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Description
I have lost count of the number of hours it took to make this map. Not just the basic design, that I got finished relatively quickly. But then blowing up the original image to twice its size? That took a while. A long, long while.
So, here it is! The world of Ajjamah, with a year about seven (thirty-day) months long and two suns to keep it warm. (Technically three, but one's rather distant.) Slightly lighter gravity than Earth, but 1.4 atmospheres at sea level; you can still breathe on the highest mountains, in the Cho-Em Plateau, a full 10,600m above sea level, though it be too cold to support all but yetis and the Winged People. Plants range from golden to orange, turning red-black in the autumn; *fungi photosynthesize as well, but mainly fix nitrogen, and like to crawl to new positions at different times of the day. Animals are relatively "normal" by Earth standards, even recognizable, although there are a number of important differences (like *birds having six limbs).
Humans, or their local equivalent, are found on every single continent, reached through a land bridge that only recently sunk into the sea between the Salvian Peninsula and Akwa. Phoenixes are found in the jungles of Pelia to the west, drawing power from the sky; behemoths roam across in Akwa to the east, the movement of the earth's crust giving them great power; leviathans (flying whales) in the Northern Ocean, who (surprise, surprise) draw on the hydrosphere for magic.
Humans in this world, on the other hand, draw their power from the biosphere, from the trillions upon trillions of living things around them, and are granted certain powers for their trouble. There is a cost to this, of course; unless you strike a proper balance, you can easily kill things around you, or scatter your own soul between them. Better instead to act in symbiosis, or rely on the veritable fonts of power that are the vipriyas or jinn–thought these can be quite mercurial. Still, there are many, many ways to connect to life, and over the millennia systems of magic have developed in almost every culture.
There are so many places to see here, wonders natural and sapient-made. The palaces of wood and ice in Tailtiinu, where the Trancers weather the arctic winters by dancing in the aurora. Deep in the sea, coral reefs the leviathans have made more gardens than jungles. The black-and-red-and-white pyramids of Salvi, intricately carved with ancient spells, binding the jinn of the wilds to the spells of the Sorcerers. The ten thousand tornadoes that hit the Whirlwind Plains every year, crackling and roaring in the dark they conjure. The towering fortress-citadels of Hercua, their masters waging a war on any and all who do not believe in their single god–and with each other, for worshipping Him wrong. The bleak desert of the Stones in Ambalira, where shamans smoke their long pipes and conjure rainbow pathways in the air. The Cities of Iron and Granite across the island of Irthiron, hubs for the Imperial Airship Fleets.
And it gets so much better, as the Midnight Sun gets closer…

Description
I have lost count of the number of hours it took to make this map. Not just the basic design, that I got finished relatively quickly. But then blowing up the original image to twice its size? That took a while. A long, long while.
So, here it is! The world of Ajjamah, with a year about seven (thirty-day) months long and two suns to keep it warm. (Technically three, but one's rather distant.) Slightly lighter gravity than Earth, but 1.4 atmospheres at sea level; you can still breathe on the highest mountains, in the Cho-Em Plateau, a full 10,600m above sea level, though it be too cold to support all but yetis and the Winged People. Plants range from golden to orange, turning red-black in the autumn; *fungi photosynthesize as well, but mainly fix nitrogen, and like to crawl to new positions at different times of the day. Animals are relatively "normal" by Earth standards, even recognizable, although there are a number of important differences (like *birds having six limbs).
Humans, or their local equivalent, are found on every single continent, reached through a land bridge that only recently sunk into the sea between the Salvian Peninsula and Akwa. Phoenixes are found in the jungles of Pelia to the west, drawing power from the sky; behemoths roam across in Akwa to the east, the movement of the earth's crust giving them great power; leviathans (flying whales) in the Northern Ocean, who (surprise, surprise) draw on the hydrosphere for magic.
Humans in this world, on the other hand, draw their power from the biosphere, from the trillions upon trillions of living things around them, and are granted certain powers for their trouble. There is a cost to this, of course; unless you strike a proper balance, you can easily kill things around you, or scatter your own soul between them. Better instead to act in symbiosis, or rely on the veritable fonts of power that are the vipriyas or jinn–thought these can be quite mercurial. Still, there are many, many ways to connect to life, and over the millennia systems of magic have developed in almost every culture.
There are so many places to see here, wonders natural and sapient-made. The palaces of wood and ice in Tailtiinu, where the Trancers weather the arctic winters by dancing in the aurora. Deep in the sea, coral reefs the leviathans have made more gardens than jungles. The black-and-red-and-white pyramids of Salvi, intricately carved with ancient spells, binding the jinn of the wilds to the spells of the Sorcerers. The ten thousand tornadoes that hit the Whirlwind Plains every year, crackling and roaring in the dark they conjure. The towering fortress-citadels of Hercua, their masters waging a war on any and all who do not believe in their single god–and with each other, for worshipping Him wrong. The bleak desert of the Stones in Ambalira, where shamans smoke their long pipes and conjure rainbow pathways in the air. The Cities of Iron and Granite across the island of Irthiron, hubs for the Imperial Airship Fleets.
And it gets so much better, as the Midnight Sun gets closer…