The Five Rivers Basin
The Great River
The low-lying Five Rivers Basin is the birthplace of the Great River, a massive waterway that cuts through the wilds between the Basin and the Cities of the Sea Kings. Wide enough in some areas to prevent full sight across its length, the Great River protects the Basin from the dangers that lurk south of its massive expanse.
The Silver River
Flowing out of the Starfrost Mountains to the northwest of the Basin, the Silver River is perhaps one of the most-used rivers for travel. It serves as the artery between the Anvil Vale, the dwarven lands tucked away in the Starfrost Mountains, and the Basin itself. Though its length is dangerous to travel, there are a rare brave few who are willing to do so, including a few halfling families.
The White River
Though the White River also flows out of the Starfrost Mountains, it does so slightly south of the Silver River. Where the Silver hails from civilized lands, the White is born in the wild and dangerous parts of the Starfrost Mountains, and sees almost no travel along its icy lengths. In the deeps of winter, large chunks of ice sometimes float down from the chill of the mountains there.
The Green River
The last river to join the Great River, the Green cuts a verdant emerald line through the deep forests of the Daggerwood. As a result, it is often used by elves for trading and simply visiting other places, and the settlements up and down its length are quite familiar with not just the presence of the Daggerwood elves, but with their customs and goods as well. In some places, as many as a quarter of the population is made up of half-elves and elves who maintain residences in those settlements.
The Red River
When the southern skies glow red, those who live near where the Red River dumps into the Great River know to be wary. The bleak Southron Wastes often see terrible storms and blow storms of filthy red dust in great storms that stain the horizon with bloody colors. In the days following such events, it is not uncommon to find the corpses of strange beasts come floating down the river - or to find living ones that have swum its length looking for food.
The Black River
From out of the Serpent Marshes to the southeast flows the stinking Black River. Though its waters often smell of stagnant water and run thickly with deep ebony mud, once its waters commingle with the White and Silver Rivers in Three Forks, they are subsumed by the crisper, cleaner waters there.
Settlements of the Basin
There are a number of different types of settlements to be found throughout the Five Rivers Basin. Though it has only one major city, Three Forks, it is home to perhaps more different settlements than anywhere else in the Known World, from the agricultural field-keeps of the prairies between the rivers, to the great trading outpost river towns, to the halfling riverholds that sit half on the land and half on the river.
Three Forks
Where the great White River, Silver River and Black Rivers first form the beginnings of the Great River, there sits Three Forks. An immense and impressive place, Three Forks is built to span over the rivers that make up its original marshy lands. Three Forks does not even use roads - its populace move through a series of cunningly crafted canals. It is not uncommon to find important buildings built out over the water. Indeed, the tallest building in the city sits on the island around which the three rivers merge their waters: the Riverlord's Sanctuary. From there, the Riverlord rules Three Forks, though its many merchant houses also lay stakes to claims throughout the Five Rivers Basin.
Field Keeps
The dangers of the growing season have forced the development of a certain kind of agricultural set-up throughout the Basin. Most farming centers are built using the "field keep" system: a single, fortified granary/refuge with a compliment of armed men serving to guard the individual farms built up around it. This field keep also serves as a small market, an inn for travelers and a place for those who work the lands around them to flee to when danger threatens.
Most field keeps are built along standard design lines by one of the handful of merchant houses, who own the keep while the farmers own the land they work. Though a few of these settlements have evolved into more traditional systems of land ownership - wherein the rich merchant houses own the land and rent it to farmers - the frontier spirit of the Basin prevents that from working anywhere save within a few days of Three Forks. The merchant houses that own the field keeps are perfectly content with that set-up: they have a virtual monopoly on the sale of goods to the farms nearby, the purchasing power to buy grain for cheap locally and ship it away to sell for a fat profit, and need only tend to the individual field keep, rather than being responsible for the whole of the land nearby.
River Towns
The towns located up and down the lengths of the Basin rivers invariably serve as trading hubs. Unlike the field keeps, these towns are unaffiliated with any of the merchant houses - all of them are independent, though allied with the Riverlord.
Halfling Riverholds
The riverholds of the halfling folk are unusual, and almost always discernible from a long way off. They appear to be low shanty towns, with extensive docks, and large numbers of brightly colored boats moored nearby. In truth, the buildings on land serve only for those civic functions that cannot be done on the water or for public functions: smithies and inns are the most common of these buildings, as are stables, animal pens and garden spaces.
Most of the dwellings that make up a riverhold are boats, all tethered together by rope and walking planks. The halfling folk consider the decks of their ships in the same way others consider public streets: open to any passersby and an excellent spot for gathering with friends and neighbors. Festivals usually take up large numbers of these decks, and most of the halfling ships have either drop-away siding or siding that can drop down to form a sort of ramp. These connections are frequently tied together to create one huge platform of ships.
The Border Wilds
The small patch of civilization that makes up the Five River Basin is no accident. It is the hard work of generations, with each acre of tamed land paid for in blood. And yet all around the Basin crouches the savage wilderness, waiting to encroach on the civilized lands of the Five Rivers.
The Daggerwood
The Daggerwood sits in a crescent of greenness to from the central northern reaches of the Basin, curving around its northeastern corner until it meets the Great River.
The Southron Wastes
The Southron Wastes is the colloquial term for those wild areas that lie south of the Great River. Though directly across the river, there are forested lands similar to that of the Daggerwood, the trees are somewhat sparser, and the sky occasionally shows strange colors at dawn and twilight.
Starfrost Mountains
The easternmost edges of this mountain range serve as the northern and northwestern border of the Basin, almost mirroring the arc of the Daggerwood, which sits opposite it across the Basin.
Serpent Marshes
The water that flows off the Starfrost Mountains, but which does not end up in either the White or Silver Rivers drenches the lands south of the mountain range, forming the Serpent Marshes. The Black River flows out of these lands to the Great River, and south of that river, the Serpent Marshes merge seamlessly with the Southron Wastes.
