Antolikos

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Overview

The southwestern coast of Antolikos is a seething vault-jungle, the Aphxanamos. Ancient Arcadian cities stand, choked with growth, now home to the cannibalistic leukrotta. The bounty of the jungle, in charon, wood, herbs, ivory, and pelts, attracts would-be explorers and colonists from Potamia, but the green hell swallows many.

The high, glacial plateau of the Opagos holds the Vault of Ice. The harpy Key has crafted a city of ice for her people, but apart from this glimmer of civilization, the region is ruled by titancults, kyne packs, giants, and ice hags. Along the coast, endless icebergs calve off to create the Frozen Expanse, endangering ships along the northern stretch of Antolikos.

As the southern ice of the Opagos thaws, it gathers in torrents, creating the lush riverlands of Potamia. The Fated Queendom of Tapiseri, ruled by the Loom Enthroned, is the greatest power of the region; prosperous, but stiflingly ordered. She unleashed the Queensplague to spare her people from the corruption of Endless Night, but bitterness over lost immortality mingles with a yearning for freedom, and subtle revolutionaries maneuver against their prophetic sovereign. Surrounding nations and the warrior sects of the Hekaton see a chance to break free of her influence, endured for so long as necessary for the war effort.

During the war, the invaders' westward advance toward Potamia was halted when the Horn unleashed her power, turning the center of the continent into the Erimian Wild, a no man's land of Night-bred beasts, abandoned cities, and howling wilderness. So it remains, her private hunting preserve, populated only by savage tribes who worship her. Caravans buy passage across with heavy tribute, hiring members of the Brotherhood of the Hunt who have won the Horn's permission to act as guides.

Calcaria, the "Big Isle" of the east, was the heart of the Hegemony in Antolikos. The demonic nobility of the Bloodlines were recently overthrown in a coup orchestrated from within by the Shadow Guild, non-Bloodline officers, and the Cult of the Three. The new regime struggles with unbound demons, leftover spies and saboteurs, and the difficult prospect of making peace with the neighboring Pelithines.

The Vasileia--all the lands east of Erimia, from the isles of the Dragon's Tail to the lands around the Bay of Pearls and the cold forests east of the Opagos--was crushed beneath the boot of the invaders for over a century. Now they struggle to rebuild and secure their place in the new order. Hegemony soldiers, abandoned since the coup on Calcaria, have turned warlord or bandit. The Loom of Tapiseri sends agents, hoping to spread her influence over the new kingdoms, and the demonologists of the Manus Amantis who fled the coup have established hidden fortresses in the region, guarded by their tanari hordes.

The mist-shrouded peaks of the Synnephian Ori lie beneath the gyre of the vaultstorm. Truemetal extrusions of the Apparatus drift in the sky, creating islands, powerful temenoi now held by the Windfury titancult. Contesting their claim, the Old Dragon of Pelithos, bearer of the Jewel, makes its home in the mists.

Regions

The Cypress Coast

Cypress Coast - Antolikan coast of the Thalassa Velos, named for its great cypress groves, which yield a durable waterproof wood that is used widely in ships and buildings - swampy isles off coast - a number of mostly velosian cities, often called the Cypress Cities, or the Kyparissia; most of them are part of the Symmachia Velos - south, near the maelstrom, the land is marshy, contantly innundated by the tides from the vault, marsh kampoi live there, charon-rich stormwrack sometimes washes in.

Settlements

Ilion

Ilion - wreath's home city, stands at the outflow of one of the great rivers from Potamia, gets lots of trade up and down the river, outpost of kobaloi traders, wreath is politically embattled, his attention was away from the symmachia for a long time with the war and aftermath, and now the Viper is stirring corruption in his city. - fairly far south on the Cypress Coast, in a river delta. Everything stands on built up earth and stone works. Canal city with a bayou feel (Angkor Wat meets New Orleans meets Venice) - Gradually sinking, buried layers (in places, particularly exacerbated by earthquakes, such as those from the Fall/Titanomachia) - threat of kampoi, who often lurk in the marsh. also leukrotta; though a few tribes have established patchy trade with certain merchants of Ilion (is that a good thing, or a Dylath-Leen kind of thing?)

Hespeloy

- cypress city to the north, in sight of the Opagos, some mines in the highlands, trappers and hunters up in the taiga, kyne troubles, major port along the northern coast of Antolikos and also for Boreal trade, rival with the Limani and Naos, visited by the harpies - it dates back to the Arcadian Age, when it was comfortably far from the Iceheart (though still cold). As the Opagos has spread, it's become more engulfed by harsher weather; its harbor more ice-locked and ships must cross the fringe of the Frozen Expanse to reach it. - old pilgrimage road up to the High Temple of Winter (now broken and perilous)

Strakopolis

a city with the White London vibe, cruel and predatory, thirsty for blood and power