The Kingdom of Littonia - Vaults of Pandius

GEOGRAPHY
The Land
To most residents, “Littonia” refers to
the modern kingdom, while “Greater
Littonia” includes a broad swath of land
northeast of the Great Bay as well as
portions of the Norwold littoral to the
south. This larger region is held to be the
Littonian homeland, to which its people
have a claim.
Littonia is located just north of the
Arctic Circle and would be a wholly
frigid land were it not for the protection
offered by a series of hills that marks the
land’s natural frontiers and the peculiar
effects of the Saampo of nearby Kaarjala.
Littonia is comprised of two valleys
rapidly carved out by glaciers during the
post-Rain ice migrations. The valleys
join in a broad-based “V” that brackets a
curving line of steep hills to the interior.
Even within the valleys, the terrain is
quite hilly, and much of the land is
covered with coniferous forests. The
entire kingdom slopes gradually towards
the ocean, with the westernmost
settlement of Valmiera being 400 feet
above sea level.
Natural resources consist of clay, wood,
peat, iron ore, limestone, silver, and,
most critically, amber.
Mountains and Hills
The only true mountains of Littonia,
Pērkons’ Throne, technically lie outside
its borders. These peaks, framed by the
Vētra (“tempest”) Hills, witness a great
number of thunderstorms throughout the
summer months. The tallest peaks rise
almost 11,000 feet above sea level, and
the mountains are rich in untapped
mineral resources.
Littonia is cut off from the rest of
Norwold by Namejs’ Line, a range of tall
hills running from the Sarkans (“red”)
Plain in the southwest to its junction with
the northern Lietuvan Hills. The
southern slopes of the Line are very
steep, rising to their maximum height of
1,100 feet above the Littonian baseline
very quickly. Numerous hidden valleys
and lakes are found within the Line. The
northern slopes are not quite as steep, and
descend 800 feet to the Noskumis
(“sorrowful”) Plain. Silver and iron ore
deposits are common in the west.
The Lietuvan Hills are very similar to
Namejs’ Line but rise only 700 feet
above the Littonian baseline. The range
is not as broad, and it is largely unbroken
by valleys. The Lietuvan Hills continue
northward west of the Teici Bog. This
extension only reaches 650 feet above
sea level. The continuing post glacial
uplift is slightly faster in the Lietuvan
Hills than at points further south, and this
has opened a number of channels where
water comes into contact with high heat,
producing a number of hot springs.
The stately, yet storm-ridden Vētra Hills
borders the Sarkans Plains from the
south, topping out at 500 feet above the
Littonian baseline. Their eastern fringes
are blanketed by the forest known as the
Draudīgs Wood. Traces of silver have
been found in some regions, but the
resident goblins have yet to mine them.
Forests
A mixture of old world and glacial
factors deposited thick, rich soils east of
Namejs’ Line that are now covered with
dense forest. The majority of trees are
coniferous, with spruce and pine
predominating, but stands of birch, and
even rare oak, can be found along the
lower Gaudava and Aiviekste Rivers and
the southern coastal regions. The
occasionally abrupt transition from
deciduous to coniferous vegetation – and
sometimes back again – in a space of a
few hundred feet is one feature unique to
Littonia. In most areas, the soil is quite
acidic due to falling needles and sports
little or no underbrush. Mushrooms,
bilberry bushes, cranberries, and shadeloving
herbs do manage to thrive,
however.
The largest forest is the Veči (“old”)
Forest, which is sandwiched between the
Gaudava and Aiviekste Rivers. It is
predominantly spruce, but the northern
and eastern fringes have large numbers of
birch, oak, and linden trees. Beyond the
Gaudava River the forest continues as the
coniferous Zalš (“green”) Forest. The
Zalš is very thick and ascends Namejs’
7
Line to the northwest.
South of the Aiviekste River is the
rugged Draudīgs (“sinister”) Wood. It
has large stands of birch along the coast,
but quickly becomes coniferous inland.
A part of Greater Littonia, the region is
largely unsettled wilderness. Folktales
hold that the Draudīgs Wood is the
location of Saldus, one of the petty
kingdoms that refused to submit to Karlis
the Unifier and was destroyed.
The Mindaugas’ Forest covers the low
hills north of the Gaudava’s last segment.
Named after a courageous Lietuvan lord,
it is exclusively pine and spruce trees,
save for a few oak and linden groves
around the village of Dundaga. It is also
the densest of Littonia’s forests and is
reputed to be inhabited by spirits who
play merciless tricks on intruders.
Although the fringes are thinly settled,
druids are the only humans likely to be
found deep within.
Plains
Further inland, where the cold
continental climate asserts itself, forests
yield to juniper thickets and long grasses.
The latter eventually predominate.
The transition is particularly abrupt on
the Noskumis Plain. There wildflowers
and tall grasses blanket the fields during
the brief summer. So named because of
its harsh climate and the many ruins that
dot its expanse, the Noskumis Plain is
largely flat and extends for many miles to
the west and north. It averages 400-500
feet above sea level in the east, rising
gradually towards the mountain foothills
in the distant west.
The Sarkans Plain – named after the
blood spilled in conflicts with the native
goblins – is relatively lush around the
banks of its rivers with cattails, small
bushes, and the occasional pine tree. It
averages 400 feet above sea level and
grows hilly towards the south and west.
The local climate is harsher than that in
Littonia, but it does not have quite as
extreme a fluctuation.