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Please ask for permission before using this map or any part of it.

Update 3.0 - Labels, many coastline and area adjustments. Greater Kijara, reorganized Aminaezian islands, expanded steppes and deserts, redrawn rivers. New list items 32-26.

        The planet earth, as it appears in the Anthropocene of my fictional universe, Cosmoha. There are mystical aspects present in this reality, primarily in the form of essence, a spiritual energy produced by every unique object.

    While all physical things are made of a combination pre-existing matter, the essence they produce is entirely their own. For example, Robert may be a temporary assortment of organic molecules on the physical plain, spiritually, he is composed of the essence of Robert, an original substance that exists for as long as he does. Simply put, a physical form is defined by its parts, while it's spirit is defined by the sum. Many phenomena result from the presence of essence in this universe, two of which being particularly influential on the biology and history of this universe.

    First is that each planet's essence manifests as a conscious being, a 'deity' of sorts. These beings consider their planets to be their most prized possessions, manipulating their forms into something beautiful which they can take pride in. Some create stunning landscapes of gems and crystals, others churn their atmospheres to fuel spectacular storms, and every once in a while, some will find curious microscopic specs wriggling around in little warm ponds, biological life, which they saw mostly as a novelty. Earth's deity is Kathelsa, who discovered the potential of biological life, its ability to diversify and grow into stupendously complex and wholly unique ecosystems, wonders that no deity could construct on their own. She studied this new life, and developed methods for making it flourish. She shared her discoveries with her peers, helping them nurture the life that developed on their own worlds, and spreading life to those who had none.

    When organic life forms develop to the point of self-awareness, that opens up the door for spiritual enlightenment, drawing power from one’s own essence to be used in a variety of ways. While every self-aware life form is technically capable of honing their spiritual abilities, it is nonetheless rare practice among most civilizations, as awakening one’s essence takes drastic lifestyle changes to accomplish. One must fully dedicate themselves to a sort of strict aesthetic lifestyle, living like a Buddhist monk free of worldly desires, then can they only begin to develop their spiritual powers. Only a handful of times in this Earth’s history have groups of like-minded monks manage to establish long term communities of practitioners, who are often restricted from interacting with the societies around them by their lifestyle and beliefs.

       However, in rare instances, these limitations can be transgressed. less than one in 100,000 individuals are born capable awakening their spiritual abilities through alternate means. That doesn’t mean it’s easier for them, it often takes a great amount of stress and situational pressure to bring their power out. What it does mean is that these gifted individuals can develop their powers for whatever purpose they see fit, the only determining factor being the spiritual culture of their society. Spiritual cultures are basically evolving power systems shared by a group of people inhabiting the same region. They Begin when the first gifted individual awakens their abilities in isolation from any other already-awakened individuals. Their abilities will be tied to something they’ve dedicated their life to, such as navigation of the seas, stone-masonry, or the mastery of a weapon. After that first individual in a given region develops their powers, anyone else who happens to be gifted to develop the same kind of ability.

    You’ll find the biology of this planet much like our own, many areas contain an almost indistinguishable assortment of species and ecologies.

    For now, let’s get acquainted with the most glaring derivations which lie on OhEarth’s surface.

    1.       The Taevalands – home of the exiled

    This region comprises an expansive non-glaciated area of Antarctica, and the nearby Taevan isles, inhabited by the people for which they are named. Most of these islands have a temperate climate similar to The British Isles. Having been isolated from all other continents for over 30 million years, its wildlife hosts the latest surviving relatives of archaic lineages that have all but disappeared from the rest of the world; the last bastion for the life that once flourished across Antarctica before its glaciation. Like its sister continent, Australia, it lacks any placental mammals, save bats, the bizarre armadillos of Etvoryn, and dogs introduced by its human settlers. The most distinct element of the majority of Taevan ecosystems are their complete lack of any tree species. The resulting environment hosts biomes unlike any other; in the place of forests, the moist temperate areas of the Taevalands support dense jungles of bamboo and an assortment of towering grass species. The only part of this region with endemic trees is the far western coastline of Atsryn, which hosts boreal forest biomes.

    After an ancient cataclysm left human settlers cut off from all trade and communication, the few survivors were forced to rebuild their civilization from scratch. For ten thousand years they remained in exile from the rest of mankind, yet still Limited as they were, lacking wood, and most common domesticates, and with no means of trading with the world around them, they would nevertheless rise and surpass the heights of their ancestors to one day become a powerful player on the world stage.

    Learn more about the Taevan geography, wildlife, and people here: www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/a…

    2.       Lower Magalodia - No Man’s Land

    For whatever reason, this lower half of Magalodia hosts notoriously hazardous terrain and wildlife that have hindered human settlement for millennia. The hunter gatherers who call this region home are among the most resilient peoples of this world; the lengths they go to survive in their hostile homeland can be described as remarkable, and even disturbing at times. Its coasts range from confounding mangroves, to jagged rocky mazes and scorching infertile deserts that continue into the mainland. Its environments contain the highest concentration poisonous and aggressive critters on the planet, giving it a reputation like Australia has in our reality.

    3.       The Malvis isles – The Invisible colony

    The Malvis isles are a relatively recent island chain with wildlife not too dissimilar to their neighboring continent. It had been partially connected to the south African biosphere via an archipelago that allowed mainland species to immigrate via island-hopping, until those intermediates completely eroded around 4 million years ago.

    Confoundingly, these lands evaded discovery by any humans until very late into the era of exploration. Through sheer happenstance, trade and exploration ships just never managed to run into it. When the Malvis islands were finally discovered by a relatively small and weak nation struggling to compete with the colonial empires that neighbored it, it finally gave them a significant foothold in the colonization game.

    4.       The K’rashenka Peninsula

The Extreme climates and geographic isolation of K’rashenka has allowed many unique and isolated cultures to form in the peninsula. In the west, around where it meets Hofrikora, there’s a region whos physical geography resembles post-glacial far north with its flat terrain dotted with thousands of lakes, yet with a hot arid desert climate. The mountain range to its east are populated by all sorts of outcasts and exiles, who took advantage of the rough terrain to defend themselves against the religious and cultural majorities that persecuted them. The crescent-shaped peninsula at the far east is a booming center of maritime commerce, as well as home to the most naturally fertile lands in all of K’rashenka, which makes it a sought-after territory for any nearby empires looking to control Jakkababic ocean trade.

