Ur

Ur is the largest and youngest of Tara's landmasses, an immense but fractured supercontinent that has for a long time been inhabited by many different races. Over the last few thousand years the continent has been roughly mapped but there are still large regions of uncharted wilderness.

History
Ur was originally uninhabited before human islanders migrated from the Vanishing Isles. For two millennia the continent was ruled by the Tiberian Ecumene - a human empire that eventually collapsed under its own weight. During the Last Endings dragons woke out of hibernation and much of civilization was reduced to kindling. Many refugees fled for greener lands, fighting over the most basic necessities (land, shelter, etc.) and founding new nations. This era is commonly remembered as the "Fallow Wars".

200 years later Ur is beginning to leave that Dark Age behind, although its future remains far from certain. Each year the ash winters fall a little lighter and the days last a little longer. Men are starting to reclaim the wilderness and Ur is returning to a patchwork of barbarian tribes, petty kingdoms, and city-states. However, despite all this progress the age of men appears to be all but done.

Elves are emerging from out of their hidden sanctuaries, determined to take back their power and restore the "natural order" (as they understand it). Centauri raid far from the High Plains, conquering huge territories while their Federation breaks apart. The Dwarves have taken a newfound interest in the matters of the surface world. And Orcs, already firmly established in their remote strongholds, are beginning to come together and form their own civilized nations.

It is a strange time.

Geography & Climate
Ur is surrounded by the sea except where it connects to Yavanna by a narrow isthmus. The cold high interior is dominated by a mountain range called the Dragonback Spine that cuts the continent into two distinct climate zones. One half of the continent, Outremer, is considerably drier than the rest of Ur thanks to this enormous rain shadow. Ur generally runs along an east-west latitude.

Land's End
In the northwest lies the peninsula Land's End. It is a mysterious and forbidding place home to the savage Landsmen and covered in the green gloom of the Oldgrowth, a vast and possibly sentient forest. Strange creatures like the Pan, Huron, and Kindred elves also dwell here, although they are rarely seen.The region is bounded by the Shield Marches and the Pale Sea.

The Landsmen's territories are called the "Painted Kingdoms", a loose confederation of different tribes. These tribes are incredibly diverse; there are the Riverine - the fierce warrior-women of Cordele; the Prydein with their "High Speech"; savage and seal-skinned Tenneu, and many others. These tribes were all once enthralled by the Kindred elves and their Pan servants, worshiping them as gods and even offering up human sacrifices. After a long and terrible war the warrior-queen Andraste managed to partially free them from this arrangement. Ever since there has been little contact with the elves, though men still respect the ancient boundaries that separate them.

The Painted Kingdoms would rally together a second time, defeating the Tiberian legions invading the Oldgrowth. This was largely out of fear that the elves would retaliate, leading to another war. Tiberium's defeat curbed their ambitions and forced them to consolidate their borders at the Shield Marches. Ever since that day the region has been known as "Land's End".

The Shield Marches
Bordering Land's End are the Shield Marches, a loose alignment of petty kingdoms that were once vassals of the Tiberian Ecumene. The Marches were "liberated" by Tiberium's legions, freeing them from thousands of years of oppression under the Landsmen tribes. After the legions were defeated in the Oldgrowth they fortified the Marches against attack, eventually pulling out when the Ecumene could no longer afford to maintain these borders.

The Shields' inclusion in the Ecumene helped civilize them. To this day many vestiges of the empire still remain; coins are still in circulation, the common tongue is still spoken, and although the Marchers do not know how to maintain the crumbling monuments the Tiberians left behind they have turned to them for building materials. Unfortunately they could never find enough common cause to stay at peace, much less come together as a nation.

The "Ashlands"
The heartlands of the Tiberian Ecumene once enjoyed the fruits of a golden age and were well-protected by the Legions. Many monuments from this time still dominate the landscape; sweeping aqueducts and roads as straight as arrows, but they are all that remains of this age. Since the empire's collapse these lands have sunk into ruin - smothered by ash winters and infested with dragons, the only men who linger here are warring barbarians and adventurers picking the bones of civilization. Most who travel through these lands take ship across the Gulf - only the most desperate (or heavily armed) caravans still take the roads.

Canton
Canton is a sleepy, landlocked country bordering the Ashlands. It has actually had the good fortune of benefiting from the ash winters which are nowhere near as severe and help fertilize the land. Practically all the land is given over to farming; all but the most tenacious forests - the ironroot groves - have long since been cleared away.

