Platanus Bog

Platanus Bog is part of the bog to the south, although it's not dominated by the Bog Witch, hence why it's generally considered a separate realm. It's home to Wisplings, who love to chase will-o-wisps, sing cheerful songs and fling their shit to each other as a game. Despite their simple, mischievous nature, these creatures are somewhat intelligent, trying to learn the language of humans that pass by, and setting up clever tricks on them.
In the middle of the bog there's a large clearing where there's a huge, ancient Platanus tree. Inside there's a beating heart surrounded by sturdy branches. It's said that the heart is actually a demon that rebelled against the Bog Witch and made its way to the Platanus. The wisplings consider it a god and pray to it.
==History==
The ancient history of the Platanus Bog is largely forgotten, but likely involved some changing of hands between various faerie lords and Westerling tribes.
More modern records show that there have been on and off attempts to colonize the area since the peak of the Khenomeric Empire. Most humans living there now descend from exiles and fugitives from the Orange Marquisates, Faarowt, and Florinth.
==Government==
The Platanus Bog doesn’t have a central government. The humans are organized into autonomous tribes, villages, family units, and/or mercantile companies. There are no faerie lords of note in the Bog, so the fey are either loners or organized into loose tribes.
==Economy==
Like their northern neighbors the Bayukmen, the humans of the Platanus Bog (known as the Platani) are hunter gatherers, though they place more emphasis on fishing and foraging, and less on hunting monsters.
The Platani do regular trade with Orange Marquisates with stuff they gather from their own territory, as well as goods traded from with inhabitants from the Bog-Witch’s lands. Due to vague boundaries, particularly reckless inhabitants of the Platanus Bog sometimes settle along the eastern shores of Toadpond in the Bog-Witch’s lands, sometimes to trade (the Toadpond forms a stretch of the Dominion’s main internal trade route), and sometimes to fish. It is unclear why Muckra allows this, though it is probably to help lure human children to her territory, while certain other players in the Dominion find the Platani to be useful trading partners.
Some Platani have a reputation for prioritizing purchases of luxury goods like fine clothes, spices, or silver plated utensils over more useful items like tools or weapons. Others prioritize alcohol and other narcotics. Although some foreigners see this as a sign of stupidity, others feel it makes sense given the often nihilistic mindset of many Platani.
==Foreign Relations==
===Dominion of the Bog-Witch===
It is unclear why the Bog-Witch has never attempted to conquer the Platanus Bog, though perhaps she already gets everything she needs from the place, and openly ruling it would scare away trade and potential victims. The two regions are trading partners and generally considered to be neutral to each other (which is about as close to friendly as one gets to the Dominion).
===Orange Marquisates===
Is the Bog’s main connection to the civilized world. Mercantile companies employ locals and foreigners to harvest valuable animal parts and alchemy components.
===Bayukmen Marsh Kingdom===
The Bayukmen see the Platani as traitors for trading with the Bog-Witch’s followers. Although the two rarely pick deliberate fights, chance encounters often become unpleasant.
===Zyla Gora ===
The Zylani see themselves as the more civilized of the two, not that that is saying much. The two sometimes trade, but generally don’t think highly of each other.
=== The Fungest===
The Platani and Bog dwelling fey sometimes raid the northern regions of the Fungest for edible mushrooms and alchemy components. The mushroomites in this region will aggressively defend their mushrooms, but are rarely much of a threat unless they significantly outnumber their opponents.
===Glutton Island===
The Platani are aware of Glutton Island’s reputation, but as they generally aren’t seafaring people, they generally lack the means to visit the island even if they wanted to.
==Geography==
Despite the name, most of the Platanus Bog is forest or swamp, though there are also some true bogs, salt marshes, hills, and coastal sandbars as well. Trees adapted to surviving in sitting water are more common here than in the marshy Bayukmen lands, providing a visible difference between the two regions.
A stretch of hills and low mountains along the border with the Dominion of the Bog-Witch helps keep out many of the more dangerous aquatic creatures.
The Platani make their buildings entirely out of wood, typically mounted on stilts when in flooded areas. 
