Azlotl

Catfolk homeland, now goblin territory. Pronounced AHZ-lotl. For the world map and scale, see Geography.

Off Theria's west coast — roughly the Western Sahara and Mauritania stretch — sits a second, separate landmass, roughly the size and shape of a Mexico analog, called Azlotl, mostly jungle. It sits close enough to Africa that the water between the two reads as an enclosed sea, not open ocean, its character partly inspired by the Amazon, the Yucatan, and the Caribbean — winding delta channels and island chains, now all salt flats, dry channels, and exposed reefs instead of open water. That enclosed body is the world's actual dried sea: the Lizard Sea, from its old name, Acuetzpalco (ah-kwets-PAHL-ko), "place of the water-lizards." The name is older than the draining. The water isn't entirely gone: the old seabed's low point is still swamp, the Lizard Swamp.

Azlotl is meant to be the setting's seat of exploration and dungeon delving.

The Dried Sea

The connection to Africa: Azlotl and Theria actually touch at a southern point — the southern side of the dried sea, where Azlotl's southern reaches meet Africa's west coast — forming the seabed's enclosed basin. That connection is marked by two large volcanoes, Urzog and Burzug, flanking a narrow crossing. Both are goblin names. The crossing keeps ordinary travel and cultural crossover between the two landmasses down to nearly nothing despite the physical link.

The draining: Very early in the Long War, the Giants dried the sea, with the Caldrian Imperium lending a hand. The mechanism was rivers internal to Azlotl itself: the Giants redirected the landmass's major rivers to empty into the open ocean on Azlotl's far side instead of into the enclosed sea, and the basin dried out from there. This is no longer treated as a tightly held secret — it's known, or safely assumed, well beyond whatever small circle used to guard it. It was an act of war: draining the sea broke Catfolk civilization and took the Catfolk out of the Long War entirely, scattering them into diaspora (the Catfolk Diaspora) rather than defeating them in the field. See Catfolk and Giant Kingdoms documents.

Who Held It, and Who Holds It Now

Catfolk homeland: Before the sea dried, both shores — Theria's coast and Azlotl itself — were Catfolk ancestral territory, and Catfolk civilization there was fully Aztec/Incan-coded and thoroughly maritime: cities on both coasts, a fleet that used the sea as a highway rather than a barrier. Catfolk ruins are scattered across all of Azlotl today — the physical remainder of a civilization that no longer holds the land. See Catfolk document.

Dwarven ruins: A mountain range on Azlotl's far side — opposite the volcano crossing to Africa — was once a Dwarven holding, a sixth kingdom alongside the five on the main continent: Sonnenreich while it lived, Sonnengruft now (see Dwarven Kingdoms). The Dwarves were driven out by goblins after the Catfolk Diaspora and never reclaimed it. Old Dwarven ruins remain in those mountains.

Goblin takeover: With the Catfolk gone, goblins — previously a much smaller presence — spread to fill the vacuum across Azlotl, including eventually pushing the Dwarves out of their mountain foothold. The Giants more or less expected this, if they didn't outright intend it. See Goblins document.

Gold, and a dragon: Azlotl holds more than its fair share of the world's gold. That wealth is a real part of why Azlotl has its own dragon — Xumaquixtzin, the Feathered Serpent, ruling a court built on goblin labor, gold, and sheer charisma, with a Regent and Seneschal both drawn from Dwarven and Catfolk remnants who never left. See Xumaquixtzin and Dragons documents.

Open: exact placement/scale of Azlotl relative to Theria and the rest of the map; how "known" the Giants/Imperium role in the draining actually is on a nation-by-nation basis.