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Mishrak Ac Thull
This is the central Angarak Kingdom. Again, its western boundary
with Algaria is mountainous and the eastern foothills are
treecovered, a southern continuation of the vast forests of Nadrak. Aside
from the northern River Cordu, which forms the northeastern
boundary with Gar og Nadrak, the land of the Thulls is drained only
by the River Mardu, and their capital of Thull Mardu is located on
an island in that river some hundred leagues inland. Extensive
grasslands lie to the north of the River Mardu, and significant cattle
herds are grazed in that area of late. (Probably developed as a result
of the serious meat-famine which followed the Angaraks' disastrous
adventure in the west.) To the south in the foothills of the mountains
a sparsely timbered belt exists which soon gives way to the empty
reaches of the wastes of Murgos. The southern boundary of Mishrak
ac Thull is the Taur River.
Cthol Murgos
This southern Angarak Kingdom is the most bleak and uninviting.
The seaport of Rak Coska at the mouth of the Taur is the only city of
any size in Cthol Murgos, aside from the theological capital at Rak
Cthol, and forms the eastern terminus of the South Caravan Route.
Cthol Murgos is, by any civilized 'standard, an uninhabitable
wasteland. Because of the aridity of the country, agriculture is
minimal, and the Murgos must import virtually all their foodstuffs. The
bleak coastline is backed for a hundred leagues with the bleak
wastes of Murgos; there is again, as in llishrak ac Thull, a narrow
belt of stunted trees; and then there is only the endless barren waste
of the southern mountains.
* The Tolnedrans didn't know about southern Cthol Murgos at this point.
The only geographic feature worthy of note in those mountains is
the vast, flat Wasteland of Murgos just to the west of the first range
of mountains. The area, perhaps a hundred leagues wide and three
hundred long, appears to have been a huge inland sea at some time
in the dim reaches of the pre-historic past. Either the sea was
drained during some cataclysmic geological upheaval, or a drastic
change in climate to the present aridity caused it to gradually dry
up. Whatever the reason, only the sea-bed remains. Enormous
stretches of barren salt-flats are interspersed with endless expanses
of black sand and ridges of tumbled basalt slabs. Somewhere near
the center of the wasteland is the Tam of Cthok, a foul-smelling lake
seething with chemical salts and so noxious that even the vultures of
Cthol Murgos are frequently overcome by the fumes as they fly over
it and fall into the water and perish. The marge of the lake is a
bubbling quagmire, forever churned by stinking gasses rising from
the very bowels of the earth.
Somewhat to the west of the tam rises, the solitary peak which is
the site of Rak Cthol, the forbidden theological capital of the
Murgos. The sides of the peak are smooth basalt, and the only
approach to the city is by way of a narrow, inclined causeway, built
"I LILT; uibLCULL pabl vy unspeakable amounts Of human labor. One is
sickened at the thought of whole generations of slaves toiling away
their lives to lay this pathway to Rak Cthol. The walls of the city are
as high as the peak itself. What lies within the city is a mystery, since