General

Region: Malatra

Category: City (+1500)

Description

The Malatran Plateau is a vast mountainous landform rising thousands of feet above the jungles of Malatra, in the heart of southern Kara-Tur. Shaped by alien sorcery in a forgotten age, it remains one of the most enigmatic and isolated regions of the world.

Geography

Like much of Malatra, the Malatran Plateau is cloaked in dense, humid jungle. However, its northwestern and northeastern reaches open into broad, sparsely forested plains where the jungle canopy thins and the land rolls beneath a blazing sun. From these highlands, waterfalls tumble into the mists far below, marking the edge of the plateau’s immense rise.

History

The first inhabitants of the land that would become the plateau were the bamboo and river spirit folk, ancient beings who would later give rise to the race known as the tam’hi.

Long before the Time of Troubles, and even before **Abeir-Toril ** was divided, a faction of a humanoid race called the ancient Nubari arrived from another crystal sphere aboard spelljamming vessels. Fleeing a devastating war, they sought refuge in Malatra’s jungles — a region dismissed as inhospitable by its native peoples. Using their formidable arcane arts, the Nubari raised the ground itself, lifting their new homeland high above the jungle canopy to form the Malatran Plateau.

Unintentionally, this act caused the collapse of underground homes belonging to nearby korobokuru, forcing those peoples to the surface.

The Age of the Ancient Nubari

The Nubari vowed never to repeat the mistakes that destroyed their old world. They swore to live without war and to avoid interference in the natural growth of other species. The spirit folk chose seclusion over confrontation, and the timid shu likewise withdrew, leaving the Nubari to pursue their dream of a peaceful utopia.

They built a network of vast magical domes across the plateau, weaving permanent enchantments of hallucinatory terrain and antipathy into the very fabric of the land. These wards rendered the plateau invisible and unapproachable from below, ensuring their civilization remained hidden from the rest of Malatra.

When the predatory garuda began decimating the plateau’s gorilla population, the Nubari took pity on the beasts, gifting them intelligence, speech, and the use of tools. These transformed beings became known as the saru, who later served the Nubari as laborers and companions after the garuda’s banishment.

Eventually, a great calamity — the details of which are lost to time — brought about the downfall of the Nubari civilization. Their cities fell, their knowledge vanished, and their survivors scattered across the wild jungles and plains. Legends among the Simbara people claim their destruction came at the hands of an ancient enemy who had finally found them.

The Age of Rediscovery

Centuries later, new peoples ascended to the plateau. With the decline of the great carnivorous dinosaurs that once stalked the surrounding jungles, native humans, katanga, and korobokuru managed to overcome the Nubari enchantments and establish themselves upon the plateau. These humans were kin to the ancestors of the Shou, and over millennia they intermingled with the remaining Nubari, giving rise to the modern Nubari.

In later ages, a group of scro fleeing the endless war with the Elven Imperial Fleet arrived by spelljammer, settling among the highlands. Over generations, they evolved into a distinct race known as the oscray.

Inhabitants

The plateau’s intelligent races include the Nubari, katanga, korobokuru, saru, shu, tam’hi, and oscray.
The Nubari, korobokuru, and shu live in loosely allied tribal networks, while the saru often dwell near Nubari villages, imitating their customs without forming tribes of their own. The tam’hi organize in extended family clans rather than larger tribes.

Nubari society is built around kinship and alliance. Each tribe governs several villages tied by blood and history, though wars between them are rare. Most Nubari consider all humans and demihumans to be “people,” and it is not uncommon for outcasts of other races — even katanga or saru — to find refuge among larger tribes.

The wilds beyond civilization teem with danger. Hostile or monstrous races — bullywugs, lizardfolk, mold men, freshwater sahuagin, tabaxi, tasloi, wemics, and yuan-ti — prowl the edges of Nubari lands, raiding or preying upon isolated villages.

Notable Features

Fire Mountain
The southernmost peak of the plateau’s central range is an active volcano known as Fire Mountain. Many tribes revere it as sacred, believing it to be the dwelling of divine or ancestral spirits.

Rayana Savanna
One of the plateau’s two great plains — a sweeping sea of tall grass, dotted with watering holes and herds of elephants, gazelles, lions, and zebras. Nubari plainsfolk farm along its jungle borders, and the aarakocra maintain lowland villages in its heart.

Valley of Spirits
At the base of the River of Laughing Idols, this mist-choked valley widens between the cliffs of the Himsala Mountains. It is shunned as a taboo place — haunted by alien screams and otherworldly lights. Those few who return from the valley never speak of what they saw.

Yaku Plains (Plains of Ash)
Once a fertile savanna, the Yaku Plains were transformed by an unknown cataclysm into a wasteland of gray ash and scorched trees. No vegetation grows here, and the land is regarded as cursed. Among the Nubari, shamans bring their apprentices here to learn the lesson of hubris and the folly of mortals.

NPCs