Numenia¶
"Often just called Astia by its inhabitants, due to its isolation from the other remaining parts of the continent." — the compendium's regional overview (S498)
Numenia is the great surviving mainland of Astia, the land on which almost every nation, war and ruin of the archive stands. Its western half is a patchwork of kingdoms; its eastern half, in the Age of Magic, belonged to the Thyssal Empire; its northern shore is the Storm Coast. The wiki takes its name from the newest of the three histories, which calls its own subject "Numenian / South Astia history" (S386).
Also called: South Astia (the regional gazetteers, S387 and S498), Pevathor or Pevethor (the Peoples sections of the compendium, S372) and, by its inhabitants and by every Fourth and Fifth Age source, simply Astia.
The lie of the land¶
The gazetteers of the Age of Magic divide the continent into halves. "The western half of the continent does not belong to the Thyssal Empire, and is home to numerous nations, kingdoms, and principalities"; the eastern half "is almost completely dominated by rule of the Empire," with "a handful of small kingdoms or principalities which are friendly to the Empire, and often pay tribute" (S387). Along the north runs the Storm Coast, "from the shores of the Pictish Jungles to the cliffs of Kajattan" (S387).
In the west the Thalatian Sea is bordered by Dalmar and by the island of Danara, "considered by some to be its own subcontinent" (S387). South of centre the Dragon's Teeth divide Dragonfall; the peninsula of Myrkan runs west from it, and the Broken Strand, "a narrow band of rocky land between the Dragon's Teeth and the Thalatian Sea," joins Dragonfall to Athosia in the north (S387). The Blue Mountains of the central west "separate the Westmarches from the rest of the continent" (S387); beyond them the Westmarches, once the heart of Amarin, are "now almost entirely covered in Earthblight" (S387). Rhovun fills the north-west "from the Sea of Rhovun in the south to the Pictish Jungle in the north" (S387), and Kajattan is the rocky peninsula of the north-east. Whettan, "most of the northern plains of the Thalatian Sea," is "considered one of the most fertile areas in all of South Astia"; its name "even means 'endless wheat' in ancient Danari" (S387).
Other ranges enter the histories: the Dragonspine and Cloudhall mountains, along which the western kingdoms held the demons of the First Rift War (S386); the Cloudwall Mountains, beyond which lies the dragon-held Dragonruin of the Fifth Age (S324); and the White Tower and Cloudspire ranges of the north, where the Boreal Elves were first recorded (S100). The Amarin Straits separate the north-western corner from the rest (S386).
History in brief¶
The Age of Magic counts its years from the Shattering, 0 MA (S372). Its wars are the continent's wars, and the History section tells them in full: the Goblin Wars of 541 to 617 MA, in which the orc warlord Uta-Bek overran the dwarf-holds and the orcs and goblins "had been largely exterminated and pushed into the wild lands and deep passages of the Underdark" (S386); the Dragon Wars, in which Pravustiratel's hordes "swept easily across much of the Northern and Eastern halves of the continent" and were broken at Gor'Turra (S386); the First Rift War of 1689 to 1804 MA, opened by the orc summoner Thu'karam; the Nexa-Vinian War; the Second Rift War, which began in Halath; and the War of the Moradrim, after which "the Kingdom of Thyssia took advantage of their strong position to conquer the helpless kingdoms of eastern Numenia, forging the Thyssal Empire" (S386).
The Fifth Age sources look back across the Age of the Dark Sun, in which "Pesh and the other kingdoms on the Isle of Danar were utterly destroyed" (S324). Their own history begins at 0 SM with "the return of the Sun" around the Broken Sea (S326) and, from 626 AL, at Proturas in the north (S107). By 704 SM the lands around the Broken Sea held some twelve and a half million people, divided among the Sancturi Imperium, the Riven Kingdoms and the wilds (S326).
Peoples¶
The compendium counts thirteen human peoples on the continent, the Huur, Nahar, Danari, Tsule, Curci, Kamnara, Korun, Aesean, Uizur, Pict and Aquitan among the living and the Gildan and Muazi among the extinct (S372; see Humans). Beside them live dwarves1 of mountain, hill and deep kinds, high, wood2 and dark3 elves, draconians sorted by colour, gnomes, orcs4, trolls, giants and centaurs. The Fifth Age adds the Oesterkull, the Lizardfolk and the goblin-demon Silek, and records that the high and dark elves are gone: "Dead. Gone. Extinct. Their blood was infused with Mithis" (S327). Beneath the continent the spider Argione, an ascendant of Jorogu, is "active in the deep underdark below central Numenia" (S021).
The Western Kingdoms¶
"The West" is the Age of Magic name for the half of the continent outside the Empire. "Currently, the great powers of the West are: Dalmar, Pesh, and ??. However, other regions include: the Pictish Jungles, Rhovun, Angorath, the Blue Mountains, and the Westmarches" (S387; the third power is a placeholder in every copy). In the Fifth Age the same words mean something smaller: "the area known as The West or Broken Sea, which is an enclave of humanoid kingdoms and the Sancturi Imperium" (S324), described on the Broken Sea page.
