Brazoskov Geography

Deepwood Barrows: A hilly region amidst the Tzarswald pines north of the Skorbi River, said to house the remains of thousands of soldiers and heroes from the Tricentennial War, fought between the Myrkyban Witch-wardens and the Blood Counts of Old Brazos, hundreds of years before the crowning of the first Emperor. Though much of the area is overgrown, the crests and contours of these burial mounds remain evident, and some are still crowned with indecipherable stones or tombs denoting sepulchers below. Several have been partially dug out or pillaged through the centuries, by both robbers and adventurers, but it is an ill-advised practice, since neither the local wildlife (dire wolves, bears, badgers, etc) or the ‘residents’ of the Barrows desire to be disturbed.
 
Flailing Marsh: The Marsh is named for its dominant rotfeather ferns, pale plants whose leaves whip about constantly in the breezes off the Skorbi River and Jaggerhead Lake. The ferns are the primary ingredient in the rotka whiskey so popular throughout Brazoskov, and harvesters can be found in camps throughout the summer and autumn months. Never alone, for the Marsh is also home to threats like hydras, bullywugs, witching vedma/vedmak, and the restless spirits which haunt the areas surrounding the Crumblemoor, a half sunken keep which was once home to a local baron whose family profited heavily off the rotka trade.
 
Gargoyle Steeps: The Steeps rise to around 3-3,500 feet at their highest, a snowy alpine range which plummets down steeply at its north face into the Sea of Specters. They are snow-covered through most of the year, and the slopes make for excellent skiing or climbing challenges. The mountains get their name for the strange, grotesque statues and visages that have been carved into their peaks, monuments of an ancient, otherworldly culture from millennia before mankind became dominant on the continent of Karnovya. Treacherous, icy caverns and old mines abound throughout the Steeps, from the foothills to the heights, and the Skorbi River is fed from the melting accumulating as it runs both southwest into the Tzarswald and north to some falls above the Sea. The region is also home to threats such as yeti, ounce hunters, dire goats, and wyverns, as well as a handful of silver dragons and their reclusive dragonborn kin.
 
Jaggerhead Lake: A primary resource for the common folk throughout the Northeast Tzarswald, the Jaggerhead’s waters provide fishing and trade for most of the local settlements, and they are constantly repopulated by the Skorbi River currents. The lake is so-named for the dangerous, rocky promontories which abound through its waters, some of which are estimated to stand between 40-60’ at its deepest points. These can be treacherous to fisherfolk or bargemen at night or when a dense mist rolls off the nearby Flailing Marsh, so the Rowers’ Point lighthouse was established to help guide them. The steep slopes of these ‘Jaggerheads’ are often home to beds of freshwater mussels, crab and crayfish colonies, and the peaks are often infested with nests of herons, grebes and loons. More intriguing are the reports that several of these natural rocky protrusions hide submerged cavern networks that contain anything from smugglers’ caches to lost treasures of the Blood Counts of Old Brazos.
 
Skorbi River: The lifeline of the Northeast Tzarswald region, the Skorbi River flows from a source high in the Gargoyle Steeps through much of the woodland and also out north to the Sea of Specters. Due to the lack of a proper road system (beyond beaten paths), most of the local communities are located along its banks or on adjoining water bodies, and a large percentage of trade is by boat alone. The Skorbi is not without its dangers: river brigands, malevolent vodyanoy and rusalka, as well as treacherous rapids nearer to the mountains.

Tzarswald: The vast woodland that stretches across much of the sprawling kingdom of Brazoskov and even the western reaches of Carpezce, the Tzarswald provides a livelihood and home for tens of thousands of Skovian residents and a myriad of other races and peoples. Divided into both coniferous and deciduous areas, the wood is rich for hunting, foraging, and the near endless supply of timber, furs and other resources that so much of the country is founded upon.  Millennia of rule and exploit at the hands of different kingdoms and empires have ensured that the place is peppered with the ruins of old castles, villages, and other structures that lie abandoned or overrun by the local flora. The most famous of these are Old Bloodwalls, the last bastion of the Counts who once reigned during the time of the Tricentennial War, and Smite-Eye’s Tower, an 80’ tall stone fortification which once housed a powerful dwarf sorcerer, unseen for a century or more, but still purported to be heavily defended from intruders. Of course, the forest itself has its own hazards, from the many species of the wildlife you’d expect, to murderous ambulatory trees, clans of secretive forest gnomes, leshy, lycanthropes, and the occasional green dragon.