Low Muck

Geography

Marshy lowlands filled with weeds, brambles and mud. The Cré Nathair marks its western border and the hills of the Low Muck, children to the imperious Ardenroots, tower over the north, south and eastern borders. In contrast to the soggy lowlands, the hills are steep, rocky and high making the terrain craggy and arid.

History

By the end of the Fwoarian subjugation the tribes were spread thinly across the eastern regions as far as Coillte ag Screadaíl. When the armistice was decided the Fwoarians had to quit many of the territories they held, not that they would be able to hold them for long anyway. As the tribes shrunk back, they consolidated in key locations throughout the eastern Inis and one such place was the Low Muck.

Originally considered to be something of a slight by the tribe that inhabited it, now known as the Íseal, they rose to prominence above what their station and their land would normally allow when the Huldufolk made their first tentative colonies in the northeast. It was the Íseal in the Low Muck that kept, and continue to keep, the Huldufolk at bay. This lead to the first of the Chieftains of Ynis-Gwysrin to officially commend the Íseal tribe in 2662 AoE, providing them with constant aid and first offers over inter-tribal marriages from their more prestigious and wealthy sister tribes.

Places of Interest

The Gray-Faces - The hills surrounding the Low Muck are significantly colder than the surrounding region for unknown reasons. While the hills are nothing like mountains, one can often see them covered in snow and rimed with ice at their peaks even in the middle of summer. White clouds of fog and mist often crown the hills further adding to the visage of mystery they embody.

Ecosystem

The marshy lowlands and the craggy hills do not make themselves overly hospitable to most species. Very few deer, vermin and birds make their home in the Low Muck and its surrounding hills. What predators exist often find their way down from Coillte ag Screadaíl and they are best left unspoken of.

South of the Cré Nathair the land becomes a mire of rotting trees, hanging vines and mosses that fall like funeral veils from the branches. River serpents and even young kraken can sometimes be found writhing through the muck and morass. Virulent insects plague travelers and even the ground seems poisoned as plants capable of inflicting wasting diseases with their spores claim more lives than even the murky depths.

Spring rains increase the frequency at which the river floods and winter often freezes the lowlands enough to make travel across them more agreeable. Winter also fills the hills with snow and ice making them mostly impassible.

Flora & Fauna

Near the Gray-Faces animals like mink, raccoons, opossums, muskrats, beavers, frogs, turtles and lots of species of birds and insects are common with some deer rarely appearing. Bulrushes and cattails are often found at the edges of the Cré Nathair river and in the lowlands beneath the hills.

The abysmal swamps near the southern edge, known as the Midden Mire, are filled with warblers, owls, woodpeckers as well as raccoons, rats, the ever vicious river otters and many plague-bearing insects. The rotting corpses and timid new growth of bald cypress trees and crooked gum trees are hung with creeping vines and hanging mosses.