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The Midworld is the largest plane due to it being in the middle of the 5 plane stack and therefore in the middle of the diamond. ^[1] The gods chose the Midworld for the Chaos of the Gods due to its neutrality. Because of its balance, the Midworld was also the greatest place for mortals to come into being. The Midworld holds the Divine Court within a fold.^[2]

The Midworld. 5th map, made by Yunzhong Hou 2006. If you would like to see a changed version, please contact me.

[edit] Seas: Frozen Sea, Great Great, and Diamond Sea

Three massive seas lie in the northwest and the southeast portions of the Midworld. The one furthest north has only recently been discovered and due to the fact that the earliest explorers had often become trapped in its frozen maze of icebergs, the sea has come to be named the Frozen Sea. It is the coldest sea so far explored. Moving south, we encounter another sea, known as the Great Sea because explorers have long navigated its waters and have yet to find an end to the great expanse. Indeed, it reaches west seemingly toward infinity, and as far as ships have ever sailed, no other islands beyond the realm have been discovered. The Great Sea is the body of water lying between the mainlands, at least in the northern portion. This Great Sea leads to a zone of darker-colored water known as the Mouth of Lamoth, the path that would be well traveled except for the fact that, as it has been named, the Mouth of Lamoth is the area where lethal creatures dwell. Ships that sail across the Mouth of Lamoth have a very high likelihood of being sunk; therefore, most explorers do their best to avoid that territory. ^[3]

Beyond these are the Galician Islets composed of an archipelago of seven islands. These differ greatly in size, with the largest island, Aquilinta, being the size of a proper duchy-on it exist enough room for two villages. This island is the main trading island for the immediate community and indeed houses a duchy, called Galicia, which also controls the other six islands. Galicia's capital, Espimenta, is also known as Campleton and is a village located on the largest island. The other village, Comore, exists on the same island. Galicia is part of Geugaw. The largest island is separated from the two mainlands by a straight on each side, for a total of two, known as the Two Straights of Pellinor. The second largest is only a few acres in land area, and is known as Tutorial Island (as well as Silvas) because the nameless hero in Quest begins on Tutorial Island. ^[4] Indeed, this is one of the few portals connecting the real world with the world of the Neverending Wiki. Beyond these two islands are the five other islands of the Galician Islets, all of which are so small as to be deemable as large rocks. These minor islands are named Humboe, Dumnore, Brombosno, Norin, and Fae. These minor islands are within the Bay of Galicia, which is surrounded on four sides by the borders of Karabala, Netopyrus, Aquilinta, and Silvas. ^[5]

In the southeast lies the Diamond Sea, so called because legend has it that on Unicorn Island lies vast amounts of diamonds, and subsequently countless explorers have died searching for this mysterious land. The other island in the Diamond Sea is Ebue Eguae, a duchy with its capital at Blass. Slightly smaller than the largest of the Galician Islets, the island is the main stopping point for explorers headed for Unicorn Island because of its unique location beyond the Great Gate Way. To the north, the Great Gate Way is another bridge between the mainlands, this time between Geugaw and Netopyrus. Accordingly, this site is of immense strategic importance, and the two kingdoms have established forts on both sides. In between them is a great gate placed into the water, across which no one can pass without paying tolls to obtain passports from both kingdoms. This site is hence also a veritable gold mine for both kingdoms, and they have hence come to view each other as reliable friends. Further north, between the Great Gate Way and the Galician Islets, is another body of water known informally as the Pellinor Sea, so called only because of the naming of the nearby islet bridge as the Pellinor. Here the waters are calmest and safest, with the dangerous marine monsters blocked from entry by the Galician Islets to the northwest and the Great Gate Way to the southeast. ^[6]

Unicorn Island is located in the Diamond Sea, many leagues southeast of Karabala and a few leagues off the coast of Netopyrus. The island is inhabited by Unicorns, dazzling creatures that live nowhere else and the objective of several prominent but ill-fated quests. ^[7] In essence, the island is believed to be a dormant volcano formed around a million years prior to the Dawn of Ages in the same cataclysmic eruption which supposedly spread large diamonds throughout the Diamond Sea (but which has yet to be proven). According to demonic lore, the volcano, in its last eruption, ejected pure diamonds from its magma chamber:

