Kron+Tarvik

Situated between the lands of Thrym, Far Magog, the Dryad's Garden, the Verdant Vale, Zuvai, and the Coast of Seven Swords, Kron Tarvik is a an explorer's paradise. The traveler Nanta Hualta wrote, "Scattered with relics of the living and the dead, it is a place full of interesting people, beasts, and sights, only some of which will kill you. Things are a bit larger, a bit more beautiful, a bit wilder, as if the region's great powers shared in its birth. In Kron Tarvik, there is a grandness and a loneliness that suggests that anything could happen."

Forests, hills, mountains, more than one interesting wetland, ruins aplenty, a storm-lashed coast, and even a stretch of desert are to be found in what once were the lands of the Tarvik, the famed hunters now gone these many millenia. It has become an even wilder place since then, but its secrets and its varied beauty have few peers in all the Whisperlands.

__**Fernwood Vale**__ Within the vast borderland of Kron Tarvik lies Fernwood Vale. It is so named for the towering goliath fernwoods that comprise the mountain forest and that cover the slopes that lead down into the valley where the the slow currents of the river known as the Midgewater bisect the great woodland. It is a place of frequent rains, mossy boulders, many streams, lakes, and hidden falls. Its mounains, hills and woodlands are home to many beasts, and allegedly the resting place of Utar, City of the Singing Maidens. Most who come to the vale are searching for that ancient and holy place to the litheeni (the race of people who are each able to assume the form of an animal with whom they have an affinity), whether because of its treasure or its curse few say before they plunge into the many ruins found througout the area. Fewer still are seen again. Others come for the hunting (bold folk indeed), to trade with the reclusive Aracuana people said to know many of the secrets of the old world though they are hesitant to share them, or to pray before one of the weathered statues of pale blue stone sometimes found among the ruins. They are said to depict long-dead gods and that those with great need who beseech them may be granted a divine favor.

Beyond the dark green tops of the fernwoods to the northeast one can see the faint flicker among the Storm's Edge Mountains masking the southernmost boundary of Thrym's domain, the night sky lit by the distant fury of the Roil itself.

North and northwest, far beyond sight, lie the Giant's Steps, gateway to Far Magog. To reach them would take many weeks of perilous travel far beyond the Vale and eventually through the wilderness of grasslands and wild foothills known as the Brute Marches. Numerous ogre and troll tribes vie with creatures far worse in that great expanse and few are there in Andavar who would brave a month or more traversing their hunting grounds.

To the west the forested hills stretch far away into the Forked Peninsula, eventually diminishing and thining until they reach the Fragrant Sea, a vast land of flowering plants, butterflies, songbirds, the hum of bees and all manner of other wondrous things as one nears the Dryad's Garden. Southeast the woodlands descend into a wetland surrounding the Lake of Eyes. This tremendous swamp is called the Wartmarsh, its name coming from one of the largest concentrations of frogfolk (they are collectively called the golm) in all of Andavar. Some of these inhabitants are even friendly to visitors. One of the worlds four remaining rainwarren oaks survives there still on the southern banks of the lake, a thousand feet tall, and its many limbs each a small waterfall world of its own. The lands due south of the Vale soon become open grassland that stretches for many miles, eventually reach a strange forest known as the Leaning Trees. This wood is so-called because of the particularly powerful winds that have blown south and west for centuries, forcing the trees to grown in a slantwise fashion as they wind literally pushes and holds them in the direction it blows. This is the vanguard of the Verdant Vale, and abounds in life of all kinds. The famed ursadon, Grellick Spiderback is said to dwell here, as are the green-pelted leaf fennec's that nursed the Knight of Autumn back to health following his defeat and near death at the hands of the terrible skindemon,Yorvanalar Dreg.

A small peninsula of land leads southwest out of Kron Tarvik and into a dramatic land of purple mesas and crimson sand, narrow canyons, and vast burrows beneatht the sun-dried surface. It is a desertscape borderland of Zuvai where the Shell Kings of Dar-el-Mun rule and war. Some claim that not far south of the desert is the mythical Grove of the Dragonflies where all may find peace and restoration, even after death.

The eastern border of Kron Tarvik is the Coast of Seven Swords, though the kings whose council once ruled the lands bordering the Thundering Sea are long dead and their kingdoms all but forgotten. Only lonely Ingband remains, perched on its towering rock, staring at the storm-tossed sea as if in hope that a long lost love will return.There are a number of towns along the coast, none very large, but no great cities remain. The largest is New Canthar, old Canthar having been destroyed during a raid by Stormgill merfolk raiders in the Year of the Marble Swan six generations ago.