Terratos, or the Land of Monsters, is the best sort of government that can be forced out of the harsh continent of Shatterlands. A loose collection of city-states, with trade and some mutual protection agreements keeping them more or less connected, Terratos has no single ruler, and there are communities for almost every sort of person that might make their way to the Shatterlands. This diversity of population is what leads Terratos to get its name, for not all of the beings that settle in these city-states are among the standard human and demihuman races expected of civilization. Many aren't even humanoid. But so long as these various creatures respect the laws of the community in which they live, the people of Terratos are astonishingly accepting.
While representatives from each city-state might meet with other representatives regularly, the majority of decisions in each city-state remain internal, and their inhabitants prefer to keep themselves to themselves. The only times that city-states get involved with each other, besides for trading, is for sake of defense. This is because most members of the Terratos city-states understand that if one city-state falls to conquest, such as from neogi slavers or an orcish warband from the Underdark, it is only a matter of time before it happens to them next.
Major Races: Any and All.
Government: Loose Alliance of City States
Nation Alignment: Neutral (overall, varies by city-state).
Major Cities:
Channelwood: Just over the border of the vast tracts of lands claimed by Avalon City is the hilly forest of Channelwood, marking the boundary line between Summer Country and Shatterlands. A good part of Channelwood itself is a city of sorts, populated primarily by arboreal- and hill-preferring races, especially beastfolk of many varieties, halflings, gnomes, and elves. Avian beastfolk and elves live in the treetops, while gnomes and halflings and other beastfolk make their homes burrowed into the hills and inside the trees. There is also a decent-sized centaur population living between Channelwood and Avalon City, many of them acting as guides and scouts for trading parties. Because the city of Channelwood has ill-defined boundaries, as might be expected of a city built into the trees themselves, many travellers pass right through it without even knowing that they passed the city. This, actually, is the major defense of Channelwood, and, along with its deadly avian beastfolk, elven, and halfling snipers, makes it quite safe for its inhabitants. Though there is a constant stream of dangerous creatures from the south, trying to reach Summer Country, few of them make it past the Channelwood, though some do settle there, posing a regular danger to the inhabitants of the tree cities, and requiring caution when travelling in the region. Channelwood is ruled, more or less, by a democracy in which all its inhabitants can take part, meeting in a magically-secure shrine to the elven gods in order to gain the most safety possible while they decide important issues and occasional legal matters. The forest city of Channelwood, for its part, is a Chaotic Good community.
Fissure: Where Channelwood marks the northern border of Terratos, Fissure marks the southern border, a massive rift in the earth that has been populated by others, and then expanded upon. Duergar engineers worked together with hired orcish laborers to turn Fissue from a mere hole in the ground into a community. Now the crack in the earth from which Fissue gets its name is a tiered community, with stepped layers carved out of living rock for several miles going down, giving the community plenty of room to grow. Fissure is noted as a town primarily dominated by duergar and dwarven expatriots, drow exiles, orcish renegades, and other Underdark residents displaced from their dark homes and forced to live and make their living, more or less, on the surface. Since the depths of Fissure provide some protection from the harsh light of the sun, and nominal access to the realms under the ground without quite going into the Underdark, while its heights provide easy access to the surface, Fissure attracts all manner of creatures. The duergar and dwarves, however, have come to a compromise so as to rule Fissure efficiently and well, and this community is primarily Lawful Neutral in its temperament, with a strong True Neutral leaning. So long as nobody is killed or harrassed, and the work of others is not impeded, one's personal life is left largely to one's personal decisions. This makes Fissure an ideal trade town, and it regularly produces goods that make their way to the Great Arena and into the markets of the Underdark. Swine are the major livestock raised in this region, primarily by orcish and dwarven farmers, and both grain and fungus are raised for food, above- and belowground, respectively. Privacy and uninterrupted opportunities for work are prized by the community of Fissure, and disturbing the peace is an especially serious offense, with regular offenders being exiled from the community.
Kendu Aerie: Between Channelwood and Fissure is Kendu, the City of Birds. This is the single largest city of avian beastfolk and avariel elves on Therafim. Here, in a city built on a large plateau that has been smoothed out over the course of many years of hard labor, the avian beastfolk have made their greatest community, in a city built with elven magic and cunning to tremble with the mountain beneath it, rather than to fall. Here the hawkblood priestking of Phoenix rules the city with a benevolent, Neutral Good stance, his normally harsh nature kept in check by the heronblood council of clericss. The avians of Kendu are often called upon to act as go-betweens and messengers for Fissure, Channelwood, and other minor city-states in the Terratos region, and their city is seen as common, neutral ground for when meetings must be arranged to decide matters that concern all of the city-states of Terratos.
