WORLD: Matope Geography & the Ache

[Matope]

The world that kin live in is large, and varied, but most of the land they inhabit is the swamp: that brown peninsula that is surrounded on three sides by the wild of an ocean. To the north, it peters out into flatlands and then mountains, laced through with mazes of caves; to the west, rolling plains which then fade out into the heat of a flat desert.

This thread will provide more details about each of the biomes to be found, as well as an explanation of the Ache, a feeling that always drives kin back to the swamp.

[Matope]

THE SWAMP

The swamplands are approximately the size (and shape) of our Earth's state of Tennessee. The majority of kin choose to live on the far northern border of the swamp, although Kimeti can be quite nomadic and may hail from anywhere in the swamp. This area of Matope contains many flat marsh plains and is slightly easier to survive in than the wilder areas. At the center of the largest of these marsh plains is an enormous mound of wood and stone and earth called Ghost Thistle's mound where most Kimeti gatherings take place. It is one of the few places above water in all of Matope.

To the North of Matope the swamp peters out into flatlands, and then rises up into gentle hills. Beyond that, very few Kimeti living have ever seen. For more information about the geography of Matope, please see the map in this thread.

To all other directions lies an ocean. Matope is situated on a penninsula. Some few Kimeti have seen the ocean, but the trip is not hospitable, and many do not live to tell the tale.

There are essentially two seasons in Matope: the warm, and the cold. The cold season is still fairly temperate, with snowfall being very uncommon and generally melting before it has time to pile up. In the warm season rain is less frequent but still occurs at least once weekly, and thunderstorms are common. In the cold season, the rains are steadier but milder, although occasionally mingled with sleet.

[Matope]

THE PLAINS

The plains are the birthplace of the Kiokote. Nearest to the swamp and to the north, they are made up of green hills lively with growing things, and this is where most Kiokote made their home. Moving farther out, however, this flattens, with only low hills and scattered with the rare tree, grown over with tall yellow and green grasses and home to fast creatures. The climate is usually warm, with more than half the year dominated by a wet summer season and the rest by a dry winter season. During the dry season, lightning often strikes the ground, sometimes causing fires to take over the yellowed grasses. What trees there are usually take on umbrella shapes to capture the scattered rainfall, adapted for the frequent dry weather.

[Matope]

THE DESERT

The ancestral home of the Acha, it's some small miracle that they managed to survive in the harsh climate of the desert. Marked by rolling dunes of red sand, very little grows in the desert, due to the heat and the lack of rainfall. Aside from the rare oasis where growing things crop up into lush utopias, most of the desert is simply sand, scattered with cactuses and low grasses, with creatures that burrow or otherwise adapt to the pounding of the desert sun.

[Matope]

THE MOUNTAINS

To the north lies the birthplace of the Totoma, where the low hills and flatlands of the swamp break and grow into towering mountains topped with snow. Nearest the swamp, this land is a gentle valley, cool but habitable -- but travelling further north will lead kin away into snowy tundra and rocky mountains, where it is a struggle to survive. The weather here is always cold, with frost at night; there are fewer than 100 nights in any given year where it does not freeze over. A good half of the year, there is snow on the ground every day.

The growing season is short, and dominated by evergreen trees. They're clustered thickly in places, and scattered far apart in others. In the valleys, there are wide rivers and expansive lakes, often littered with broken up ice that washes down from higher up.

[Matope]

THE CAVES

The most prominent entrances to the caves of the Zikwa are found in the base of the mountains to the north -- but in reality, this maze-like set of caverns covers land beneath all of the swamp, the mountains, the plains, even out of the desert, with hidden exits all over the world, including in Ghost Thistle's mound in the swamp. The temperature in the caves is varied and extreme; very hot in some places, very cold in others. Overall it is dark, though in some places, glowing algae has sprouted on its own or been cultivated by the Zikwa that live there to give the world some light.

Mostly, these caves are hot, tight, dense spaces where shoulders and heads brush up against cool stone. In some places, however, they are cavernous, wide and open, with rivers or deep lakes that fill their centers.

[Matope]

THE ACHE

Yes, the world is varied -- but most kin will never see any part of it aside from the swamp. This is due to something that kin are calling the Ache.

The Ache affects all kin who try to leave the Swamp regardless of their place of birth. It manifests as a physical need to return to the Swamp and cannot be overcome. Kin who were born outside of the Swamp but who then travel to the Swamp are immediately subject to the effects of the Ache upon their arrival and may not return to their homelands.

Some kin describe the Ache as a desperate, painful longing in the pit of their stomach. Some feel it more physically, making their joints seize, their vision dimming. However it feels, it manifests as a need to return to the Swamp that they cannot ignore.

Sometimes, magic is brought forward that allows Kin to travel outside of the swamp for short periods of time without the Ache taking over them. Without this magic, however, kin cannot leave the swamp for more than a very, very short time.

[Matope]

THE OBELISKS

A core of Matope's metaplot -- special RP events involving the overarching plot of Matope, which is not only interactions between characters but also can transform the world or introduce new features -- has been strange Obelisks that crop up in each area of the world. For short periods, kin have been able to travel outside of the swamp to explore the rest of the world, before the Ache kicks back in.

These Obelisks have taken the shape of tall, smooth towers, with tasks to be solved at their bases. Upon completing the tasks, the Obelisks have been activated, giving kin strange dreams and sending them back home to the swamp....