THE NORTH
The wilds of the north were once tamed by the people of Eyru under High King Horace. Strange beasts and giants were rumored to roam the plains, though the heroes of the time outmatched them and managed to bring civilization to the area. Through Eyru's Golden Age, great settlements sprang up in these vast rolling plains. Since Clarabaan's Folly, and the fracturing of the clans caused by the Divide, the North has been reclaimed by the beasts and giants. No human has set foot on its soil in five centuries.
From legend, an interesting picture of the Northern Lands can be drawn. It is a land of rolling, wind swept plains. Grass laden hillocks rest between lonely groves of trees that dot the countryside in the south and the rocky foothills to the north. Viscous predators roam the plains at night, many of monstrous proportions, living off of small wild game and herds of wild cattle. Before being driven north during the Golden Age, giants lived among these lands. Most inhabited enormous mounds constructed of earth while those closer to the foothills were said to be encountered in fortresses of stone and timber.
A long stretch of land along the western coast was known as the Broken Lands; a swath of infertile soil where even the grasses of the plains were kept at bay. It is the closest thing Eyru has to a desert, though temperatures do not exceed the temperate ranges of the rest of the island. The infertility of the soil of this region baffled many early settlers. Warriors however brought back tales from the giants which spoke of the rage of the Manterlaug, father of giant-kin and presumed creator of Eyru. It was said that the Broken Lands were once the home of a giant king who ruled Eyru with an iron fist. When the Tuatha de Danaan first came and wrested the southern lands from the giant king, the Manterlaug grew angry. He beat the giant's fortress and the land around it with his seven massive clubs, destroying all life - even that which resided in the very soil.
Also prior to the coming of the Tuatha De Danaan, the Fomorians lived along the eastern coast of the North (and the eastern coast of all of Eyru). No friends of the giant-kin, they suffered constant attack by those tribes. Still, through magic and tenacity, they prospered and retained their lands along the coast, living in white marble towers and buildings decorated with corral and pearls and other bounties of the sea. At first, they welcomed the Tuatha de Danaan invasion and the distraction it brought to the giants. For years, trade between the Fomorians and the newcomers was common, despite the Fomorians xenophobia. However, with the failed marriage of High King Bicchru Lirnaan to a princess of Fomor, that delicate relation crumbled. The last remaining tower of the Fomorians was said to be that of "The Palace of the Waves" on the north east coast. Here is where the spurned princess lived who brought insanity to the first High King.
What lies in the North now, none can say. Once the wars between the High clans began, the northern lands defenses began to thin as warriors headed south to support these wars. As mentioned, Clarabaan, a warrior chief of the North, decided to strike the giants before they had a chance to re-group and take advantage of the human's weakness. He and the remaining army of the North never left the mountains. Without protection, the people fled to the south, never to turn back. Over the centuries since this event, the Wood Between and its inhabitants have become the center of powerful superstition and no one dares pass through the Wood to view the once powerful lands of the north.
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