Cthonia

A map of Cthonia and the lands between Plateau City and The Floating City, on a 25-mile-per-hex scale. On this map, white = plains and prairie; puke-tan-green = broken badlands and ashen desert; light brown = hills; dark brown = mountains; purple = swamp and marsh; and forest green = forest. The mountains directly northeast of Plateau City is The Scab. The green jungle studded with plateaus and mesas next to The Scab is Cthonia. The forest around The Floating City is the Crying Woods.

Cthonia, sometimes called the Thunderlands, is a sheltered and mostly unexplored land. Located on what is commonly called the Eastern Arm of the Continent of Yrth, it falls between The Scab to the northwest and the Crying Woods to the northeast. It was mostly avoided as "too dangerous for civilized folks" until recently. As trade between the Peninsula of Elenna and parts east increased, the need for a land trade route has increased.

Much of the "floor" of Cythonia is jungle. The term floor is used because huge plateaus rise from the jungle floor. Some rise as high as several thousand feet above the carpeted forest below. Surrounding Savannahs are the home for the larger dinosaurs, also called the Thunder Gods.

Despite the dangers more and more people are choosing to either spend time in Cythonia or even to call it home. Several villages are rumored to exist, but until the trade routes are better secured, the knowledge of trading posts and safe houses along Monster Trail are sketchy and undependable.

The new interest in an established trade route has drawn every manner of explorer, hunter, and trailblazer to the area, trying to cash in on the establishing of this trade route, which has been called Thunder Road. However, the route does not want to be tamed. For Cthonia's main type of wildlife is dinosaurs! There are other threats to be sure, but dinosaurs top the list.

Great Beast Hunters try to keep the trailblazers safe. On the other hand, however, Monstrologers have flocked to the area to see that the "noble beasts" of the area are not hunted to extinction, while scheming to see that the Great Beast Hunters do become endangered. Witch covens have for some reason taken to the area, perhaps seeking solitude and escape from persecution. Other free thinkers, libertines, outlaws, and other misfits of society find Cythonia a refuge, if a dangerous one.

There are also tribes of natives in the area that adhere to an existence devoted to spiritual development. To many, the beasts of the area are holy. It is said that a local cult worships the Great Beast, a legendary power that rules over all the beasts of Cthonia. There is said to be much variation among these tribes and how they choose to worship and follow the Great One.

The Cthonia Trading Post

This is the third attempt to establish a trading post in the Thunderlands. The first two were destroyed, with no survivors. The brutality of the aftermaths made clear that the dangers of the area are not to be taken lightly, but offered few clues as to how these earlier settlements met their fates. The third Trading Post has been established for a little over two years and sits atop a mesa near the sea — hopefully in a safer area.

[Cthonia Trading Post]

History

Cthonia was destroyed at the end of the Fourth Age, and the entire area was a desert of black ash. This was first discovered by the Gold Dragons who claim that the First King of New Elenna, Yatimir, was secretly buried in the Ashlands. With the death and recreation of The Wold at the end of the Fifth Age, the area was restored, pristine and complete — at least as far as anyone knows. A remnant of the ashen desert, known as the Blasted Lands, was left as a reminder of the arrogance of the Noble Races of the past, on the northeast border of Cthonia — and a crater, maybe the site of the old tomb, is rumored to exist in the desert somewhere.