Ser'vor Forest Steppe

Place

Place Name:

Ser'vor Forest Steppe

Biome:

Forest Steppe

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

The forested steppes of Ser’vor are among the most important lands in all of the kin'toni lands, and the battles fought for the control of these lands were among the bloodiest and most expensive of the all those fought by the kin'toni so far but they have been paid twice over by how important thy have been in the war effort of the kin'toni people. The zu'aan themselves fought tooth and nail in order to keep the possession of these lands, it was very likely that the zu'aan were gong to loose the war altogether once the steppes were claimed by the Kn’toni however the zu'aan surprised the kin'toni by adapting to the loss of the steppes and found alternative sources of keeping their armies fed.

The steppes are an essential piece of land for any warring party as the open grassland makes for the ideal place for the growing of grain crops like wheat and barley. For the zu'aan these crops are important as they keep the armies and civilians of their cities fed while for the kin'toni, these crops are fed to the stock of the cattle that forms the blood stock for the armies as well as the civilian population. The battles claiming the steppes were extended campaigns that progressed slowly until the flying fruit bats began to be applied by the kin'toni to keep their forward troops.

This is which allowed kin'toni army regiments to dissociate from the main body and gave them the freedom to engage the enemy from different directions. Another aspect of the terrain that affected the outcome of the battles for the control of the steppes was the fact that the steppes are almost completely bare of any dense vegetation that lends cover from the sun to the kin'toni and so the zu'aan were able to retain their hold of the land much longer than would have been possible had the kin'toni engaged them in any other terrain.

Another important lesson learned during the battle for the steppes was the deployment of the shield and spear blocks against the kin'toni. The flat surface of the steppes allowed the Zu’aan to form shield walls of soldiers armed with Spears and short swords that allowed them to keep the kin'toni at a distance and prevented them for allowing them to fully utilise their great strength and agility in combat. The Steppe battles are among the most closely guarded regions in the whole of Taerel.

For although the kin'toni have managed to take hold of the region by force, the zu'aan have now begun to adopt guerrilla tactics, and have begun targeting the stores of grains as well as setting fields of grains afire, although, this new form of warfare is not terribly expensive for the kin'toni it has begun to affect the supply chains in a tangible manner. Therefore in the last decade the number of soldiers posted in the region has only increased instead of decreasing which is what had been expected when the kin'toni had rested control of the steppes.

Geography

The steppes fall in the subtropical zone of the planet and as such see as much of an extreme winter as they do the summer, the winter is much longer than the summer season, there is plenty of rainfall throughout the year but is mainly concentrated in the time of the summer and beginning of winter. The major cropping season takes place during the winter season, as cereal grain crops like wheat and barley grow much better during the clod season and they do not require a lot of water during their growing period beyond a small window at the time of their saplings.

The precipitin is almost always in the form of rain and it does not seem to snow here despite the location of the steppes on the planet. The range of temperature between the seasons is significant, besides having a winter and summer season, the land also has distinct phases of both spring and autumn, the spring is the time of harvesting the cereal crops. Post the harvest of the cereal crops the land is generally left barren to recuperate and rest. Presently it has been determined that since the occupation of the kin'toni in the region the land has undergone significant shifts for the better/

And this has been said to be to the establishment of a climax ecosystem that had been made impossible at the time of the zu'aan due to the use of their unsustainable materials and their seemingly inability to recycle resources from the planet. Some of the changes observed in the land has been a perceptible increase of precipitation in the region, and this rate pf growth is still not stable, it is expected that the precipitation rate would continue to increase for the next century at least before a stable annual rainfall can be estimated with any degree of accuracy.

The increase in precipitation has definitely been due to the increased presence of trees in the region, the roots of the trees have allowed better percolation of the water into the land leading to better moisture content of the air throughout the year, the water that would have been lost as run off during the time of the Xerea Empire now remains in the soil itself and so at the time of summer more of it is available for evaporation and can therefore cause rainfall at lower temperatures.

Another obvious change has been a fall in average annual temperatures for the whole region, when in the past the difference in temperatures had nearly upwards of forty degrees celsius, it is now about only twenty five degrees Celsius, meaning that the crops of the region experience gentler weathers and life in the plains is more comfortable. Lastly, the plains are certainly more fertile now than the times of the Xerea Empire, and this evidenced by the solid analysis, a process called pedological analysis, a test borrowed from the old record of the zu'aan, the analysis seemed to test for various substances in the soil itself in order to determine the amount of fertilised that would be added.

At present all of the factors analysed by the ancient zu'aan are much higher than all their records indicate, according to scholars from the Ravine university, this is due to the amount of blood that has been spilt during the wars and how many zu'aan and kin'toni have perished on the plains.

Plants

The steppes are full of fields and ranches as well as young stretches of yarel forests, but the most important plant of the region as well as the most pervasive is the grass. The steppes are covered with grass and are thus also called grasslands, besides being a beautiful sight to behold the grasses are very nutritious, the cattle of the ranches here raised to be blood stock are fed on a combination of both grass as well as cereal crops and as a result are among the heaviest animals in the world.

