Antolikos

Template:Breadcrumbs Pelithos > Antolikos

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.

Potamia

Potamia, the River Country - the middle of the continent west to the Cypress Coast - many sizeable rivers flow out of the Opago, from glacial runoff - two major watersheds, one running toward the Thalassa Velos, the other to the south coast and the jungle - lots of hills and valleys and exposed stone, impressive columns and arches of rock; kind of like some chinese landscapes - moist and green, lots of mists and mild rains, fertile and temperate - need some major river names - Nimae clans get quite proud of their machitechni, contest one another, World of Rivers and Lakes style bravos and contests; outsiders come too, but can earn some clan enmity if they win a lot

Tapiseri, the Fated Kingdom - largest kingdom of the Potamchora, has some borders with the jungle and Erimia, but doesn't monopolize those borders - Argalia - capitol of Tapiseri, seat of the Loom - Sickle's citadel, training ground for her assassins - there was a topothesium in Tapiseri, but Thalestris subsumed it to test her theories of divinity; she is a topotheos within that location, and has built her capitol there; this isn't widely known or recognized for the significance it bears by most - Tapiseri has monster and tribal problems attacking out of Erimia - there are rebels who abhore Thalestris's constraining rule, they worship the Amphora and scramble their fates, the cult of the vine is synonymous with the rebels; anyone else was just eliminated too quickly; the amphora recognizes the significance of their efforts and Thalestris's goals, and opposes them, but is too weak to do much against the Loom Enthroned - sickle and loom's totalitarian kingdom

story - Thalestris seeks to extend her control and the borders of Tapiseri, to claim and reunite the three Mantles of the Weaver and take her place - rebels against the Fated Tyrant in Tapiseri - other Nimae clans seek to play off/resist the influence of Tapiseri and the Symmachia.

The Aphxanamos

Aphxanomos / Aphxanon ("The Growing") - huge lake - includes some small isles along the coast

- Elysian ruins swallowed by the jungle, charon, titancults - The Hungry One, lots of cannibalistic leukrotta - jungle life-fury-mutant beasts, rare plants and woods

- west of the dragon's mountains, sweeps along the south coast of the continent - ("the Growth") - jungle, mantikora realm, blends with Horn's wildlands - part of the jungle is claimed by the Horn as part of Erimia, she has no problems with mantikora living there, and some of them have even found a liking for her, swearing alliegiance - mantikora tribes and lots of wild titan beasts, great Elysian ruins snarled in the jungle growth - hot and humid, lower than the Potamchora to the north, cloud jungles, cliff borders were fantastical falls pour down from the Potamchora - runs up to the slopes of the dragon's mountains to the east, becoming higher and drier; some kobaloi settlements that trade with mantikora (very carefully) - not a lot of civilization to be found, a few jungle colonies hacked out, an old haunted elysian ruin, a few small island settlements, some pirate coves; the stronger settlements were founded by therianths - a topotheos mantikora in an Elysian city of stone, ivory, and gold, "the Hungry One", he rules a powerful tribe. Petitioners can come, as long as they're sufficiently humble and bring tasty things.

- when the Titanomachia came, titanic beasts came forth, and jungle sprung up in their wake (the Aphxanamos is bigger than it once was). Some were slain by the imitheoi, but others are believed to lie hibernating, within the vaultland or in the earth of the Potamia, perhaps in the seas off the coast.

The Opagos

Opagos ("the ice") - glacier, tundra plateau around it, surrounded in turn by mountainous taiga, falling down from great heights to everygreen hills - this was (and is) the Iceheart of Pelithos, but a vaultland has spread around it, greatly extending its influence on the environment - on the norther side, the glaciers calve off from vast height and plunge into the sea, filling the "frozen expanse" with icebergs and chilly weather that influences the eastern Boreals. To sail around the Expanse would take one very far out to sea, so those who cross split the risk and distance by weaving through the sparser, outer Expanse. - it is also home to seals and other arctic beasts, hunted by the eastern Boreal inhabitants and those of the northern Vasileia, as well as the inhabitants of the Opagos itself - oreads, kynes, harpies - the plateau blocks off a lot of the central northern coast of antolikos - the plateau cliffs (coastal and otherwise) are riddled with caverns and sharp-walled ravines, lots of weird things live there, but some are also outposts of the harpies and others - Red-winged Eurynome, the Key, founded a city of ice high on the Opagos with her powers (Pageton?). her civilized flock of harpies hunt in the tundra and taiga below, fly out to trade with caravans and tribesmen. There are satellite "ice keeps" around the city, places to meet halfway, or sanctuaries for her harpies to shelter in against freezing storms. Would-be fury savants make the long trek to this thin-aired city to study and join the Keywardens - the satyrs of Opagos are part of the winter titancult, fury-infused. - ice hags...they're a thing - when the Titanomachia came, the Opagos swelled and glaciers crawled inexorably forth. Great gouges mark Potamia and Erimia, Pockets of unmelting ice can still be found, weird microbiomes of ice-life.

- tribes dwell on the outer, lower, warmer ring of mountainous taiga beyond the glacial fields. the Erimian Wild cuts into these lands as well. The tribes carry some trade between Vasileia and Potamia (even the northern Cypress Coast).

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