The golden savannah of northwestern Ve, Edari is a vast wilderness claimed by no settled nation. It is the homeland of the Korel—the Wildborn Koren—who roam its grasslands in loose hunting bands, following prey and season across terrain that has never known a permanent wall.
Geography
Edari occupies a broad peninsula roughly 300 miles across, bounded by water on three sides and mountains to the south. The terrain is predominantly flat savannah—golden grasses stretching to every horizon, broken by scattered acacia-like trees and seasonal watering holes.
Boundaries:
- North: Open ocean (Norswell Sea)
- West: Mesyula Bay
- East: Coquray Sound (inlet of Turquish Bay)
- South: Shepherds' Stones (mountain range marking the border with Sestros)
The interior is trackless. No roads cross Edari—the Korel don't build them, and outsiders rarely survive long enough to need them.
Howlwood
The one major forest in Edari sprawls across the northeastern corner of the region, near where Coquray Sound meets the coast. The forest takes its name from the eerie sounds that drift from its depths at night—whether from wildlife, wind, or something else is debated by the few outsiders who've heard it.
See Howlwood for details.
The Korel
Edari has no cities, towns, or villages because its inhabitants don't build them. The Korel—Wildborn Koren—are nomadic hunters who follow game across the savannah in loose pack structures. They are territorial and view outsiders as either prey or competitors.
The Korel are not a unified people. Each pack operates independently, sometimes cooperating with neighbors, sometimes fighting them. Attempting to cross Edari without Korel permission is extremely dangerous. Attempting to settle is suicide.
See Koren for details on the Korel.
The one passage
The rule that outsiders do not cross Edari has exactly one living exception, and it is not a road. In the southern reaches, where the savannah breaks against the Shepherds' Stones, a pack-lead named Korath has for three years walked a single Nameless mercenary through the interior and back. There is no track to find and nothing built to mark it; the safe passage is wherever Korath's pack happens to be walking, and it exists only because he profits from it. The other packs hunt him for it. None of this softens the general rule. For anyone without Korath's protection, the interior remains exactly as lethal as it has always been, and Korath protects precisely one man.
Why It Matters
Edari is effectively impassable overland. Anyone traveling between Sestros and the northern coast must either:
- Sail around the peninsula (adding weeks to the journey)
- Negotiate passage with Korel packs (unreliable at best)
- Fight through (rarely successful)
This geographic reality shapes trade routes across northern Ve. The Shepherds' Stones and Korel territory together create a natural barrier that isolates the northwestern coast from the rest of the continent.