10 Shattered Steppes, The

Geography and Circumstance:

The Shattered Steppes occupies the eastern expanse of the northernmost coast of the continent, with borders abutting the Endless Plains to the west, the Deadlands to the east, and the Ashlands to the southeast. The southern and southwestern expanses of the Shattered Steppes border the Great Escarpment, which blocks most of the more humid air from the south, leading the Shattered Steppes toward a cooler, drier climate than most of the rest of the continent.   The lands of the Shattered Steppes are, as the name might suggest, 'broken', insofar as the borders of natural terrain features are concerned, as the land will suddenly drop into ravines or rise up in sheer cliffs in ways that defy any reasonable geological explanation. Rivers take on strange shapes, and periodically shift their paths, incrementally, over the course of more severe Planestorms. Likewise cliffs, ravines, and forests will also slowly creep and shift across the land, reflecting a much-slower permutation of terrain than the Maelstrom from which the Planestorm energies derive.   Native wildlife in the Shattered Steppes no longer resembles that which resided in these lands prior to the Calamity, primarily due to the mutating effects of the Maelstrom-laden energies seeping into the land. Ordinary creatures might have taken on some of the mutable features of the Protean species from that realm. Others have merely mutated or evolved specific traits that have begun to breed true. Other than the mutated animals and beasts of the land, creatures such as wyverns are relatively common, and in the deeper outskirts of the wilderness, other horrible monstrosities roam - mostly aberrations or monstrous beasts of great destructive capablity. Of particular note, mutated variants of hydras thrive in the deep uninhabited wilderness east of Cragmere.  

Races of the Shattered Steppes:

The Shattered Steppes are home to the hardy and the dextrous, the fast or durable of the species known for their hunting prowess

• Catfolk
• Centaur
• Dwarves
• Gnomes
• Kitsune
• Kobolds
• Nagaji
• Orcs
• Tengu
• Vanara
• Fleshwarps*
• Goloma*
• Sarangay*
• Shisk*

  *Fleshwarps, Goloma, Sarangay, and Shisk are all only Uncommon within the Shattered Steppes, instead of Rare. Fleshwarps are occasionally born to parents of other species, and their own children may or may not breed true.  

Shattered Steppe Society:

   

Stronghold: