Athos

Athos
The northern continent is where civilization is said to have first arisen millennia ago and is considered the most civilized of all the continents to this day. The south central section of the continent is covered in the warm, fertile Tarn Plains, home to the great cities of Barshvitz and Terrack. 300 miles inland a great escarpment known as Mazgill Drop separates this region from the cooler northern plateau, where the largest and grandest city in the world – Andelusia – sits on the banks of the mighty Gardil River. To the east of Adelusia the land gently slopes back down to sea level while to the west a great spine of mountains divides the continent, leaving the western third, including the city of Karneck, accessible by land only through a series of treacherous mountain passes.

The prohibited areas to the far north are also separated by a massive range of volcanic mountains known as the burning spires, clearly delineating the realm of the dragons from that of the humanoids.

Many fashionable folk from Xian-Tau like to say they plan to move to one of the cities of Athos one day, though travel between continents is not easy, requiring a sea voyage of at least several weeks unless magical means are employed. Each of the continent’s major cities has a reputation for being the greatest exemplar of some positive quality of the humanoid races (discussed further below). Residents of Xiang-Tau sometimes try to apply similarly superlative descriptions to their own cities but none have really caught on.