The country was settled two hundred years ago by Tiberian refugees fleeing the ash winters. An astonishing amount of food is grown in Canton, making it Ur's bread basket. Year-round the country feeds neighbors as far away as the Shield Marches, Freesia, and Seawall. Unlike most nations Canton is not ruled by petty kings or warlords but by republican land barons, called "Yeomen". For the most part it is a quiet, rustic country untroubled by developments in the wider world.

Outremer
A sun-bleached wasteland that stretches as far as the eye can see. Outremer lies in the vast rain shadow of the Dragonback Spine and is the driest, most sparsely populated region in the whole of Ur. The only reliable landmark in this sea of sand are the Mountains of Mourn that separate Ur from Yavanna, little more than a wavering line on the horizon.

It is inhabited by nomadic tribes called the Akin. These people have wandered the desert for thousands of years and were once slaves of the Amaranthines, having picked the losing side in Amaranth's early dynastic struggles. In the common tongue the name of their people is a literal translation, for once they were all brothers in chains. Their ancestors escaped into the desert, settling in the caves and wind-carved canyons and even in the deep sands. For thousands of years they have wandered the desert but these wanderings are not considered exile so much as they are a pilgrimage. This is because the Akin see the desert itself as their god. A god that teaches large, singular lessons, testing yet sustaining them.

Perhaps the greatest of the desert's blessings - indeed the greatest of all treasures - is known only to the Akin. Bottomless wells full of water. Although they share this gift freely the locations of these aquifers remains a jealously guarded secret.

Amaranth
Although Outremer is known for its deep deserts it was not always so inhospitable. Long ago it was covered in vast grasslands fed by the many rivers that trickled down from the mountains or sprang up from out of the earth. When the Amaranthines learned how to harness these rivers they dramatically transformed the land, building a rich hydraulic empire that for a long time was the power and envy of the world.

Unfortunately they did not see how this bled the grasslands dry. Amaranth's great rivers became the first of many canals that held back the encroaching desert. Despite these efforts their cities were still swallowed up by the sands or smothered in the huge dust storms that blow over Outremer to this day. Eventually there were no permanent places left save for Amaranth itself.

Afterwards Amaranth was only a vestigial empire, a paper tiger compared to powers like Tiberium or Yavanna. When the Ecumene abolished slavery it nearly ruined the Amaranthines and they started a trade war, cutting the Ecumene off from its colony in Yavanna. This war proved to be even more of a disaster - Amaranth was reduced to a mere vassal, its water supplies controlled by the Tiberians (who dammed their rivers). Since the Ecumene's collapse the Amaranthines have reinstated slavery in all but name, but they are still only a shadow's shadow of their former glory.

Cloudy Crown
Roughly in the middle of the continent is an enormous impact crater (1600 mi. in diameter, 8 mi. deep) that formed the mountains of Cloudy Crown. Clouds form at 6000 feet, wreathing the mountains and lending them their namesake. At the bottom of the crater is Anvil Lake (practically a sea in its own right!) which mostly freezes over during longer winters. The whole kingdom of Denedell is encircled by these mountains and the nation of Freesia is situated on their outer slopes and foothills.

The High Plains
A huge territory in central Ur, the High (or Long-Shadowed) Plains belong to the Chiron Federation. The Federation is the only Centaur nation on the planet, however, internal pressures are causing it to splinter into different factions.

The Tiberians famously built a 4000 mile long highway across the plains and through Outremer, eventually reaching the city of Amaranth. This road cut across the Centaur's ancient hunting grounds and, unsurprisingly, led to grisly retaliations and uprisings. Tiberium briefly managed to conquer the Centauri, forcing them onto reservations called "Corrals" and manipulating the strongest herds into fighting one another. During the Centauri Rebellions they were defeated and ever since paid enormous tribute just to keep the Centaurs from invading the Ecumene.

Troika
Troika is a vast, flat country bounded by the mountains of Cloudy Crown and the ice floes of the Pale Sea. For much of the year it is a land of frozen steppes, icy rivers and lakes, and misty vales. Winters can be especially cruel and there is little distinction between night and day during this time. Come Thaw the ice melts and the land greens dramatically, blooming into life, but these warm months are short-lived.

The men who dwell here are simply called Troikans. There are practically no tribal differences because all other tribes have been forcibly assimilated over centuries of fighting. Much of their way of life is nomadic hunting, tracking the vast herds of aurochs over the seasons. But warfare also comes naturally to these people; Troikan mercenaries and adventurers made fortunes fighting in Amaranth and Yavanna, once almost sacking Numitor itself! Surprisingly Troika was a firm, if unlikely, ally of the Tiberian Ecumene and supported it until its collapse.