Tramuntana (Landmass)

Tramuntana is one of the seven continents of Utopia. The northernmost landmass in Utopia, the continent covers vast swathes of largely barren ice sheets devoid of human settlement – although some wild animals still make the land their home. Being the closest continent to either pole, Tramuntana experiences the most extreme temperatures of any continent. Consequently the whole landmass often freezes over for much of the year and is home to significantly less vegetation than other continents – mostly accounted for by mosses, only two flowering plant species are native to Tramuntana. The glacial climate, general inhospitality, and distance from human settlement meant that the continent has largely avoided human settlement for all of history, currently only being home to a few dozen Svalbardian researchers on the island of Nwevo Øts Neuf. Tramuntana has likely been known to Utopians for around a thousand years – human settlements in northern Grenopia and Khacat Tur would have inevitably set sight on the northern continent inadvertently in the area known as the Arctic Bluff, where Tramuntana is closest to Wasari. The first humans to set foot on the continent would come centuries later however; the rough waters and treacherous terrain proved too much to overcome with the technology at hand until the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After this point, explorers from northerly nations such as the Nordic Democratic Republic, Jadefall, Svalbard, and aforementioned Grenopia would begin to map out the continent. Attempts were made intermittently after this to reach the north pole as a matter of national pride, the first of which that was successful was conducted by a Norræna team in 1887. Yet after this activity on the continent died down – the initial hope had been that the land could hold unclaimed resources for exploitation in the fight against Kkhano, yet nothing was found that could be easily extracted with the resources at the time and without any population base. Consequently no attempts were made to establish colonies or outposts on the continent save for the Svalbardian scientific research base north of Jadefall: whilst it may be possible to extract value from the continent today, geopolitical and extraterrestrial events have led to most of the landmass being inaccessible due to biological hazards.