Biomes

A darker seal still, beneath Hell itself. Something on the far side has been waiting.

A pale vault closing off the upper air — the ceiling of the world, and a door for those who would climb.

A fused sheet of brimstone, sealing the deep from the world above. It yields only to the pick.

Dry, cold grassland running to the horizon. Thin soil and thinner rain, but open country and easy going for those who ca

Ordinary stone, and a great deal of it. Whatever is below has to be earned through this first.

Above the last cloud, the light comes from everywhere at once and the ground is patient underfoot.

Heat without a sun. The stone glows where it cracks, and the air is thick enough to lean on.

Higher than Heaven, and quieter. Those who arrive here are not recorded as having left.

The air above the world's floor. Nothing grows here and nothing holds still.

A wind-scoured waste of ice-bound ground and bare crag, where snow falls seldom and never leaves. Nothing grows; the roc

Hot grassland under a wide sky, dotted with solitary trees. The rains come hard and briefly; between them the grass burn

The deepest layer, and the one no map records. The floor is not stone. It is segmented, and it is warm.

Boreal forest over frozen ground — a dark pine line broken by bog and snow. Timber is plentiful for a colony willing to

Deep, fertile woodland where grass gives way to close-standing timber. The richest ground for growing, but the canopy mu

Standing water and black mud under a low, tangled canopy. The ground gives underfoot and open water bars the way, but wh

A furnace of pale sand and wind-cut mesa. Nothing grows without water carried to it, and the only wealth is what the roc

Hot woodland that sheds its leaves against the dry season. Good timber and good soil, on land that swings between flood

Sodden, close-grown jungle where the rain scarcely stops and the canopy shuts out the sky. The most fertile ground in th

Open, sun-dried country of scrub and bare earth. The rain is grudging and the soil poor, but the land is level and the s