World map
"Map of known lands is charted by hands of those who live."
Lands are lined by Yaraga and Arzuli, tales of seas and waters are told by Ayleri, sands and caves unseen before are whispered by Ullatrashi.
Yaraga found two continents, when they arrived in these lands - two continents, known to Arzuli as well: Northern one, just a mere part of a vast land that remained uncharted, bears the name "Agan", which means "land". Southern one, far away, has a name similar to those, who came from its horizons - Hal'.
Agan comes in many parts, so to say: endless deserts of Sha Vi, cradle of Arzuli race - and it's northern opposite part, with its gentle climate, was once given to vagabonds, who came there from unknown places - Yaraga named it "Arrothgan". "Land of living ones".
Agan
"Vast be my home - and no walls keep its borders. Vast be my home - and no stones lay along it's floors. Vast be my home... for it is everywhere." - mungarras' travel songs
Agan - is just a part of a continent. One that is immense, one that is vast as the sky itself.
Several generations passed as Yaraga traveled their Exodus, barely even making it - and finding their road's end in fields of a new land, across a mountain spine so high that it pierced heavens above their heads. "Heaven's Veil" was it's name. And this land, Agan, was... vast as well. No one knows what is behind the Veil now, as cold forged it's plating across the horizon. Snow - and Yaraga own desire to leave past to remain past, once and for all.
Agan borders stretch from Heaven's Veil - to most Southern headland, home and foundation of one of four great lighthouses, In-Ma-Ginu.
North - Arrothgan - is a land where Yaraga dwell. Their lands and their kingdom. Refugees managed to make it, thanks to iron-forged will and help of those who accepted and welcomed them - Arzuli tribes. Western borders end with Hazeme lands - home to the Seven Families of Bloodweed Rose. "Nagras na Verek" in tangan, "karak mard" on horfa, Arzuli words.
Gray wastes in East, across the sea, had no lord and are known as desolate nothingness - for there is nothing in it for living ones but ash and dust.
Hal' (continent)
"My dreams are still with me - and their colours are akin. Same soft and gentle, same alien... just as much as this land is." - pioneers memories, who found Hal' lands first
It might seem that these lands were never meant to rest along this world's waters and shores. Brimming with grasses and trees unseen, roamed by beast unheard, adorned in crowns of mountains that come in such exotic shapes...
Winds are gentle here - and follow the same direction all the time.
This place is a cradle from which eerie beings once came, who are now called "Hal'".
And among other things, there is a fort on Northern shores of this continent, struggling as a digger beetle to make it through - Vayerth. Last place and stop for those wandering off to the oceans - and venturing to Hal' continent depths, where sky meet earth, where mountains float...
Sha Vi
"Arsul will make it through with selling you a handful of sand, found in deepest pockets in his travels across homeland deserts - but not because he's a tricky bastard. He is anyway - but it's not about that. It is about all those secrets and voices, buried and forgotten in their ancient lore, more in numbers than sand grains in said deserts..." - Arilanna, nowadays acting Sovereign of Arrothgan
Deserts of Sha Vi, with no end and borders - home and source for Arzuli race.
Name comes in two words, because long ago two clans, that now shape this race, could not agree upon which name to take... and took both. So, it came to be this way, along with the union of Arzuli society as whole.
Arzuli were there not less than Yaraga themselves exist - or even longer. But their history and chronicles take their start from the moment of union, where two friendly great Clans came to be as they are - Hatoy and Hazati. So, their own distant past is just as much an enigma as it is their precious treasure... that Arzuli tend to dig up here and there all the time from their sands and rocks. One will unavoidably bump into a scrubbed pillar or piece of centuries-old arch, trying to fall on its side in aeons-long slumber...
Sha Vi is slashed in two by a strait, shaped with mighty currents, raging as a wounded snake - right in the middle of said strait (more like a narrow and stretched sea...) a vast lake breathes, a place of rest, and neutral grounds with docks for all living ones, who travel down the mighty challenging river.
Ayleri archipelagoes
"Should you get an offer to "make it slow" for own execution - go for islands in the far South. It might end up with bugs and eels feasting on your bones - or you'll have what's yours under slavers' shackles... or you will dine on juicy rare fishes of those swampy waters at gentle dusk, resting on the roof of your own hunting hut." - thoughts of a happy hunting hut owner
Ayleri dwell among swamps and murky cliffs of their islands - just as much as below them, around them, and even inside them. Taking their wind-shaped fins in consideration - at times, above them too...
Easy it is to stumble upon a hole in moist, squishy ground - and there is always someone breathing in its depths. An Ayler, found solace and salvation from insects and warmth of midday sun.
It is from here that the most delicious and valued fish come - as well as lots of other sea delicacies. Through here sail those who are brave (and risky) enough - and it is here where slavery still lives and thrives. And with all the hatred towards such concept among other living ones, it's pretty common for lords to dump those who gathered enough guilt marks here, in exchange for good services and offerings from Ayleri tribes.
Both blessed and wretched ones who desire to brave the oceans - they all start from here. Even Ayleri never found out, if there are any other borders to these endless oceans but horizon itself... and no living one will, it seems.
Gray Land
"Mere ashes."
Unwelcoming dark-gray soil, twilight as if it's a deep evening with no moon. Windy. Dry.
Desolate.
Completely.
Heavens' Veil
"It might be so that those mountains and peaks, along with blazing heat of our own hearts, are the only things that can keep one safe from cold... And at times, that is pretty much enough." - mother's tells to her child what "cold" is
Tremendous peaks that cut the continent in two - and keep Agan safe from cold, creeping from far North.
Like giants' shoulders, these rocky mountains prop the sky - when days are clowdy and seasons bring thick mists, one could never see those mountains' heads. With snow along their sides and waves, adorned with diamond hoarfrost, those cliffs come down as clouds themselves , leaning to the ground to have their rest.
Numerous caves pierce these rocks and walls, numerous mines - some are long abandoned, some are breathing heavily with steams and smokes - lots of villages and settlements, lots of peculiar creatures and grasses... and cold.
It were these mountains that once greeted Yaraga on their path - that narrow ravine that they crossed now bears the name of "Path of Thoughtful".
Oceans
"What difference is there in having names for those or not. Eastern and Western, left and right, "tha-a-at one" and "that another one"...There are no shores for them but ours - what difference is there in naming the... big nothingness?" - Veskris "the Smart", who decided to return from his ocean endeavour
No end is there for their waters, and no beginning just as well.
Even Ayleri know nothing about its other shores. For Yaraga, these waters - are a symbol of unknown and obscure end - for none of those, who ventured there, ever made it back.
And no living mind knows, is there something out there, far-far away, beyond the horizon unreached...