Gloommarsh Isles

It is said that arriving at **The Gloom** is to forsake sunlight. Its hard to believe anyone would have tried to make a living in the harsh, disease filled swamps, but the isles actual have a rich history of settlements doing just that. The homeland of the ratfolk species, The Gloommarsh Isles are broken up into **Gloom Major**, a large mountainous island, and **Gloom Minor**, a small series of about a dozen islands.

## History

For a long time, the ratfolk clung to existence on these islands. Much of their history was lost to time, but clues of their struggle populate the islands in the form of ghost towns, some ancient, giving hints to the great civilizations that lived and died on these islands while the elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes of the Steppes were just starting their crawl toward civilized society.

Dwarves would be the first to explore the islands and meet the ratfolk people, who at this point had founded the swamp city of Blackpost. Intrigued by each other, the two races began to trade and lived in relative peace with one another. Dwarves began to settle on the islands or make their home in the various port cities.

This peace was not destined to last however, as the mining loving dwarves discovered two things that would destroy ratfolk civilization for good: First, a ratfolk's ability to sniff out precious minerals and climb into tight spaces that allowed them extra ease to explore deep caverns. Some bold dwarves began to pay ratfolk to explore the caverns that dot the mountains around the Gloom Major, which lead to their second discovery. The land underneath the Gloommarsh Isles was filled with precious iron ore. This was all the reason the dwarves of Goldcliff needed. They began to enslave the local ratfolk population as slave miners, shipping some of them back to Goldcliff to find new deposits of gold but using most to mine the deep iron caves. The ratfolk began a mass migration away from the isles, to escape their new dwarven overlords, and began to populate the sewers of the various cities.

Today, more ratfolk inhabit the mainland than the Gloommarsh Isles. The iron mines have yet to dry up and the majority of iron within The Federation originate from these iron mines.

## Geography and Environment

### Gloom Major

Gloom major is the largest known island on the continent of Fynn. It has a unique geography that accounts for its bizarre weather patterns. The island is mostly surrounded by steep mountains called the "Twilight Mountains" except for a flat section southern part of the island. The island is warm, humid and cold weather is rare. Due to the tall mountains and hot temperature, the swamp is constantly feeding moisture upward, trapping it above the island where they continue to feed the constant clouds that loom over the island. It rains most days out of the year.

The city of Blackpost is located near the mouth of the mountain range on the south part of the island.

### Gloom Minor

The Gloom Minor islands experience an abnormal amount of rain compared to the mainland, unlike its mother island however, it is sunny most days of the year. Some of the less populated islands house old ruins or crypts from ancient ratfolk towns.

## Notable Locations

Blackpost - City located on Gloom Major

New Vinheim - Odd town on Gloom Minor