==Additional Geography Notes==
The Platanus Bog lacks internal political boundaries other than the ever shifting tribal boundaries of humans and fey. Instead, those who are familiar with the region usually divide by its most distinct geographic features. Aside from these features, much of Platanus Bog is covered with a maze of small forests, bogs, swamps, marshes, and small bodies of water. 
* Demon-In-A-Tree – Some of the Gorra and many wisplings worship Demon-In-A-Tree. Appearing to be a large beating heart surrounded by the branches of a large tree, it is said to be the remains of a demon who defied the Bog-Witch. It is unclear if there are any practical benefits to worshipping it.
*Kilgal – One of the largest Platani communities, though still barely a town. It controls the best route through The Heart Woods, and as a result has become quite wealthy by Platani standards. The inhabitants are known for being vain and arrogant. Many are clearly of Florinthian origin.
*Forest-End – For unknown reasons the terrain abruptly changes from mostly swamp to mostly marsh once one reaches the Bayukmen border. The Bayukmen and the Platani don’t get along well, but the Bayukmen rarely attack the northern Platani in large numbers unless they feel they are doing something that is an active threat to the Marsh Kingdom. The village of Forest-End is home to the Gruama tribe, who are friendlier with the Bayukmen than other Platani. What little trade that occurs between the two cultures tends to occur here.
*Roosenmuidan – Throughout history, this town has often been the meeting point for two or more trading routes through the Green Mountains. It is home to the Roosen tribe of Platani, one of the most numerous of the tribes, though at any given time most of them are working the caravan routes rather than hanging around the town. Even by Platani standards they are lazy, nihilistic, and without pride. Its name comes from the high percentage of redheads in the tribe, likely a Florinthian trait.
*Terzand Valley – A circle of low peaks surrounds a rocky valley that few ever visit. It is home to several tomb complexes of a forgotten civilization, a few harpies, and not much else.
*The Burbog – This circular valley is volcanically active, resulting in sulfur pond, geysers, and mudflats. The dominant terrain though is peat bog. The locals are considered Platani, but look and speak more like the Bayukmen, which supports certain theories that the Bayukmen, the Platani, and the eastern swamp folk were once closely related before the corruption of the Dominion and the arrival of immigrants from the coast. The Burbog tribe are hardy hunter-gatherers who worship an obscure slug god.
*The Coastal Bog – This region along the coast is a mix of peat bog, salt marsh, forested swamp, and sandbars. Although only about 10 kilometers wide in most places, many early explorers believed it was much deeper, which helped entrench the widespread belief the whole region was one giant bog, a belief that still exists in modern times. Not much lives in the bogs other than some wisplings, froglins, goblins, fairies, and woggles, but there are a few fortified trading posts along the coast (most in ruins at any given time).
*The Curhinday Plains – The east side of the Green Mountains has a much flatter slope than the west side. It is a region of low, flat hills separated by narrow valleys filled with bogs, marshland, patches of carpetflower, and moisture loving groves of spruce and cedar. It is sparsely populated even by the standards of the region, but there are some humans, a few goblins, boglins, kikimora, will-o-wisps, and harpies, and a handful of hags and witches. The humans are simply known as “hill-folk” and have more in common culturally with the Zylani than the Platani. The hill-folk mostly live off of goats and vegetables, but a few grow bog spelt as well.
*The Demon’s Bog – This large peat bog was likely once a large but shallow lake that became overgrown. Most of it is seemingly endless peat, but there are plenty of small forests, creeks, and ponds that make navigating it even more difficult. In the middle of the bog is Demon-In-A-Tree, whose corrupting influence has made the inhabitants even more cruel and sadistic. This bog is mostly home to wisplings, but also the demon worshipping Platani tribe known as the Gorra, who can be easily recognized by their ritually scarred faces and use of kohl eyeliner.
*The Green Mountains – These dreary low mountains form a natural barrier between Platanus and the Dominion. They are named for the rugged mountain grasses and scrag pines that grow on the gentler slopes of the mountain. Not much lives up here except the occasional flock of harpies, a few will-o-wisps and swamp ogres, and some mountain goats. There are a few stone ruins, underground tombs, and old mines up here, but even the locals are unaware of most of them, and the history of nearly all of them have been forgotten. 
