Zonamadaaman

Zonamadaaman untamed and monstrous land with a small number independent human settlements, wild creatures flourish against the ruins of immense high elf kindgom.

Soule, Folcact, Guan, Glaivehill, Knackledab, Hewnstick and gronguk

Zonamadaaman is a shortening ‘the lands they conquered but died’ in one of the ogre tongues of the original tribes. The ‘they’ in this heavily truncated phrase refers to the high elves, who built their capital on the continent here, close to the centre seas of the cog. Yalmiront Scholars believe this capital was called Elyrus. In the twilight of the elves, the fall of Elyrus was one of the first events that indicated the time of the fairfolk was ending. While we don’t know how this happened, analysis has proven it was instantly destructive to the tall towers, the wide amphitheatres, the raised roads that now litter the country in blasted chunks. Tribes made of mixes of humans, ogres, gnolls, goblins, kobolds, Loxodons, giants and giantkin move throughout this land, most living a nomadic life of foraging. The many settlements are often more like trading posts, places to hitch up your mounts and to either recruit help in fighting beasts or simply hide from them.

Soule is on the boarder of Zonamadaaman and Oruti, its neighbour to the south. It is the place most likely to find travellers from the west because it has less of a violent reputation than Guan, Glaivehill and Gronguk. Soule contains supply shops, seasoned guides for hire and various materials for scholars looking to study elven culture, game hunters unwilling to risk the Merec wilderness and more unscrupulous activities. This does not mean Soule is without its dangers however, as the fight for survival is as strongly felt as it is in the wilderness to its north. Soule is home to the Rampage company, ran by ‘Rampage’ souleshome, a half-giant woman who uses her intense physical presence to barter and fence for items found out in the wastes. In some turn of events Rampage has the neigh unbreakable loyalty of an entire tribe of kobolds, some of which have sworn fealty to her for generations. The rampage company Kobolds are her spy network, her appraisers and most importantly, her delivery people. Rampage has found herself the head of a considerable business empire because she offers both a collateral brokerage and a delivery and transportation company, thanks to her kobolds. One of Soules other permanent businesses is the bar known unofficially as Kragtz’s, owned by goblin named Kragtz who has connections to the most powerful leaders across Zonamadaaman. Kragtz’s is an unremarkable pub by Maligon standards, serving weak grog, cheap dwarven spirits and the occasional keg of ale when one can be purchased from a caravan. One thing that makes it a popular spot for adventurers is a sign behind the bar that reads ‘Only pub with chairs and tables in the nation.’

Folcact is where Zonamadaaman meets the sea, a tent town of ramshackle buildings beneath the abutment and broken arch of a great elven bridge. This bridge is interesting in itself because it stretches out from the shore to seemingly nothing. Elven experts disagree whether there was a constructed elven building in the cogsea or if its purpose was something more advanced, like a method of travel lost in the ages since. While the majority of Folcact’s inhabitants live under the arch, a handful live in the open deck some four hundred feet above. Folcact fishers are a diverse bunch, gnoll hunters using deft and skilful spear fishing, patient hobgoblins and thoroughly impatient kobolds. Beyond the camaraderie of the fisherfolk, Folcact doesn’t have much of a society or governance, simply a place where many set up their tents. Folcact gets almost twice the size in the summer months as the winter ones, as the cogwaters flow down to oruti and rare fish can be caught. Upon the deck of the bridge, people use slings and bows to take out the large sea birds that hover overhead to feast on catches. The deck of Folcact bridge is also home to one of maligon’s only stable communities of Kenku, the flightless birdfolk famed for their mimicry. The greyfeather clan as they’ve been called are devout in their worship of Etolik, and are subject to a nasty rumour of them causing lycanthrophy.

Guan is a tiny settlement on the hills that separate Zonamadaaman from Ceterat. Founded by Hill giants as a butcher post, its now populated by half giants, Gnolls, Loxodons, ogres and some of the hardiest humans on the horizontal cog. Guan is still a place of butchering, both hunting their own lands and raiding Ceterat for its cattle and herds. Although the houses here are little more than tents made of hide, there are over a hundred altar like butcher blocks of hard wood and stone between them, that remain all active all cog-year. These butcher blocks all face north-west, towards a large statue. This was undoubtedly originally some elven luminary of the age of Elyrus, but has been tilted and carved to resemble both Kushinda and Etolik in forms of an ogre and a gnoll. It is common to see a hunter of Guan dragging a monstrous beast carcass as a moment of pride to be celebrated, and from this the Guanites get their social standing. The surrounding area of the hills are covered with spoiled meats and bare bones, thrown out from the feasts. Some lost tribesmen and adventurers have found their way back to Guan by this trail of dead alone.

