Interactive Map of Telmerion

iggya: “sleep, slumber,” named after its proximity to the Iggath Coast, or vice versa

A fishing village built at the meeting of forest and ocean and looking out eastward over the Iggath Coast, Igny has existed for many centuries, since at least the middle of the 1st Age, and though its size has fluctuated throughout that time, it has always remained small. Those who call it home receive their subsistence primarily from hunting, woodworking (for building and for trade), and fishing, with the usual agriculture that, however, due to the forested land all about, remains little more than gardening or the work of less than an acre. During the high days of the Galapteä kingship a well-known smith made his home in Igny, and his metalworks—of weapons and armor but also of more artistic creations—became legendary. It is rumored that the hereditary line of this smith, and his skill, lives even now among his descendants.

cara-fel: “peaceful woods, woods of peace”

An ancient forest that has long lain in the sloping moorlands that descend from the lower remnants of the Teldren Mountains toward the eastern sea, the Cara’fel Woods once stretched further south as well, to Lake Ilina and westward a short ways into Moradoch Steppe. But over the centuries the size of the woods has lessened through the labor of man in his felling of trees for building, trade, and the clearing of farm and grazing land. Igny and Eresia alone have existed in a natural symbiosis with the woods, rather than replacing them entirely with human civilization and development. Usually called a “coastal conifer forest,” the Cara’fel Woods is nonetheless home also to many deciduous trees such as aspen, elm, birch, and rowan. The woods are also home to many creatures of the wild, a haven of untamed wilderness over a hundred miles across in every direction: elk and bears, rabbits and foxes and beavers, and birds of all kinds. There are also numerous species of fish making their home in the waters of the three rivers that flow through the woods, only one large enough to be marked on maps—the Rill—whereas the other two are in places hardly more than streams except when experiencing a rush of water from the melting snows of the mountains during the springtime thaw.

fel-stadeä: “woodland-home”

The sole remaining remnants of the glorious reign of Sera Galaptes in the end of the 1st Age, now fallen into ruin and forgetfulness, Falstead is hardly more than a hamlet of less than a thousand persons. The village is nestled deep in the woods of the Galas Basin, a woodland of high elevation reaching up the sides of the mountain until treeless tundra replaces it.

haugera nu Sera Galáptes

Located at the foot of one of the greatest peaks of Telmerion, the Gorojin (gor-oh-yihn), this barrow is the most expansive and “inhabited” of its kind in the land, giving home to hundreds of years of men and women of the clan of the Galapteä and, as the name suggests, perhaps even to the first high king himself. A combination of natural rock formations and of the patient artisanship of man, the barrow is a marvel of ancient craftsmanship as well as of devotion and care for one’s ancestors even in the flesh.

aldes-raha: “trees-lacking,” “lacking in trees”

At the very feet of the great Teldren mountain range, the Aldera Highlands are mostly barren both of trees and of shrubs, though cloaked in grasses and heather, with innumerable streams running through them during the springtime. Indeed, after centuries the land itself is marked by crevices and ravines not unlike deep wrinkles on an aged face. Stretching from the rocky slopes of the mountains to the Cara’fel Woods, these highlands are little populated—only by a scattering of homesteading families and herders—and used mostly only as a passage from north to south if the Mardas Road is either undesirable or too out-of-the-way for one’s destination.

rist-fænd: “rich settlement”

One of the oldest habitations in Telmerion, dating back to the beginning of the clans and their division across the face of the continent—founded by one of the two “brothers” of the Rhovanni clan, Elric—Ristfand’s size and wealth is rivaled only by Brug’hil in the far northwest and by Minstead in the center of the land. The city, with the exception of outlying farmsteads, is largely enclosed within a massive stone wall that stretches for miles—quite an undertaking since walls of such fortification are usually only built around the castle or citadel itself. Yet this is not an exception in the land, as Onylandun and the already mentioned Minstead are protected likewise, though in the former case the mountains provide a large part of this shelter. Ristfand also stretches (outside the walls) to the southern coast upon Nelsen Bay, where a great deal of fishing and some trade occurs.

tel-onis: “Telmoth’s place,” “place of Telmoth”

Telonis is the name both of a flat stretch of land jutting out from the side of the Yjind Mountains, and ending at a steep cliff looking out over the Plains of Melroc, as well as of the hamlets that reside and flourish therein. The age of these homesteads and the families that sustain them is unknown, as no one speaks of how long they have been living in this fruitful steppe against the mountains, but it is at least a handful of generations, if not more.

stïeka-mara: “chasm-great,” “the great chasm”

This feature of the landscape is clearly not a product of nature, being a massive rift in the earth impossible to cross, being over a mile long and immeasurably deep, and cutting into the steep slopes of the mountains on either end. Its origin story is told elsewhere in depth, and is thus not recounted here.