    5.       The Atalante realm

   This cultural region includes the small peninsula jutting out from northwest Hofrikora and the collection of island chains that stretch out to the mid-Atlantic. It is home to skilled sailors of the Atlante Ocean, who were among the first old world societies to come in contact with the peoples of the new world.

    6.       Zylegassi – The cradle of Europan civilization

The Zylegassi peninsula and its nearby islands are home to the earliest Europan agricultural civilizations. The Zylego-Cassic peoples often defined the outside world’s idea of “Europa” and are thought to be the forbearers of all other Europan peoples, though their actual cultural impact on Europans further west is actually quite limited.

7. The Dorprian mointains – So close yet so far away

    The Dorprian mountains have long served as a sort of natural fortress, marking the boundary between the continent of Europa and southwest Aysha, a natural border that halts the expansion of political entities on either side, and home to many isolated, and culturally, linguistically, and visually distinct people groups. These distinctions run deep, tens of thousands of years back, as they were the last home for a population of neondrethals that were wiped out of he surrounding regions by the rapidly expanding sapiens. Over time these neondrethal-descended peoples received more and more influence from the sapiens around them, adopting their neighbors lifestyles, religions and technologies, as well as heavily intermingling with them, as a result many of the native peoples are genetically more sapien than neondrethal.

    8.       The Axelsian sea

    This sea is named for history’s first great conqueror, Axelsior, who’s 20-year long campaign saw him conquering nation after nation, through eastern Europa, the Southwest Aysha, Jakkababa, east Aysha, then north to the steppes, and looping back to the territory originally held by his homeland. Despite being a successful commander who’s legendary charisma quickly won over the peoples he conquered, his constant pursuit of further expansion led him to leave behind new territory not long after taking it, resulting in those territories breaking away behind him one by one, almost as fast as more territory was added. In the end, he returned to his homeland to find its borders not much larger than when he started his campaign, and spent the rest of his life defending it against the generals who now ruled over the lands he left behind. This one man’s ambition and the influence he left behind kickstarted a new era of human history.

    9.       Ovayland

     Despite being only the third largest island, Ovayland had historically been the cultural and political center of the Foxish isles. the heartland of the native Foxish religion of Thraidorism, and the home of the Romalknight, a military title that would have supreme command over all warriors in the realm, like the Shoguns of OTL’s Japan. The strong cultural identity and warrior spirit of The Foxish, especially the Ovilanders, would lead to many conflicts with the outside world throughout the ages. The pinnacle of these conflicts would snowball into the most destructive war in of all time, drawing in every nation from around the world for a brawl that would, like the conquests of Axelsior, define the next era of human history.

    10.   Hevaronia

    The land of countless fjords and lakes, forests and frigid terrain on the far northern outskirts of Europa. This land is home to mighty bearded warriors, the last surviving pure neondrethals, and mythical creatures that roam the untamed wilderness.

    11.   The Euroval mountains

    This thin but dense mountain range forms the bulk of the Europan-Ayshan border. The northern reaches of this longitudinally-oriented mountain range are rough, impassible and inhospitable to most, while further south the mountains are less dense and more populated, with a few significant passes that have many times allowed horse nomads to invade from the eastern steppes.

    12.   The Tarimogga Sea

    This one is my favorite addition besides the Taevalands. This ancient sea has been closed off from the world’s oceans for around 40 million years. Deep in the heart of Aysha, The Tarimogga region is further isolated from the rest of the world, bordered on 3 sides by mountain ranges, with barren deserts bordering the rest. Naturally this area is among the most derived from our own in ecology. It is one of two areas where the last surviving populations of yeti live, the other being northern Monz, as well as the only place where Yeti not only flourish in great numbers, but also formed a great society where they and humans lived side by side for thousands of years. For the far less-social Yeti, this situation is nothing short of miraculous, beginning with a handful of individuals who saw the coming demise of their kind at the hands of early homo sapiens, and radically changed their lifestyles, teaming up, developing a language, and enslaving humans, utilizing the sapiens’ fine crafting and communication skill to help build their new civilization. As time moved on, the balance of power shifted back and forth, slowly progressing the point where humans and yeti live and work together as equals, seeing the mutual benefit in their relationship.

    As far as wildlife goes, the large sea serves to moderate the local climate, and provide the surrounding area with rainfall that sustains forests, rivers, grasslands, and other fertile biomes, making it a sort of “mega-oasis,” where life of all kinds thrives. Its apex predators include a unique family of big cats, inhabiting niches ranging from forest-stalking tree-climbers, plains-dwelling pursuit predators and even several semi aquatic varieties. The last surviving mammoths live here.

    13.   North Sorens Coastline

North sorens is home to some of the most fertile lands on earth, and has long been the economic and major population center of Sorens, home to many among the world’s most populous cities, that have over time evolved into a network of megalopolises, connected by the waters of its great rivers and the shallow north Sorens sea. Extensive land reclamations has been undertaken by its people, drastically altering the coastline from ancient times.

    14.   The Kijaran Archipelago

In this world, what we would call “japan” is known as Kijara, and the area of this archipelago is far greater, with a diverse array of peoples and wildlife calling them home. As far as people go, the northwestern islands are home to the Kijaran peoples, the ones who eventually conquered all of the islands and became the dominant group in an empire that lasted for most of the modern era. In the southeastern regions, the seafaring Ayi’iga peoples dwell, historically they were mostly uninvolved in the affairs of east Ayshan societies, interacting much more with those of the pacific islands. Despite being so close to the mainland, this vast archipelago lends itself to a high degree of endemism among its native species, with a wide range biomes from snowy temperate mountains to tropical rainforests, all connected by large but narrow chains of islands. Among its endemics are 3 varieties of tigers, 2 elephant species, a genus of soft-shelled turtles, a species of monkeys that not only craft tools, but also a kind of jewelry used to attract mates, and a species of large khoi-relatives which had been domesticated and bred for racing and fighting.

    15.   The Aminaezian sea

                The Hobbi were a once widespread lineage of humans, that were among the first to explore and expand out of Africa. In most of their former domain they were wiped out by later groups, with no trace or memory of them remaining. Only in the dense the dense tropical jungles of the many islands of the Aminaezian sea have the Hobbi left their mark, and in some regions, continue to survive. Due to their much longer history, the Hobbi that remain are of various subspecies.

