(Author's Note, 3rd Printing: When I first compiled my simple notes from wandering the continent of Talaishia, it was meant first as a travel guide, then as a primer to the nations that reside there. As is the case, the correspondence that's taken place has largely regaled tales of far more distant lands. Parthia, Kufrik, even Chi'in. In my second printing of this tome, I skipped the entire Senzar Empire and took the reader completely across the Lantl to Cos Mora and Hy Braseal.
Yes, due to reader demand, I will commit to parchment the true tales beyond this humble appendix, but I believe I might need to don my adventuring cloak once again and actually see the lands, to separate the fact from myth.
While that's all well and good, I have composed this entry for my readers who requested it (with gold), the Bermeja Islands
The Bermeja Islands
Red rock rise, red rock sink
Count your crew then count again
- A Children's Rhyme, know in at least seven common languages.
Where is it?
Despite the demand for hard facts, Bermeja isn't a kingdom or even it's own domain. Between Amazonian, Muyan, Teclan, and Amayran peoples of the distant mainland, the myths and legends of the island chain are quite consistent, for the islands themselves are quite inconsistent.
To the casual eye, the islands appear to be drifting. The winds and the seas have little to no effect on the direction or speed. There could be argued, with some degree of accuracy, that the islands have a consistent, if not accurately charted, direction and pattern, the shape of a triangle within the western Mer Karabesh. However, no scholar or loremaster has explained the fact that the island can simply disappear at irregular intervals, reappearing at a different interval than the lapsed time suggests.
Many of the accounts describe the rust-colored cliffs, emanating like dried blood in the glow of the sunset, but they appear to have practical effect that they obstruct most passage onto the island.
My humble opinion, from thousands of miles away, is that these islands are enchanted, and mystically fenced in with some alleged fractured ley-lines crossing each out. Until proper research and study can be conducted, at great expense, it's a geographic paradox.
Who lives there?
The recent influx of Senzar colonizers in the region skews recent information. In the early days of the world, different cultures suggest serpent-folk, or perhaps the birthplace of some of the giantkind that migrated south to establish part of the
Cos Mora.
There are no known human/common humanoid settlements or cultures on any of the islands. A common theme is an ashy colored race of fishmen, living on and below the floating islands, helping them navigate, perhaps.
Why do we care?
The powers of Senzar and Talaishia are already colonizing Vargaard for resources much less intriguing than the mere rumors of what the items hold:
- The obvious magical implications of the crossing ley lines, and the earth magic that allows the islands to float.
- Red iron ore that never rusts
- Fire pearls harvested from volcanic vents
- And the magical quandary of how to stop the islands from floating... and should anyone even attempt.
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