"Most of these diamonds remained inside the cone. Time and Nature wore away the rock until the diamond lay exposed in towering spires. The diamonds capture the light of the sun and moon and reflect it far out to sea."^[8]

[edit] Aeternitas: the Northern Lands

Aeternitas is the northeast mainland, surrounded by the Frozen Sea to the northwest, the Great Sea and Pellinor Sea to the southwest, and the Diamond Sea to the southeast but which the northeastern expanses have yet to be charted on any maps. The mainland is home to the more developed kingdoms, most importantly Arkanros, Licida, Serdia, Karabala, and Netopyrus, in order from northwest to southeast. Arkanros occupies the northwestern and largest piece of explored land; Licida occupies the northeastern (and second smallest) fifth; Serdia, the northeastern fifth; Karabala, the central and eastern (second largest) fifth; and Netopyrus, the southeastern (and smallest) fifth. While Arkanros borders only its land neighbors Licida, Serdia, and Karabala; and Licida borders its land neighbors Arkanros and Serdia; and Serdia borders its land neighbors Arkanros, Licida, and Karabala; Karabala in turn borders Arkanros, Serdia, and Netopyrus as well as with Gallorum across the Sea of Pellinor; as Netopyrus borders only Karabala.

[edit] Arkanros: The Western Kingdom

Arkanros is one of the most geographically diverse regions of the world. The land is bordered by mountains, while within them, strong grasslands encircle the land's capital. This is due to the synergy of the westerly winds, which carry wet winds to the lands of Arkanros when then encounter orographical fronts (manifest in the crescent of mountains) and subsequently fell to the ground as rain; as well as the Arkanros River, which passes through the center of this lush region and brings water to the central lands as well. Indeed, it is precisely because of the orthographical front that the river was born, countless years before the Dawn of Ages. The mountain range is shaped in a half moon, hence it is named as the Crescent Range. Deserts surround the Crescent Range (the Licidian Mountains), but once past the deserts, one can find a lush forest, as well as some spotty grassland. Frozen coniferous forests lie just a few days north of the capital. This eventually leads to a frozen Highlands tundra (although this is not claimed by the country of Arkanros, most geographers still include it in their maps of the land) (see section below).

The climate of Arkanros is also the most varied and unstable in the world. The northernmost sections are cold all year round due to the altitude increase of the Highlands, while Arkanros' portion of the deserts in the Wastelands are dry and warm (not hot). The western portions are generally moist all year round. In the central region of Arkanros, there are typically seven seasons in the twelve-month year, namely: Spring, Swelter, Frost, Thaw, Summer, Fall, and Winter. These seasons do not occur in any regular order and depend primarily on the will of the winds. This is due to unreliable westerlies (both winds and currents) coming from the Great Sea which bring different temperatures of water and amounts of precipitation to Arkanros at abnormal times in the year. Hence, the River Arkanros also tends to have rising and falling water levels according to unpredictable seasonal changes. ^[9]

[edit] Karabala: The Central Kingdom

Karabala is actually three geographical zones. One, the duchy of Oraganta, borders Arkanros to the north across the Labyrinth Wall, while it is bordered on all other sides by water. In essence, the duchy is situated on the Oraganta Peninsula, so that waterways are very important to the survival of the region. There is plenty of water there, resulting in Oraganta's being the second most productive land in the discovered realm (after the fertile zones of Arkanros, which are also smaller in size). The River Oraganta separates Oraganta Peninsula from the rest of Karabala, while the River Arkanros separates it from Arkanros proper. To its southeast is Dingwalayo, a rather mountainous region dotted with patches of woodland and hills which hide a great cavern (known as the Southern Cavern) below the region. Dingwalayo also merges into the Shadowood, a region of dense jungle. Even further south, a moderately sized peninsula forms part of the Great Gate Way, with the village of Caer Armidia marking the southernmost point. In between Oraganta and Dingwalayo are No-Bahasa on the west and the Duchy of Karabala to the north (and the center of the kingdom). To the east lies the Duchy of Aniawu, the third productive after Oraganta due to the presence of Lake Aniawu and its tributaries, which is irrigated to provide moisture to the surrounding communities. The rest of the water in the lake slowly drains down the River Netopyrus into the Diamond Sea.