mora-eidoch: “morning steppe”

At the feet of the mountains, the rocky slopes give way to a rugged highland pock-marked and creviced, cloaked in long swaying grasses and fields of heather, and dotted with rowan, spruce, birch, and pine: this is the Moradoch Steppe, stretching from the Teldren Range almost to Lake Ilina, though here the rugged land gives way to swelling plains covered in farmland and grazing pastures, inhabited much more richly than the austere steppe itself. Some of the crevices that cut their way through the steppe, however, continue on even to the coast, enlarging and meeting with Tuklos Fjord, where they embrace the ceaseless caress of the waves of the sea.

morda-fiana: “new grove,” so named because of the small forest nearby

One of the larger settlements in the sprawling plains east of the Moradoch Steppe and west of Lake Ilina and the Fjord of Tuklos, Morda’Fiana is a popular stopping-place for travelers along the Mardas Road. This road, traversing from Ristfand in the south and all the length of Telmerion to Claris’ye in the north, is a popular route both of trade and of personal travel, whether on horseback, carriage, or by foot. And Morda’Fiana makes much of its wealth and flouring precisely through giving rest and refreshment to travelers, particularly in the inn of the Jovial Jokester, also called the Laughing Lollygagger (depending on who you ask). There is a tradition among the people of the town that the inn, though owned by the long-standing Loelly family (hence the nickname), belongs to everyone, and thus its “monopoly” is turned to good use by its proceeds being distributed—partially—for the good of all. In return the Loelly’s can rely both on good employees and on a prospering town, not to mention fair prices on food and drink from the surrounding farmsteads. A pleasing arrangement for all involved.

teldren-yjind: i.e. “Teldrjind Pass”

Passing through the wide and deep valley between the two massive mountains ranges of Telmerion, the Teldren and the Yjind Mountains, north and south respectively, Teldyn Pass takes its name from them both. At least fifty leagues across at its narrowest point, the valley is truly impressive, with peaks rising on either side, cloaked most of the year in snow and often shrouded in dense fog, while the stretch of the pass itself is longer than human sight can take in, connecting eastern Telmerion with western. It is one of the only three easy and widely frequented ways of passage between the two sides of the mountain ranges (the others being Unyisa Pass and Germun Forest). Through it passes a road by the same name, connecting with the Mardas Road in the east and with the large town of Oromardë in the west, though a branch also turns north even to Minstead and Brug’hil.

vellen: “bosom”

The Wellen Hills descend gradually, with a great deal of undulation, toward the lower elevation of the southeastern reaches of Telmerion: the Plains of Melroc and the peninsulas around the city of Rhovas. Heavily wooded, yet not so heavily as for example the Cara’fel or Galas Basin woods, the hills nonetheless offer a beautiful sight of the Yjind Mountains towering in the east and, when viewed from the crest of one of the taller hills, wide expanses of land stretching into the distance to the east and the south. Nestled among these woods are numerous small hamlets or villages not marked on any map (though this is really the case in almost every area in Telmerion, as it is in all places). Most notable of these is Helasa, though most who pass through these hills are bound for Ristfand. But the hills are not there merely for passing; even more, they are there for living, for sheltering home and hearth, and for receiving daily the rays of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, indeed, for allowing its light to shine in dappled hues through the trees while villagers go about their work and play, their life and love.

roër-vas: “valiant-spirit”

Long-time center of government for the clan of the Rhovanni, Rhovas was eventually replaced in this role by Ristfand, though it remains still to this day a thriving city, though smaller than others in Telmerion. Built on the slope of a massive hill with a walled citadel upon its crown, Rhovas is a hub of trade as well as of protection and education for the towns of eastern Telmerion. For among its many amenities, it houses barracks and training grounds for soldiers, a scholarly institute rivaled only by that of Brug’hil, and a flourishing industry of both tanning and cloth-making, all in a centralized location for the many smaller settlements roundabout. Once founded by Gûdric, one of sons of Herald at the earliest beginnings of the clan of Rhovas, it has always been an important location both in the relations between the clans as well as in its own domain.

brudghë-cæhil: “cliff-city”

Long-time capital of the clan of the Bruï, founded high upon steep cliffs overlooking the crashing waves of the ocean, the city of Brug’hil (pr. Brûg-hill) is the largest in Telmerion. Boasting of a great and majestic citadel at the highest portions of the city, it is also home to a center of learning, the earliest precursor of the university, a house of lore in which bards study the ancient tales and put them to song, and an observatory for the study of both the sky and the sea. Since the occupation of the Vælirian Empire in the land of Telmerion and over her people, Brug’hil has also been the seat of the vicarious Imperial government under the leadership of the Emperor’s legate.