Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)

2026-05-20T12:52:39Z

(via JWB)

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{{Infobox Region
|Name = Cheque Cold Swamplands
|Other Names = Unknown
|Biome = Cold Swamplands
|Size = Unknown
|Continent = Unknown
|Subcontinent = Unknown
}}

==History==
===Historical Overview===
===History by Age===

====Stone Age: Before 1E 0====

====Copper Age: 1E 1-1E 2200====

====Bronze Age: 1E 2200-1E 4400====

====Iron Age: 2E 0-2E 700====

====Ancient Age: 2E 700-2E 2200====

====Middle Ages: 3E 0-3E 2050====

====Early Modern Age: 3E 2050-3E 2600====

====Industrial Age: 3E 2600-3E 2700====

====Machine Age: 3E 2700-3E 2800====

====Atomic Age: 3E 2800-3E 2850====

====Space Age: 3E 2850-3E 2875====

====Information Age: 3E 2875-3E 2900====

====Genetic Age: 3E 2950-3E 3000====

====Awakening Age: 3E 3000-3E 3415====

====Twilight Age: 4E 0-4E 500====

==Geography==

Cheque is a swampland made mostly of ice and snow. Situated on the western edge of the northernmost spot on the continent, it borders (to the north and west) a black sea that I would not advise swimming in unless you want to die of hypothermia after a few seconds, or unless you are a parya'dora. To the south and east of the swampland are long ranges of mountains. That keep Winter’s Fart from dissipating to the south or the east. The southern border is by far the longer; it only has a few passes going through the mountains, and of these passes, only two are really used. The eastern border has no passes.

Really, if it were not so large, or so deadly, Cheque would make an excellent prison. Moving on from its borders, Cheque itself can be divided into a few regions that are all somewhat different from each other. The largest region by far is the swampland itself, which not only spans the whole southern border of Cheque but also touches the three other borders. Perhaps it’s roughly half water, and half land. The land, made mostly of pebbles and chunks of stone, is covered with snow, and the water — which is actually ice — is also covered with snow. Every pool and slough in the swamp is completely frozen.

At the very bottoms of the shallowest pools you might be able to find perfectly preserved and, yes, still-alive icefish, which probably swam into there the last time Winter’s Fart cleared up and the sun partially melted the shallow pools. There are trees in this swamp, and there are very few of them, but if you stand in any given spot in the swamp, there’s probably a tree within a couple miles. You’d probably be able to see it, too, if there wasn’t this dang blizzard blocking your vision. The second region is an area in the middle of the swampland, an area full of hills and with few pools of water.

A fair quantity of metals and the like can be found in these hills, enough to make a mine worthwhile, but no one has discovered that yet. These hills are home to roughly a quarter of the parya'doras in Cheque. The source of a river that flows to the western border can be found here; this river, which the White Ghost calls the Fluth’yenera and which the Litara have not discovered. This is the precious little water in this land that isn’t frozen, even if bottling it up and causing it to stop moving would freeze it instantly. The third region and the last region that merits its own paragraph is found in the very southeast corner of Cheque.

It is a small forest of the trees that grow here and there in the swamp, and even the White Ghost has not discovered it. There are other notable geographical features here and there on the borders of Cheque, like cliffs and tiny mountains and glaciers. And of course, here and there you can find the grave of some politically important exile, which might be interesting to a historian or a poet.

==Plants==

“No plants grow in Cheque,” most inhabitants say a few minutes before dying of cold or starvation. They’re wrong. They’re almost right, but they’re wrong. The dante is a prime example of what they miss. These plants are thorny and tough as iron, but every year or three, when the storm clears and the sun shines, each of its many thorns sprouts about a dozen leaves and the bush absorbs enough light to survive another dozen months, if need be. But when the storm comes again, their leaves wilt and fall off, and freeze, and the thorny plant hides beneath the snow to stab the boots of whatever man or beast that steps on it. Occasionally, the danteberry will produce a fruit which swiftly and surely kills the thing foolish enough to eat it.

Anything that even resembles life will regret tasting it, though apparently it tastes like fresh sugared lemons, if that’s a taste you’re willing to die for. The dante hopes you’re willing to die for it, since, like the opportunist plant it has to be to survive in this land, it’s not above eating frozen meat. When the berry is plucked, its thorny branches will seek out its nearby prey and latch onto it before the poisoned man or beast freezes entirely, making getting at the meat impossible for the danteberry. The plant isn’t entirely evil, however, as its leaves are entirely harmless if a bit spicy on the tongue.

