Part 10: Sine the Hills

Places of Interest: Cave of the Sleepers (Kels), Village on the Hill (Ondaga), Spire Hill (Samian)

Kels

Native species: Ice drake, Mist drake, Spire drake, Cairn linnorm, Crag linnorm, Ice linnorm

The arctic north of Sine is Kels, a region of broken glaciers at its northmost that drift and collide over time with its frozen cliffs, a bond by cold and ice. The massive surface of snows over the cliffs extends down into the north of the continent. Earthquakes have created gouging rifts in the snow, icy crevasses that drop through centuries worth of frozen precipitation to seemingly no end. These rifts score the entirety of Kels to create a glacial landscape of pseudo and deathly hills and vales.

Cairn linnorms, eaters of the undead, were once the rulers of Kels. Ever since the fall of humanoid kind, the number of undead has been on the decline, sending more and more Cairns into hibernation deep within the rifts. Now the Ice linnorms have taken control of most of the north and theirs is a ravenous tyranny.

The Ices prey with insatiable hunger on all beings in their territories, including other linnorms and dragonkind. They have all but wiped out the humanoids who once lived here in their unchecked feeding and have nearly done the same with Crag linnorms and Ice drakes.

Unlike the Mist and Spire drakes, the Crag linnorms and Ice drakes of Kels stand out by their bold or perhaps brash hunting methods in spite of the Ice linnorms who have claimed the territory on which they hunt. The Crags and Ice drakes would rather suffer the wrath and hunger of the Ice linnorms than their own hunger for food is scarce in Kels. The Ice linnorms have unintentionally made sure of that. As a result, hibernation has become the increasingly common resort.

The Mist and Spire drakes have chosen hibernation with their respective rampages. They wake, independently of the other species, at intervals in years to leave their hidden lairs to hunt in stealth from the Ice linnorms.

Ondaga

Native species: Amphiptere, Fire drake, Flame drake, Spire drake, Pseudowyrm, Spine dragon, Wyvern

As one heads south, the frozen rifts of the north give way to true hills and valleys in the temperate central region of Sine known as Ondaga. Eastern Ondaga is home to heaths and moors whose shurbs thrive in the frequent rains. The further west the hills roll, the less scrub grows until they roll as barren mounds of stone.

Spine dragons rule the moorland of Ondaga with the iron fist of totalitarianism. They've parceled Ondaga into territories and within each territory, the reigning Spines have taken to indoctrinating all sentient species with the belief that they are gods. Their favorite subjects are humanoids and Spire drakes for their intelligence, for they can truly fear and worship a god.

The Spines keep their humanoid and Spire cultists in the same settlement, often with the humanoids in a village at the top of a hill and the Spires in the vale below or vice versa depending on their desired aesthetic. The humanoids are tasked with furthering the temple/lair of the Spines through mining or other construction means. The Spires serve as guards of the Spines and the settlement, but are encouraged to be suspicious of the humanoids to help prevent any uprisings. The humanoids fear the Spires, knowing that it is only by the will of their gods, the Spines, that the Spires have not devoured them.

The Spines have not attempted to tame the savage Wyverns and Flame drakes of Ondaga but have instead confined them to specific, strategic areas of their territory. As long as the Wyverns and Flames accept the sovereignty of the Spines, they are free to act as they will within their respective granted lands, including hunting and devouring unfaithful cultists released into these lands. Those flights who attempt to defy their Spine overlords are placed at the mercy of the Spines's loyal rampages of Spire drakes.

The weaker Amphipteres and Fire drakes are easier for the Spines to cow, and many have cowed them into service. Those serving Amphipteres and Fires work in mining or construction efforts, providing light or carrying heavy loads. Those who serve are rewarded with hunting rights on choice grounds. Those few who don't are ostracized and sent to territories by the Wyvern territories. The Spines are happy to turn a blind eye to any such Amphiptere or Fire death at the hands of the Wyverns.

Humanoids who aren't among the cultist villages of the Spines either having escaped or been delivered to the Wyverns and miraculously escaped, can't risk grouping larger than a family. They live as stealthy hunters and gatherers who change their abode when whatever pursuing them may come too close to discovery. These families or solitary humanoids have a very short life expectancy and a nearly nonexistent birth rate. On extremely rare occasions, a solitary humanoid or family can afford to allow another humanoid to join up with them with risk to the food supply or trackability.