Their selective breeding along with a nutritious diet has allowed the animals to far exceed the size of the same species animals that were raised at the time of the Xerea Empire for the purpose of their flesh, and were commonly referred to as iala. The present day iala cattle is a little more than twice the size of the cattle in the past, and the difference is most obvious in height. This cattle is raised here for the blood it provides. The grasses are an essential part of its diet.

Besides the essential grass of the steppes, the oak trees grown in the region are also an important plant for the kin'toni empire, although the oak grown here is by no means grown for commercial use, as the wood for that purpose is grown in another region of the empire. Here the wood is primarily grown for providing a covered canopy region for the settlement of kin'toni camps and settlements. So far the Llyth clan has commissioned barely any structures to be built and the kin'toni of the region are expected to live in harmony with nature in the various wooded copses of the region.

The wood from the yarel however is used for a singular purpose besides construction and that is the use of the trees for the production of oak barrels in which the blood harvested from the iala stocks in harvested. It is much easier to transport just the blood instead of the whole animal itself for the purpose of supplying distant armies. The yarel wood barrels are an ideal form of transporting blood of the blood stock of the steppes and various strategies are applied for the transport depending upon the distance the blood is supposed to be transported.

For instance the blood that is to transported only a few day away is usually transported in wooden barrels of the yarel without any changes and directly after harvest, but for the purpose of transporting long distances, the blood is mixed with citrus fruit juice in order to prevent it from growing bad, although the blood in this way is less palatable, it is just as nutritious and there is a growing number of experiments being done in an attempt to try and improve the taste of blood with citrus with the use of herbs and other ingredients.

The leading scholars from the subject have set up an institute here on the plains as well and the local pollution of soldiers has begun to appreciate their presence, and many a soldiers can be found making their way to the institutes to try and get samples of their new concoctions.

Animals

The animal population of the plains is severely limited, and this can be blamed on the Xerea Empire, the destruction of the natural forests of the steppes must have caused massive extinction of the animal species that would have called the plains their home. With the reinstatement of the forests in the region it is expected that the animal populations will grow but it is unknown what kind of animals will make their way here. As of now there are only two animals that are of any interest on the plains of the steppes, the first being the cattle that is cultivated by the kin'toni themselves.

The other has been a recent addition as herds of these animals have slowly been making their way out of the surrounding forests to live on the plains. The cattle that is cultivate here for the purpose of blood stock is commonly called he iala or the sun cow, due to the distinct orange patches of colour that grow on its hide as it enters the adulthood stage of its life. The cattle as mentioned earlier is much larger than the members of the same species that were found at the time of the Xerea Empire.

Most notably the increase has been in the size of its bones, and this has been achieved by centuries long development during which only those cows with thickest bones and bone marrow were allowed to breed. The increase in bone marrow has been due to the fact that a sun cow is bled multiple times throughout the course of its life and with the advantage of having a large bone marrow the cow is able to recuperate much quicker and provide for nutritious blood for much longer before succumbing to death.

The blood of the sun cow is not among the most delectable in taste but it is the only animal that is able to produce such large quantities in such short periods and as such it forms the greatest share of the diet of the average kin'toni, and is the staple of the soldiers on campaign. The other animals that have been recently making their home on the steppes are the beautiful and majestic stone-hoofed wild horses. They roam the open plains in large herds and are considered to be some of the most beautiful species found on the Taerel.

The horses are a species of animals that are well known about but have only recently been seen in the wild. The old records of the Zu’Aaan empire claim that in their olden times, the horses were an essential resource and were found in nearly every household, but were then abandoned when they could make some automatons. The animals nearly went extinct, and a lot of about their use is now lost to the time. One of the major projects that the Llyth have been trying to do is to try and domesticate some of the stone-hoofed horses.

This is in order to try and employ them in the use of their wars and form a cavalry division in the kin'toni army of the Pioneer Council .

Historical Timeline of Ages

Age Name	Dates	Controller
Stone Age	Before 1E 0	Unknown
Copper Age	1E 1–1E 2200	Unknown
Bronze Age	1E 2200–1E 4400	Unknown
Iron Age	2E 0–2E 700	Unknown
Ancient Age	2E 700–2E 2200	Unknown
Middle Age	3E 0–3E 2050	Unknown
Early Modern Age	3E 2050–3E 2600	Unknown
Industrial Age	3E 2600–3E 2700	Unknown
Machine Age	3E 2700–3E 2800	Unknown
Atomic Age	3E 2800–3E 2850	Unknown
Space Age	3E 2850–3E 2875	Unknown
Information Age	3E 2875–3E 2900	Unknown
Genetic Age	3E 2950–3E 3000	Unknown
Awakening Age	3E 3000–3E 3415	Unknown
Twilight Age	4E 0–4E 500	Llyth Kin'toni Clan

Place

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Ser'vor Forest Steppe

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This article is written by Anmold Kaushal. Copyright 2026 Anmold Kaushal. All rights reserved.