the old city

The old city of Taliewen crowds the shores of the Odiferous Ocean, an ocean full of fearful and dangerous creatures and volcanic islands made of massive rocks with rigid skirts of stone.

There are other human settlements on the planet, each originating from the old city. These have grown to be new cities, each with their own outcast settlements, some of them full of artists and some of them full of craftsmen, and some of them surrounded by those wishing to live as their deep ancestors did millennia ago, having brought old ways and old beliefs with them to the new frontier.

And inland, there are rich forests, highly cultivated fields, and beyond the mountains, a valley that is given over to desert. Beyond the desert valley, further than the reach of human settlements of any kind, is the enclave of the original inhabitants of the planet, the Taliaw. They do not interfere with the doings of the humans, and the humans learned long ago that against the originals there is nothing that can be done. But some humans live among them, refugees who can no longer live among their own people.