Nernio is home to the largest unbroken population of Hobbi, who inhabit the inland rainforests, while sapiens have come to supplant them along most of the coastal regions. This is due to the difficulty of conquering the rainforests, its ridiculously rich vegetation, which make it almost impossible to walk through without climbing over and between the tangles of tree roots and branches, as well as the high density of toxic and venomous species of plants and animals, and the dangerous predators that are unafraid of targeting humanoid prey. This ecological state has long prevented sapiens from venturing far past the shoreline, allowing the much better adapted hobbi peoples to live in peace.

The Mangato archipelago include a few hundred more islands than OTL’s Philippines. They are home to a highly diverse patchwork of tribal peoples, including modern humans as well as various hobbi tribes, whose migratory seafaring lifestyles have allowed them to coexist. Despite being home to two species of human, the most intense animosity held by the archipelago’s inhabitants is between the eastern and western portions, who have historically remained politically divided and in constant conflict with eachother.

Flori and its nearby islands are home to a unique population of “Hobbisapiens.” Which are exactly what they sound like, a homogenous 50/50 hybrid of the sapiens and Hobbi species, which has existed as a distinct group for tens of thousands of years. Historically they’ve had a higher population density than neighboring tribal sapiens, because of their small bodies, but also greater than neighboring hobbi groups, because many of the hobbisapiens had adopted partial agriculture. Because of those factors, and their relatively recent adoption of modern society and political unification, the lands of the Hobbisapiens are astoundingly linguistically diverse, with greater than 1,600 languages surviving into the modern era .

    16.   The Urtu Mountains and central Lakes of Istralia

    In the place of what would be the eastern deserts of what we would call “Australia” is a dense mountain range with a series of large lakes. Within this area there are environments ranging from temperate forests to scrubs and wetlands fed by rivers which flow from the mountains. This provides a great boost to Istralia’s biodiversity in modern times, as well as being a major population center for the continent’s human inhabitants, and the only place where they independently developed agriculture.

    17.   Greater Eastern Australia

    In addition to an injection of opportunity in its central region, I’ve expanded the landmass westward, adding a few mountain ranges, another patch of desert and larger forest regions. While it’s still the smallest continent, its already vast array of endemic genera is even more impressive in this world. Also, the Bombiyo mountains are home to the only subspecies of Hobbi outside of the Aminaezian islands.

    18.   Zelanesia – The third Gondwanna

    Zelanesia is an ancient archipelago in the south Oxpansian ocean, the last remnants of a once much larger landmass which, like Australia and the Taevalands, was once part of the continent Gondwanna.

    19. The Sazbrakean Sea – Pirates and Zombie marines

                The countless tropical islands of the Sazbrakean have long been home to a variety of competing seafaring factions who would fight fierce battles over the turbulent waters. In more recent history invasion from the old world would largely supplant the natives and kick off an era of colonization that would ravage the nearby mainland of Monz and Amazia. In pursuit of its boundless riches, many pirates would rise to prominence in the Sazbrakean, as would a nation of former slaves, and the last bastion of native sazbrakean civilization, fiercely defended by its undead warriors who eternally lurk under the waters around its shoreline.

    20.   The Teporqal Mountains

    In this world, Monz and Amazia collided earlier than our North and south America, Connecting around 10 million years BCE, and giving rise to a rugged mountain range that isolates the societies and environments of the two continents, resulting in a greater disparity in biodiversity than can be seen in our world.

    21.   The Galodorwin islands

    Continuing with the theme of “taking islands with unique ecosystems and mindlessly inflating them,” I just made the Galapagos larger and gave them some neighbors. Expect more fat turtles, some desert island bats, chubby flightless finches and colorful penguins of paradise.

    22.   Payo’ina – The Oxpansain superpower

    The Payo’ina islands are the largest and most prosperous of the Oxpansain ocean. The remarkable and unlikely development of its native civilization rivals that of the Taevalands and Tamirogga. Early on in the age of exploration, a small ship of colonial explorers wrecked on the island’s shore. The crew was taken in with great enthusiasm by an ambitious king, whose foresight motivated him and his people to learn everything they could from the foreigners, the foundations of advanced ship building, navigation, farming of a few crops with whatever seeds they could scrounge from the crew’s food supply, medical techniques, and even a limited production of gunpowder. The king and his people used this knowledge to rapidly modernize their nation, and founded an expansive web of alliances across the Oxpansain Ocean that would become a major hinderance to colonization from the imperial powers.

    Wildlife is like OTL Hawaii’s, albeit much more diverse, with a greater variety of environments.

    23. Oxpanesia

    Outside of the Payo’ina archipelago there are many small islands scattered about the Oxpansain that are unique to this world, including a few in the northern area whose temperate environments stand out from the other typically tropical Oxpansain islands. The Oxpansain ocean has been inhabited far longer than OTL’s Pacific, with human habitation stretching back to before the Granumurian cataclysm in 10,000 BCE. Humans from the region would be the first to arrive on the continent of Amazia and the southwestern coastline of Monz. After the cataclysm, many island’s human populations were wiped out, and the peoples who remained peoples were rendered unable to sail the seas for thousands of years. Some would later redevelop their seafaring skills and go on to repopulate the whole of the Oxpansain, while others would remain confined to their islands until being rediscovered far later in history.

    24. Tlaggalanda

    If you thought the lake problem in Canada was daunting in OTL, just wait until you see the trypophobia-triggering terrain of Northern Monz in this world. The millions of lakes that puncture the landmass in this world are only larger, more pervasive and difficult to work around. Will this make human inhabitation less likely to develop? Or will more extreme conditions push the natives to innovate in ways that turns this situation on its head? Of course it’s the latter! With the native Tlaggra people living In expansive beaver dam-like lodges. Tlaggra have an advanced hunter-gatherer society, gearing their development toward maximizing the ecosystem’s productivity of animal life and edible plants, rather than using agriculture to meet their food needs.

    Also the yeti that live here have slick fur, webbed fingers, and other specialized features that allow them to spend much of their time foraging in the water, making them actual “aquatic apes.”