*The Gilded Fortress – This glamorous name misrepresents the reality of this structure, which is really just a small, crumbling keep at the edge of a swamp near the relatively well travelled road to Tourzen. It is home to some Elyrians that got driven out of Avangar for worshipping the Goddess of Greed. They now switch between banditry and mercenary work trying to turn the ruin into a temple worthy of their goddess, though so far their efforts have fallen short and their numbers are dwindling.
* The Heart Woods – The nutrient rich soil in this region is flooded more often than not. The massive Platani Mangrove Tree is found in abundance here, their enormous roots used as supports for the wood shacks of the local Platani, sometimes whole villages of them. Several Platani tribes live here, most of whom are pretty typical of their culture.
*The Hell Hills – This cluster of rocky hills, geysers, and sulfur ponds is the site of moderate volcanic activity. Locals believe it is a region where Gogotha’s Realm is unusually close to the surface, thus the name. Almost no one lives here. It is said a Northman warlord once established a fair sized palace in the hills near the ocean, but was tricked into becoming the love slave of a hag in return for immortality. It is said the two of them still dwell within the hills over a millennia later.
* The Forest of Pests – Throughout the region’s history, trade routes have often passed through this forest where the ground is relatively dry. Unfortunately, the wisplings who live here are particularly fond of tormenting travelers. They sometimes leave local Platani alone, but love targeting foreigners with crude traps, theft, and minor curses.
* The Mushroom Forest – Unlike along the northern border of Platani territory, there isn’t a clear ecological boundary between the Platanus Bog and the Fungest. In this region, large fungi and more typical trees intermix, and some mushroomites can be found, though they are weak and disorganized compared to those to the south. The local Platani tribe is known as the Kintry and they are mostly known for their knowledge of the properties of mushrooms and their laid back nature. They get along with the nearby root dwarf hold well enough despite their occasional illegal foraging and smuggling. On a few occasions, the Kintry have been conscripted by agents of the Bog-Witch, but they aren’t much good for anything other than being camp followers. Aside from the Kintry and the mushroomites, there are a few uncorrupted toadlings, swamp gnomes, and fairies here, who generally mind their own business. Root dwarves also sometimes come here for unknown reasons.
*The Temple of the Seven Sins – This crude temple was made from an old ogre fortress by a mad Azanese pirate to honor one of the Azanese interpretations of the Seven Sins. According to this Azanese tradition that has enjoyed on and off again popularity over the millennia, the seven most powerful demon lords each represent one of the mortal sins. In this interpretation, the following are used, though there are many variations in Azanese theology: lust (Gogotha), gluttony (Gluttony God), wrath (Althazzar), greed (Goddess of Greed), pride (Kagal), sloth (Gythliss), and envy (Uruc). Although the temple has been uninhabited for decades, the local Platani do make some efforts to upkeep it, as they feel none of the gods honored here are ones that one would want to upset.
*The Uplands – The Curhinday Plains eventually flatten to the point where forests of small stunted trees become the dominant terrain. However, due to poor drainage, swamps and bogs are also common. The Platani tribes who live here tend to be a hardy bunch who aren’t afraid of a fight.
*Thiavhai – This small Platani fishing village is becoming prominent in certain circles after it became known that a local woman is a skilled seer. As her powers are said to come from Gogotha herself, even agents of the Bog-Witch aren’t inclined to mess with her.
*Tourzen – This frequently razed and rebuilt fortress town is currently run by the Rouge Trading company in partnership with two other Orange Marquisate companies and several small mercenary groups. It is currently the main link between the Platani and the outside world, and also a main shipment point for illegal goods out of the Dominion. Platani and other locals are rarely allowed inside the town itself, but are often found outside of it waiting to see if they can find work on caravans. Tourzen has been in operation for a few decades now, but eventually it will overrun by rivals, pirates, a local warlord, etc., and some other coastal ruin will be rebuilt to take its place.
