Faerie Geography

New Blood Logs:

Tom Noon's Tale

NewEuropa

In Chaos

Adventures of the Munch

Lanthil & Beyond

The following is Earl's description of the land of Faerie where the New Blood's home of Vinyagarond lies. Though there are other Faerie realms, this one is thought by many to be the original, of which the others are in some ways echoes. The tale of its origin is told in the manucript, "Of the Races of Earth", which Tom Noon found in the library at High Dwarrowgard.
-- JimB

Faerie is a Continuum Minor, a small continuum, finite and bounded, somewhat larger than Europe. Most of Faerie land surface is temperate or subtropical forest and meadow. It is bounded on all sides by areas of chaotic geometry.

This chaos varies in "texture" and appearance at different points on Faerie's boundary. At the upper bound, high above the atmosphere, it is simply modifications of vacuum and makes no difference. Deep underground, it is plugged with magma and does nothing more than stir this magma as it shifts. At the surface, the disordered geometry forms the Chaos Marches.

The Chaos Marches

Approaching the chaos on level ground, even pixies can be pixie-led; orientation becomes uncertain. Apparent mist and shimmering gradually fill the air. In the distance, turbulent white clouds, lit with sparkles of white and rainbow lights, swirl about to a roar like that of waterfalls. The ground and gravity twist about in surreal distortions as you get closer. Eventually, you would be swept away and pummeled to death in the gravitational turbulence, barring magical assistance.

In the mountains, the great fay lords have sculpted the peaks near the Marches into great piles of white domes, so the towering clouds of Chaos blend smoothly with cloud-shaped mountains, when viewed from a distance.

At sea, the waters become stormy as you near the Marches, rising to a never-ending maelstrom.

From time to time, great mages "drive back" the chaos, creating more of Faerie, according to their designs. In this way it has grown, mile by mile, for millennia. Meanwhile, the Chaos Marches are useful departure points for other spaces, such as the Home Space containing Earth, Djinnistan, Patala, and other places less known to humans.

Aldanorë or Aramar

This is the oldest part of Faerie, the part first created by Alvirin. Samples of many Earthly flora and fauna, some dating from preglacial periods, plus many fabulous beasts, are found here. The climate is perpetually mild. Many trees fruit and flower perpetually and simultaneously.

Elvencrown

This is the capital of Faerie, though it is not a city. It is an enormous parkland, dominated by the Tree of Faerie, which by now has grown to the proportions of a large mountain. The ground beneath it is illuminated by luminous fruits and flowers up in the branches. The Crown Palace and several subsidiary palaces stand at the Tree's roots. They are enormous, but still overwhelmed by the tree. They are of delicate and fantastic build, in a jumble of many, many architectural styles.

Crownpoint Mountains

These mark the border of Aramar. They are low, forested mountains, similar to the Appalacians. This is the only territory of Faerie where High Elves form the largest segment of the population.

Aundoar Mountains

These are high, harsh mountains, like the Rockies, created by Dwarf Lords. Dwarves form the bulk of the sapient population. The mundane fauna are Old World montane forms, including bears, tigers, lions, goats, and sheep. The fabulous fauna include griffins, chimerae, perytons, pegasi, unicorns, and dinosaurs (both magical and extinct mundane, "dragons" but non-sapient).

Northpoint and Starkeep

These are two of the nine Imperial Keeps, ruled by two of the Nine Stewards of the Crown, who take their orders directly from Alvirin and Didana. Like all the Imperial Keeps, they are on the Chaos Marches, the border between Faerie and the chaotic geometry where Faerie ends. Northpoint is one of the Four Cardinal Keeps. These have the dull but necessary job of continuously scanning the geometry of Faerie, looking for disturbances due to magical catastrophe, sabotage, or invasion. The Northpoint Stewardship is traditionally held by a high-ranking Dwarf Lord; as with all four Cardinal Stewardships, the term of service is a millenium.

