The Lands

Kilbey and Larson, and their Rodentian people, make their home on a group of islands they named after themselves and call simply: Rodentia.

RODENTIA

A view of seaside cliffs from one of many rocky beaches

The isles of Rodentia can be found in the Boreal Sea. The sea is in the far north and though it is buffeted by cold winds, a warm current that comes up from the south battles the cold and keeps the isles warmer than they would normally be at their latitude.

The islands rise out of the water with cliffs of gray stone and are surrounded by rocky beaches. The stones on the shallow sea floor wash up into dunes that rise above the waves. The larger islands are crowned with pine trees at the cliff edges. Only the largest islands have space for woods of birch, maple, and beech trees and the occasional meadow where the pines have loosed the rock and made soil for the trees and undergrowth.

Flora

Most of the plants of the Rodentia are wild flowers, grasses, moss and lichen. Prairies cover most open areas but there are some heathlands covered in shrubby heathers and marsh thistle.

Patches of Moonleaf at a forest's edge

Froststar is a plant found only in Rodentia. It grows in loose tufts in damp places among open gravel like the rocky beaches found across the islands. Frostar has large, white, five-petaled flowers. A favorite herb of the Rodentians is the Moonleaf.

Pine trees are the most common tree. Their shallow roots are able to spread out along the rocky ground. The winds are so strong that trees often grow twisted, sometimes even growing horizontally. On islands with enough space for soil, often broken out of the rocks by the conifers, there are some broad leafed trees. Birch are most common especially in young woods, but older woods also have maple and beech whose leaves make heavy shade. There are few shrubs that can grow in the darker woods, the only ones are witch-hazel and alderleaf. The islands are also home to some ash trees and even cherry and apple trees in open fields.