Glaivehill is also deep in the hills of the Ceterat border, but very different from the boisterous Guan. Glaivehill is centred around an ancient elven complex, tilted at a forty five degree angel and partially embedded in the earth. This building seems to be some sort of group living Center, either a bizarre arrangement of houses, shops or most likely a cloister of some communal order. While there may be some untapped knowledge within these halls, the Glaivehillites use its shattered and burrowed placement to mine for metals beneath the earth. A great wealth of iron and tin has been hauled up by giantkin and humans. These deposits have been viciously defended from, ringiff, caraniv and the expeditions of many other nations. The minelord of Glaivehill is a considerable position of power in all of Zonamadaaman, often summoned to speak at the international conferences in Grand kalev. The current Minelord is a Gnoll called Diyugong originally from Guan, who used his tactical prowess and strength to unify warring factions within the mine. Glaivehill has very little in terms of laws, but two are signposted for miles around one is ‘don’t steal from the mine, work and get your share’ in a variety of languages and the other is simply ‘No Dwarves.’ this unsually xenophobic position has come from fears thatthe dwarves of lum or yoluger will steal the mines from these fledgling delvers.

In the travel studies of brother pious, Knackledab was declared by the holy man to be ‘the most violent village across Maligon, and perhaps the cog if Verennicicpt wasn’t so monstrous and accursed.’ his book of the south-east is briefly derailed as he describes in lurid detail seeing ‘an orc killed by the bare hands of an ogre for the sin of spilling his soup.’ Most would agree that little has changed since then. Knackledab is almost purely a place to hitch ones horse, rhinoceros, mammoth, dinosaur or what else one rides across the Zonamadaaman wastes. It harnesses the top of Keryth Lake, a freshwater oasis near the coast, and this is primarily why it is still populated. It is treated as a place to be briefly sheltered from the wilderness but not one to trust any other Knackledab transient around you. A Minotaur from Yeroifox named Krakos ‘Headkraker’ Highmight is one of the very few fixtures of Knackledab. Krakos has fenced in a fifty foot square to the north of the town and uses it to promote, take bets and organise bare knuckle fights. A brutal and simplistic version of the Helmsgrad fighting temple.

Hewnstick Sits on the opposing banks of the Keryth lake to the village Knackledab, where the elves had some enormous series of bridges forming some sort of canopy over the lake. Hewnstick is more structured than some of the frontier towns surrounding it, structured as one tribe with a chieftain. Hewnstick is primarily humans, but seemingly due to some energy stored in the lake or within the Elven ruins, a large part of the populace is born touched by some sort of elemental plane. These Genasi come in distinct elemental stripes, but their lineages are seemingly random, some magical quirk of the lands of their birth. The current chieftain is one of the water Genasi, Denniaka Fellstrova. Some of the other quirks of this link to elemental magic are a much higher percentage of sorcerers amongst the population and other forms of wild uncontrollable sparks in even the most basic of spellcasters. Because of this, an eccentric Dragon-born sorcerer has set up an incongruous looking red stone tower a few miles away from the lake front town. Otto Lottway-Covingtonham as he introduces himself, or Otto the dragon as most know him, has taken it upon himself to tutor magic to those born with it in his extra-dimensional tower.

While the other villages live alongside the ruins or use them to their advantage, the village of Gronguk has burrowed into the strange geometric shapes and carved them into flagstone bricks. These ruins have always been among the most mysterious, as no discernable purpose has been agreed upon. The town centre is an enormous sandstone cube on its corner, where temporary homes and businesses have been dug into the rock, resembling some sort of insect hive. smaller pyramids and hexahedrons are covered in scaffolding, some broken with construction strung up in between. The rough hewn bricks are constructed into huts, some of which infuriatingly seem to contain broken inscriptions. Grongukers are often hostile to those coming to study these solid shapes, as the mystery is less intriguing to those wilder folk living daily life within them. Gronguk has a dedicated militia that serve as defenders and the authority to the town. While they do generally uphold a sense of law, they make their coin by taking unregulated taxes from the citizens, behaving like an accepted protection racket.

Given its large size, Zonamadaaman has plains, grasslands, hills and the Daaman forests across the south. It is not unfeasible for any fauna to be present, naturally and farmed by the nomads and wild folk. Big cats, dinosaurs, elephants, rhinoceros, bears, apes, ungulates, predators and prey of all sizes. The only real difference between Zonamadaaman most enormous and unnatural beasts are kept out.