge of The Great Prairie.
