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Antarctica... aka the Land of the Snow Spirits
At a Glance
The tribes of the Ama Basin (Pazruki, Issacortae, and Tayanuchi) believe that their ancestors include both the humans of the Horse Plains and the spirits of the north. According to the shamans, the spirits inhabit another place which is simultaneously here and not-here. These ancestors have watched over the tribes for countless generations, unseen and unheard but all-seeing and all-hearing.
The shamans say the Land of the Snow Spirits only seems barren and desolate because mortal senses cannot perceive the spirit world. The perfect serenity of this plain should suggest to the wise observer, they say, that this is a home of the spirit ancestors. Similarly, the absence of food and the uncomfortable temperatures in the region say that the ancestors do not wish people to settle here… you may visit, and experience the serenity of proximity to the ancestors, but do not attempt to shape or dominate the land. The tribes respect these “obvious” wishes, and so dwell in the Ama Basin to be as near as they can be to their past, and future.
Neighboring nations and regions include the Koryo Peninsula to the east, Ulhai Shan and the Ama Basin to the south, and Yal Tengri to the west.
The year, in the Xaeyruudh campaign, is 1365 DR. It is unknown who, if anyone, controls the Land of the Snow Spirits.
DM’s Notes
The ground here is ice, and the southerly winds off Yal Tengri ensure that topsoil doesn’t blow here by mistake. The lack of soil means there are no plants, of any size. Since plants are the foundation of an ecosystem, there are no small animals either… what would they eat? A few great white bears hunt for seals and so forth along the southern coastline, but once you move north past the Mountain of Iron at the southern end of Ulhai Shan the absence of small animals means that larger predators are also nonexistent.
Sources
- The image is courtesy of the wikipedia article on Antarctica. The author notes that this “is typical of most of the continent’s surface.”
- The Horde [1055b] page 127-128 talks about the climate of this area, but I don’t rely on it because it’s not consistent with an area which stretches into the polar ice cap, which is what this region is. The Land of the Snow Spirits never experiences temperatures above freezing, and thus never thaws. The poster map shows the region, and the tribes in the Ama Basin, but the climate information is the only published material I’ve found on this area.
- So I made up the rest.
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