#sineus

Sineus is comprised of various continents, sub-continents and islands.

The largest continent also lies the farthest to the north. Called Goruk (literally “Snow-Blighted”) by the orcs, the only race to willingly live on the surface, a large portion of the continent (particularly around the coastal areas) is a snowy tundra with little vegetation and a few native animals. This expanse of tundra is the only part of the continent that experiences a difference in seasons. The rest, however, is appropriately called the ice wastes: a massive desert with towering ice spikes and exceedingly deadly storms that has not thawed in millenia. Underneath the ice wastes lies a vast cavern system known as the Abyssal Halls, home to the dwindling drow and dueregar populations.

To the west is Elendarron, otherwise known as the Elven Isles or the Evergreen Isles. As the nicknames would suggest, Elendarron is the home of the oldest forests and jungles on the face of Sineus and is where the vast majority of the world's elves originate. Hidden in the deeper parts of the jungles are the few firbolg and tabaxi communities while along the eastern coasts there is a substantial yuan-ti and lizardfolk population that cause no small amount of strife for those who live around them. Most recently, however, are the human colonies that have been established on the southern grasslands near the coasts. Their arrival and subsequent influence on the area has caused quite a stir among the dominant elven society.

The centermost continent is Dralleus Mater, called by those who live there 'the heart of the world' and 'the birthplace of civilization'. It is home to the dragonborn (who are one of the oldest races alongside the elves) along with their kobold brethren. In the massive Dragon’s Spine mountain range, which splits the land into the deserts of the north and the hot scrublands of the south, are the kingdoms of the mountain dwarves. More lizardfolk lurk around the shores of the south while the elusive gnomes isolate themselves to the peninsula of Zorienkap, northwest of Iorieal.

Finally, the easternmost continent of Sineus is called Asritin. This is homeland of the humans, who remained osolated from the rest of the world until the first exploratory party of Dragonborn and Elves arrived over three and a half centuries ago. Now, there are the hill dwarf strongholds to the south in the marshlands, mixed human and elven cities to the east coasts, halfling farms and villages just south of Chysis, goliath herds to the forests of the far north, and roving tribes of various 'monster races'  such as gnolls and goblins in the Heartland's many forests.

The first of the two subcontinents is the Aeither Isles. The Aeither Isles is a collection of massive island mountains that serve as a home to the world's birdfolk (aaracokra and kenku, namely) and the only officially recognized community of genasi. The coastal cliffs are battered by near-constant heavy storms and the winds near the top of the mountains reach almost hurricane levels of intensity.

Sineus (pronounced Sin-you-us) is a high-magic/high-fantasy world that I’ve been working on in some form or another for over 5 years now. It was designed originally for a completely homebrew system, but after a while I scrapped that system and switched to D&D5E. (Honestly for the best. The balance alone was all over the place.)

I started this blog to help me organize some of my work (tagged under sineus) and store anything D&D related (tagged under almost everything else).