    25.   Rajamir Highlands -

    Surrounded by hundreds of miles of scorching desert on all sides, Rajamir Highlands are the hub of west Saharan trade and civilization. Like the Nillian river to the east, they host densely populated settlements that stick closely to their sole source of freshwater, the dozens of oasis scattered about the mountains, some sitting comfortably in the shade. Another valuable feature of this area are the many cool, moist caves, great for storage, seeking shelter, and mining precious gems and minerals. The cramped oasis settlements of the Rajamir often extend into the cliffside dwellings and fortified caves of surrounding mountains. This area isn’t just an oasis for people, but also many relatives of African savanna flora and fauna that disappeared from the surrounding environment as it became a desert. Here you can find a wide range of wildlife, including big cats, elephants, crocodiles, camels and even some mountain-dwelling ostriches.

    26.   Trinitors, Abartiki, and Corpricornia

    Outside of the Sazbrakean sea, The island-dwellers of the Atalante ocean had always been closely tied to the societies and culture of their nearby mainland. This holds true for those living in the Trinitor and Abartiki island groups off the eastern coast of Amazia. Further south, the Corpricornia islands have historically been uninhabited until the colonial era, and even then most of them went unused because of the difficulty of developing their swampy terrain.

    The largest of those islands, Kowunassa, is home to the most specialized mangrove forest biome in the world. Less than half of its area is actually dry land, and the native plant life of this region maintain cohesiveness with complex root systems which can extend and retract with the changing sea level.

    27.   Gulf of Dojrioji

The subcontinent of Jakkababa, comprising most of central southern Aysha, contains a large gulf that almost cuts through the region, leaving only a narrow isthmus connecting the southern tip to the mainland. Most of this gulf is an extremely recent feature, geologically speaking, as it was once a much more narrow and deep inlet, which was modified by humans, using mystical manipulation of the land around it to fill the inlet and build a seawall at its entrance to the Jakkababic ocean. At the end of the last glacial maximum, when sea levels suddenly rose due to the cataclysm, the seawall was destroyed, and since the land that once surrounded the inlet was more evenly spread out, much of Jakkababa’s interior was flooded, resulting in the modern gulf of Dojrioji. Because of its young age, there are no endemic species or unique wildlife to speak of here, but many species from the surrounding ocean have moved in to populate the gulf, and its shallow warm waters and rocky seabed make a good home for large coral reefs.

    28.   Eteki’houh

    In OTL Soccotra is an ancient and extremely biologically isolated island which sits just off the coast of Afroeurasia, called “the most alien place on earth” by some. In this world Soccotra’s counterpart is known as Eteki’houh, which is more than three times larger, and home to even more unique biomes that bring out the potential of the archaic life that survives here. Expect desert crabs, Dragon tree forests, and, in the absence of mammals and flightless birds, a hotspot of diversity for large invertebrates and lizards. The main unique feature of Eteki’hou is its umbrella forest, a bizarre network of tightly packed trees with branches so densely entangled that the ground beneath them is constantly as dark as night, and a man could walk atop the canopy with no fear of falling through the branches.

29. Abachika

    The peninsula of Abachika has long acted as a sort of cultural bridge between Granumuria and the Mesoamerican realms, as well as a unique pocket of peoples and wildlife in its own right. Its landscape mostly consists of semiarid savanna-type biomes, with some tropical forests along its southern coast.

30. Granumuria

    This region is by far the most influential in the entire continent of Monz. Its land is rich in natural resources that allow societies to flourish there in all stages of development. Its vast forests are so rich in wildlife that they can support networks of cities through hunting and gathering alone. A vast mountain range mostly separates Granumuria from the mainland, and along its coast are most of the continents best natural harbors.

    Its name is derived from Granumura, a powerful supernatural entity who arrived at the dawn of the Anthropocene in a comet. He was allowed dominion over the region by Earth's native deity, Kathelsa, in exchange for his aid in biological experimentation, which his ability to amalgamate life forms made him uniquely useful for. Granumura is responsible for creating both the Gaublins and Konstants through selectively breeding humans and amalgamating their dna with that of sasquatches.

31. Tetrevomtah

    Settlers beware the maze of foreboding mountainous islands that wrap around its Pacific coast, barren and difficult to navigate, one might prefer the lowland steppes on the Atlantic side, if it weren't for the llama-riding bandit hordes that stalk them, the only of their kind in the world.

32. The pillars of Dochati

                Tucked away in the Northwest Corner of Jakkababa, in the foothills of the Oggitonian mountains, is a geological anomaly known as The Pillars of Dochati. Named after the wonderous city that was founded amongst them. The pillars themselves are thousands of thin stone protrusions that stand anywhere from 40-200 feet tall, all scattered haphazardly but centered around a mesa that stands ~350 feet high, sitting atop which is a small lake, and around that lake is the city center of Dochatti, which is connected to the lesser pillars surrounding it by a network of hanging bridges and platforms carved into the side of the mesa. Buildings sit atop many of the lesser pillars, ranging from single homes, shops or watchtowers, to entire neighborhoods and local markets. Human settlement only takes up the small, central portion of the pillar-filled region, and much of the area is still home to the unique wildlife that has adapted to navigate the stone protrusions, such as rock-climber monkeys, stone carving ants and a variety of birds who battle for prime nesting positions atop the pillars. The males of one species of dove will, during mating season, swarm around a certain pillar, fighting to reach the top and be chosen by a female passing overhead.

33. Beingkorrou

                The Beringia land bridge that once connected the Americas to Eurasia in our timeline remains into the modern day here. Despite being connected by a vast stretch of land, the pre-modern civilizations of the continents still remained completely isolated from each other, as Beingkorrou’s frigid boreal and tundra environment made the region undesirable to most settled peoples, instead being left to hunter gatherers and reindeer herders. However, some of those non-settled peoples would traverse Beingkorrou and their realms would stretch between both the old world and the new, and stories of the far off lands beyond the frigid north would turn to legend in both old and new world societies.

34. The Hurricane bowl

    This small inlet on the northern coast of Amazia is home to a unique biome with near-constant tropical thunderstorms raging all day and night. For millions of years this region has been subjected to such weather, resulting in many uniquely adapted endemic species suited to withstand the constant harsh wind, rain and landslides. Needless to say, the environment of the hurricane bowl makes modern human settlement impossible.

35. Zischen Uzho

                Zischen Uzho, or “the orange desert” is defined by its unique geology, including a strange type of orange sand that clumps up as if its wet, with a landscape dotted by entrances to a vast cave system. Its caves contain a high concentration of ultra-rare gems found nowhere else in the world, making the desert quite a profitable asset to those who control it.

