The Lands of Aphelion

Hover over points of interest for details

Jaws of Aphelion Aphelion's largest and oldest mountain range. The ancient god, Kjelchaikhan, lives in the stone of Mandra-Vara. It is believed that the Jaws predate Grenvel entirely.

Sky Pillar A gargantuan spire built by unknown hands where the ancient god, Archaeos, comes to roost and speak to mortalkind. The pillar seems to mark the point where a large portion of northern Uir disappeared into the sea.

Terminal
Depths The deepest point of the deepest trench in Aphelion's oceans. The ancient god, Tsenmaer, sleeps here. It is believed that she guards the far continents from vesian trespassers.

Itas The Kingdom of Itas is the only Grenvellan territory on the mainland. The land is covered in towering jado rainforests and jagged basalt terrain, with a very scrappy local population. They have often found themselves at odds with their expansionist Valbaaran neighbors.

Tirkau While Tirkau is core territory of Valbaara, the local population have historically had stronger diplomatic and cultural ties with their Itasean neighbors. The majority of the population lives in the industrialized coastal north, with small pastoral villages dotting the southern countryside.

Sebek A massive, sprawling kingdom-city erupting out of the plainsland, after which the entire province takes its name. Sebek is the heartland of the Second and Third Valbaaran Empires.

Golden
Plains A vast, sweeping, temperate plainsland rich in resources and fertile soils. These beautiful plains straddle the now heavily fortified Valbaaran-Kenoran border and have been at the heart of a long history of brutal wars.

Devil's
Tower An enigmatic stone tower that shines an eerie spotlight on certain nights. It is not understood if this is a natural or unnatural structure.

Abyssal Fissure Rhodinea's longest and deepest canyon. The bottom of the deepest part of the Fissure has never been observed or recorded. This canyon makes up most of the natural borders between Ypsen and Valbaara.

Bitter
Wells A deceptively lush oasis that has sprouted from a deeply toxic aquifer. The local people, plants, and animals have adapted to the water's toxicity and thrive despite supposedy unlivable conditions. This land is completely inhospitable to non-native lifeforms.

Elderwood A great, ancient rainforest spread atop a sprawling, underground cavern network. These woods are widely understood as the origin point of the ves, where the species came down from the trees and learned to speak the divine language.

Great Interior
Seaway A massive freshwater sea that is host to an equally massive trade network between the central Kenoran states. Despite being completely disconnected from the ocean, the seaway is host to its own naval fleet.

Dismal
Swamps A vast tract of swampland that halts migration of most Rhodinean species. This has lead to the animal population of Amasa being wildly different from the rest of the continent.

Beltway A series of densely populated volcanic islands that form a vital resupply port and trading hub between Grenvel and Amasa. Geopolitically, it is considered part of Amasa, but the climate and native wildlife are more in line with that of Grenvel.

Rhodinea

Aphelion's largest continent, the home of the ves. Full resolution image Here.




Valbaara, the homeland of the nenn and Rhodinea's largest territory. Valbaara is dominated by steppe, scrubland, and plains with very little changes in elevation, except towards the northeast. The climate varies from temperate to subtropical, and the open grazeland attracts large herbivores like horses, bison, and aurochs.



Kenor is the homeland of the mirken, Rhodinea's only inner sea, and the continent's largest tropical rainforest. This jungle, called Elderwood, is commonly understood as the homeland of the original tree-dwelling ves. Kenor's diversity of flora and fauna is unparalleled anywhere else on the continent. A vast network of underground caverns lies beneath nearly a third of the land.



Amasa is the homeland of the sephid and is comprised of diverse biomes, from the great swamps in the west, to the semi-arid south, to the tropical home islands. Unlike the rest of the continent, the only native mammal of Amasa is the sephid people. Otherwise, these lands are dominated by reptiles, birds, amphibians, and non-mammalian synapsids.



Grenvel is the homeland of the iroth and primarily carved around the two mountain ranges that define its territory. The home island is host to Aphelion's oldest and largest mountain range, and the second largest range, the Jonders, forms the border between the Kingdom of Itas and Valbaara and Kenor. Grenvel is covered almost completely in woodlands and temperate rainforests, which are host to very unique flora and fauna found nowhere else on Aphelion



Ypsen is the homeland of the kurai and Aphelion's largest desert. Very little of this nation is arable land, and so the native population is very sparse and largely clustered around the eastern coast. The northern salt flats and the cyanide waters of Bitter Wells are completely inhospitable to everything but the local life forms. A massive canyon runs between southern Ypsen and northern Valbaara.



Uir (pronouced "weer") is the homeland of the nokai and the most isolated lands in Rhodinea. Long before the vesian migration, Uir was much larger, though the northern portion broke off and disappeared into the sea for unknown reasons. This island nation is very cold, and a third of it is covered in permafrost. Uir is very sparsely populated and more than half of the population herd caribou.

Arborealis

Aphelion's second largest continent, home of the olegarths
Arborealis is fairly well studied by vesian scholars, and most of the continent's coastline has been mapped out. The southern reaches are too cold to reach by land, and the sea ice is too thick, so the true size of this continent is not currently known. The only interaction between Arborealis and Rhodinea are wayward ves who come for research purposes, though the native olegarths have little interest in any meaningful interactions. Though Arborealis is comparatively close to Rhodinea, the ves have only discovered this continent and its inhabitants within the past few centuries.
Arborealis is largely covered in mountains and evergreen forests, not dissimilar to Grenvel island, though the local wildlife would be unrecognizable to any Rhodinean native.

The "Faraway Lands"

This is a little-known, unnamed tropical continent on Aphelion's far side. It is inhabited by the winged teron people and a wide array of strange flora and fauna. This continent has been visited by vesian explorers exactly once. Afterwards, large mid-ocean waterfalls were erected over the Terminal Depths, implying that wise old Tsenmaer does not wish for these two peoples to ever meet again. Because of this, all vesian knowledge of the faraway lands and its people comes from a single expedition.