Samian

Native species: Copper dragon, Amphiptere, Lava drake, Rift drake, Spire drake, Pseudowyvern, Wyvern

The barren stone hills of Ondaga roll into volcanic mounds in the blisteringly hot south of Sine. This southern region of Samian was created by low-viscosity lava flows resulting in gently sloped but deadly hills also known as shield volcanoes. While these don't erupt in huge, catastrophic explosions, lava flows are frequent and continuously adding to the heights of Samian's scrub-covered hills.

Samian is the war zone of the Lava drakes who crawl out of the volcanoes and the Rift drakes who circle the dark, clouded skies overhead. Though the two could easily coexist, both are extremely territorial. Moreover, the Lavas blame the Rifts for the lack of humanoids in Samian, which leave them without a supply of cultists, while the Rifts merely enjoy combat and killing. Both travel in rampages large and deadly enough to oust Samian's Copper dragons as the region's dominant dragon.

At the time of the humanoids's fall and Dragpocalypse's inception, Cooper dragons designated themselves as the weakened humanoids's keepers. They used combat, however, as a means of entrapping an audience for their extensive comedy routines sometimes lasting four hours at a stretch. One fateful day, the entire main force of the Coppers found themselves entertaining and the humanoids without any protection. The following onslaught by Rift rampages utterly wiped them out.

In their guilt, the Coppers have taken up the protection of their weaker draconic cousins, the Amphipteres and Pseudowyverns, but the lack of intelligent conversation is a constant burden upon their souls. Though kind to their wild draconic cousins, the Coppers tend to see and treat them as perma-toddlers.

Spire drakes stay on the single, small territory they've managed to keep from being claimed by the Lavas or the Rifts. They swarm these hills as a single, mega-rampage of defensive necessity. Their lawful tendencies have proven a boon here, as each Spire stays within its bounds, although they are always on the lookout for weakness. The first sign of such is enough to prompt the murder of a neighbor to obtain their land.

Unlike the Spires who stay on their territory by choice, the Wyverns have been herded onto a small territory by force. With the quick breeding of the relatively powerful beasts and their willingness to travel in large flights, the Lavas and Rifts have done all that they can to wipe out the Wyverns and failed. The most they can manage is to keep the majority of them off the best hunting grounds and savagely attack the flights that leave their designated area. The Wyverns, however, are having none of it and continue launching forays into the claimed territories.

Immigrants

Species: Guardian dragon, Mithral dragon, Star drake, Elder Wyrm, Scitalis, Taniniver, Vishap

Immigrants are more common in Kels than any other region of Sine due to the solitary nature of the Ice linnorms that rule its wastes. Guardian and Mithral dragons, Elder Wyrms, Taninivers, and Vishaps are more than a match for the Ices in solo combat. Star drakes and Scitalises, however, don't stand a chance and, if discovered, are promptly consumed.

In Ondaga, Spine dragons alone would be unable to hunt the many of the mighty roaming immigrant dragons, but they have multiple forces at their command: besides their own rank and number, their loyal rampages of Spire drakes and the unchecked savagery of the Wyverns. These combined threats can take down even the likes of a Guardian dragon given enough time. As such, immigrants who enter Ondaga are eliminated sooner rather than later.

In Samian, immigrants are not eliminated so much as they are worn down by constant onslaughts by Rift and Lava drakes, and any chance rampage of Spire drakes or flight of Wyverns. Copper dragons, meanwhile, may take the opportunity to keep an immigrant dragon to themselves not to save their lives but to entrap them as a permanent, intelligent audience, even if they must fight said immigrant to do so. When an immigrant does manage to secure a territory, it is mostly likely from having bested their Copper dragon abductor.

Dragonriders in Sine

Riders are unheard of in Kels and Samian primarily due to the fact that humanoids are equally as unheard of. In Ondaga, no Spine dragon would ever bond with one of their humanoid cultists nor allow a humanoid to bond with any other of their subjects in order to maintain the balance of power. Thus, the much-hated immigrant dragons are more likely than any other draconic species to bond with a humanoid in Ondaga.