There's a large landmass around the halfway point to the western continent that is still largely unexplored, called Jokhud. It was once known as Midland untill contact with the natives was made, the Jokhudai, who are often referred to as gnollbears despite not being remotely related to gnolls or bears. They are a small but hardy people who live in small tribes in the mountains and fertile valleys of the south and southeastern part of Jokhud, and trade with their neighbours the Khodai who live mostly on the snow covered peaks in the north. The Khodai are a bit larger and have entirely white fur and silvery eyes and thugh they are more agressive they do coexist peacefully through trade, trading herbs and gems which can only be found at the high altitude for food and medicine that the Jokhudai have.

They are not the only inhabitants of Jokhud as most of the coastline seems to be prime nesting grounds for the aquatic salamanders below the near vertical cliffs around the eastern side. The western side of Jokhud is inhabited by mountain salamanders, a few harpy roosts, basilisks and a flight of dragons. Thankfully only the basilisks trouble the Jokhudai and Khodai once in a while and the salamanders keep to themselves and rarely interact with others while the dragons keep to their own territory entirely and help keep the basilisk numbers in check by hunting them for food. The harpies ore more of a minor nuiscance who will sometimes try to steal food or males and their numbers are too small to pose any real threat.

The Jokhudai were originally inhabitants of what is now the Vossen homeland in the sea of mists. They left there long ago because the volcanic activity made the land uninhabitable for them due to their crops and the fish becoming ever more poisonous so they entirely vacated the archipelago and moved to Jokhud, a land which they had discovered some time ago when they were still exploring the seas. This turned out great for the Vossen who were able to adapt to the poisons when they had to flee from the Volfen invading their land, and they might have gone extinct otherwise.

There are only a few places along the southern coast where it's possible for ships to land which is why exploration of Midland was so slow for a long time, especially paired with the very territorial aquatic salamanders. But after first contact with the Jokhudai two port cities were established Ardenia and Ahk'Sahil with Ardenia being settled by the humans looking for a new life outside of their original nations which means they are quite mixed with people from Whitestone, the southern empire, Dakkara, Lèons and even some Amazons. Ahk'Sahil as the name suggests was founded by Lipane explorers who wanted to be closer to the dragons in order to learn from them, but the dragons refused all contact with outsiders so the Lipane instead turned their attention to the local fauna and flore and discover possible new alchemical ingredients and magical reagents.

In order to keep an eye on these new arrivals and facilitate trade the Jokhudai established some trading outposts, though they remain wary of the humans who sometimes cause some trouble around the trading posts, the Lipane on the other hand have behaved remarkably well but aren't trusted very much either due to their use of magic going against the shamanistic beliefs of the Jokhudai but even so the Lipane have been allowed to explore further inland and visit the tribes to learn their ways and over time they adapted to using primal magic as it is more potent in this land. The trading post the Lipane are in contact with and where they start their expeditions from is called Tor'Yamai and is home to two guides who regulary guide the Lipane expeditions, Dhozi and Kowa. Both are shamans but Dhozi specializes in combat and using the primal magic to enchance her physcial ability and defense, Kowa on the other hand prefers the primal magic way of spells and healing and both he and Dhozi know the land like no other coming from a more nomadic tribe which travels all across eastern Jokhud. They are probably also the only two experts on aquatic salamanders, having managed to make peaceful contact with them a number of times and even learn their language.

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