Torin

On Torin – a geographical and cultural summary by Malune Corrinder, 10,540 NE

Torin, the largest landmass on the face of Solitude and home to some of its most powerful inhabitants and greatest dangers. Its core lies at the center of the known world, but its eastern edge is beyond the pages of any map. Despite its size, the continent has only a few (admittedly massive) sovereign nations. On Torin, humans, dragons and kobolds reign supreme, though smaller number of the other migrant races do exist there. To match its people, Torin is home to some of the most dangerous and unforgiving landscapes imaginable.  

Torin is bounded in the west by Chasm Lake and the western tip of the Cloudpiercer Mountains. In the north it falls away into the little-known Grey Sea and the larger ocean that lies beyond. Of far-eastern Torin little is known, though rumors speak of thick forests and tall mountains which turn back even the hardiest of rangers. To the south Torin is bounded by the Coral Sea and the Bottomless Ocean.  

Torin’s climate ranges from boreal to ashen (literally), though the vast majority of the continent is temperate. Torin is notorious for its bizarre and inhospitable environments, the strangest of which are the obsidian reefs of the Ashen Steppes and Red Savannah. There, ceaselessly erupting volcanoes and great fissures flowing with lava create rivers and lakes of liquefied stone. One would think such a place lifeless, but not only do dragons find it agreeable, these areas are colonized by odd, coral-like creatures that thrive in and around the magma pools. A near match to the scorching obsidian reefs is the deathly dryness of the Ostean Wastes – a stretch of sun-drenched desert whose inhospitable nature is redeemed only by its richness in rock salt and metallic ores. However the most dangerous of Torin’s regions – and perhaps the most mystifying and deadly place in all of Solitude – is the vast gloom that is the jungle of Evendark. No one who has ventured far into the mists of this wilderness has ever been heard from again. There are obvious dangers such as great beasts, flash floods, deadly snakes and even uniquely aggressive thirapsi clans, but the true threat – the true evil – of Evendark has yet to be discovered.  

The only rival to the dangers of Torin’s natural features are its inhabitants. In the east lies the unclaimed land known as The Fray. Here, fortune seekers from across the world clash in an attempt to build (and rule) lasting settlements in a place too far flung from civilization for Torin’s larger nations to claim. Stories of the Fray are plentiful and usually end in tragedy, war, murder, or all three. To date, the only actual nation to emerge from the chaos of The Fray is the fledgling country of Palisade. Very little is known about the governing body or culture of Palisade as outsiders are rarely suffered to enter. Their respectable military strength is known however, and is somewhat of a marvel considering it was amassed seemingly overnight. To the north of Palisade and the two great inland seas – The Sundeep and Shadow Lake – lies the land called Arashino Mon. It is home to the Arashin Shogunate, a nation of four deeply divided factions who are even more wary of outsiders than Palisade. The Arashin people are a unique human culture in that they arrived in Solitude accidentally, and not through one of the Rift Gates. For a time after they first arrived they were a united front that pushed back the Dragon Lords of the Red Savannah as well as Sabbran armies seeking to stifle their growth – no modest feat. However, after showing their foes that they were not to be trifled with, the Arashin’s fell to infighting and have hardly ceased since. To the west of Palisade and Arashino Mon stand two of the oldest and most powerful nations on Solitude: Sabbré and the Red Savannah. Sabbré has, of course, been a major world power for centuries, since well before the Reaving. Their substantial political and military might was unequaled until the rise of the Empire. But now, the mighty nation and its proud city-states bow to the Arvairian throne as one of the newest Imperial Provinces. The Red Savannah also has a long and storied history. The great nation of dragons also controls the Ashen Steppes which lie north of the Cloudpiercer range, and are constantly working to expand the vast grassland that gives their country its name. The Dragon Lords hold many hundreds of thousands of humans, eyra and siska in vassalage, though thanks to their king, Sun-Forge the Seraph, their ruler-ship is usually benevolent and mutually beneficial. King Seraph is ancient, even for a dragon, and has ruled the dragons of the north for over a thousand years and the Red Savannah has been relatively stable for all this time. Should the last dragon knight ever perish however, the world would be wise to beware.  

The continent of Torin is, perhaps, the most imposing and dangerous of Solitude’s known land-masses. But those who have carved a living in this vast and largely untamed land have become some of the most powerful and dominant civilizations on the face of the world.

-          Malune Corrinder, Scholar of the Arvairian Academy