Description

Please ask for permission before using this map or any part of it.

Update 3.0 - Labels, many coastline and area adjustments. Greater Kijara, reorganized Aminaezian islands, expanded steppes and deserts, redrawn rivers. New list items 32-26.

        The planet earth, as it appears in the Anthropocene of my fictional universe, Cosmoha. There are mystical aspects present in this reality, primarily in the form of essence, a spiritual energy produced by every unique object.

    While all physical things are made of a combination pre-existing matter, the essence they produce is entirely their own. For example, Robert may be a temporary assortment of organic molecules on the physical plain, spiritually, he is composed of the essence of Robert, an original substance that exists for as long as he does. Simply put, a physical form is defined by its parts, while it's spirit is defined by the sum. Many phenomena result from the presence of essence in this universe, two of which being particularly influential on the biology and history of this universe.

    First is that each planet's essence manifests as a conscious being, a 'deity' of sorts. These beings consider their planets to be their most prized possessions, manipulating their forms into something beautiful which they can take pride in. Some create stunning landscapes of gems and crystals, others churn their atmospheres to fuel spectacular storms, and every once in a while, some will find curious microscopic specs wriggling around in little warm ponds, biological life, which they saw mostly as a novelty. Earth's deity is Kathelsa, who discovered the potential of biological life, its ability to diversify and grow into stupendously complex and wholly unique ecosystems, wonders that no deity could construct on their own. She studied this new life, and developed methods for making it flourish. She shared her discoveries with her peers, helping them nurture the life that developed on their own worlds, and spreading life to those who had none.

    When organic life forms develop to the point of self-awareness, that opens up the door for spiritual enlightenment, drawing power from one’s own essence to be used in a variety of ways. While every self-aware life form is technically capable of honing their spiritual abilities, it is nonetheless rare practice among most civilizations, as awakening one’s essence takes drastic lifestyle changes to accomplish. One must fully dedicate themselves to a sort of strict aesthetic lifestyle, living like a Buddhist monk free of worldly desires, then can they only begin to develop their spiritual powers. Only a handful of times in this Earth’s history have groups of like-minded monks manage to establish long term communities of practitioners, who are often restricted from interacting with the societies around them by their lifestyle and beliefs.

       However, in rare instances, these limitations can be transgressed. less than one in 100,000 individuals are born capable awakening their spiritual abilities through alternate means. That doesn’t mean it’s easier for them, it often takes a great amount of stress and situational pressure to bring their power out. What it does mean is that these gifted individuals can develop their powers for whatever purpose they see fit, the only determining factor being the spiritual culture of their society. Spiritual cultures are basically evolving power systems shared by a group of people inhabiting the same region. They Begin when the first gifted individual awakens their abilities in isolation from any other already-awakened individuals. Their abilities will be tied to something they’ve dedicated their life to, such as navigation of the seas, stone-masonry, or the mastery of a weapon. After that first individual in a given region develops their powers, anyone else who happens to be gifted to develop the same kind of ability.

    You’ll find the biology of this planet much like our own, many areas contain an almost indistinguishable assortment of species and ecologies.

    For now, let’s get acquainted with the most glaring derivations which lie on OhEarth’s surface.

    1.       The Taevalands – home of the exiled

    This region comprises an expansive non-glaciated area of Antarctica, and the nearby Taevan isles, inhabited by the people for which they are named. Most of these islands have a temperate climate similar to The British Isles. Having been isolated from all other continents for over 30 million years, its wildlife hosts the latest surviving relatives of archaic lineages that have all but disappeared from the rest of the world; the last bastion for the life that once flourished across Antarctica before its glaciation. Like its sister continent, Australia, it lacks any placental mammals, save bats, the bizarre armadillos of Etvoryn, and dogs introduced by its human settlers. The most distinct element of the majority of Taevan ecosystems are their complete lack of any tree species. The resulting environment hosts biomes unlike any other; in the place of forests, the moist temperate areas of the Taevalands support dense jungles of bamboo and an assortment of towering grass species. The only part of this region with endemic trees is the far western coastline of Atsryn, which hosts boreal forest biomes.

    After an ancient cataclysm left human settlers cut off from all trade and communication, the few survivors were forced to rebuild their civilization from scratch. For ten thousand years they remained in exile from the rest of mankind, yet still Limited as they were, lacking wood, and most common domesticates, and with no means of trading with the world around them, they would nevertheless rise and surpass the heights of their ancestors to one day become a powerful player on the world stage.

    Learn more about the Taevan geography, wildlife, and people here: www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/a…

    2.       Lower Magalodia - No Man’s Land

    For whatever reason, this lower half of Magalodia hosts notoriously hazardous terrain and wildlife that have hindered human settlement for millennia. The hunter gatherers who call this region home are among the most resilient peoples of this world; the lengths they go to survive in their hostile homeland can be described as remarkable, and even disturbing at times. Its coasts range from confounding mangroves, to jagged rocky mazes and scorching infertile deserts that continue into the mainland. Its environments contain the highest concentration poisonous and aggressive critters on the planet, giving it a reputation like Australia has in our reality.

    3.       The Malvis isles – The Invisible colony

    The Malvis isles are a relatively recent island chain with wildlife not too dissimilar to their neighboring continent. It had been partially connected to the south African biosphere via an archipelago that allowed mainland species to immigrate via island-hopping, until those intermediates completely eroded around 4 million years ago.

    Confoundingly, these lands evaded discovery by any humans until very late into the era of exploration. Through sheer happenstance, trade and exploration ships just never managed to run into it. When the Malvis islands were finally discovered by a relatively small and weak nation struggling to compete with the colonial empires that neighbored it, it finally gave them a significant foothold in the colonization game.

    4.       The K’rashenka Peninsula

The Extreme climates and geographic isolation of K’rashenka has allowed many unique and isolated cultures to form in the peninsula. In the west, around where it meets Hofrikora, there’s a region whos physical geography resembles post-glacial far north with its flat terrain dotted with thousands of lakes, yet with a hot arid desert climate. The mountain range to its east are populated by all sorts of outcasts and exiles, who took advantage of the rough terrain to defend themselves against the religious and cultural majorities that persecuted them. The crescent-shaped peninsula at the far east is a booming center of maritime commerce, as well as home to the most naturally fertile lands in all of K’rashenka, which makes it a sought-after territory for any nearby empires looking to control Jakkababic ocean trade.

