Continents of Galhadria
Galhadria has four major continents, or five, or six, depending on how you count them.
Yes, I know, that answer could be a little less confusing.
A key turning point in the history of the world was the destruction of the opposing realms of Skos and Naduum. These two powers are kind of proto-nations from which nearly all the current great nations came from. They were destroyed some ages ago; Skos sinking beneath the waves and destroying Naduum in the process. (it’s a long story) Skos was fairly small, and it could be argued that it wasn’t a proper continent; regardless it exists now only as runs sunken beneath the sea, Atlantis-like. Naduum wasn’t totally lost; many of the mountain peaks are now islands; but it certainly could no longer be mistaken for a continent.
That leaves us with the four continents still above water in the current age.
Nova Eian has the most development; with extensive mapping and worldbuilding of the nations of that land. It is the place where most of the main stories are meant to take place, though by no means does it have to be the only place where they can happen. Nova Eian is a northern hemisphere continent, so it’s cold in the north and warmer in the south. It’s not terribly large as continents go, but I’m allowing for ‘historical inaccuracy’ in all my maps, so it might be a skosh bigger or smaller than the maps might indicate. There’s far too much detail on the place to delve into all of it here, so suffice to say for now that Nova Eian is the continent we’ll be writing of the most, for the foreseeable future.
West of Nova Eian lies the larger landmass of Avantarra. While this continent isn’t currently mapped out (and I have no plans to map it out, at least not soon) we know a little about it. It is reachable by sea - with some hazard - from Nova Eian. Travel between the two places is possible but not all that frequent, and it would tend to be expensive (though trading ships that make the journey would be very valuable). We do know there are a large number of islands between the two continents, including what’s left of Naduum and the spot where Skos sank. Avantarra is home to a few large nation/empires, which tend to be located quite far apart. Stories say that giants and large ancient creatures are more common there. What little we know of them suggests they tend to be somewhat isolationist, or at least they have less interest in the wide world than the peoples of Nova Eian. What stories we have of Avantarra include at least one empire ruled entirely by dragons (the dragon emperor of Sho) and one very large, very hostile empire who are their enemies. That’s about all we know of them at present.
Generally south (probably more southwest, but nothing is mapped yet) of Nova Eian lies the warm continent of Valea. Also larger than Nova Eian, but probably somewhat smaller than Avantarra, Valea is more densely populated and seems to have fewer large and gigantic creatures than the other landmasses. It is a southern hemisphere continent, so of course it’s warmer in the north, but doesn’t go terribly far south so it lacks some of the really cold regions of Avantarra and Nova Eian. What little we know of Valea suggests that it is home to a very powerful seafaring nation that discourages contact with the rest of the world. Trading contact with Valea is less frequent and fraught with challenges, but very valuable, as there any many Valean luxuries that don’t exist in the northern hemisphere (and vice versa).
Our final continent is the largest, and the least well known - gigantic Mahoudibar. This far continent is half legend; but the tales say that it is vast, home to both great deserts and frozen mountains; dense forests and jungles, endless plains and steppes. It is said to stretch north and south of the middle of the world, with a great variety of terrain. There is said to be a great southern peninsula of the landmass that extends so far south it becomes dangerous to sail due to ice; and as they are no other major landmasses in those areas of the world, terrible storms and waves pound the desolate shores this far south. Mahoudibar is said to be home to many, many large and ferocious monsters; including many totally unknown in the rest of the world. There are thought to be no great cities or civilizations there at all; at least, none of the children of Skos or Naduum fled there after their destruction. Unmapped Mahoudibar is the great and mysterious unknown - and long may it remain so!
Each of the three ‘overseas’ continents are designed to serve a story purpose. Avantarra is a distant but reachable foreign land, home to greater empires and monsters; a great place for something ancient or rare to come from, should a source be needed that isn’t on Nova Eian itself. Valea is a warm and inviting but distant and inaccessible place; a good source of strange peoples, customs, or luxuries. Mahoudibar is meant to be a land of mysteries and monsters - a frontier to explore when and if all other parts of the world become to well known.
There are a lot of fantasy concepts, monsters, people groups, races, magics, and other story elements that aren’t included in Nova Eian (there are no orcs in Nova Eian, for example). That said, I’m inviting other writers I admire to write in Galhadria, and that means I need to leave a ‘safety valve’ for concepts I might not have included that might be vital to another story. That’s the real purpose behind the other landmasses, and the reason I’m leaving them undefined - if a writer needs a strange race or magic or material, we have several options built into the story world where it could be sourced from. And, being continents, they’re quite large, and so merely being home to one unusual race or another won’t entirely define them.
So that’s all four, or five, or six continents of Galhadria!