Davania's Western Jungle Coast

Davania is the massive continent to the south of Brun where the Known World is, across the Sea of Dread. It is alien to most Mystarans and almost entirely unexplored. The closest civilized land masses are Ochaelea (the southernmost island province of Thyatis) to the north-east and Thanegia Island, the large island at the south of the Serpent Peninsula that is now the homeland of Yavdlom  the nation of Prophets. The western jungle coast is the part that borders the Sea of Dread, from opposite Thanegia to the Thyatian claims in the east near Ochalea. 

1 hex: 72 miles, adapted from this source by Mark Howard

Despite what some Thyatians say, the Thyatian Empire has only a very tentative grasp on the jungle coast - there have been some coastal  colonies established but any advance inland quickly runs into trouble and the surviving settlers retreat back to the coast. The more serious efforts have left Thyatian ruins appearing incongruously in the jungle. The two towns of Cittanova and Raven Scarp are the most notable and most stable of Thyatis' settlements on this wild continent and they have only populations of about 2000 each. The supposed borders of Thyatian influence in the jungles of Davania are really just claims with little power to back them up. Nonetheless, the Thyatian towns of Cittinova and Raven Scarp are still the best jumping off point for adventurers seeking to explore this untamed land. There are also smaller outposts of Thyatian expansion, such as Herakanthia. 

The landscape and vegetation is both immense and challenging. It is mostly tropical rainforest growing across rugged and broken landscapes. Jungle trees cling on to steep escarpments while plateaux with precipitous cliffs tower over lush river valleys. Just moving in a single direction is both difficult and exhausting with numerous detours and ways around geographical obstacles all part of travel here. 

And in the hinterlands the trees grow more enormous the further south one travels. The giant Galthorn trees reach up to 30ft in diameter at the trunk base and are up to 350ft tall. Their mighty boughs can support multi-storied treehouses for intelligent denizens or huge nests for creatures much larger than humans. Many natives will tell you that in Davania the underbrush reaches up to 50ft and the canopy only really starts beyond 100ft off the forest floor. The underbrush includes a wide range of shade-dwelling bushes and shrubs as well as ferns, bamboo, cycads and the occasional carnivorous plant. The vegetation often has its own defences, including poisons, thorns, cutting leaves, stings like nettles and the like. There is food to be found but it takes an expert familiar with this jungle to know which fruit and nuts are safe to eat and which are dangerous. 

Then there is the local wildlife. This is believed to be the origin of many of the monsters found on the Isle of Dread further to the north. Giant reptiles known as dinosaurs are found here, roaming free in herds and packs, including species not seen on the Isle of Dread. These include the top creatures of the food chain here but by no means the only things that will try to kill human-sized prey. The sheer diversity of animals in the jungle means that there are dozens, perhaps a hundred species of animal and monster that will prey on humanoids if given the opportunity.

It is telling that although there are both black and green dragons here, many of these creatures prefer to make their lairs atop massive trees or in the sides of huge cliffs because it is safer from other wildlife such as the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex. Other dragons of Brun would not even consider showing such weakness or fear about mere wildlife, but then they have not tried surviving in Davania's Jungle Coast. 

Huge herbivorous dinosaurs including brontosaurus, triceratops and stegosaurus all roam the jungle floor in herds, feeding on the lush vegetation. Gargantua have been found here, including massive versions of horned chameleons, rock pythons and pit vipers. There are some large arthropods here, including driver ants, giant black widow spiders and giant scorpions but they do not dominate the jungle the same way the dinosaurs do - they tend to hide in nooks and crannies until night time. 

Though humans have barely hung on by the fingernails to their coastal colonies there are other intelligent races that have adapted and fared better in the Jungle Coast. 

• Rakastas, the cat-people found on the Isle of Dread are from here. As on the Isle of Dread their culture here is tribal, not civilized. They are nomadic within traditional hunting territories. They have several subraces distinguished by different pattered fur, with tawny light brown ones in the western hills and savannah, golden yellow with black spots in the ruggedest jungle and further to the east the orange with black stripes ones in the slightly lighter forest south of Ochalea. 
• Jungle Elves are similar to Wood Elves. Their warriors are mostly Elven Rangers - only a few of them have mastered magic. They generally make their homes in treehouses in the boughs of the tallest Galthorn trees. Although other elves who encounter them consider them uncultured, almost barbaric, these jungle elves have developed excellent tribal knowledge of the jungle and how to survive in it. 
• Phanatons are small agile creatures that can glide using flaps of skin between their limbs. They have a tribal lifestyle and generally get on well with the Jungle elves. Phanatons rarely go down to the jungle floor - they consider it much safer to spend as much time as possible in the canopy gliding from branch to branch. 
• Gatormen are large powerful reptilian humanoids who prefer freshwater environments including swamps, rivers and lakes. They are vicious towards all warm-blooded creatures though they tolerate each other enough to form tribes up to 50 strong. They sometimes have crocodiles as pets, even the largest giant crocodiles they call deinosuchus. 
• Aranea are spider-like creatures that are skilled at magical disguise and illusion. They are hated and distrusted by most other intelligent creatures. They particularly enjoy deceiving, trapping and devouring humans from the Thyatian colonies who in turn will try to kill araneas when the opportunity arises. 
• Minotaurs have adapted well to the jungles of Davania and roam in tribes up to 80 strong - far more numerous and sociable than their cousins in the Known World. But in Davania even minotaurs need to find safety in numbers. These tribes include bosses and kings larger and more ferocious than normal minotaurs. Some minotaur tribes specialise in hunting dinosaurs. 
• Decapi are octopus-like monsters with multiple tentacles, weird writhing hair on their green torsos and vicious carnivorous maws. They are more intelligent than most give them credit for but they tend not to be sociable, prefering solitude. They are most at home in the canopy, catching birds, monkeys and occasional jungle elves. Some have suggested they are not native to Mystara but come from some alien realm, but even if this were true they have adapted well to the Jungle Coast. 

There was an expedition of Alphatian scholars and explorers, focused on academic study not conquest, who spent two months in an Alphatian Skyship hovering over the jungle, touching down occasionally when safe to do so. One scholar who had studied other jungles said that the ecology didn't make sense - there were too many big animals, especially predators. But another who had talked to many druids had a different idea. She believed that in the Davanian jungle, nature is "turned up to 11", or greatly intensified. Life here in all its forms is bigger, more populous, more diverse, more fecund. Even though there is plenty of death, it is death as part of a food chain, providing food for others and nutrients returning to nature, rather than the nihilistic entropic death espoused by necromancers and death priests. The fact that there no undead have been found here is telling - it may be that the life-force of this ecosystem is too strong, though this is speculation. It is as if in the Davanian jungle coast, life has run riot.