A kingdom spanning either up to or past the Zephyr Mountains, depending on who
you ask, Terranotos is built upon the remains of many forgotten pasts. The land
itself is home to a never-ending series of tunnels, ruins, and underground
caverns, said by some to stretch across the entire kingdom and to go several
KM deep. This network has been christened the "Depths" by those who explore
them.
Terranotos is located just north of the halfway point between the southern pole
and the equator, and the temperature is kept stable by warm ocean currents from
the north. In the sleeping season (Nov-Feb), the precipitation tends to be a
snow/rain mix that rarely sticks, temperatures almost never fall below 0
Celsius, and the winds become a very harsh series of gusts. In the growing
season (May-Sept) the weather stays fairly stable at about 16-26 Celsius,
occasional showers and light breezes from the north. (In October, March and
April, the weather tends to be in a constant state of flux, unable to decide if
it's sleeping season or growing season.)
The weather of the peninsula means that it's not that uncommon to see Mercs in
T-shirts, shorts, and/or light plate armor during the warmer months. Unarmored
practices occur often at both Palestras during the growing season, creating
many memories and bruises. The Eastern Tip, in particular, sees many Wanderers
and delvers taking some time off for fun in the eastern waters.
The official currency of Terranotos is the Argentum (Agt).
The capital city, Notos, sits in a bay, facing south towards the Eternal Ocean.
A hub of trade, once, but things have been steadily going downhill. Many
horrific storms have hit the city's port in recent years, and merchants are
considering it just too risky to dock there. Also, the small town of Underhole
has begun to take precedence, with a large hub of tunnels having been recently
found there.
To the east, plains rule with the help of forests and various rivers. Chocobos
run through these parts often, and most of the civilization in this area
consists of farmers and herders. None of the tunnel-explorers ever go to the
plains, if only becasue there's nothing there of interest.
Past the plains, the coastline of Terranotos slopes gently into the Eastern
Sea, beyond which lay the Imperial Islands.
To the west of Notos, a stretch of hills slope upwards into the Zephyr
Mountains. In the hills and mountains, many entrances to the ruins and tunnels
beneath Terranotos are found, and mountain towns are beginning to prosper from
the increased attention. A few mining towns have sprung up quickly, aiming to
find forgotten tunnels and depostis of gold, silver, spesix, mythril and
whatever else they may strike. Most of these towns can't really be
considered 'towns' so much as 'a few people who live near each other and are
after the same gold'.
One town in the Zephyr, though, actually deserves the name of "city."
Skylark's Watch, a fortress town that has defended Terranotos for centuries,
is - or at least, was - a hub of trade for miners and the braver variety of
merchants. Nowadays, it's also a tourist attraction.
To the north, rocky cliffs. It is in the cradle of these cliffs that Underhole
is, a few miles north of what has become known as "the Hole". This Hole is the
entrance to a hub of tunnels in the Depths, moving in every concievable
direction. Underhole was originally a small fishing town, eventually becoming a
small port for countries north of Terranotos. Since the discovery of the Hole,
however, it has begun to import and export on the same scale as Notos - and
will soon outstrip them.