The world of Spiritlands Online

The Five Lands

The old Tamil poets of the Sangam age gave every landscape its own flower, its own hour of the day and its own feeling. They called these landscapes tinai. The world of the game is made of all five.

Mountains

Hill Country

Mist on the peaks, tea on the terraces and honey in the rocks. The cool, high west of the land.

Feeling: Union
Hour: Midnight
Flower: The kurinji flower, which blooms once in twelve years

Forest and pasture

Woodland

Home ground. Jasmine on the evening air, cattle coming home and spirits stirring under the old trees.

Feeling: Patient waiting
Hour: Evening
Flower: Jasmine

River farmland

Farmland

Paddy fields, canals and loud market towns, where everyone has an opinion and nobody stays angry for long.

Feeling: Quarrels and sulking
Hour: Dawn
Flower: The arjuna tree

Seashore

Shoreland

Salt pans, pearl lagoons and fishing boats pulled up on the sand, and a sea that people watch at sunset.

Feeling: Longing
Hour: Sunset
Flower: Water lily

Dry land

Wasteland

Red dunes, thorn scrub and a burning noon. The old grammar says this isn't a land of its own: it is what the others become when they dry up.

Feeling: Separation
Hour: Noon
Flower: The paalai tree

The region map

Mountains down the west, forest across the north, the river winding through the farmland to the sea, the coast along the east and the dry red south. Open the map to see it full size.

Painted map of the Five Lands on old parchment: grey-green mountains in the west, dark forest in the north, a green river plain in the centre, a sandy coast and teal sea in the east, and red dunes in the south. — The painted map of the Five Lands.

Towns and cities

Ten towns, and every one should feel like itself even without its name on the screen: its own ground, buildings, music and people.

Jasmine Village

where the journey starts

Woodland · home

Shaded verandas, a three-hundred-year-old banyan, red laterite lanes and jasmine on the evening air. Everyone here knows your name.
Rivertown

the market town

Farmland

A loud, cheerful market town on the river, all bargaining, gossip, bus horns and bathing ghats. Home of the Silambam Arena.

Silambam Arena
Honey Hills

the misty hill town

Hill Country

A misty hill town that climbs in terraces, with tea gardens, rope bridges and honey gatherers on long ladders. Home of the Wind Cliff Arena.

Wind Cliff Arena
Pearl Shore

the fishing village

Shoreland

A fishing village on a lagoon: dawn fish auctions, nets drying in the wind and catamaran boats on white sand. Home of the Boathouse Arena.

Boathouse Arena
Harbour City

the big city by the sea

Shoreland

The biggest city in the land, where the river meets the sea: cranes, cinemas, kite sellers and a lighthouse on the point. Home of the Lighthouse Arena.

Lighthouse Arena
Memory Town

the foggy cliff town

Shoreland

A quiet, foggy town on the southern cliffs, where clay lamps float out on the water every evening.
Mansion Town

the old merchant town

Edge of the Wasteland

Grand old merchant mansions with long verandas and open courtyards, standing silent in the dust. One old hall has been reborn as the Light Circuit Arena, a gallery of light.

Light Circuit Arena
Hot Sands

the caravan stop

Wasteland

A caravan stop round a deep stone stepwell, ringed by palmyra palms, cloth awnings and red sand. Home of the Sun Kiln Arena.

Sun Kiln Arena
Temple City

the meeting city

Where all five lands meet

The oldest city, built in rings around a great temple, with mountains of jasmine in the flower market and the roads of all five lands running in. Home of the Shadow-Puppet Arena.

Shadow-Puppet Arena
Southcape

the cape of three seas

Shoreland and Wasteland

The southern tip of the land, where three seas meet and the sun both rises and sets over water. Home of the Three Seas Arena.

Three Seas Arena
Council of Five Hall

the hall of the Council of Five

All five lands

A five-sided open hall on the southern peak, one side for each land. The Council of Five waits here at the end of the road.