Starkeep is one of the Five Celestial Keeps. The Starkeeper, the Steward of Starkeep, is charged with nightly shaping the chaos above Faerie to display the stars of Earth as they appear over Eurasia. The Starkeeper has also come to oversee fay space exploration in Home Space and its astral envelope. The Starkeeper is traditionally an Elf or an avian or insectile were-beast; as with all the five Celestial Stewardships, the term of service is three thousand years, but abdications before then are common and, so long as the term has lasted at least five centuries, honorable.

Northpoint and Starkeep are the only two Imperial Keeps not by water. They stand on cloud-like peaks, and Starkeep is so near the chaos that it moves slowly and randomly about the vicinity of Northpoint. Northpoint does not move, and shall not until such time as the northern border of Faerie is pushed back more.

Kingmoot

This is an Imperial town centered on Kingmoot Castle, where Alvirin or Didana come to meet with the other fay kings and queens (or to go on skiing vacations). The Dwarven kings also meet there. The castle and town are ruled by two Stewards, traditionally a High Elf and a Dwarf; their terms of service are a century apiece.

When no royalty are in residence (as is usually the case), the town keeps itself busy with trade. Dwarves have the largest numbers there, but are not a majority; the other folk are Middle and Low Fays, many Halflings and Goblins.

Iron Mountains

These resemble the Aundoar Mountains, but are somewhat colder. Toward the south, Dwarves are a minority and many other fay breeds mingle.

High Dwarrowgard

This is the largest Dwarven city, honeycombed through several mountains. It is also the seat of the High Dwarf King. He is supposed to be high king over all other dwarven kings and loyal directly to Alvirin, but fays (especially dwarves) are very independent....

Kingstrand

This is a land of gentle hills, wide meadows, and long beaches. It is noted as a crossroads. Land folk come in from central Faerie, sea folk come in from the Lurn, and explorers, pioneers, and exotic visitors come in from the nearby Chaos Marches, where great mages have set up many dwimmorgates.

Lurn Ocean

This is the largest body of water in Faerie. It resembles the temperate and semitropical Atlantic, though with many Pacific borrows. The mundane fauna come from those Earthly oceans; the fabulous fauna include some mosasaurs and plesiosaurs ("sea serpents") but also many strange creatures not found in human mythologies. The people are almost all were-beasts of the whale, dolphin, and seal tribes -- merfolk, tritons, selkies.

Westpoint, Suncall, and Mooncall

These three Imperial Keeps lie on the border between the Lurn and chaos. Mists, mirages, squalls, and rainbows are common there. Westpoint and Suncall stand on great, firm coral reefs, but Mooncall rises straight from the sea, like a whimsical and surreal version of a Venitian palace. Furthermore, Mooncall drifts, and is sometimes seen by folk in one of the two other keeps.

The Steward of Westpoint has duties exactly like those of the Northpoint Steward and the other two Cardinals. The Steward is traditionally a merman or mermaid.

The Stewards of Suncall and Mooncall have the job of steering the Faerie sun and moon down out of the sky above Faerie and extinguishing them in the neighboring chaos.

Lurdeep

This is the capital of the Lurn Ocean, an underwater city of merfolk. Though virtually all merfolk know enough magic to breathe water, there is a water-breathing enchantment over the whole city and up to the surface, to accomdate visitors from abroad, for Lurdeep is also a center of trade and tourism.

The king or queen of Lurdeep claims lordship over all water-fays, even those of the rivers, and the other fay and earthly seas, but water-fays are even more tempestuous than most, and this overlordship has never been acknowledged beyond the Lurn, and seldom everywhere within it. Also, the crown of Lurdeep passes from one head to another fairly often, and seldom peacefully. Many a little reef-queen or river-king has held a crown much longer.

Last Reef

This is a smaller, older version of Kingstrand. Merfolk predominate more. The dwimmorgates there often open on the Kaf Mountains, where Djinnistan lies, and on places in the astral envelope of Home Space, such as the human dreamworld.

Laeriand

This is a typical stretch of Faerie, mostly forest and meadow, level or gently rolling. It closely resembles Earth, except that the plants and animals are more uniformly healthy, and of course some are fabulous or extinct on Earth. The mundane fauna are Old World, especially European.

