Geography

Melanos is a flat, warm land lying along the coast of the Sea of Hope, bordered to the north by Torrigan, to the west by Aleron, and to the south by Samara. The country is mostly made up of gently rolling coastal plain, watered by the Leviathan River and giving way to the forests of Torrigan in the north and the savanna and jungle of Samara in the south. A great deal of maritime trade goes on in Melanos, due to its closeness to the Sea of Hope and the presence of the Leviathan and its tributaries.

Melanos is governed by a conclave of mages based in the Citadel in Palas, at the fork of the Leviathan and the Kaladh. As mages tend to be more concerned with magic than with ruling, the society is very feudal--mage-lords govern stretches of land, the non-mage peasantry paying taxes to them and obeying their laws. Some of the higher mages consider non-mages inferior. The lord mages frequently conflict, sometimes battling with warriors like a glorified game of strategy, sometimes in a duel arcane.
Melanos has a longstanding conflict between itself and Torrigan, its neighbor to the north. This conflict has never yet erupted into war, and nobody particularly cares to see it do so.

Melanos seems to be centered over an area of high magic, where magical energy is somehow amplified or concentrated, particularly in the heart of the country. Travelers to Melanos from other lands sometimes find magical Talents flaring to life unexpectedly.

Copyright © 1999 Abigail Laughlin and the members of the Circle of Stone.