Geography

Over 80% of Pelion’s landmass is inter-connected, the balance being made up of a large number of relatively small islands.

The island of Synkretos is the main population centre and the gateway between Pelion and the rest of New Eden. The regions of Magnesia and Antaram are, respectively, settled by the descendants of historical Gallente and Intaki colonists. The Ventiki region is the focus of Combined Harvest’s agricultural franchise. See ‘History‘ for further information.

Synkretos

Synkretos’ isolation meant that its endemic fauna is limited, sparing it the diseases that plague the rest of Pelion’s tropical latitudes. Its volcanic origin has left it with a mountainous terrain, riven by deep inlets of the surrounding seas.

The city that takes its name after the island sits at the head of the largest such inlet. This natural harbour was the traditional meeting ground for trading delegations between Argalasti and Shoharu. It continues to be a busy working port both for local aquaculture industries and as the nexus of inter-continental and extra-planetary supply chains.

Urban development is carefully concentrated on the bay surrounding the port, with the rest of the island housing only a few smaller communities. A nature reserve extends from the cloud forests of the interior to the black sand beaches of the western coast.

Magnesia

Magnesia lies in Pelion’s southern hemisphere between 35 and 60 degrees of latitude. The region can be roughly divided into four parts: a subtropical peninsula in the north-west; a prominent mountain range in the north-east; a temperate river basin in the south-west; and a highland massif in the south-east.

The mountains interrupt warm weather systems moving down from the tropics, creating a rain shadow in the eastern highlands and feeding the rivers to the west and south. As a result, a dense forest blankets the land to windward of the mountains, while the leeward landscape is dominated by grasslands. Cooler temperatures to the south change the vegetation on both sides of this climatic divide, ranging to windward between subtropical rainforest and coniferous taiga and, to leeward, between savannah and tundra.

The only city of any size is Argalasti, the original settlement of the Namvari people from Gallentia, which sits near the mouth of the region’s largest river on the temperate mid-western coast. Smaller townships, typically based around the clan structure of Namvari society, have sprung up across the region, with the exception of the far south.

Immigration to Magnesia is strictly controlled so the population is almost entirely made up of the descendants of the original settlers and the second wave that followed them 290 years later.

Antaram

Antaram lies in Pelion’s northern hemisphere between 45 and 70 degrees of latitude. The region is dominated by a large inland sea, named the Gosaikunda by the local Intaki population. The Gosaikunda is fed by rivers running down from highlands to its north-east and the vast mountain range that encircles the whole region to the west.

The northern, southern and south-western shores of the Gosaikunda are heavily forested lowlands. Hardwood trees to dominate the south while fast growing conifers blanket the north.

The Intaki population is made up of “Parivaar”, after the fashion of the Maatrukaanan society from which they came, thinly distributed around the shores of the Gosaikunda. The northern and eastern shores are home to the largest populations as the western mountains and fever-ridden jungles to the south permit only limited expansion in those directions.

The Parivaar gather annually at the anchorage of Shoharu to trade amongst themselves and to mandate the trading delegation to Synkretos for the coming year. Antaram’s other notable settlement is the Ida monastery on the island of Uraaya at the centre of the Gosaikunda. In addition to providing spiritual guidance and dispute mediation to the Parivaar, the monks of Uraaya are preservers and teachers of an ancient martial tradition known as Suuraayanintim.

Ventiki

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