The Shadow Plateau is an immense plateau which rises 1 km above the land all about it. The east end is higher than the west. This is what is left of the once immense Unknown which Unknown made for Argan Argar. All that now remains is a land of ghosts, black sand swirling around the top of the plateau, and a great bubbling tarpit where the center of the Unknown’s palace once stood. Many plants dot the top of the plateau, making a fair cover for the windy and rainswept hilltops. The plateau measures some 50 by 100 km in size.
The Shadow Plateau is also called the Haunted Lands, for there are still many ghosts and other troubles there. Another source of danger is the Unknown, who still inhabit the place with little ill consequence, and who prey upon humans passing nearby. There are also unusual sporadic winds sending torn pieces of life ghosting across the land, attacking anything in their path. Sometimes a black sandstorm rises from the black earth and goes swirling about, dashing everything in its path, and pelting all with angry pellets. And a few avenging spirits live there too, hateful against their specific foes.
Atop the plateau are many trees and brush, and like all the Holy Country’s coastlands, it is quite seasonal. Trolls devour much of the growth, and sometimes they have plagues of wild Unknown who will denude a patch of ground to the rock without any regard for its regrowth.
At the north end of the area lie the Unknown, the skeleton of a monster slain by Unknown. This creature did much to change the land in its death, damming the Unknown and forcing Belintar to dig the Unknown to compensate. A large troll settlement is at Unknown, where the trolls served out Belintar’s command to keep all away from the mystic well at its center. On the east is the place where the Only Old One’s palace once stood. The entire city was smashed to bits by the battle between the Only Old One and Belintar and covered the plateau with broken black glass of every conceivable size.
Although Belintar felled the Only Old One and cast down the rule of Darkness, he did not bother, or attempt, to destroy the children of Argan Argar, the trolls of the Shadowlands. The God-King was a wise and beneficent being, with no grudge against the innocent, and a keen mind for marshalling his resources. Thus, in the councils of the Sixths, one of the seats was filled by a troll: sometimes a Unknown troll, sometimes a Unknown.
The trolls of the Shadow Plateau participate little in political activity. With the disappearance of Belintar, the trolls have withdrawn into the vastness of the Shadow Plateau, a source of much worry for the other peoples of Kethaela.
The trolls still have many clans which live in their old regions. There are said to be several tribal queens, and certainly there are many who can muster a following large enough to be called king or queen by the local human standards.