The Island
- History of Discovery
- Geography, Flora and Fauna
- Human Activity
- The Silent Ruins and their Anomalies
- The Natives
Crumbling Coast and Reefs
The coasts of Ryl Madol are a savage warfront between the land and the sea. Geologically unstable, beaches are rare, the island instead being surrounded by jutting cliffs and jagged, ruin-bearing islets slowly sinking into the sea. Only the rivers' estuaries in the west are sheltered from these forces but make for poor landings, thanks to the sea monsters which patrol their calmer waters.
Winding Waterways
Water is the source of all life. Bodies of water of all types are abundant on Ryl Madol. There is the large, thermally heated caldera lake, many smaller lakes and numerous rivers, all fed by high rainfall and winding through the island like a network of blood vessels. Each is accompanied by its own network of smaller streams, swamps pools and ponds. The breeding pools are the lifeline of every ecosystem on Ryl Madol, as without them, many of the giant arthropods and anamniotes could not even reproduce.
- Eurhinocaulus
- Cancrichthys
- Moschoposeidon
- Castorosaurus
Creeping Jungle
Dense forests grow across the entire island, dominated by big gnarly ginkgo trees as tall as skyscrapers, their giant canopies veiling the undergrowth in permanent darkness. Among the dense vines and roots of this rainforest, both large and small creatures fight a savage battle for survival, a fierce competition at every level of the canopy.
Dry Lowlands
The drier lowland valleys are dominated by seed-fern prairies and conifer trees. While the wet jungles and swamps are dominated by fish, amphibians and anamniotes, these regions of the island are home to more familiar creatures, namely synapsids and true reptiles.
- Didontornis
- Gorgoraptor
- Chelonibamus
Craggy Uplands
Like walls around a city, a ring of steep mountains and hills winds around both the caldera lake and the whole island itself. Where these two ranges meet, three large mountains emerge in the South, the North and North-East. Apart from hardy, almost cactus-like cycads and lichen, these rocks lie barren. Only the hardiest herbivores survive here, fed on by the most opportunistic of climbing and flying reptiles.
- Armatosaurus
- Queen Celaenosaur
- Primatosaurus
Abyssal Chasms
Often hidden underneath forest canopies are deep chasms winding their way throughout the island, created by the unstable tectonic forces that are slowly ripping the island apart. These function a lot like the chasms of the deep sea: Malevolent arthropods and other invertebrates, often of horrific sizes, lurk in the abyss, preying on any of the unwary creatures that fall to their doom.
- Carnoconodon
- Carrion Trilobites
- Mega-Weta
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