Mycorzha Isles
A small archipelago shrouded by the Mysts, rich in biodiversity, oral tradition, and a deep cultural relationship with the veil that surrounds it.
The Mycorzha Isles are a cluster of lush, isolated islands surrounded on all sides by the Mysts. Due to the many different climates across Mycorzha, visibility along its coastlines is limited. From any ocean shore, the sea stretches only a short distance before disappearing into the dense, pale shroud. No matter the season, the Mysts are always present. They do not shift with the tides or thin with the wind. They hang low and constant, an ever-present veil between Mycorzha and the wider world.
Visitors and Community
Beyonders who arrive on the Isles are welcomed as friends. Many return year after year, forming close bonds with local families. Entire communities will gather when a familiar vessel returns, bringing not just goods but stories, letters, and tools for craftspeople. While rare, some Mycorzhans fall in love with visitors and choose to leave, sailing into the Mysts to live beyond them. These individuals are still considered part of the community and often return when they can.
Pictography
Most Beyonders do not speak the local language, and so communication takes place primarily through pictography. Markets in port towns are filled with painted boards, carved tokens, and woven symbols that represent goods and agreements. This has shaped a strong tradition of visual communication across the Isles. Port cities are some of the most color-rich places in all of Mycorzha, covered in murals, trade signs, and symbolic art that spans generations. The blend of function and expression is taken seriously, and artists who can create universal depictions are highly respected.
Contents
- Cove City
The only true city on the Mycorzha Isles, a bustling trade hub built into Coral Cap Cove where pictographic communication, robust nightlife, and the Mystveil Academy thrive.
- Crescent Mountains and the White Plateau
A desolate highland of ice and wind in the far northwest, where the Banished are sent and survival demands daily hard labor.
- Greater Mycorzha and the Dreamer Tree
The vast temperate grasslands at the heart of the Isles, home to nomadic clans who gather each summer at the Dreamer Tree for Arda.
- Fern Leaf Forest
A dense northern evergreen forest of ancient redwoods and sequoias, bordered by the mysterious Frostfire Forest and home to the glowing Lantern Fish migration.
- Frostfire Forest
A lightless northern wilderness of impossibly tall evergreens and bioluminescent fungi, home to the abandoned Starlit Stone Ruins and the most dangerous creatures on the Isles.
- Hazelmoss Woods
A warm deciduous forest draped in perpetual autumn hues, where multigenerational farming families cultivate specialty crops and honor their ancestors through the land.
- Mossy Cup Lagoon
A hidden northern lagoon of vivid tide pools and coral formations, home to ocean-dwelling critters and the hub of the Isles' black market.
- Saffron Spore Islands and the Morel Marsh
A rich southern swampland of stilted villages, deep bayous, and amphibian folk who live by the tide, trade in stories, and keep the spirits pleased.
- Selene Cliffs
Sheer cliff faces carved with multigenerational bird homes, wind chimes, and shrines to an extensive pantheon born from distant glimpses of the Frostfire Forest.
- Shadow Moss Caves
A glowing underground maze of bioluminescent tunnels beneath the Selene Cliffs, where nocturnal creatures live by rhythm, music, and neon light.
- Sun Dried Sands
A high desert of painted canyons and turquoise skies, where strict traditions, wind-powered craft, and star-guided spirituality shape life among the dunes.
- Luna Valley
A fertile volcanic crater valley of wildflowers and burrow homes, the most populated region on the Isles, connected by an ingenious river basket trade system.
- Spirituality of the Isles
The shared spiritual beliefs of the Mycorzha Isles, centered on the Mysts and the Isles as living forces intertwined with daily life.
- Bird Pantheon
The extensive pantheon of gods and goddesses worshipped by the birds of the Selene Cliffs and throughout the Isles, rooted in the union of the Isles and the Mysts.