The Elves and Halflings here resemble European humans, except for a few that are blue or green in color. Prominent Wer-Houses include Wolf, Goat (faun and satyr), Cat, Swan, Eagle, and Horse (pooka and forest centaur).

Vaneriand

This closely resembles Laeriand, though the mundane fauna become more Asiatic as you move east and more African as you move south.

The Elves and Halflings here resemble Asiatic humans, but include some snow-white and pitch-black races. Prominent Wer-Houses include Fox, Crane, Tiger, Lion (sphinx and manticore), Stag, and Bull (minotaur and kerub). Some sapient dragons (nagas, lung) from Patala live on the Rhunar shores.

Parth Sulë or Beleglad

This is the Great Plain of Faerie. It is a wide sweep of grassland and little else. To the north, it resembles Asian steppe, to the west, North American prairie, to the south, African savannah, and to the east, Australian outback.

The local fays have dark red-brown to black skins and are mostly were-beasts or hybrids. Prominent Wer-Houses include Lion (sphinx), Bull (buffalo spirits), Horse (plains centaurs), Eagle (yaruk), Kangaroo, and Coyote.

Rhunar Sea

This sea draws on the Earthly Pacific and Indian Oceans for its fauna. The folk are the same mer-tribes as those of the Lurn, but live more amphibious, less strictly aquatic, live and mingle more with the fays of the islands.

Eastpoint, Sunloft, and Moonloft

These three Imperial Keeps are almost identical to their counterparts on the Lurn, in rough description. However, Sunloft and Moonloft have the job of conjuring the sun and moon into the sky every dawn. Since Tol Rhunmet is so close, there is much more traffic to and from these keeps than at any of the other oceanic keeps. There is no tradition regarding the race of any of the Stewards.

Taurion

This is the largest and most populous part of Faerie. Its fauna and flora draw on all the Earth and its folk include all the tribes of Faerie, even the merfolk (in the rivers and Lake Lailin).

Most of it is forest and meadow. Most of the fays are hunter-gatherers. Some Halflings and Goblins keep farming villages. Dwarves are rare and mingle on more of an equality with Goblins. Here and there is a keep belonging to an elven lord, usually a High Elf; the keep's lord and entourage are the local authorities, keeping the peace, meting out justice, performing major emergency magics; but, as is usual in Faerie, the authority lays lightly on the land. There are no cities of any sort. All this is equally true of Laeriand, Vaneriand, Beleglad, and Lassindor.

Vinyagarond
Vinyagarond (in the Tengwar) in southern Taurion is the one of the most recent settlements in The Summerland. It was founded by Daewen and Ælvynstar when they came to Faerie from The Dreamtime for the birth of their daughters, Mithriel and Mirien Tinmariel. At first it was noting but a small cottage, much like their home of Isiltin in the Dreamtime. As their family and the rest of the New Blood arrived the cottage grew to a sprawling complex at the heart of a woodland village.
The conservatory of Vinyagarond is a great geodesic dome, large enough to house groves of orange, apple, pomegranate and olive trees as well as hundreds of varieties of flowers and bushes. The dome is both the traditional gathering spot of the New Blood, being the largest room in the village, and the most prominent feature of house, thus the name Vinyagarond (from the Quenya: vinya = new, agar = blood, rond = hall with arched roof).
-- JimB

Lassindor

The mundane fauna here are mostly New World, North American toward the west, South American toward the east. The fays here resemble Amerinds when they are humanoid at all. Prominent Wer-Houses include Bull (buffalo-spirits), Eagle, Coyote, Bear, Jaguar, Rabbit, Jay, Crow, Stag, and Cougar.

Golden Mountains

The rest of Faerie considers this territory odd; fays regard it the way Americans regard California or New Yorkers regard Greenwich village. Here expert shapeshifters invent new shapes and sometimes new races; here eccentric mages do their experiments.

