The Grape Barony

Past the gloomy Necropolis and the wastelands of the Bones, a long strip of highly arable land is where a race of nearly Human folk reside. Their talents lay in cultivation and brewing, intoxication and indulgence. Beauty of all sorts is found here, from sculpture and painting to music and dancing, but also sexual arts, wild parties, and even some serious scholarly ventures are there too.

The Rose Steps are a long series of hundred-mile-wide terraces filled with flowers and blooming plants of all colors and descriptions. They are carefully monitored and sometimes hybridized, but generally kept apart to avoid cross-‘contamination’. For perhaps two thousand full miles along the coast and under the black ash mountains, the soil is so rich here it’s almost impossible not to grow something.

The Orchid Peninsula is known for its exotic dancing, sexual romps, and more unsavory (or improper) events. There is no single ‘city’ there, it is a long stretch of boardwalks, villas, clusters of homes and farms, and is all but constantly in a state of inebriation.

Mistmoor is where numerous potion makers reside, collecting and preserving the finest ingredients from around the world. Its cool, even climate is perfect for many such ventures, as other warmer locations these things would spoil without magic.

The Grape Barony itself runs toward the east, another two thousand miles of virtually nothing but grapes. Perhaps a few apple trees, almonds, whatever else blends in and is of use when the ground isn’t being twisted with vines. Almost every wine in the world can be found here, not just their own, and certainly they don’t prevent or even dissuade anyone else from making wines. Theirs are just better.

Sunrise Point is a lovely port island, far more sedate than the rest of the Barony. More typical farming and hunting is done here.

Cape Redfair is the farthest-east point on the continent, enjoying a close relationship with the Jewel Witches and their crafts. It is a large city of over two million, many of whom work in the sea industries, rather than concerning themselves with the frivolity of the Barony’s central folk.

True Beacon is a 27,713 foot tall very sharp peak that overlooks the northern Nightglimmer Sea as well as the southern Dark Dragon Sea. At some point in the past, perhaps during the Rebellion but no one quite knows, the north-east and south-east faces of this mountain were stripped of any features and smoothed down – and caused to show a perfectly reflective surface. When the sun strikes them, nothing can be dark. It in fact sends a brilliant lightshow into the sky, and beyond: into space, where the beacon literally flashes every day.