Wanaidheain

**Wanaidheain** is one of the five continents in the world of Giantstep. A fully islandic continent, it is located between Scimitarian and Giantstep, surrounded by the Widening Sea, the Sea of Merchants, the Strait of the Sargassum and the Treassure Sea. Wanaidheain is the smallest continent in the step, and it is also fully occupied by a single government, ruled under the Ancient Order of Most Practical Wizards. The name “Wanaidheain” is believed to come from an unknown an ancient fey culture that used to inhabit the island in times unrecorded. What it meant, however, is still discussed. Some experts say it meant "home", whereas others think it meant "sheep", as they were seemingly nomadic herders, something unusual for fey.

## Geography of Wanaidheain

Wanaidheain is an islandic continent, surrounded by a few big islands and dozens of small islets. While the islands of Heccu, Athassel and the Island of the Scarred Phantoms are geographically part of Wanaidheain in terms of geological composition, they are often more tied to either Giantstep or Scimitarian in political terms. The island of Wanaidheain itself is marked by its regularity. Most of the land is flat with varying degrees of inclination, with the main geographic landmark being the Great Central Plateau, which divides the height of the island in two, the lowlands and the highlands. Most of the population live in the lowlands, outside of the Great Central Plateau, which contains the most fertile lands. The highlands are made out of poorer grasslands, though the presence of transhumant husbandry and modern methods of irrigation allows certain levels of population. The only areas mostly uninhabited are the mountainous formations, of ancient volcanic origin and long dead, which make for the highest peaks of the island. The climate of Wanaidheain is very agreeable, with hot summers, mild winters and regular rains. This allows for the presence of many grasslands and forests, made out of both trees from Giantstep and Scimitarian. The north of the island tends to receive the colder winds of the Treasure Sea, while the south enjoys warmer weather.

## Demographics of Wanaidheain

While one would expect the island of Wanaidheain to be highly populated, as the availability of great fields and mild climate would suggest, this is far from reality. Indeed, the population is distributed sparsely, mostly in the form of small rural towns, small coastal cities and hobbit burrows. The reasons for this are complex, but most of the weight comes from Wanaidheain being a frontier territory between Azan and the Western Elven Empire. Even after Azan gained the upper half in the territory, the treaties established with the WEE greatly limited the population that could migrate there. And at the same time, the presence of a great deal of fey populations kept the human population to gain too much power too fast, though humans did outnumber the fey eventually. The relatively lax control of the island by Azan allowed many wizards to settle in Wanaidheain, with many wizard towers popping up all across. During the chaotic days of the 20th century, many groups, both human and fey, travelled from the Hedge and Azan into Wanaidheain, running away from the witchelven threat. Many ended up establishing there, while others continued to move towards northern Scimitarian. After that, the brief drow invasion forced many populations back into Giantstep, and while the drow were pushed back into the sea relatively quickly, this resulted in the azanese losing control of the island. Wanaidheain would fracture into hundreds of independent towns and cities, but the growing wizards’ influence eventually resulted in the unification of the continent into a single nation, the Island of Wizards, with the Ancient Order of Most Practical Wizards as its ruling body.

The distribution of the population varies considerably. While humans are present in all areas of the island, they mostly center around the southern lowland, as it is the most populated part of the island. The western and eastern sides are most populated by fey, especially of the halfling variety like hobbits, gnomes and brownies, which arrived during the 20th century and established themselves. This concentration of halflings is particularly important in the east, as they actually outnumber the humans in that area. The west also used to hold some populations of drow, remnants of the old invasion and allowed to stay due to them having deserted from the drow armies, though nowadays the drow population is so minuscule to be near extinct. Other small minorities are dwarves, which managed to escape Scimitarian during the Drow Uprising, but most of them ended up going into azanese lands centuries after the Azanese Civil War subsided. The arrival of many wizards from all species can often create a massive hodgepodge of species living in the cities, but not big enough to create stable minorities in the island.