Glestonoph (Landmass)

Glestonoph is one of the seven continents of Utopia. It is the largest of the ‘small’ continents – including itself, Shanting, and the Obsidian Isles – and is entirely contained in the southern and eastern hemispheres. It has the third highest population of the continents, largely thanks to the Meridian Commonwealth which accounts for over 50% of the continental population1. Glestonoph’s geography is split into two broad regions: a warm area covering the north and large islands to the west, and a cold area covering most of the south. The two halves of the continent are this way for two main reasons: firstly, the northern half is exposed to warm winds blowing south from the Kontinentalinn and east from the Marlievon oceans respectively, whereas the south is subject to the northerly winds blowing from the Antarctic regions in the Great Southern ocean, leading to a disparity in temperatures between the regions. Secondly the mainland of the continent is broken up by various mountain ranges, most notably the Helzinki range in the north of the Thanedom, contributing to the large number of deserts in the north whereas the south is generally covered in more lush, forested terrain. The insurmountable distances between Glestonoph and the other continents of Utopia for much of history led to the continent’s civlisations developing without input from the outside world. Additionally, the scarcity of resources plentiful in other regions of the world such as domesticable animals meant that Glestonophian states were organised very differently to those in other parts of the world – people lived in more numerous, smaller settlements and states did not centralise nor were there many large urban centres. These decentralised societies did not fare well when foreign nations began to make contact with the continent in the Age of Discovery, quickly spreading diseases previously unseen; this led to colonial powers for a time being the dominant powers on the continent, establishing various overseas outposts and subjugating native people. With time however the native populations recovered and largely expelled foreign influence, leading to the Glestonoph of today: the Meridian Commonwealth was able to unify the north of the continent after leading the anti-colonial movements of the 18th century; the south meanwhile remains splintered across various states, with the largest and most powerful of them being Novoroyska.

• 1. Based on 2023 census data recorded in the world of Utopia document