Malachite Plains

The largest feature of Banyan. The Malachite plains are home to the Aeworn, Brendenol, and Romos tribes of the Banyari. The tribes' level of activity are often drastically affected by the climate.

In the dry season, these rocky plains are anything but green. Pale brown grasses sway in the breeze, through which grazing animals, in herds of innumerable thousands, make long migrations to the dwindling water sources. Beneath their feet, sharp rocks jut from the dusty ground, making the going treacherous. As the water becomes scarcer, and the animals more desperate, so too do the carnivorous predators that stalk these plains: the Vrexle, lithe rat-faced pack hunters the length of a small banquet table, which are capable of terrifying bursts of speed. If you’ve got keen eyes, and a bit of patience, you might be able to spot the Brendenol.

When the rains finally do return to Banyan, the Malachite Plains are transformed. The dun- colored expanse gives way to a verdant, vibrant green wonderland. Dry ditches fill with rushing streams and cascading rivers, while the cracked and broken earth becomes a shallow marshland, resplendent with fast-growing reeds, cattails, and flowering grasses. What’s more, the sharp, dust- covered rocks poking from the land are washed clean, revealing the shining green gemstones from which the plains get their name. As the seasonal rains metamorphose the lands around them, so too are a tiny number of the malachite rocks revealed to be anything but. As most of the rocks begin to shimmer and glow in the Overlight, a select few of them instead soften, revealing them to be no rock, but a succulent-like plant growing almost shell-like from the backs and heads of Banyari of the Romos tribe that unfurl themselves from a dormant slumber beneath the earth. During the wet season, the Romos can be found meticulously wading through the swamps, using short reed spears to hunt the small crustaceans that share a similar life cycle.

Finally, there is a silver tree that grows out on a distant part of the Malachite Plains. When the rains are at their peak, the tree shines out like a beacon upon the horizon, standing in the center of a lake that does not exist during the dry season. It has been reported that this tree will sometimes release a cloud of spores the color of sea foam, which will gently float out across the grasslands, creating a repeating sound not unlike a drop of water hitting the surface of a standing pool.