Forbidden Lands

The Forbidden Lands north of the Sea of Fire and south of the Dragonsbreath Mountains have always been a place shrouded in mystery. With few successful exploratory missions to the region and no written history of note, little is known of the reptilian inhabitants of this hostile land. It has long been held that the Forbidden Lands were the spawning grounds of the first reptilemen, although the extension of that birthplace to cover other reptiles including the great dragons has not been unanimously accepted among scholars.

In the middle of the First Age, an elven expedition led by Prince Lomion was exploring the rivers and coasts of the very southeastern tip of the Forest. Their small ship was blown by storm south along the coastal cliffs formed by the meeting of the Dragonsbreath Mountains and the Great Sea. The vessel was destroyed in the Sea of Fire, their mage and his assistant were killed, but the Prince and several of his party escaped in the Forbidden Lands. Their odyssey through these lands, north over the mountains, and back home into the forest embodies elven legend at its finest.

The stories tell of a hostile parched landscape lacking all but the hardiest vegetation and almost devoid of water. The flat plain of this land was broken only by the mountains to the north, which seem to rise directly from the desert floor. The southern boundaries of this land were not habitable due to the immense heat driven into the area by the Sea of Fire. The land was strewn with boulders and lava flows, filled with bubbling caldera, and a number of active volcanoes filled the air with a pungent smoke reeking of sulfur.

The dominant inhabitants of this land dwelt underground, appearing at first to be large bipedal lizards without a social structure, language, or intelligence. After several hostile encounters, the elves were captured and taken through a vast series of underground tunnels which connected to larger and larger communities finally terminating in a great underground city. After a daring escape from the City Beneath Ssruthu, Prince Lomion fled north pursued by legions of armed lizard men and kobalds. Only the advent of an early snowstorm in the Dragonsbreath Mountains saved the elves from immanent death. Afterwards, elven patrols along the southern border of the great forest kept a vigil for an attack from their reptilian neighbors.

However, few stories exist of sightings of lizard men outside of the Forbidden Lands during the First Age. The frigid mountains to the north and the daunting sea in the east and west contained this small kingdom. The introduction of magic into the culture, sometime in the Second Age changed this. Raiding parties of lizardmen can be found in the histories of most parts of the Realm during the Second and Third Ages. While settlements of lizardmen are very rare and typically short-lived, small bands of lizardmen can be found in many ports throughout the Realm. There is no known trade with the Forbidden Lands.