The Kanapan Peninsula is named for the people who have lived there for thousands of years, the Kanapans. It is located in Northern Sarvonia and enjoys a relatively warm climate for the area. This area is also home to the densest population of humans in all of Northern Sarvonia.

Image description. One of the magnificent temples found in the Lorfurtinia area of the Kanapan peninsula - dedicated of course to Lorfurno, the Black Bull, deity of the Kanapans. Picture drawn by Max.

Description. The peninsula drastically changed during the time known as the Year of Darkness. Land sunk into the ocean and mountains were created. Much of the peninsula is surrounded by cliffs, and mountains due to fault lines and violent earthquake activity during that time (see Myth/Lore). Much of the interior of the peninsula is flat grasslands, however, with the only hills being man made at one time or another. Two forests in the Southern-central area rise up out of these gentle hills and grasslands, the Wounds of Sylvan and the Forests of Cahm. One solitary peak, known as the Simildian Crest, rises from the seas of grass in the north-west, where the town Simildis is located - this is due to a sudden breaking in a fault line causing a dramatic up thrust of an immense amount of land. To the northeast at the base of the Vindel Mountains is a swamp that is fed by the moisture of the area, the Chapel Fjord, and several small, broken canals. This is known as the Aldrige Swamp, famed for its large feylien beetles, which are very useful to healers (see Fauna).

Location. The Kanapan Peninsula hangs off of the Eastern coast of Northern Sarvonia, north of the Isles of Quios. The exact borders of this peninsula are very well defined due to the geography of the area. Much of the southern and western borders are deliniated by ocean; to the south and the southwest is the Aelyvian Sea. There is a long strip of land called the Peninsula of Glandor that reaches out from the eastern area, bordered by the Haven of Sky, and the Gulf of Glandor. The edge of the city limits of Carbrand mark the northern boundary line by the pass named Maiden’s Threshold. That is the only way besides sea that this peninsula can be reached. The northwestern boundary is defined by the Vindel Montains, while to the west lie the Chapel Fjord and the Cliffs of Isthrius.

People. The human people from whom the peninsula derives its name are called the Kanapans. This group of people have been there from time immemorial. In their heyday, they did great works and altered the land. Where there were rivers, they were widened, or lined for more consistent use. Where there were none, they built canals to connect the rivers and seas for trade. Along these canals they placed forts, but now many of their works seem like natural rivers surrounded by hills.

Climate. The weather on this peninsula is quite different from all of the lands that surround it. While the lands adjoining the peninsula are cold and dry, this place is temperate and moist. This unusual circumstance is due to the mountains and cliffs that surround the whole of the northern and western sections. There are two weather fronts that are in this general region. There is an east-west Cold Front, and a north-south Warm Front. They collide in this region and are held there by the northern mountains and cliffs. The fronts will often actually run into each other in the north and north-eastern areas of the peninsula, causing warmer weather along with more precipitation in the area. This is what allows the grasslands of the north and the swamps of the northeast to survive.

Picture description. The Kanapan Peninsula in northeastern Sarvonia. Map drawn by Artimidor.

Flora. Plant life flourishes in the peninsula. There are several types of fruit and seed bearing plants harvested by the Kanapan for food or medicinal purposes, Among these are the guiro, an unusual fruit that grows on an underground vine, the jukl'lan, onn plants, the waterberry, the redberry, the maid's ease (Santharian raspberry), tuberfruits, the mutliweed, and the northern lýth’bél. The Kanapan people also plant and harvest bredden grain, both for themselves as as fodder for their cattle and horses.

In the grasslands, alth'ho and peat grasses are the two main species. Here the rare tansia bush grows, which is a valued export for the Kanapan people. The lotann flower is also prevalent, and the Kanapan make a kind of sweet wine from its blossoms. The y'rom shrub, the poeritt, and the kragghi grow in this area, though not as prolifically as the other plants. Water plants abound in the marshes, such as the aomár, the krakenweed, the lémertía, the lifereed, and the yealm reed.

In the Wounds of Sylvan and the forest of Cahm, one may find the arne'pherán tree, the maple tree, white and black oak, wolf willow, ashwude, baych, mithril and white birch, and the majestic mahood euwen tree. Lythien, rockmoss and squirm moss all grow on the foothills of the Vindel Mountains.

Fauna. Interestingly enough, the only really large wild animal within this area is a semi-feral variety of cattle, which the Kanapan use for milk, meat and fur and is connected to their religious beliefs (see furno bull). There are no large natural predators, beside humans. There are quite a few smaller creatures that reside in the region, though. This includes many small mammals throughout the peninsula - leverets, mimsies, field mice, greycats, kuatu, rats, and tarepi - all these frequent the plains areas and provide food for the two main non-human predators of this region, the raoshir (which the Kanapan call the mithrilfox) and the common ferret. In the Vindel Mountains, to the north, minchen and bats can be found.

The birds of this area include the ash falcon (near the peat fields) northern corbies, eagles, mathmoors, nightbirds, and nue'mon. Green and bronze grass snakes are in the plains and the Aldrige Swamp by the Chapel Fjord to the north-west and also the marshy areas just south-east of the grasslands, where four rivers join. Swamp kaimun have been seen in these areas as well, though their populations are not high. The Kanapan hunt them for meat and the durable hide.

Many insects are found here too. Of particular note is the useful feylien, of which the Aldrige Swamp variety is most prized and valued by healers as a method of drawing out infected blood from a poisoned wound. Other insects include the dergimar fly, the lín’már’jóh, the scarlet and purple see'an beetles, blackbeetles, the aek'oriot (known in the south as the dalor, or sparker) the lovely lu'an moth and red diamond butterfly and of course the ever prevalent malise, myrmex, and orms. The woolly cob is also known here, though not higly prevalent.

Resources. The Kanapan lands have several very important resources which they trade with the Kuglimz and also with the Southern Sarvonian traders, who arrive by sea several times a year. As mentioned before, their feylien beetles are valuable to healers for their size and longer larval stages (see feylien entry). The seeds of the tansia bush, used by priests to make a special holy oil for the nobility, are also much in demand. Juk'lan leaves, lotannwine and cheese and hides from their furno cattle are almost always among trade items. All these things are brought to Kurstir, the major Kanapan port for Southern traders, except for the healer's ships, which come up through the Chapel Fjord to collect their feylien larvae and juk'lan leaves. The Kanapan trade these things for good quality steel knives and other implements, some southern fruits such as the lymmon (kithrauhre, which they use in making their lotannwine), and bolts of cloth.

Myth/Lore. Not much is known about the history of the Kanapan, though tales are told of their early civilization being immensely powerful, with mighty mage-priests that changed the earth and rearranged the lands to suit themselves. In the Time of Darkness, the legends say, the magic was lost and many died, especially in the massive earthquakes, which the people believe were caused by the leviathan, trying to bring about the destruction of the world, before Lorfurno stopped him (for more details see the Lorfurno entry).

Due to the isolation of the Kanapan people, they have not experienced many wars or been influenced much by other societies or cultures in the last few hundred years, but this is beginning to change as trade with the southern part of the continent becomes more prevalent.