Suynama

Type: Spherical earth body

Size: D (3200 mile diameter)

Day Length: 30 hours

Year Length: 180 local days

Population Analysis:

50,000+ Lizardmen; 30,000+ Tabaxi; 25,000+ Tasloi; 10,000+ Invaders; plus small numbers (under 1000 each) of Humans, Chattur, Grommams, and Hadozee

Distance/Time To:

Sphere Wall: 350 million miles; 3.5 days travel

Suynama is a borderline liveworld, almost but not quiet completely covered by a vast tropical forest, broken here and there by mountain peaks, some grasslands, a large sea, and a single desert.

Scaluu Peaks:

This range of mountains towers more than a mile in the air, and extends from pole to pole. Their lower slopes are covered by heavy jungle, while the upper third of their slopes are bare white/blue granite.

A great many gemstones (diamonds, emeralds, rubies, topaz, etc) are found in these mountains.

The invaders rule the eastern slopes of the Scalu Peaks, and have cleared away much of the jungle cover there. They use slave labor (some local, some imported) to mine the gems.

Cleared Lands:

This is a swath of cleared land (cleared mostly via fire) extending from the eastern slopes of the Scaluu peaks to the Issuu Sea, a distance of more than seven hundred miles. The Cleared Lands extend more than two thousand miles from north to south. Most of it is a scorched wasteland dotted with patches of grass and brush, but here and there are vast, poorly run plantations kept by the invaders. The invaders created the Cleared Lands as a base of operations, and to prevent harrassing attacks by the locals, who are experts at using the jungle as camoflage for ambushes. Besides the invaders, this area is home to subdued/enslaved communities of lizardmen and tabaxi.

Issuu Sea:

This roughly rectangular body of shallow water is large enough to be termed an ocean—it encompasses the north pole, then extends south for well over three thousand miles. In most places, it is more than a thousand miles wide; its southern third, with a huge eastward reaching bay, is more than double that width. The western coast of the Issuu Sea is well defined, marked by a low bluff some five to fifty feet high in most places. However, its eastern shore, particularly in the north, is one vast swamp.

The Issuu Sea is home to all manner of fish, frogs, eels, and other reptillian water life, but has no sea going mammals (dolphins, sharks, whales, ect). Squid and Kraken are also unknown; their place being taken by Dragon Turtles and Giant Sea Snakes.

Giant Crustaceans are found here as well. Maritime traffic on the Issu sea is sparse, consisting mostly of lizardmen punts and tabaxi catamarans along the eastern coast, and a handfull of Invader vessels along the western.

Suynama Swamp:

Extending for a thousand miles along the eastern shore of the Issu Sea, and extending a like distance inland, this huge maze of slow moving streams, vegetation choked lakes, and mucky islands is the foci point of the lizardmen nation.

The lizardmen elected to settle here a millenia ago, shortly after their arrival in this system.

The lizardman nation, at first glance, appears to be typically primitive—nothing more than a multitude of villages of simple domelike huts, none with more than a thousand inhabitants, and usually less than half that. A second, closer inspection reveals that these villages form clusters, each cluster being centered on an ornate domeshaped temple. These temples are the prime meeting places, egg incubating/hatching centres, and training grounds for the lizardmen. The knowledge of their race is kept at these places; and this is where many of the lizardmen clerics and wizards dwell.

Whether through some divine influence, mere chance, carefull breeding, or some combination of the three, the Lizardmen of Suynama can become clerics and wizards as high as 12th level. Wizards are usually earth or water elementalists.

The invaders have sought several times to conquor the Suynama Swamp, only to die in droves. The lizardmen here have a cautious relationship with the Tabaxi and the better behaved Tasloi, who occasionally visit the temples.

Mssuluu Swamp:

This is an eastward extension of the Suynama swamp, centered on a large lake some two hundred miles across, with the swamp radiating out from it another three hundred miles in all directions. Several slow, murky rivers link it with the Suynama swamp, and with the Issuu Sea to the south and west.

Like Suynama proper, this swamp is populated by lizardmen; unlike those of Suynama proper, these lizardmen are savages, whose degenerate ancestors were kicked out of Suynama centuries ago. They are identical in all respects to the standard lizardmen in the monster manual. Many Lizard Kings are found here.

The invaders never even tried to take this area after a few initial surveys.

Tavax Mountains:

This mountain range, located in the southern hemisphere to the south and east of the Mssuulu Swamp, is dominated by a central volcanic peak reaching more than three miles into the sky (the tallest mountain on the planet). Radiating out from this mountain, at more or less even intervals, are five ridges extending anywhere from two hundred to twelve hundred miles. The valleys between these ridges spawn rivers that empty into the Msuulu Swamp and the Issuu Sea (though one winds off to a large unnamed lake in the eastern jungle).