Some trees grow in Cheque, as you know, or don’t, but they’re not nearly as useful to exiles as the danteberry. Their wood is brittle and useless for anything but to be burned in the fire, and even that they can’t do properly. There are two different kinds tree to shout your dying, frozen-tongued curses at: the snowy havarki and the tythli. They’re almost identical in every way except for their leaves. The snowy havarki has its leaves out all the time. The Tythli has special, tiny droplet cups which catch snow: when the sun comes out, the snow in the cups melt, and cause the leaves to expand.

Naturally, the tythli is more likely to survive longer, but the snowy havarki scatters more seeds. Thus the larger trees in Cheque are almost always Tythlis, but the more common tree is the snowy havarki. Other than these things, the only plant that grows in this desolate place is a swift-growing grass, which sprouts when the weather warms up, grows to be a few inches long, and then scatters its seeds within a few hours. Some fashionable ladies once upon a time tried to take this grass, which is very green indeed, to see if they could make good lawns out of it.

As it turned out, the heat of a climate that was merely chilly simply killed the grasses. And if you want to try and farm food in Cheque — just… good luck. It’s not easy. But really, nothing is easy here. It wasn’t meant to be.

==Animals==

If, somehow, for some reason, you’ve survived in this icy prison long enough to wonder what kind of animals live here, you’re probably going to get mauled by a parya'dora. parya'doras in Cheque are much larger, stronger, quicker, and tougher than the parya'doras typically to be found anywhere else. They live off of whatever edible things they can find, which is primarily icefish. If you do see a parya'dora, it’s not uncommon for them to be shattering a frozen pond with their enormous claws just to get at a singular icefish at the bottom of a pool. Naturally, there aren’t many parya'doras, since there are only so many icefish to be eaten.

When these parya'doras mate, the female promptly attacks the male and devours him if she can. It’s not often, fortunately. The mother will then give birth to around four cubs within a year. Of course, these cubs will attempt to eat each other and even their mother if they grow hungry enough, or if the new mother has grown too weak to prevent them from attacking her or from squabbling amongst themselves. After a year, the mother, if she’s still alive, kicks the cubs that are still alive out of her cave and sends them to fend for themselves. Such extreme motherhood is less common on the northern and western borders of Cheque, which are the icy shores of the ocean.

There’s significantly more fish there, and thus less of a need for your family members to consume you just to survive. The icefish which sometimes make up the whole of a parya'dora’s diet live in the ocean but require shallow pools to lay their eggs in, which is why they can sometimes be found in the ice swamp. They are silver in appearance and have long, sharp fins, which makes them difficult to handle once caught, unless you have long claws and armoured hands like a parya'dora. Icefish can jump out of the water and glide for short periods of time. This movement is often necessary to get to a pool that isn’t already occupied by another icefish.

It is also often necessary to avoid being eaten. The diet of an icefish consists of grassy muck on the surface and floor of the ocean. This makes them taste horrible. Do not try to eat them. parya'doras taste significantly better, but that’s not really saying much. Very occasionally, suals will swim up to the shores of Cheque. They make for prime hunting for both parya'doras and men, since they have neither natural weapons nor natural armour, and are extremely slow on land. They also taste alright, once you get used to the taste, which you probably will if you catch yourself a whole sual.

Nobody knows why the suals are stupid enough to come here every spring and get themselves slaughtered. But they still come, every year, which is convenient. Once every ten or so years, if you listen extremely carefully during the middle of the night in heart of the darkest, wildest blizzard, you might hear the legendary cry of the fabled Arctic Rook, as these gigantic male birds battle in the harshest conditions possible to determine who shall take the place of their fallen king. Who has recently died of old age in his castle of sticks and stones at the top of the tallest mountain in the region.

{{Template:Controllers
|Stone Age = Unknown
|Copper Age = Unknown
|Bronze Age = Unknown
|Iron Age = Unknown
|Ancient Age = Unknown
|Middle Age = Unknown
|Early Modern Age = Unknown
|Industrial Age = Unknown
|Machine Age = Unknown
|Atomic Age = Unknown
|Space Age = Unknown
|Information Age = Unknown
|Genetic Age = Unknown
|Awakening Age = Unknown
|Twilight Age = [[Litara Kin'toni Clan]]
}}

{{NeartoDesktop
| Centre = {{PAGENAME}}
| North = Unknown
| Northeast = Unknown
| East = Unknown
| Southeast = Unknown
| South = Unknown
| Southwest = Unknown
| West = Unknown
| Northwest = Unknown
}}

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.fiverr.com/ejn_worldweaver Xerxes Worldweaver]
| Holder = Xerxes Worldweaver
}}

[[Category: Places]]
[[Category:Xerxes Worldweaver's contributions]]

Cheque Cold Swamplands - Revision history

Stevie Lambert: (via JWB)