Climate in Karabala is preferable to that in other regions, consisting mostly of cool winds with a blessed arrangement of sunny, cloudy, and rainy days. Karabala is however divided into two separate settled regions: that of Oraganta and that of Aniawu. Together, they comprise the region of the Midworld with the greatest population.^[10]

[edit] Netopyrus: The Dark Kingdom

Netopyrus is a dark vampire kingdom located southeast of Karabala. The kingdom is mostly the vast Deadwood, a forest of undead trees. Reflecting the status of the kingdom as dark and somber, the weather is also monotonous and clouds hang over the sky most of the time. Of course, there is also a geographical explanation; the winds from the Sea of Pellinor and the western portions of the Diamond Sea, having picked up moisture, encounter the gradually steepening landscape that is Netopyrus, an orographical front that causes cloud cover to build up as we explore further inland. The rains generally do not fall until we reach the peaks of the Netopyrus mountain peaks, where rainfall is nearly constant and Deadwood gives away to Shadowood, a large jungle that also happens to be dark and gloomy (due to the tree canopy cover) and where the said vampire ruler dwells. Shadowood also extends partially into Dingwalayo. ^[11]

[edit] Wastelands: Arkanros, Licida, and Serdia

The Wastelands are a vast stretch of land located in the northern and northeastern most parts of the Midworld. The lands of Arkanros, Licida, and Serdia consist mostly of the Wastelands. Harsh, unforgiving, and uncivilized, the Wastelands are inhospitable to those not native and accustomed to its climate, and few ever venture out into them. The Wastlands form the discovered world's northern frontier and stretch from the northern most coast of the Frozen Sea to where the discovered realm ends beyond the Scrub Hills to the north. Despite its vast size, the northernmost region of the Wastelands, the Highlands, are perpetually cold because of the altitudes of this geographical portion of land. Though cold, in much of this region, the land is arid and rain is a rare occasion. This is a direct result of its being situated beyond the Crescent Mountains, thus blocking westerlies' moisture. Wind is the predomimiant weather feature of the western regions, and there the westerlies flow, carrying their water droplets with them. The Wastelands have five different types of terrain that compose the land; Tablelands, Salt Flats, Desert, Scrub Hills and the Highlands - Spinok'ta'del Mountains.

The Wastelands are one large unregulated and relatively ungoverned land but are comprised of five geographically distinct regions distiguishable by physical features. The Tablelands are in the northwest of portion of Arkanros; they are a vast stretch of moist, flat, treeless land, covered only in seemingly endless fields of tall grasses. It is always cold and windy and rainfall occurs on an annual basis. The western regions (Westlands) begin at the northern most coastline of the Great Sea / Frozen Sea and continues inland untill it transforms into the Tablelands. North of the Tablelands lies the Great Salt Flat, the saltiest place in the world, where it never rains, despite being very close to the coastline, because it is completely surrounded by mountains. It is also completely flat and the ground is made of closely packed salt. In Licida are is the Crescent (Licidian) Desert: a rocky, jagged and dry place peppered with chasms, ravines, rock outcroppings, mesas, buttes and scree fields. Everything here is composed of rocks and very little plant life (mostly cacti) thrives. There are numerous dried riverbeds hinting that life may have once been sustained here but are no longer. Its a dangerous and cluttered land where loose footing could spell demise. It is easy to hide in this park of windcarved rocks making it a favorite hiding spot for fugitives of other lands. Further east are the Scrub Hills, which are the foothills east of the Spinok'ta'del Mountians. Small, rolling mounds stretch as far as the eye can see before abruptly stopping and allowing the mountians to rise. The only difference from the deserts is that the land is higher, and sands are less commonly encountered. Wildlife is nearly totally gone. South of the Scrub Hills and east of the Crescent Desert is Serdia's great savanna plains. ^[12]

