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Marn

M A R N

The Kingdom of Marn is a vast, chaotic forest-jungle in Somarria. This quixotic land is rich with diverse otherworldly creatures, insects the size of small elephants, groves of thousand-foot-tall deciduous trees, and dark chasms that plunge to the continent’s core. Marn is devoid of civilization—it has no known cities or towns, not even frontier villages making it one of the great mysteries of Chaldea.

Very little is known of Marn except for what can be seen from its borders. No one goes into Marn, and those who claim to have done so are ridiculed and named as braggarts. Even the longest-lived Chaldeans (elves and dragons) know little of the land and share even less of what they have learned. They call the wood kingdom Lysa Thalor, a name born in the predawn history of Chaldea before the Claw Hammer War.

What can be seen from the land’s edges are thickset trees, twisted and malformed— oak and maple and sometimes willows, all luxuriant and intertwined. These trees are far different from their counterparts found elsewhere in Chaldea—in Marn, they seem to have somehow burst their seams to grow taller and darker, with exposed root systems that reach out like thick fingers to lunge for and stab what ground remains within their reach

Three things are known to hail from Marn:

Marn elves (also called “Marners,” the mad elves of Lysa Thalor). Marn elves have existed in this land for countless thousands of years. They are uniquely identifiable in the global culture of elves—they cover their bodies in mysterious tribal tattoos, bark grafts and body alterations of studded jewelry, bones and beads. Some say it is these body alterations that cause the Marn elves to go insane and attack anyone who dares enter their land.

The C’Tharki. These enormous six-foot metallic beetles have a mane of prehensile tentacles that encircles their head. Once a year the C’Tharki swarm, attacking and eating everything within reach of their tentacles. No one is safe during the swarm, especially the small villages that risk encroachment on Marn’s borders. The C’Tharki carapaces are highly prized in weapons manufacturing.

Potent drugs and hallucinogenic elixirs. As one famous saying goes, “The best things come from Marn.” Ranged all along Marn’s vast borders are shantytowns and villages dedicated to a booming drug trade. Drugs from Marn hook anyone and everyone willing to consume them. Once within the hold of the “Marn meds,” people lose themselves to the wild, chaotic, and haunting dreams that only a place like Marn can create.

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