It is as if this peninsula of Faerie were more thoroughly infiltrated with chaos from the surrounding Marches. Even the stars are not so regular in their cycles and constellations as they are elsewhere, as if the place lay near the limits of the spells of distant Starkeep.

The land is arid and warm. Few of the mountains have snowy peaks, and between them lie many patches of sandy desert.

There are Seven Cities in the Golden Mountains. Two lie on the shores of the Golden Sea, two lie on the Chaos Marches, and the other three are scattered among the peaks. All are supported by magic even more heavily than is normal with fays. Fays of all breeds mingle in them, including the more outre elves -- the snow white and pitch black, the green and blue, the luminous ones, the monochromatic Dextrals with their six-fingered right hands, and the peacock-hued Electrics with their copper wands and electromagnetic senses. Expatriate half-elves, djinn, nephilim, humans, and nagas are also much commoner there than anywhere else in Faerie.

The Seven Cities and the Golden Mountains generally are common touch-points for fay ghosts, either newly dead or soon to rematerialize. And since fays uniformly die by misadventure, these dead fays are seldom tranquil or resigned.

Traffic through the two cities on the Marches is brisk. Here ghosts are found most often, and here people arrive and leave for many worlds.

Golden Sea

This is the warmest and most densely inhabited sea of Faerie. Its creatures are often fabulous, for instance the giant plankton and mollusks, water-horses, and mer-lions. Indescribable bunyips and boulder-like narguns bask on the shores. Most of the fays are mer-folk of course, but shapeshifting and shapecasting are such common skills among them that members of aquatic Wer-Houses are rarer among them than you would expect.

Southpoint

This Cardinal Keep resembles the eastern and western ones architecturally, but the Steward is a much busier fay and keeps a much larger staff of servants. Not only must the Southpoint Steward watch over the physical integrity of Faerie (not really a demanding duty, just requiring care and integrity), but also keep an eye on the bizarre doings of the Golden Sea and Mountains, which need more supervision per acre than most of Faerie, in the opinion of the Crown. The Southern Cardinal runs a network of observers, all formidable spy-mages, scattered through these southern realms.

Atlantis

This is a separate and much smaller space, not geometrically part of Faerie at all. But it is reckoned "near" to Faerie and culturally part of it, because the population is largely fay.

Atlantis was created by the nagas of Patala, for human habitation, and connected to Earth by broad gates in the seas. When Atlantis "sank," the gates were broken and the connection to Earth lost. Atlantis still has a human population, much larger than any in Faerie proper, but still a minority in Atlantis itself, which has been settled by fays. Most of these fays owe allegiance to Elvencrown, so Faerie has some claims on Atlantis.

The small human population lives in small towns and cities, mostly on the coast, and mostly under the rule of petty dragon-kings. The fay and human populations have mingled blood a good deal in Atlantis, and since humans breed faster, they mingle faster; most human Atlanteans are about a quarter fay.

Avalon

Avalon broke loose from Atlantis in the "sinking" and has been drifting ever since. Various mage-lords have occasionally steered it back into the Atlantic, where it is also known as Norembega, or into the Mediterranean, or into the Rhunar or Atlantean seas. It has no permanent population. The inhabitants at any given time are the retinue of the incumbent mage-lord.

Earthly Paradise

This minor space was discovered shortly after the flood in Mesopotamia that nearly wiped out the infant human race. Rumor has it that it contains Eden and its salvaged Garden, but very few fays have been able to reach it. The most reliable reports come from mariner-mages who claim to have sailed through the Chaos Marches to the Celestial Sea, but who seldom, if ever, have been able to make landfall.

Beyond

Fay cosmographers know of many other spaces, elsewhere in hyperspace or in natural self-containment. As mentioned above, Faerie has regular traffic with Djinnistan in the emerald Kaf Mountains, with draconian Patala, and with various places in the astral envelope of the Home Space. There are also plenty of other fay realms, with friendly, unfriendly, or no particular relations to Elvencrown. The fay sages believe all of them to be colonies created or settled from Faerie or from Earth in the early Ice Ages, when Faerie itself was founded.