Lands of Sūdul

Isolated within the cradle of the Sleeping Mountains, the jungles of the Dreamlands are unlike any other land in the world. Perhaps most curious about the region is the fact that at no point in its history has the forested basin ever been inhabited by Dwürden or Eylfāe. The earliest known inhabitants of the region were the Sha’al, which appear to have been forced into the Vast Untamed following early Yrūn migrations. Today, the Dreamlands are dominated by the city-state of Jædð, a vestige of the Old Empire whose fortresses dot the surrounding mountains as they have for thousand of years.

The region has another story however, evident in the ancient stone ruins found throughout the jungles. These are the remains of an older non-Yrūn civilization that thrived long before the Dekàli armies landed at Æva Tereð in the 1st century HK. When the Old Empire reached the Dreamlands, this civilization had already been in decline for hundreds of years. Examination of the countless carved blocks and overgrown tombs which dot the region, one can begin to conceive of the extent of these forefathers of present day Sha’ala. Conception soon invites the question of why the Sha’al left the fertile Dreamlands in the first place.

One insight into that prehistoric time lies with the Sha’al legend of the Corruption. This was a time, according to the Sha’al faith, when the race “lost its way” in the world. Numerous leaders of the Sha’al people, unable to combat the moral decay of their civilization, led large groups of the serpent-folk into the Vast Untamed where they could begin again. In the wake of these migrations, there was left an unprincipled and aimless people that self-destructed in the centuries to follow. A shadow of their former grandeur, the Sha’al of the Dreamlands were no match for the disciplined and ruthless Yrūn conquerors.

Another theory about the Sha’al downfall concerns Izzàradràgulð, the Dreaming Dragul. It has been postualted that the Sha’al could not contend with the Living Dreams and were driven insane by the Dragul’s magical dreaming. Still others believe that the Living Dreams were no more than primitive explanations for the hallucinogenic Blooms. It is curious that all mention of the Living Dreams disappear from the historical record at about the time of Elnàdra’s founding.

Regions, Geographic

• Bay of Jarjat
• Falwùr Fen
• Mor’n Karjek
• Mor’n Feldir
• Mor’n Los
• Mor’n Irídir
• Mor’n Bardal
• Run Adnadða
• Run Sùlūð
• Run Sōloris
• Run Sìlar
• Tor’n Bèsūdra

Regions, Political

• Jædð (e.g., Jædð, Vimir, Shardra)

Landmarks

• Kry Dàlar. One of two keeps that guard the Falwùr Fen passage to the East.
• Kry Kyrador. One of two keeps that guard the Falwùr Fen passage to the East.
• Kry Nàrdramàd. A Jædðàri keep in the eastern Dreamlands that monitors the Forbidden Pass.
• Kry Sōkur. A Jædðàri keep in the eastern Dreamlands that guards against Zrū incursions.
• Tor Dàg’on. Mountain that marks the southern border of the Falwùr Fen.
• Tor Dīagòra Mountain that marks the northern border of the Falwùr Fen.
• Tor Sōkura

Phenomena

• Blooms. When people think of the Dreamlands, they often do not consider the ring of slumbering volcanoes or the dark and savage jungles, instead they often wonder about the mysterious Blooms that fill the forest basin with clouds of hallucinogenic dust (rf. Blooms).