The Thalatian Kingdoms and the Thalatian Sea¶
"The nations of the Thalatian Kingdoms are located on the Thalatian Sea, and include powers such as: Pesh and Dalmar" (S387); the gazetteers also call them the Kingdoms of the Western Sea. Danara "forms the south western coast of the Thalatian Sea," the Broken Strand its eastern shore, and Whettan its northern plains (S387).
The Inner Sea¶
The pirate haven of Azmeran makes its pirates "a force to be reckoned with on the Inner Sea" in the 2014 gazetteer (S548, S499); the 2015 compendium's copy of the same passage says the Ruined Sea, and its entry on Pesh places Danara "in the South Broken Sea" (S372). The Ruined Sea is described with Danara.
Gap
Whether the Inner Sea, the Ruined Sea and the Broken Sea are one body of water under three names, or three seas, no source says.
Theraec¶
Theraec is a northern land. When Thu'karam opened the first abyssal rift, his demons "helped him conquer Theraec and most of the north" (S386), and in the first centuries after the Shattering "some of the Centaur clans migrated westward" out of Rhovun "into what is now Theraec" (S429).
The Free Cities¶
The Free Cities lay in central Astia. In Inwe's dreams the red dragons of Vixseranyol, "rebuilding the brood of red dragons in the period after the Dark Sun," "ultimately overran and conquered much of central Astia including what remained of the Free Cities" (S031, S071).
Gap
No source names a Free City or says what made them free.
The Hollantine Hills¶
The Hollantine Hills were the field of the massacre of Arya's followers by the primal red dragon Vixseranyol in the Fifth Age. The dream places the ascendant Inwe "on the crest of a blackened hill, tall gray foreboding mountains rise above you surrounded in mist," among "the charred and burning corpses of your fallen allies: priests and priestesses, paladins of the Raven, even the wizard, Severac" (S031). From the hills Inwe fled south toward "the great Hollow surrounding the ruins of Gor-Turra" (S031), which places the hills north of Gor'Turra.
Mt Talangar¶
Mt Talangar holds a temple of Arya kept by the ascendant Inwe. In one dream, Inwe counts her cares: "your temple at Mt Talangar is under siege by forces allied to Sharuvas" (S031, S071). Nothing places the mountain.
Cloudhall¶
In the First Rift War "the remaining peoples of the continent banded together to defend the western kingdoms along the Dragonspine and Cloudhall mountain ranges. Battles along these ranges raged for 70 years, until the arch-demons were slain in the battle of Arne-Athosia" (S386). The Cloudhall range is otherwise unrecorded.
Ghennari¶
Ghennari is a heading in the regional histories of north-central South Astia (S429) with nothing written beneath it.
Gap
The same history has Mountain Giants ruling "the Ghanari Highlands" of the Storm Coast; whether Ghennari and the Ghanari Highlands are one place is not stated.
Regions and nations¶
| Page | One line |
|---|---|
| Aquitania | Jungles over the ruins of a lost civilization; green dragons, Nyx's hidden sanctuary and the buried temple of Seth'Arax. |
| Athosia | Forest and meadow east of Dalmar, where Arne'Athosia stands. |
| Blue Mountains | The central-western range of the dwarves of Dru'Bazan and the great kingdom of Kahun'Darahl. |
| Broken Sea | The Fifth Age's "West": the Sancturi Imperium, the Riven Kingdoms and the Broken Kingdoms. |
| The Broken Strand | Rocky coast between the Dragon's Teeth and the Thalatian Sea; Faragond, Gor'Turra and Pevelor. |
| Dalmar | The great western kingdom of the Age of Magic, with Angorath and Whettan. |
| Danara | The south-western island of Pesh, Azmeran and the Ruined Sea. |
| Dragonfall | The south-centre, either side of the Dragon's Teeth. |
| Drakkani Wastes | A basalt wasteland of dragons, fire giants and salamanders around the ruins of Ptolemaris. |
| Dunmir | The kingdom whose king slew an archdemon; Ghoresh lies west of it. |
| Ghoresh | A mountain kingdom ruled by its assassins. |
| Halath | The haunted wild lands of a Danari kingdom destroyed in the Second Rift War. |
| Hazzher'akal | The land of the Nine Sacred Cities. |
| Pherox | The draconian empire of the north-west and its province of Moarte. |
| Proturas | The hidden Kalari refuge of the Fifth Age and the lands it governs. |
| Qom | The desert made in the Dragon Wars over the forests of Uoreskall. |
| Rhovun | Lawless wilds and small kingdoms, once Pherox's richest province. |
| The Storm Coast | The misty north: Thrace, Pictia and Kajattan. |
| Thyssal Empire | The Huur empire of the East, its Middle Empire and the Nations of Fornol; the Dragonruin. |
| The Westmarches | The blighted far west: Amarin and the Demonlands. |
| White Towers | The northern dwarven realm of Queen Melkorka. |