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terranova.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>World of 1668</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="other.css"/>
</head>
<body>
<p><a href="index.html">Back to start page</a></p>
<h1>Terra Nova</h1>
<h2>Population: ~300,000 (?)</h2>
<h3>History</h3>
<p>
In the year 1420 a heavily laden
<a href="oldsirkassia.html">Sirkassian</a>
trading fleet bound for the
<a href="noonislands.html">Noon Islands</a>
was lost in a terrible winter storm.
When none of the fleet's ships returned for months on end,
people resigned themselves to the fact that every soul in the fleet was resting at the bottom of the ocean.
However, exactly a year and a day after the occurrence of the fateful storm,
a mysterious sailor by the name of Conrad Cork appeared in the busy Sirkassian port of
<a href="nessalios.html">Nessalios</a>.
He claimed to be the last surviving member of that ill-fated fleet,
but flatly refused to explain how he had come to be the only one to survive.
This, however, was not the strangest part of his tale,
for he also claimed that he had seen a vast -- previously unknown -- landmass on the other side of the
<a href="widdershinssea.html">Widdershins Sea</a>.
</p>
<p>
Of course, this notion was initially dismissed as no more than an old sailors yarn.
For time out of mind no ship had ever ventured across the wide and stormy Widdershins Sea and returned to tell the tale.
However, Cork was eventually able to convince the wealthy heiress Artemisia Felind to pay to have an old merchant vessel modified for long distance travel.
She then spent several years putting together the perfect crew of explorers before setting off on the perilous journey across the sea with herself as captain of the ship.
After many days on the open water,
land was spotted for the first time and though the journey wasn't easy,
Felind and her crew lived to eventually tell the tale.
</p>
<p>
Thus in 1424 it was finally proven beyond doubt that there existed a second continent across the Widdershins Sea and the news sent shock waves through the old Sirkassian Empire.
Soon small groups of pioneers began attempting to settle in the new mysterious land.
This was not without its perils however and many early settlers fell victim to Terra Nova's lethal tricks.
They were quick to discover that forays into the interior were an almost certain death sentence and so the settlements that became permanent all clung to the coast of the new land.
In the present year of 1668 the largest of these new-world settlements are
<a href="portredolent.html">Port Redolent</a>,
<a href="kinghakonstown.html">King Hakon's Town</a> and
<a href="fortcordoba.html">Fort Cordoba</a>.
Perhaps not deserving of the name 'settlement',
there is also a sprawling mess of shanty towns and prison camps that constitutes the penal colony around
<a href="tartaruspeak.html">Tartarus Peak</a>.
</p>
<h3>Geography</h3>
<p>
Terra Nova is expansive.
To the north it seems to meld with the endless ice-sheets of the polar ocean,
to the south it tapers off into a chain of small islands known as the
<a href="pearlsofmagdalena.html">Pearls of Magdalena</a>.
No one really knows where it ends to the west.
Few who venture exploring into the interior return and when they do return the tales they tell are hard to make sense of,
for in the interior facts may be as strange as fiction.
Indeed, it is often difficult to tell those who have actually been there from the
many liars who enjoy spinning yarns about it.
</p>
<p>
The vast forest that spans from around
<a href="laketulforous.html">Lake Tulforous</a>
all the way up north to King Hakon's Town,
is known to locals as the Deepwood,
and it is a place of dread in the popular imagination.
West of the forest, most explorers who claim to have made it that far report finding the foothills of a forbidding mountain range.
These mountains are speculated to be the source of the the
<a href="mellowriver.html">Mellow River</a>
which snakes its way through the Deepwood and feeds Lake Tulforous.
After exiting the lake as a sluggish brown flow,
the Mellow River opens into a marshy delta around Port Redolent.
</p>
<p>
Two days march north of Port Redolent,
<a href="graybay.html">Gray Bay</a>
plunges deep into the interior and at its end lies King Hakon's Town.
Further north still, where there are icebergs off the coast year round, lies Tartarus Peak.
Fort Cordoba was constructed around 1540 as a naval base aimed at clearing the
<a href="pearlsofmagdalena.html">Pearls of Magdalena</a> of their many pirate nests and it lies at the southernmost point of the mainland.
The operation against the pirates proved to be a failure over many decades and the Sirkassian navy soon had to turn its attention elsewhere,
leaving the old fort to become a sleepy provincial town over the course of the next one-hundred years.
</p>
<h3>Legends</h3>
<p>
Ignorance of the interior breeds an eternal fascination for the people living on Terra Nova,
and for this reason there is a multitude of legends surrounding it.
One popular story is that the Lost Tribe of Tallyn
(the inhabitants of an ancient kingdom in the land of Sirkassia which mysteriously vanished around a millennium ago)
actually somehow made it to Terra Nova following their fabled disappearance.
The ancient rulers of the Tribe of Tallyn are thought to have been very wise priests and perhaps their powerful relics are still with them.
There is also a legend of a mysterious fountain somewhere in the mountains beyond the Deepwood which has the power to turn iron into gold.
Other tales tell of little men the size of rabbits and giant ants the size of horses.
It's clear that the lands of the interior play by their own rules -- explorers must be ready for anything!
</p>
</body>
</html>