Lost Plateau
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesUí (Ordana) - Nature, fertility, protection of forests and sylvan races
Uatumá (Zirchev) - Hunting, survival, bravery, sylvan races, animals, nature
Maraú-Uxuí (Terra) - Balance of the life cycle, earth, birth, fertility, seasons
The Night Spider (Aracne Prime) - Deceit, oppression, obscurity, aranea and spiders
Ilsundal - Protection of elves and nature, wisdom, knowledge, magic, tradition, serenity and peace
Ninfangle - Rakastas, bravery, adventure, travel, battle, hunting
Bastet - Rakastas, felines, capriciousness, fortune, fertility
Ka - Protection of life, prosperity, magic, healing, wisdom, rakastas, stone giants
Notes:
1. The region known as the Lost Plateau (also called the Thothian Plateau due to nearby Thothia that claims the area on paper) occupies all the southern part of the Isle of Dawn, stretching between Thothia to the east and Shadow Coast to the west, and to the south it faces onto the Bellissarian Sea with a series of escarpments and cliffs that don’t permit any landfall (this area is also called the Great Escarpment). Within it abound the subtropical vegetation and the more disparate animal species, and live many intelligent creatures like aranea, phanaton, rakasta, elves and stone giants (in descending order).
2. It is thought that the phanaton tribes that live in the forests of the Plateau share the same pantheon of the Jibarú and therefore worship Uí (Ordana), Uatumá (Zirchev) and Maraú-Uxuí (Terra), the racial Immortals of the phanatons. These phanatons are the descendents of the slaves of the aranea people, who successfully rebelled when Korotiku caused the collapse the Empire of Aran and forced Aracne Prime to flee in the depths of the Mystaran underground. From that far-off past, the phanatons have always remained fiercely independent and sworn enemies of the aranea, and the only people with which they have held an alliance are the Trueflower elves and the treants of the forests (who share the veneration of Ordana).
3. Aracne Prime is worshipped by the aranea that infest the forests of the region, arrived here millennia ago from another plane and that once housed the centre of their vast empire now in ruins. Until the events of M5 (that happens between 1003 and 1004 AC), the Immortal lived under the city of Aran, at the centre of the Lost Plateau, and from there rules its subjects and the nearby Thothia.
4. The Trueflower elves made probably part of the migration of the Shiye towards Alphatia and arrived by chance on the island, after having remained isolated during the journey on the Rainbow Bridge and had taken the wrong exit. Abandoning it themselves, they have found a favourable cooperation with the phanatons and they also therefore share the religion, very similar to their philosophy of life. It is extremely probable that these elves conserved one of the nine seeds originally created by Ilsundal for the migration of Mealiden, and that therefore possess one of the two Mother Trees that were lost during the elven dispersion (that derived exactly from the seed of the Shiye, who Eiryndul probably has wanted to purposely remove from the clan in order best influence the leader and convert them to his own cult) and are for that reason followers of Ilsundal.
5. There are several tribes of nomadic Fast Runner rakasta settled for centuries in the forests of the Thothian Plateau (Dragon Magazine nr 247) that have always made difficult the colonisation of the territory with acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare. They are followers of Ninfangle, patron of hunting, battle and the nomadic style of life typical of the oldest rakasta, and have taken from the nearby Thothians (and from the contact with their cousins that live in Thothia) as well as the cult of Bastet, mother of the rakasta and lady of fortune and fertility, the one that is identified with the more instinctive aspects of the rakasta spirit.
6. Ka is worshipped separately also by the clan of hunakoi giants (stone giants with reddish skin) that live along the course of the Aurora River and on the southern slopes of the Great Escarpment.