This region is dominated by the Tabaxi; a extended clan (groups of as many as a score of normal clans) dominates each of the five valleys. The nature of each extended clan varies:

1. The Cattai are almost civilized (in a oddly quasi oriental manner). They are remarkable artisans whose ranks include the only metal workers among any of the tabaxi. Their non hereditary lords are chosen through contests of skill and honor.

   Some Cattai can be considered Samurai, others as Ninja (maximum of 12th level in each) while others are Fighters and Rangers. The Cattai have some fairly powerfull wizards (12th level max), but their priests are limited to 8th level.

2. The Zorcai clans are brutal dictatorships ruled by Tabaxi Lords (Monsterous Manual). These Tabaxi Lords are nominally part of a `pride' representing all the Zorcai subclans, but in practice are perpetually feuding and scheming against the other clans and each other. Members of these clans are often brutal maruaders, experts in ambush and sneak attacks.

   Many common Zorcai are thieves or fighter/thieves (maximum of 12th level). The only spellcasters are the Tabaxi Lords (maximum of 8th level as mages or mage/priests) who drive out or kill all other spellcasters.

3. The Felis are heavily influenced by a community of refugee human wizards from Dragonworld, and have a level of civilization almost as advanced as the Cattai. While their artisans do not work metal, they do produce all manner of other trinkets of bone, wood, and clay, some of them very ingenious (water powered wooden clockwork devices, cunning traps, ect). They also make some effort at domesticating animals, the only one of the Tabaxi clans to do so. They are governed by a semi-hereditary chieftanship.

   Felis can be Fighters, Rangers, Mages, Priests, or Thieves, advancing to 12th level in any of these classes except that of priest or thief (maximum 8th level).

4. The Verrix are the most numerous, and most traditionally oriented of the five Tabaxi clans—essentially, their society is identical in all respects to the description given in the Monsterous Manual. The Verrix outnumber any two of the other clans put together, but are too fragmented to attain true dominance.

   Most Verrix can be considered Fighters or Rangers (12th level max). Others are clerics (druids) of up to 7th level. They have no mages and no need of rogues.

5. The Tavax are the easternmost of the five clans, and the ones most in tune with Suynama, the spirit of the planet. Among the other clans, they have reputations as potent mystics, but aside from this are very much like the Verrix.

   Tavax clerics (druids) can attain 12th level, as can their Fighters and Rangers. They have no wizards or rogues.

It is not known how the Tabaxi came to be on this world—the best guess is that they arrived via some sort of Gate about a millenia and a half ago. It is suspected that the Cattai were in service to some powerfull wizard (a Wu-Jen, perhaps?), who gated them, along with the founders of the other extended clans here in exchange for service, but this is merely a guess.

The Invaders have never conquored this region, being forced back with very heavy losses each time.

Mereblack:

This is a swampy string of large lakes to the east of the Mssulluu swamp. It is home to a clan of black Dragons, exiled here by the Dragon Elders on Dragonworld over a millenia ago. These Black Dragons are little more than beasts, and regard all lesser creatures as food.

Scorched Lands (Blighted Lands):

This is a circular area, more than seven hundred miles across, in the southern hemisphere to the east of the Tavax Mountains. Unlike the rest of the planet (except for the Cleared Lands and the water areas) this area is not covered by forest. Rather, it is a desert. Virtually nothing except for a few patches of very tough grass grows here.

The Scorched Lands came into being about half a millenia ago, judging from the Tabaxi tales. Originally, it was nothing more than a barren clearing, no more than a mile across. However, it grew larger with each passing year, and still expands its borders at the rate of 50 to 100 yards each year. What caused it is unknown. It is known that magic functions poorly, if at all, within this region—the invaders lost several spelljamming vessels here (the helms simply would not work once the craft had landed).

The Deep Forest:

This vast green expanse covers the remaining third of this world, extending from the Scorched Lands and Mereblack to the Scaluu Peaks. Mostly, it consists of more or less level ground, covered by an immense profusion of tropical plantlife. There are several rivers in this area (two emptying into a large unnamed lake), a few swamps, and several ranges of hills, but nothing that really stands out. The great forest is roamed by all manner of `standard' tropical jungle wildlife: great cats, giant toads, snakes, ect.

The dominant inhabitants of the Deep Forest are the Tasloi, who roam its depths in small bands (identical to those in the Monsterous Manual). How they arrived on this world is unknown; what is known is that they were here prior to both the lizardmen and the tabaxi and were more or less forced into this region by those two races (though many still roam elsewhere). Also found here are bands of Chattur, Grommam, Hadozee, Lizardmen, and Tabaxi, none in great numbers, most living in small nomadic hunter-gatherer bands. A very few Green Dragons, awarded near demi-god status by these bands, are also found here. (These Green Dragons are decended from a mated pair exiled to this world at the same time as the Black Dragons. Unlike the Black Dragons, they are quite intelligent, knowledgable, and willing to bargain.)

After much savage fighting, the invaders decided to give up on controlling this part of the world, deciding that it simply was not worth the effort.