    5.       The Atalante realm

   This cultural region includes the small peninsula jutting out from northwest Hofrikora and the collection of island chains that stretch out to the mid-Atlantic. It is home to skilled sailors of the Atlante Ocean, who were among the first old world societies to come in contact with the peoples of the new world.

    6.       Zylegassi – The cradle of Europan civilization

The Zylegassi peninsula and its nearby islands are home to the earliest Europan agricultural civilizations. The Zylego-Cassic peoples often defined the outside world’s idea of “Europa” and are thought to be the forbearers of all other Europan peoples, though their actual cultural impact on Europans further west is actually quite limited.

7. The Dorprian mointains – So close yet so far away

    The Dorprian mountains have long served as a sort of natural fortress, marking the boundary between the continent of Europa and southwest Aysha, a natural border that halts the expansion of political entities on either side, and home to many isolated, and culturally, linguistically, and visually distinct people groups. These distinctions run deep, tens of thousands of years back, as they were the last home for a population of neondrethals that were wiped out of he surrounding regions by the rapidly expanding sapiens. Over time these neondrethal-descended peoples received more and more influence from the sapiens around them, adopting their neighbors lifestyles, religions and technologies, as well as heavily intermingling with them, as a result many of the native peoples are genetically more sapien than neondrethal.

    8.       The Axelsian sea

    This sea is named for history’s first great conqueror, Axelsior, who’s 20-year long campaign saw him conquering nation after nation, through eastern Europa, the Southwest Aysha, Jakkababa, east Aysha, then north to the steppes, and looping back to the territory originally held by his homeland. Despite being a successful commander who’s legendary charisma quickly won over the peoples he conquered, his constant pursuit of further expansion led him to leave behind new territory not long after taking it, resulting in those territories breaking away behind him one by one, almost as fast as more territory was added. In the end, he returned to his homeland to find its borders not much larger than when he started his campaign, and spent the rest of his life defending it against the generals who now ruled over the lands he left behind. This one man’s ambition and the influence he left behind kickstarted a new era of human history.

    9.       Ovayland

     Despite being only the third largest island, Ovayland had historically been the cultural and political center of the Foxish isles. the heartland of the native Foxish religion of Thraidorism, and the home of the Romalknight, a military title that would have supreme command over all warriors in the realm, like the Shoguns of OTL’s Japan. The strong cultural identity and warrior spirit of The Foxish, especially the Ovilanders, would lead to many conflicts with the outside world throughout the ages. The pinnacle of these conflicts would snowball into the most destructive war in of all time, drawing in every nation from around the world for a brawl that would, like the conquests of Axelsior, define the next era of human history.

    10.   Hevaronia

    The land of countless fjords and lakes, forests and frigid terrain on the far northern outskirts of Europa. This land is home to mighty bearded warriors, the last surviving pure neondrethals, and mythical creatures that roam the untamed wilderness.

    11.   The Euroval mountains

    This thin but dense mountain range forms the bulk of the Europan-Ayshan border. The northern reaches of this longitudinally-oriented mountain range are rough, impassible and inhospitable to most, while further south the mountains are less dense and more populated, with a few significant passes that have many times allowed horse nomads to invade from the eastern steppes.

    12.   The Tarimogga Sea

    This one is my favorite addition besides the Taevalands. This ancient sea has been closed off from the world’s oceans for around 40 million years. Deep in the heart of Aysha, The Tarimogga region is further isolated from the rest of the world, bordered on 3 sides by mountain ranges, with barren deserts bordering the rest. Naturally this area is among the most derived from our own in ecology. It is one of two areas where the last surviving populations of yeti live, the other being northern Monz, as well as the only place where Yeti not only flourish in great numbers, but also formed a great society where they and humans lived side by side for thousands of years. For the far less-social Yeti, this situation is nothing short of miraculous, beginning with a handful of individuals who saw the coming demise of their kind at the hands of early homo sapiens, and radically changed their lifestyles, teaming up, developing a language, and enslaving humans, utilizing the sapiens’ fine crafting and communication skill to help build their new civilization. As time moved on, the balance of power shifted back and forth, slowly progressing the point where humans and yeti live and work together as equals, seeing the mutual benefit in their relationship.

    As far as wildlife goes, the large sea serves to moderate the local climate, and provide the surrounding area with rainfall that sustains forests, rivers, grasslands, and other fertile biomes, making it a sort of “mega-oasis,” where life of all kinds thrives. Its apex predators include a unique family of big cats, inhabiting niches ranging from forest-stalking tree-climbers, plains-dwelling pursuit predators and even several semi aquatic varieties. The last surviving mammoths live here.

    13.   North Sorens Coastline

North sorens is home to some of the most fertile lands on earth, and has long been the economic and major population center of Sorens, home to many among the world’s most populous cities, that have over time evolved into a network of megalopolises, connected by the waters of its great rivers and the shallow north Sorens sea. Extensive land reclamations has been undertaken by its people, drastically altering the coastline from ancient times.

    14.   The Kijaran Archipelago

In this world, what we would call “japan” is known as Kijara, and the area of this archipelago is far greater, with a diverse array of peoples and wildlife calling them home. As far as people go, the northwestern islands are home to the Kijaran peoples, the ones who eventually conquered all of the islands and became the dominant group in an empire that lasted for most of the modern era. In the southeastern regions, the seafaring Ayi’iga peoples dwell, historically they were mostly uninvolved in the affairs of east Ayshan societies, interacting much more with those of the pacific islands. Despite being so close to the mainland, this vast archipelago lends itself to a high degree of endemism among its native species, with a wide range biomes from snowy temperate mountains to tropical rainforests, all connected by large but narrow chains of islands. Among its endemics are 3 varieties of tigers, 2 elephant species, a genus of soft-shelled turtles, a species of monkeys that not only craft tools, but also a kind of jewelry used to attract mates, and a species of large khoi-relatives which had been domesticated and bred for racing and fighting.

    15.   The Aminaezian sea

                The Hobbi were a once widespread lineage of humans, that were among the first to explore and expand out of Africa. In most of their former domain they were wiped out by later groups, with no trace or memory of them remaining. Only in the dense the dense tropical jungles of the many islands of the Aminaezian sea have the Hobbi left their mark, and in some regions, continue to survive. Due to their much longer history, the Hobbi that remain are of various subspecies.

