Medsathion

 

Medsathion (Deep Medsathic: Medsa Athien; Younger Athival: Medsya Athyvien; both lit. "starlight forest") is a region of Eregdéa spanning from the northern reaches of the Ailenórean Chain across the entire northwestern peninsula of the Eregdëish mainland, sometimes conterminously referred to as the Medsathic Peninsula.

Medsathion is inhabited by the Medsathic peoples, a large, mixed collection of human and knid populations that share many cultural and linguistic similarities. Along with the knids to their south, the Medsathic are sometimes referred to separately from the rest of Eregdeish civilization due to their longstanding isolationism and aggressive resistance to cultural and religious transfusion. The Medsathic have long been of interest to learned persons, especially those specialising in history and magic, due to their links to the long-vanished athival.

Medsathion is geographically characterised by three broad sub-areas of topographic prominence surrounded by channels of gentler, low-lying terrain. The entire region is mostly covered in mixed coniferous and deciduous forest, with the balance of the two types of trees varying somewhat based on elevation and latitude. Notably, the trees of Medsathion exhibits strong natural concentrations of thyl: in many cases, this has resulted in the trees exhibiting something similar to collective consciousness through their recorded expressions of magic. Some scholars find the affinity towards magic by the trees of Medsathion to be representative instead of stochastic natural phenomena localised within the region itself, most probably as a result of the previous existence of a large athival population, as opposed to any sort of mindful expression by non-animal life. Regardless, the exact nature of the magical forests remains under-studied due to the immense hostility of the Medsathic peoples towards outsiders.

Etymology

The Loegrish term Medsathion is derived from the Mitraic Medsathium, which itself is a clipped compound of the original Deep Medsathic Medsa Athien. The Deep Medsathic name for the region literally means "starlight forest" and is directly related to the Younger Athival term for the region, Medsya Athyvien, which bears the same meaning. The Medsathic languages, although spoken by humans, are believed to be descended from Younger Athival, or according to some theories, from an intermediary language native to the forest spirits of the region which was then adopted by the predecessors of the contemporary Medsathic peoples.