Worldbuild24 Alt-Numinor

I never actually put much thought into the small Mid-Atlantic contient, it was mostly going to be a place to store the central island from the Points of Light/Nerath setting I had been cribbing from. There had been some chatting on the OSR discord about Hyperboreans and other weird occult nonsesnse as a run on from discussing the AD&D retroclone, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Neatly collecting Atlantis as well. The name is derived from the phonetically spelling CS Lewis used in That Hideous Strength for Númenor. As the club had only ever heard it said by Tolkien.

Eventually all manner of references that I didn't want to elaborate on, or I thought were going to be too out of place ended up there. But I never did get around to fleshing it out. Geography-wise, imagine Greenland, Iceland and the Mid-Atlantic ridge down to the tropics was one long triangular landmass, with lots of islands and bays. A regular lost world of weird animals and cultures . Especially, Warcraft Trolls down in the south, fighting the Dinosaur-riding Mesoamericans from Magic the Gathering's Ixalan.

Alt-Numinor

Geography

Bleakmire – By the description one might believe this to be the Fenreach, but it is farther land. The southern reaches of Alt-Numinor are badly drained and form a smothering marsh of grey fog, stinging insects and strange beasts. Home to the outcastes of the Continent. Dinosaur-riders, mutants, fleeing hordes of the Karralak Mountains and the Aventine Vikings and Half-Elves. Rumours speak of bats that drink blood, kobolds by the thousands and enormous crocodiles.[i]

Fire Peaks, The – It is most untruthful to attach the archipelago and the Sunset Sea with Alt-Numinor. But there is little else, as the sea of the Endless Blue surrounds the islands which touch that half-Continent. The chain of volcanic islands that mark the end of the Known World. The Elven Merchant Fleets says they are inhabited by cannibals, savages and flesh-hungry beasts. The mutant former lords of the Night Men. The largest volcano, Hellkiln, is home to a red Dragon. Infernus is a veteran of the Arkhosian-Bael Turathi Wars. And bears the all the world hatred for that.[ii]

Karralak Mountains – To the north of the unknowable Alt-Numinor, there lurks a curtain which separates three wars. The frozen Giants and what few Humanoid servants they have driven over the ice to their ocean-bound home live in a state of war against all. The rime-shrouded islands ae home to the Human folk, the Northmen and Sea-Men who fight for carcasses of fish, whales and seals. And both seek the greener forests of Shurral Deren. A single city which houses a third of all the Half-Elves and the other casts-offs. When the passes thaw the north is red, they say.[iii]

Methenarea the Meadkeeper, Ice Glacier of – Where the crown of Alt-Numinor touches the Whale Sea is where Moradin rested after the defeat of the Primordials and the end of the Dawn War. There he built a fortress of polar ice and befriended the silver Dragons there. When he tired of snow, he entrusted the line with twelve barrels of mead, that revealed the future to the drinker. Champions of Nerath left saddened for they could not change the future. They say time has melded the fortress into the surrounding glaciers and the mead drawn down to two barrels. Yet dragons still guard and test the worthy.[iv]

Shurral Deraen – In Antiquity it is said the Elven Merchant Fleets by sail and magic reached every corner of the world and wrote it down on lost maps. They left their people on Alt-Numinor and the Half-Elf descendants cling to its eastern coast. Awaiting a single ship every hundred or more years. One third live is the northern city, protected from the horrors of the Karralak Mountains by a brood of silvery Dragons. Which they awakened by magical pact to destroy invaders. Should they fail, the world may not know for decades.[v]

Tomb of Horrors – In the southern Alt-Numinor, where the Bleakmire fills with flesh-tearers and blood-drinkers, lies the resting place of the demilich Acererak. Here he has constructed a great dungeon-barrow beneath a skull-shaped hill, daring those foolish enough to enter. Few return and such acts have inspired a city of necromancer to grow nearby. Skull City is home to the Bleak Academy and worshippers of Acererak and fouler spirits. It is ironically a safe place to supply, as they are ever eager to see the yet doomed enter the dungeon. Some doubt that Acererak truly rests there.[vi]

Wrathwood, The – There is a forest in a valley that has never known the axe. Or tongues of flames by those who seek docile trees. For this forest defends itself against all animals, so that even the insects show it reverence. Only those who do may dwell inside, which leaves little more the the Fey. The trees are tall as castle turrets, dressed in ropy red bark and magic hangs in the air. The Elvish Merchant Fleet says such bark may be found in Jungo, but otherwise resembles Alt-Numinor. Coming through the Feywild is the only known path.[vii]

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[i] Inspired by Primal Power p.130

[ii] See Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons pp.134-141

[iii] Inspired by Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons pp.66-67

[iv] See Draconomicon: Metallatic pp.124-129

[v] Inspired by Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons pp.66-67

[vi] See Open Grave p.201 4E Tomb of Horrors pp.84-117

[vii] See Primal Power p.132