Nernio is home to the largest unbroken population of Hobbi, who inhabit the inland rainforests, while sapiens have come to supplant them along most of the coastal regions. This is due to the difficulty of conquering the rainforests, its ridiculously rich vegetation, which make it almost impossible to walk through without climbing over and between the tangles of tree roots and branches, as well as the high density of toxic and venomous species of plants and animals, and the dangerous predators that are unafraid of targeting humanoid prey. This ecological state has long prevented sapiens from venturing far past the shoreline, allowing the much better adapted hobbi peoples to live in peace.

The Mangato archipelago include a few hundred more islands than OTL’s Philippines. They are home to a highly diverse patchwork of tribal peoples, including modern humans as well as various hobbi tribes, whose migratory seafaring lifestyles have allowed them to coexist. Despite being home to two species of human, the most intense animosity held by the archipelago’s inhabitants is between the eastern and western portions, who have historically remained politically divided and in constant conflict with eachother.

Flori and its nearby islands are home to a unique population of “Hobbisapiens.” Which are exactly what they sound like, a homogenous 50/50 hybrid of the sapiens and Hobbi species, which has existed as a distinct group for tens of thousands of years. Historically they’ve had a higher population density than neighboring tribal sapiens, because of their small bodies, but also greater than neighboring hobbi groups, because many of the hobbisapiens had adopted partial agriculture. Because of those factors, and their relatively recent adoption of modern society and political unification, the lands of the Hobbisapiens are astoundingly linguistically diverse, with greater than 1,600 languages surviving into the modern era .

    16.   The Urtu Mountains and central Lakes of Istralia

    In the place of what would be the eastern deserts of what we would call “Australia” is a dense mountain range with a series of large lakes. Within this area there are environments ranging from temperate forests to scrubs and wetlands fed by rivers which flow from the mountains. This provides a great boost to Istralia’s biodiversity in modern times, as well as being a major population center for the continent’s human inhabitants, and the only place where they independently developed agriculture.

    17.   Greater Eastern Australia

    In addition to an injection of opportunity in its central region, I’ve expanded the landmass westward, adding a few mountain ranges, another patch of desert and larger forest regions. While it’s still the smallest continent, its already vast array of endemic genera is even more impressive in this world. Also, the Bombiyo mountains are home to the only subspecies of Hobbi outside of the Aminaezian islands.

    18.   Zelanesia – The third Gondwanna

    Zelanesia is an ancient archipelago in the south Oxpansian ocean, the last remnants of a once much larger landmass which, like Australia and the Taevalands, was once part of the continent Gondwanna.

    19. The Sazbrakean Sea – Pirates and Zombie marines

                The countless tropical islands of the Sazbrakean have long been home to a variety of competing seafaring factions who would fight fierce battles over the turbulent waters. In more recent history invasion from the old world would largely supplant the natives and kick off an era of colonization that would ravage the nearby mainland of Monz and Amazia. In pursuit of its boundless riches, many pirates would rise to prominence in the Sazbrakean, as would a nation of former slaves, and the last bastion of native sazbrakean civilization, fiercely defended by its undead warriors who eternally lurk under the waters around its shoreline.

    20.   The Teporqal Mountains

    In this world, Monz and Amazia collided earlier than our North and south America, Connecting around 10 million years BCE, and giving rise to a rugged mountain range that isolates the societies and environments of the two continents, resulting in a greater disparity in biodiversity than can be seen in our world.

    21.   The Galodorwin islands

    Continuing with the theme of “taking islands with unique ecosystems and mindlessly inflating them,” I just made the Galapagos larger and gave them some neighbors. Expect more fat turtles, some desert island bats, chubby flightless finches and colorful penguins of paradise.

    22.   Payo’ina – The Oxpansain superpower

    The Payo’ina islands are the largest and most prosperous of the Oxpansain ocean. The remarkable and unlikely development of its native civilization rivals that of the Taevalands and Tamirogga. Early on in the age of exploration, a small ship of colonial explorers wrecked on the island’s shore. The crew was taken in with great enthusiasm by an ambitious king, whose foresight motivated him and his people to learn everything they could from the foreigners, the foundations of advanced ship building, navigation, farming of a few crops with whatever seeds they could scrounge from the crew’s food supply, medical techniques, and even a limited production of gunpowder. The king and his people used this knowledge to rapidly modernize their nation, and founded an expansive web of alliances across the Oxpansain Ocean that would become a major hinderance to colonization from the imperial powers.

    Wildlife is like OTL Hawaii’s, albeit much more diverse, with a greater variety of environments.

    23. Oxpanesia

    Outside of the Payo’ina archipelago there are many small islands scattered about the Oxpansain that are unique to this world, including a few in the northern area whose temperate environments stand out from the other typically tropical Oxpansain islands. The Oxpansain ocean has been inhabited far longer than OTL’s Pacific, with human habitation stretching back to before the Granumurian cataclysm in 10,000 BCE. Humans from the region would be the first to arrive on the continent of Amazia and the southwestern coastline of Monz. After the cataclysm, many island’s human populations were wiped out, and the peoples who remained peoples were rendered unable to sail the seas for thousands of years. Some would later redevelop their seafaring skills and go on to repopulate the whole of the Oxpansain, while others would remain confined to their islands until being rediscovered far later in history.

    24. Tlaggalanda

    If you thought the lake problem in Canada was daunting in OTL, just wait until you see the trypophobia-triggering terrain of Northern Monz in this world. The millions of lakes that puncture the landmass in this world are only larger, more pervasive and difficult to work around. Will this make human inhabitation less likely to develop? Or will more extreme conditions push the natives to innovate in ways that turns this situation on its head? Of course it’s the latter! With the native Tlaggra people living In expansive beaver dam-like lodges. Tlaggra have an advanced hunter-gatherer society, gearing their development toward maximizing the ecosystem’s productivity of animal life and edible plants, rather than using agriculture to meet their food needs.

    Also the yeti that live here have slick fur, webbed fingers, and other specialized features that allow them to spend much of their time foraging in the water, making them actual “aquatic apes.”

