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The
Blood-Clans of Jorikk: Region Guide #1
The Middle Plains of Drhokker
If you’re coming to the Blood-Clans of Jorikk for the first
time, we recommend taking a moment to familiarize yourself with the
intro material on the website, found at https://kenzerco.com/jorikk.
The Middle Plains of Drhokker could be said to encompass, in terms of a
continuous landscape and biome, all the watershed of the Jorakk and
Jendasha Rivers, which includes all the open grassland, plains and
prairie stretching from a couple hundred miles east of Gothmerr to as
far westward as Shynabyth and Tharggy. This biome is bordered by the
Rytarr Wilderness in the north and the Rokk Wilderness – an impressive
expanse of forest in its own right – in the south.
However, this Regional Guide focuses on the lands surrounding the
Jorakk River and the northern end of the Jendasha, which includes the
major settlements of Gothmerr, Trarr and Vhott. If your party ventures
further east or west across the wind-swept and seemingly endless
horizons of the Middle Wild Lands, this Guide may still be used for
Skill Checks and Random Encounters, though political facts and rumors
will grow cold the further one gets from the Jorakk’s mighty flow.
Other than its small settlements, and the large flows of the Jorakk and
Jendasha Rivers, the Middle Drhokker Plain is a seemingly endless
prairie stretching in all directions as far as the eye can see,
sometimes sparkling with the blues and greens of streams reflecting the
sun, sometimes all drab brown, grays and yellows when drought soaks up
the moisture of the land and causes even the toughest grasses to wilt
away. Its wide swaths of low hills rolling to the horizon are sometimes
broken by copses of larch and birch trees and hoary shrubs, though
there are many places where it would seem that nothing but field and
grass exists in all the world. In areas of greater moisture and
fertility, such as around the Jendasha River Basin and the west bank of
the Jorakk River, the grasslands are a rich gold of hip-high grass
waving in the breeze. More arid stretches, however, such as those
directly east of Trarr, are known for hard steppes that stretch flat to
the horizon.
In the summer, thunderstorms come violently across the prairie,
darkening the sky from the ground up with black curtains of sheeting
rain. In the winter, everything freezes hard under a cover of crusted
snow, and the wind howls in gales across the darkened waste.
The whole of the Middle Wild Lands is home to large grazing animals,
including bison, musk-ox, antelope, and some elk and moose. Prey is
made of these by packs of wolves and coyotes, as well as the fast and
powerful Wooly Cheetah. Giant Eagles are sometimes seen soaring high
above the steppe. Though those massive birds make their eyries far to
the south in the Vrykarrs, they find good hunting out on the sweeping
plain.
The prairie is also home to many Dejy tribes and Drhokkeran clansmen.
Even distant reaches far removed from greater trade routes along the
Jorakk and Jendasha Rivers are not all untamed. Many settlements
represent temporary camps of Dejy tribesman moving steadily across the
prairie in search of bison herds and good water. Others are little more
than Fhokki homesteader families clustered together in a handful of
sod-roofed longhouses, working cattle, sheep, goats and other animals
which can turn grass into meat.
Though the growing season is brief, and rich soil lacking except for
around rivers, it’s common practice for those who steward the land,
rooted to one spot by heavy timber, husbanded animals and tilled
ground, to grow cold crops such as potatoes, onions, beets, cabbage,
lettuces, winter wheat and barley. While meat and dairy are the
mainstays of diet for Drhokkeran Fhokki, almost all supplement their
fare as much as they may with such crops.
v 1.0.2 posted 1/26/15.
Correction made to 'Wild Lands' & 'Deep Wilderness' charts on p.
13. Thanks to Ron G for spotting an error.
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