Flowing into the Great River just south of Vimary is the Otter, the “gateway to the west.” This swift and rocky river, despite its dangers, is the most efficient and well-mapped route through the realms of the warlike Horse Squats and ultimately to the polluted Tiskagin. Every few years, the Dahlian Autumn Caravan journeyed up the Otter to the island of Adawe, where they would trade with the locals.
The only “natural” hazard on the Otter River is the wolf-otters, monstrosities created by the Z'bri to feed on humans. They are rare but terrifying. Serf settlements dot the north bank, owing their allegiance to the Ziggurat, C'pal, or Rhanto. The lands surrounding these villages are infested with Gek'roh and other monsters, and further north the forests are full of malevolence and hate.
South of the river, the land is lively and welcoming to explorers and foragers. Ruins from the World Before (long since stripped of anything valuable) are only marginally less common than plains full of fruit and vegetables.
Following the Otter upriver far beyond the Squat island of Adawe eventually leads to Tiskagin, as surely as following the coastline of the Jorena Lake north. Close to Tiskagin, the rivers become heavy with red and blue silt and lead to lakes stinking of metal and full of dead fish. A rainbow river leads to the heart of the polluted land, but none of the Squats in the area have ever tried to find its source.
The Silent City
Along the Otter's south bank, halfway to Adawe, sits the Silent City. Most of the ancient, ruined metropolis is sunk into a swamp and filled with trees that are diseased and wilting from drinking the foul water. There are, however, several “blocks” worth of perfectly-preserved buildings from the World Before, clustered around a hill at the northern end of the city.
At night, parts of the ruins glow with an eerie green light with no discernible source. The unquiet spirits of the city's dead appear in the dreams of passersby, screaming and burning in a wind only they can feel. The dead are the city's only inhabitants, as not even animals live in the area.
Atop the hill at the north of the city is a Z'bri tower, almost a hundred metres tall. It is made of yellowed bone bound by translucent living flesh, without any discernible means of entry.
The Black River
East of Adawe, a river flows into the Otter from the north, its water black and thick - more like pitch than mud. It sickens the land and any creatures it touches. The black quickly dissipates in the waters of the Otter, but grows darker the further towards Tiskagin one travels. The Horse Squats claim this as the eastern boundary of their territory.
Adawe
The large island of Adawe is the furthest up the Otter River that the Tribes have explored. It began as neutral territory where the Horse Squat clans could meet and trade as they made their way south in the fall. In the past decade or so, others (including the Dahlians, Novohuron, and Squats calling themselves the People of Smoke) have begun using it as a place where they can trade and conduct negotiations.
The Southwestern Hills and Sico Swamp
Between the Otter and Sico Swamp, the land is hilly and split with streams and lakes. Here and to the southeast, many ruins from the World Before remain intact. A few blacktops offer great, grey paths through the wilderness for those who can find them.
The murky Sico Swamp is near a cluster of clear lakes to the north of Rhanto. The swamp is dark, muddy and shallow, as low as waist deep in parts, except during the spring thaw when the whole area floods.
Tiskagin
Tiskagin is the name of both the lake that feeds the Otter and the surrounding region. It is a bleak and twisted land, found north of the Jorena and far west of C'pal, covered in dust and ruins. Skeletal trees stand between rusted World Before outposts, the few muddy lakes bubble and steam and release noxious fumes, cracks in the earth spew acrid black smoke, and huge pits and quarries lead deep into the ground. No animals or plants live to provide food within its boundaries, and all water is impure.
One well-known landmark in Tiskagin is the tall iron towers scattered across the area. The towers sway in strong winds, and wile some spit fire or shake the earth, others stand dormant. They could hide innumerable secrets behind their walls, but a few show signs of fortification.
Several of these towers border the Tiskagin Lake, the one clean body of water in the desert of pollution. These towers are currently maintained by the Keepers, who watch over their complex of buildings from the World Before that sits near the lake shore.