    25.   Rajamir Highlands -

    Surrounded by hundreds of miles of scorching desert on all sides, Rajamir Highlands are the hub of west Saharan trade and civilization. Like the Nillian river to the east, they host densely populated settlements that stick closely to their sole source of freshwater, the dozens of oasis scattered about the mountains, some sitting comfortably in the shade. Another valuable feature of this area are the many cool, moist caves, great for storage, seeking shelter, and mining precious gems and minerals. The cramped oasis settlements of the Rajamir often extend into the cliffside dwellings and fortified caves of surrounding mountains. This area isn’t just an oasis for people, but also many relatives of African savanna flora and fauna that disappeared from the surrounding environment as it became a desert. Here you can find a wide range of wildlife, including big cats, elephants, crocodiles, camels and even some mountain-dwelling ostriches.

    26.   Trinitors, Abartiki, and Corpricornia

    Outside of the Sazbrakean sea, The island-dwellers of the Atalante ocean had always been closely tied to the societies and culture of their nearby mainland. This holds true for those living in the Trinitor and Abartiki island groups off the eastern coast of Amazia. Further south, the Corpricornia islands have historically been uninhabited until the colonial era, and even then most of them went unused because of the difficulty of developing their swampy terrain.

    The largest of those islands, Kowunassa, is home to the most specialized mangrove forest biome in the world. Less than half of its area is actually dry land, and the native plant life of this region maintain cohesiveness with complex root systems which can extend and retract with the changing sea level.

    27.   Gulf of Dojrioji

The subcontinent of Jakkababa, comprising most of central southern Aysha, contains a large gulf that almost cuts through the region, leaving only a narrow isthmus connecting the southern tip to the mainland. Most of this gulf is an extremely recent feature, geologically speaking, as it was once a much more narrow and deep inlet, which was modified by humans, using mystical manipulation of the land around it to fill the inlet and build a seawall at its entrance to the Jakkababic ocean. At the end of the last glacial maximum, when sea levels suddenly rose due to the cataclysm, the seawall was destroyed, and since the land that once surrounded the inlet was more evenly spread out, much of Jakkababa’s interior was flooded, resulting in the modern gulf of Dojrioji. Because of its young age, there are no endemic species or unique wildlife to speak of here, but many species from the surrounding ocean have moved in to populate the gulf, and its shallow warm waters and rocky seabed make a good home for large coral reefs.

    28.   Eteki’houh

    In OTL Soccotra is an ancient and extremely biologically isolated island which sits just off the coast of Afroeurasia, called “the most alien place on earth” by some. In this world Soccotra’s counterpart is known as Eteki’houh, which is more than three times larger, and home to even more unique biomes that bring out the potential of the archaic life that survives here. Expect desert crabs, Dragon tree forests, and, in the absence of mammals and flightless birds, a hotspot of diversity for large invertebrates and lizards. The main unique feature of Eteki’hou is its umbrella forest, a bizarre network of tightly packed trees with branches so densely entangled that the ground beneath them is constantly as dark as night, and a man could walk atop the canopy with no fear of falling through the branches.

29. Abachika

    The peninsula of Abachika has long acted as a sort of cultural bridge between Granumuria and the Mesoamerican realms, as well as a unique pocket of peoples and wildlife in its own right. Its landscape mostly consists of semiarid savanna-type biomes, with some tropical forests along its southern coast.

30. Granumuria

    This region is by far the most influential in the entire continent of Monz. Its land is rich in natural resources that allow societies to flourish there in all stages of development. Its vast forests are so rich in wildlife that they can support networks of cities through hunting and gathering alone. A vast mountain range mostly separates Granumuria from the mainland, and along its coast are most of the continents best natural harbors.

    Its name is derived from Granumura, a powerful supernatural entity who arrived at the dawn of the Anthropocene in a comet. He was allowed dominion over the region by Earth's native deity, Kathelsa, in exchange for his aid in biological experimentation, which his ability to amalgamate life forms made him uniquely useful for. Granumura is responsible for creating both the Gaublins and Konstants through selectively breeding humans and amalgamating their dna with that of sasquatches.

31. Tetrevomtah

    Settlers beware the maze of foreboding mountainous islands that wrap around its Pacific coast, barren and difficult to navigate, one might prefer the lowland steppes on the Atlantic side, if it weren't for the llama-riding bandit hordes that stalk them, the only of their kind in the world.

32. The pillars of Dochati

                Tucked away in the Northwest Corner of Jakkababa, in the foothills of the Oggitonian mountains, is a geological anomaly known as The Pillars of Dochati. Named after the wonderous city that was founded amongst them. The pillars themselves are thousands of thin stone protrusions that stand anywhere from 40-200 feet tall, all scattered haphazardly but centered around a mesa that stands ~350 feet high, sitting atop which is a small lake, and around that lake is the city center of Dochatti, which is connected to the lesser pillars surrounding it by a network of hanging bridges and platforms carved into the side of the mesa. Buildings sit atop many of the lesser pillars, ranging from single homes, shops or watchtowers, to entire neighborhoods and local markets. Human settlement only takes up the small, central portion of the pillar-filled region, and much of the area is still home to the unique wildlife that has adapted to navigate the stone protrusions, such as rock-climber monkeys, stone carving ants and a variety of birds who battle for prime nesting positions atop the pillars. The males of one species of dove will, during mating season, swarm around a certain pillar, fighting to reach the top and be chosen by a female passing overhead.

33. Beingkorrou

                The Beringia land bridge that once connected the Americas to Eurasia in our timeline remains into the modern day here. Despite being connected by a vast stretch of land, the pre-modern civilizations of the continents still remained completely isolated from each other, as Beingkorrou’s frigid boreal and tundra environment made the region undesirable to most settled peoples, instead being left to hunter gatherers and reindeer herders. However, some of those non-settled peoples would traverse Beingkorrou and their realms would stretch between both the old world and the new, and stories of the far off lands beyond the frigid north would turn to legend in both old and new world societies.

34. The Hurricane bowl

    This small inlet on the northern coast of Amazia is home to a unique biome with near-constant tropical thunderstorms raging all day and night. For millions of years this region has been subjected to such weather, resulting in many uniquely adapted endemic species suited to withstand the constant harsh wind, rain and landslides. Needless to say, the environment of the hurricane bowl makes modern human settlement impossible.

35. Zischen Uzho

                Zischen Uzho, or “the orange desert” is defined by its unique geology, including a strange type of orange sand that clumps up as if its wet, with a landscape dotted by entrances to a vast cave system. Its caves contain a high concentration of ultra-rare gems found nowhere else in the world, making the desert quite a profitable asset to those who control it.