The Barrens:
The Barrens are vast tracts of rolling grasslands east of the Thentis Mountains. There are no large bodies of water and rainfall is reduced. The grass can grow to heights of several feet. In the winter there can be terrible blizzards and in the summer, extreme heat and droughts. There may also be sudden storms, tornadoes, flash floods, and hail storms. The Barrens are the home of the Red Savages, similar to the Native Americans of North America. No white man has ever penetrated to the eastern edge of the Barrens. The Red Savage culture is nomadic, based on the kaiila. There are a few tribes that have not mastered the kailla and some tribes that use tarns. They depend on the kailiauk for their lives, for food, clothing, shelter, tools and weapons. Almost all tribes hate whites.
Equatorial Rainforests:
There are jungles on the equator near the city of Schendi. There are many villages in the jungles and most of their inhabitants do not speak Gorean. They speak a number of different inland dialects. Fishing is a major source of livelihood for many. Bila Huruma is a black Ubar who has united the six ubarates of the southern shore of Lake Ushindi. The Ukungu villages lay to the northeast on the coast. It is a country of coastal villages speaking the same or similar dialects. The central village is Nyundo. Talunas, pygmies and cannibals also inhabit the jungles. The rainforest is also the home of a myriad of wildlife.
Plains of Turia:
The Plains are also called the Land of the Wagon Peoples. The Wagon Peoples claim the southern prairies from Thassa and the Mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range. To the north, they claim lands to the rush grown banks of the Cartius River. The Wagon Peoples consist of four separate tribes: the Paravaci, Kataii, Kassars, and the Tuchuks. The Peoples are primarily herders of bosk, living off their meat and milk. They do not grow any food and will eat nothing of the earth. They are very proud and regard city dwellers as vermin in holes.
Polar Cap:
The northern polar region is the home of the Red Hunters, a people similar to the Eskimos of Earth. The red hunters live as nomads, depending on the migration of certain animals including the tabuk and four varieties of sea sleen. Little is known of them. The polar seas are frozen half the year. Icebergs, also called ice mountains, are a constant threat. The red hunters are generally kind, peaceable folk. They call themselves Innuit which means "the People." They live in scattered, isolated communities and war is largely unknown. The polar north is very dry. Less snow falls there than in lower latitudes. The snow that does fall is less likely to melt. Most of the land is tundra, a cool, generally level or slightly wavy, treeless plain. In the summer, the tundra is soft and spongy due to mosses, shrubs and lichen. In the winter, it is desolate and barren. White pelted Kur, called ice beasts by the red hunters, also live in the polar region.
Tahari:
Located southeast of Ar, below the eastern foothills of the Voltai, and to the south is the Tahari. This is a desert area also known as the Wastes, or the Emptiness. It is shaped like a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid with eastward leaning sides. At its northwest corner is Tor. The area east of Tor is hundreds of pasangs in depth, maybe thousands. It is generally rocky and hilly, save in the dune country. It is almost constantly windblown by a hot wind and waterless. There are oases fed from underground rivers flowing southeast from the Voltai range. The water erupts in oases springs or is reached by deep well, down to two hundred feet. The day temperatures in the shade are 120 degrees. The oasis communities number from a hundred to thousands of people and are often hundreds of pasangs apart from each other. They depend on caravans for their needs.
Torvaldsland:
This area is commonly taken to start with the thinning of the great forest trees northward. It is northwest up the coast from the Vosk delta. The Skerry of Einar, by the Rune-Stone of the Torvaldsmark, marks the boundary of the Torvaldsland and the south. The Stream of Torvald, a current, moves eastward to the coast and then north. It is like a broad river in the sea, pasangs wide. The temperature is warmer than the surrounding water and helps warm Torvaldsland. The people couldn't live without this stream. Torvaldsland is a cruel, harsh, and rocky land. Arable soil is thin and found in patches. Good soil is rare and highly prized. Though not treeless, it is a bleak land. Ka-la-na and temwood cannot grow there and are highly prized. The men are inured to the cold, accustomed to war and the labor of the oar. They are raised from boyhood on steep, isolated farms near the sea. They hold to old gods, like Odin and Thor. They are much like the Vikings of Earth.
Mystery Locations:
There are some location place names given but almost no information given about those locations. Many of these locations are mentioned in passages concerning the places where the famous mercenary captain, Dietrich of Tarnburg, won victories. These locations may be cities, towns or simply geographic regions. They include the following: Cardonicus, Edgington, Gordon Heights, Kargash, Keibel Hill, Piedmont, Plains of Sanchez, Rovere, and Teveh Pass.