*Ur-Carnach – This minor Black Sabbath location is one of several used by minor witches and hags living in the region who can’t be bothered to travel further. 
*Usleibhte Hills – This ragged mess of rocky outcrops barely qualify as hills, but the locals still find its maze of ravines and crevasses to be an impediment to travel and generally avoid it. A large network of half-flooded limestone caves underlies the area which have recently become home to some cave boglins led by an exiled witch-elf.
* Uspioraid Territory – Although not naturally war-like, from time to time, one of the larger, more aggressive Platani tribes will be motivated by a charismatic warlord to bully several other nearby tribes into submission. The Uspioraid tribe have long been known for their brutality, elaborate but primitive garb, and high percentage of witches and Gogotha followers, though it took an exiled witch-elf priestess (sister and rival to the one leading the cave boglins in the Usleibhte Hills) to turn them into a formidable force controlling the most territory of any one Platani tribe in recent memory. 
*Vaveil – A branch of a prominent merchant family from the Orange Marquisates is currently living in exile here with some employees and followers after being outed as Gogotha worshippers. They have been trying to establish themselves as a port for goods produced by the northern Platani, but without Tourzen’s access to illegal goods from the Dominion, there isn’t much reason for ships to come here.
* Wairgead Cauldron – There are many conflicting theories of how this enormous, circular depression formed. Some think it is the remains of a massive volcano, others think it is a collapsed cavern, and others think something huge fell from the sky and smashed a deep depression. Large crystal formations can be found in many parts of The Cauldron, whose formation is also a mystery.
*Wiontach Forest – This stretch of forests, swamps, and bogs is one of the most isolated parts of the Platanus Bog, with few resources or trade routes of note. The Wiontach tribe is a matriachy run by shamans of Kestili, an obscure god that seems to be based on a syncretic interpretation of several different Khenomeric and Westerling Moon and Magic Goddesses.
==Demographics ==
===Humans===
The Platani descend from exiles and fugitives from the Orange Marquisates, Faarowt, and Florinth. The Bog is a hard place to live, and many would probably leave if they knew how much better living standards are in nearby nations. However, trade with the Orange Marquisates is dominated by secretive middlemen, so few know much about the outside world. 
===Wisplings===
A bit of a catch-all term for several impish but weak fey species, wisplings rely on their natural camouflage to hunt prey and harass other races. Some are plant-like, others resemble various animals.
===Oafs===
These rare child-like shapeshifters seem to enjoy causing problems for other folk out of sheer spite, but they sometimes can be forced to serve other beings if enough threats are applied. They occasionally pretend to be human children so they can serve as spies.
===Other Fey===
Other fey of the Bog include uncorrupted versions of mushroomites, cave goblins, kikimora, toadlings, swamp gnomes, fairies, froglings, and woggles, as well as a few pondmaidens, boglins, will-o-wisps, swamp ogres, and grutzlings. Most of them keep to themselves, but certain cave goblin, boglin, and kikimora tribes are hostile, and pondmaidens, wisps, ogres and grutzlings are almost always trouble.
===Dwarves===
Are occasionally seen in the region. It is believed they are based somewhere in The Fungest.
==Religion==
Few human inhabitants of the Bog are religious, but many do have strange rites they use for warding off bad luck and unseelie fey. There are a few witches who have bargained with the likes of Gogotha, the Glutton God, Mg’umba, Uruc, or certain faerie lords like Norn, Mordrak, or Mutaa for power, but they rarely try to form cults, instead folk seek them out when they are desperate enough. 
Some Platani and many wisplings worship Demon-In-A-Tree. Appearing to be a large beating heart surrounded by the branches of a large tree, it is said to be the remains of a demon who defied the Bog-Witch. It is unclear if there are any practical benefits to worshipping it.
The mushroomites, dwarves, and certain other fey have their own strange practises, which are poorly understood by outsiders.
==Military==
The Platani are hardy survivors that prefer avoiding fights when possible. However, if their villages are threatened in a winnable fight, they will form militias, or even seek out the assistance of a witch.
The fey of the Bog tend to be individually weak, but can still be dangerous in large numbers.
Category:Geographic location
Category:Giantstep