Breis

  Breis is a large and mysterious continent in the south of Galath, with a temperate climate and a heavily forested interior. It is separated from Boriya by the warm waters of the Steaming Sea, and from Erask by the cool, dark waves of the Shadowed Sea.   It is rumoured that a great city, dubbed Breisa, lies in the Titanspine mountains at the continent's heart, but that is a matter more of rumour than of evidence. The only cities that are known to have been build on Breisan ground are Anoke, whose ruins lie on the north-eastern shore, the broken heart of the fallen Eorldom of Astis, and the smaller port of Carn in the south-west. The true settlements of Breis are quite different from those of other continents.   Breis is the only home of the Gantua, also called the God-Beasts, animals so vast that whole communities can, and do, live on their broad backs, venturing out to hunt and gather. The largest of these are home to communities of over a million individuals, who live with little to fear save predatory attacks by the largest of the carnivorous Gantua. Breis is also home to the thunderbeasts, numerous unique species of reptile and bird, many larger than an elephant. The ruins of Astis are home to small communities of Giant-Kin, which resemble militarised monastic cloisters, but the native Sympatic Lineage of Breis are the Halflings of the Gantuan settlements.  

The Titanic Plains

In western Breis, the giant forests of the interior thin out to broad plains that are home to various grass-grazing megafauna, including grazing and predatory thunderbeasts, and a number of city-scaled Gantua. The plains are also home to numerous nomadic bands of halflings who eschew the Gantuan cities to live in harmony with the thunderbeasts, using many as mounts, hunting companions or watch animals.   In the south of the plains, the ruins of Carn, a small port built by Giants before the establishment of Astis, are home to a thriving community of fisherfolk, sailors and traders from many lands. Carn is not a true city - its largest buildings were wrecked by the Gantua during the fall of Astis - but rather a collective of giant-kin, adventurers and speculators.  

Cities of the Plains

Three Gantua cities regularly make their way across the Plains, always keeping a good distance from each other.

• Dule is an ancient city known for its learning and magic. Dule is a long-necked Gantu, and the architectural jewel of the city is the 'tower' which winds up that neck.
• Hror goes close to the ground. The city of the same name spreads across its broad back, ringed with cranes which lower sailed chariots onto the plains.
• The 'lonely city' of Rughr is so-called because it lacks the usual protective suburbs, circling the main city on smaller gantua. Instead, it is built into the massive, armoured plates of Rughr's back as a series of bunkers surrounding the walled garden of its central agricultural district.

 

The Thundering Coast

Named for the crash of waves on its cliffs and shoals, the Thundering Coast is home to many flying megafauna. The forests push close to the edge of the cliffs, but the trees are smaller than those in the interior and few of the truly huge Gantuas venture so close to the coast. The only sympatic residents are small communities of halflings who bond with some of the pterosaur colonies.  

Cities of the Coast

Only one city marks its territory on the coast.

• Folung is an amphibious city on the back of a turtle-like Gantu. Its buildings are broad, waterproofed domes and the aft district is built to anchor great driftnets to harvest the bounty of the ocean.

 

Astis

In the north-east, the cliffs of the Thundering Coast slope down to wooded downlands. Still known as Astis, this area was once an Eorldom of the Orthnar, before the city of Anoke was destroyed by a massed formation of Gantuas, apparently reacting to the Giants attempt to lay claim to the region. Astis is now home to some of the more-modestly-sized creatures on the continent, including Gantua communities up to the size of a large town, and the majority of the bands of Giant-Kin who survived the fall of the Eorldom and have adapted the least ruined buildings into competing fortified camps.  

Cold Shore

Around to the south-east, the forests pull back from sandy shores, swept by the icy waters of the Southern Ocean. Those waters are home to a number of amphibious settlements, protected by watertight enchantments on the backs of oceangoing Gantua.  

Cities of the Shore

The cities of the Cold Shore are few, there being little grazing.

• The sleeping city of Bahruum is built on the back of Great Bahruum, largest of the Gantua extremis. Bahruum spends much of its life sleeping, but the city is defended by rings of spines and the sheer mass of the Gantu. Although amphibious, Bahruum never submerges, as it does not venture into water deep enough.
• Tharan is the only aquatic Gantu city. The Gantu Tharan is a whale-like beast, and the inhabitants of the city occupy protective domes and make use of enchanted breathing gear. They are also known for their wave-skippers, sailed boards on which they dance across the waters.

 

Skycliffs

Moving west, the coast rises again to cliffs even higher than those in the north. The Skycliffs are the tallest cliffs in Galath, and are split by the majestic cascade of the Celestial Falls. The Falls crash down into the waters of Torrent Bay, opposite the rambling archipelago of the Serpent Isles, which are home to colonies of small, flighted thunderbeasts, some of which are ridden by communities of halfling fisherfolk.  

The Interior

The vast forests of the interior surround the Titanspine Mountains. This is where the largest Gantuas dwell, along with the largest communities on Breis. Legend insists that the mountains are the home to Breisa, an ancient, ground-built city occupied by whoever created the halflings, but the halflings themselves reject these tales.  

Cities of the Interior

Fully half of the known Gantua extremis live in the forests of the interior, where their dependent cities can build tall and strong.

• Protas the Great, the only know Gantu excelsior, roams the foothills of the Titanspines. The city of Protas, with its vast storehouses and ancient vaults, is the recognised capital of Breis, home to the council halls of the Bregantur, where representatives of the great cities resolve territorial disputes and discuss matters of wider interest. Protas is noted not just for its vast size but for its eight legs, which allow it to negotiate the hills and valleys of the foothills, frequently spanning the latter with its body. Some liken it to the basilisk, but its huge eyes have no evident petrifying effect.
• Branoah is called the Crowned for the row of thick spines rising from its back. The towers of the city of Branoah sway gently between these spines, rising fifty or sixty feet from the Gantu's back and standing tall and proud above the canopy. At the tops of these towers are the pteries, where the pterosaurs of scouts and sky-knights roost.
• The twin cities of Zahaun and Hauzan occupy the backs of a pair of Gantua which seem ot have a profound bond. Zahaun legend says that they were mates when they were small enough, while Hauzan stories cast them as siblings. Whatever the truth, they stay close together, and the two cities, although forever divided philosophically - Zahaun is traditionally druidic and democratic, while Hauzan is a theocracy - share suburbs.
• Chelou is a city built within the carapace of its tortoise-like host. It contains the greatest repository of knowledge on Breis and is a centre of science and philosophy, secure within its near-impregnable fortress.
• Taraun is the smallest of the Gantua extremis, and moves as part of a pack of Gantua superior and major for protection. The residents of Taraun use these smaller escorts and the city's relative mobility to act as bandits and raiders. Their attacks are officially disavowed by the city's authorities, but Taraun's reputation in the Bregantur is poor.
• High above the mountains, Aphiga circles in eternal thermals. The city is built on great platforms hung beneath the body of this impossible creature, a pterosaur as large as a city, while working pterosaurs roost below the platforms. As Aphiga never lands, the city is the only one entirely safe from the Terrask, but flying predators of many sizes will attack the platforms from time to time. The greatest thinkers, mages and warriors of Aphiga may be granted a home in the Overcity, a district built on Aphiga's back. It is exposed and subject to the seismic motionof the Gantu's wing muscles, but provides a vantage for skywatching as well as aerial defence.
• Terrasa is not a true city, but a group of small, fortified communities which act as a mobile picket surrounding the Terrask. The people of these outposts take on the duty or tracking the City-Eater and warning off any Gantua in its path.