East Astia¶
East Astia is one of the lands left when the Shattering sank the heart of Astia: "the vestigial fragments of the once-great continent subsequently became: South Astia, East Astia, The Shattered Isles, and Urastia" (S387). It lies across the Shattered Sea from Numenia, and the few trade routes that cross that sea run "mostly from the Thyssal Empire to East Astia and the Shattered Isles" (S387). The archive's own folders file the land of Markhan under East Astia, and what the sources say of East Astia they say of Markhan: a hot, jungled country of orcs and dinosaurs, a buried red crystal, and a glacier that should not exist.
Markhan¶
Markhan is tropical, so that a glacier there "would be impossible" by nature (S448), and the Sancturi-era company who stepped through the portal anchored to "East Astia, The Heart" in 704 SM found jungles, "a red glowing crystal" and a velociraptor (S192). The spider-wasp demon Pompili, an ascendant of Jorogu, hunts "in the jungles of East Astia" (S021).
Its history is the history of the crystal. "In the aftermath of the shattering, a particularly large worldstone fragment slammed into what is now Markhan," and the largest piece "became known as the earth-heart (for its deep red color) and was worshipped by primitive humans, goblins and orcs. It was a long fought over place, but the orcs eventually prevailed" (S522). For hundreds of years "orcs from across the continent came to the complex" to be buried near it, and the priesthood of the earth-heart "set up shrines across the continent surrounding much smaller worldstone fragments," until the cult "became the primary religion of the orcs" (S522). The gods of the orcish pantheon "set out to correct this blasphemy"; after centuries of war a loyalist army under the Ascendant Horak stormed the temple, and the dying high priestess Agrob "merged her spirit with the earth-heart crystal" (S522).
When the crystal awoke, "guided now by the consciousness of Agrob, it sought revenge against the orcs who had murdered its followers. It bred an army from the beasts of the land, warping them into gargantuan creatures known as dinosaurs" (S522). The orcs were driven out of central Markhan to the north, "destroying and displacing the humans that had settled there," and the dinosaurs "were left to roam and reproduce across central Markhan" (S522). A new earth-heart priesthood arose "not among the orcs" but "from among humans, goblins and other creatures," empowered by the heart-mother Agrob'Anzut, who "can project herself to pretty much anywhere on Markhan" (S522). The crystal itself is described under the Earth-Heart and its faith under the Earth-Heart Cult.
The Temple of Cath'upak¶
Also called the Temple of the Earth-Heart. The orcs "built a sprawling temple complex around the fragment and several smaller neighboring fragments," and "catacombs were carved from the rock and literally millions of remains are believed to reside within the Temple of Cath'upak" (S522). Horak "razed the temple and buried the indestructible crystal under the rubble. He then set a guard upon the site to ensure the cultists could not return and reclaim it" (S522). The awakened crystal has since "fortified its home and strengthened connections with the other crystal fragments located across Markhan at old orcish shrines" (S522).
Rok'Thorumal¶
"The glacier Rok'Thorumal in Markhan is formed around the corpse of an Ice-Titan. Normally such a glacier would be impossible in a tropical environment such as Markhan. Blizzards, Ice-storms and other such weather effects also persist around the glacier. It is said that a dead Titan's spirit remains partially conscious and can continue to influence it's surroundings via its ethereal and elemental energy" (S448; S543 reads the same). See Titans.
Gap
The sources never say whether Markhan is all of East Astia or one country on it, where its coasts, cities or the temple lie, or what became of the orcs in the north and the humans they displaced. The 2014 copies of the Heart's history (S449) and the Titans article (S543) differ from their 2018 revisions only in wording.