Rendorlin

Rendorlin
Rendorlin seen from orbit, 2056
Type	Supercontinent
Extent	From the northern to the southern polar seas
Share of land	Most of the planet's land surface
Population	The large majority of Orylia's people
States
Sovereign states	Sylvaris, Xylos, Eden's End, others
Dependencies	Ulmarkan Protectorates (coastal)
Largest city	Capitol Bay

Rendorlin (/ˈrɛn.dɔr.lɪn/) is the supercontinent of Orylia, a single landmass that stretches from the northern to the southern polar seas and makes up most of the planet's land surface. It is home to the large majority of the world's people and to most of its sovereign states, including Sylvaris, Xylos and Eden's End, as well as the coastal territory of the Ulmarkan Protectorates, held by the Ulmarkan Empire since the Protectorate Wars.^[1]

Because Rendorlin is so large, it is conventionally divided into regions rather than treated as one place. Its coasts are densely settled and well mapped, but much of its interior, especially in the far south and the high central plateaus, remains thinly populated and poorly documented; the political map of the continent is still being filled in.^[2]

Rendorlin spans every climate zone of the planet, from polar ice in the far north and south to equatorial rainforest and the dry belts on either side of it. Its outline is deeply indented by seas and gulfs, which give it an exceptionally long coastline; the largest cities, among them Capitol Bay, grew up on natural harbours along these coasts.^[1] The continent's interior is dominated by high plateaus and mountain chains whose full extent has never been surveyed in detail.

Geographers usually divide Rendorlin into a northern region of temperate coasts and forests, home to most of its old states; an equatorial belt of rainforest and river basins; and a southern region of steppe, desert and ice. The north-eastern coast, facing Ulmarka across the northern ocean, has been the scene of the continent's most recent wars.

The earliest states of Rendorlin arose on its northern coasts and river valleys. Over the following centuries the continent was divided among many kingdoms, republics and empires, few of which ever controlled more than a fraction of it. In the 21st century the most significant events in its history have come from outside: the Ulmarkan Empire's seizure of part of its north-eastern coast in the Protectorate Wars of 2035–2041, and the 2049 Sylvaris Transit Corridor Bombing, the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the Cohesive Global Concord.^[3]

Most of the continent's sovereign states are members of the Cohesive Global Concord and of the Unified Orylian Pact, which together dominate its politics. The Ulmarkan-held coast is the only part of Rendorlin under the rule of a state based elsewhere, and its status is not recognised by the Concord.

Large areas of Rendorlin's interior are known only from aerial and satellite survey, and new articles on its regions, peoples and states continue to be written. Cartographers of the Orylia Meteorological Service and the national surveys of the coastal states have described the continent as "the largest blank on any map of a settled world".^[2]

• Orylia
• Ulmarka
• Protectorate Wars
• Cohesive Global Concord