The Spinok'ta'del Mountains, as well as the Highlands, are enormous, snowcapped jagged shaped mountians composed entirely of hard black rock and are the northeastern most border of the known world. Almost unclimbable, the mountains have no sizable life forms living on them, but bats and insects live in the countless and unexplored cave systems in, around and underneath the mountains. Cobden, in the Spinok'ta'del Range, is the highest known mountain in the world. According to lore, it sits in the exact centre of the world where it was raised by Vayrian after the Chaos of the Gods. This thus means that much of the discovered world lies to the south of the center of the plane, as Cobden lies near the far north of the map. The location is significant because, as it is directly at the center of the 5-realm stack, it serves as a portal: it is the entrances to the Overworld. Those who have climbed the mountain have never returned. Theories of what happened include their ill-fated death, reaching the Overworld or coming to call the mountaintop home. ^[13]

[edit] Geugaw: The Southern Land

Geugaw is the geographical name for the southwestern mainland, due to historical reasons: the previous kingdom, before being overthrown by what has now become Galorum, was Geugaw. The landscape seems almost the direct opposite from the mainland opposite the straights. Instead of being of a mild climate, it is mostly desert, with the majority of inhabitable area bordering the Sea of Pellinor and the Diamond Sea. This is due to orographical reasons as well: westerlies blow here yet the moisture has fallen far away to the west before reaching discovered Galorum, so that the winds that do come are dry and hot. Hence, much of Galorum is a hot desert. The Gewgaw Range is a string of mountains near the eastern seaboard of this mainland, and serve the Galorumi a favor by preventing the hot and dry winds from reaching Galorum proper on the eastern coastline. This absence of wind allows some of the moisture and coolness from the Diamond Sea to approach Gewgaw from the east via convection currents (warm air rising upward over Galorum proper and falling down as cool air over the Diamond Sea, then moving westward with the moisure it picks up). Hence the climate in Gallorum proper is savanna and while more than warm it is still tolerable as a cool desert, in contrast with the warm desert across the Gewgaw Range. Greater Gallorum covers most of the continent, yielding only to the Great Sea (the Gallorumi know this sea as the Mare Galiciata) in the northwest and Lesser Gallorum (the Galorumi know this body of land as Meriavincla) to the southeast. Mountain ranges are close to all the coasts of Geugaw. The region has four seasons. ^[14]

[edit] Watersheds

Watersheds are the regions in which all rainfall enter a single major river. They are crucial to understanding the demographics of the Midworld because most arable land and population centers are concentrated in certain portions of each watershed. The most important watersheds in Aeternitas are that of the River West, River Arkanros, River Oraganta, and River Netopyrus. Besides these major ones, there are also several minor rivers that flow directly into a sea, and each of these has its own small watershed. However, these do not have significant geographical nor demographic consequence, so for the most part our discussion will be limited to the larger ones. In Geugaw, the sole discovered watershed is that of the (aptly named) River Geugaw. These demonstrate the variety that is possible between various watersheds.

The River West and River Netopyrus both have extremely large watersheds yet have rather small populations due to their distance from traditional habitations and settlements and due to their relative untenability: their climate, political troubles, and land may preclude any settlements from being built on them. The River Arkanros and River Oraganta watersheds are both highly fruitful, and hold the two valleys upon which the two greatest contemporary kingdoms, Arkanros and Karabala, have their population centers. These two rivers run parallel to the southwesterly winds, as do their mountain ranges. As a result, any slight changes in the paths of the southwesterlies influence the amount of rainfall that these rivers receive, and hence they flood arbitrarily, the River Arkanros more so than the River Oraganta. As the productivity of the land depends on the rich silt that the floods deliver, the flood plans of the two rivers are hence the most productive in the land. Finally, that of the River Geugaw is the smallest of the five most important watersheds, and is also not as important as the others in terms of productivity.

[edit] References