Geography
The bodies of water marking the beginning of the Peninsula seem to be the Feshun Narrows and possibly the Gladepools on the western side, and Kirmont Bay on the eastern side. The gateway to the peninsula, bordering the Verdant Expanse, is the Mornset Countryside, which is marked by rivers and rolling hills.
The peninsula is sunny and often swelteringly hot. Much of the Rifenmist's lowlands are covered in thick jungles, partly bisected by the rocky Stormpoint Mountains. The Stormpoint range runs north to south, and is obscured by low clouds or fog nearly year-round. Hidden in the Rifenmist Jungle are the ruins of the Qoniira Tetrarchy and its last remaining city, Niirdal-Poc, which has been protectively sunk into a deep basin.
The Beynsfal Plateau, stretching around the southern reaches of the continent, is a cracked volcanic landscape of relentless heat and black basalt rising above the lush Rifenmist Jungle below, dotted by crude iron towers. It is home to the Iron Authority and the massive city of Tz'Arrm.
Before the Founding
Before the gods arrived in Exandria, a primordial titan seed was planted in this region; as of the late Age of Reclamation it remained unborn and slumbering, and its energy was responsible for the extraordinary overgrowth of the Rifenmist Jungle.
Qoniira Tetrarchy
The Qoniira Tetrarchy is ancient even to other ancient civilizations of Exandria; it was believed to have fallen years before the Calamity or when the Calamity hit. Its four remaining cities and ruins are hidden in the Rifenmist Jungle.
The Calamity
During the Calamity, Bane the Strife Emperor and his goblinkin armies battled repeatedly with the Wildmother and her Free Children. In battle, Bane took the form of an almost unimaginably large giant, clad from head to toe in pitted iron.
Devotees of the Strife Emperor maintained a fortress prison at Rybad-Kol until the closing days of the Calamity. The Strife Emperor was drawn into battle with not only the Wildmother but also apparently the Dawnfather and the Stormlord. The Prime Deities slaughtered the Strife Emperor's followers and tore down the walls of Rybad-Kol. The Strife Emperor was banished, but the site of his defeat was reduced to rock and ash, and plants will never grow there again. The Strife Emperor's armor remained and crashed to the ground; the highlands where the battle took place would come to be called the Beynsfal Plateau.
Some of the prisoners who survived headed north from the blasted, ashen battleground for sustenance. The Stormlord happened upon one party in desperate straits, bringing much-needed fresh water, and warned them that the gods would be leaving Exandria. One member of this party, Crokas, met with the Stormlord's favor, and received the Stormgirdle.
Post-Divergence
Following Bane's defeat, many of his goblinkin followers remained on Tal'Dorei, still under the Curse of Strife. The goblins scattered across the Rifenmist Peninsula and beyond. Several kingdoms of hobgoblins asserted their authority over the squabbling tribes, and around 722 PD the Iron Authority conquered the Beynsfal Plateau, then kept expanding over the next decade to control all the hobgoblin kingdoms of the region under Tz'Jarr, the Iron Emperor.
In the meantime, many people who preferred to flee rather than stand and fight against the tyranny of the Drassig dynasty during the Scattered War ended up in the distant, isolated Mornset Countryside.
In 792 or 793 PD, Thordak began to raid caravans and the autonomous villages of the Mornset Countryside, at the edge of the Tal'Dorei Council's influence. The people of the area asked the Council for armed assistance, describing a "nightmare of fire and malice," but Sovereign Odellan Tal'Dorei found the rumors too vague to justify the great expense of sending a regiment.
Around 794 or 795 PD, Thordak destroyed half of Byroden and killed a third of the population. By that time he had bent the Outerfolk of the Countryside to slavery and claimed dominion over the land. Emon finally sent its forces to do battle, but it was Allura Vysoren's adventuring party Mors Draconis and the Arcana Pansophical who were ultimately able to stop Thordak by sealing him in the Elemental Plane of Fire.
By 812 PD, Byroden had been rebuilt.
Exandria Unlimited Prime
In late 842 PD, an adventuring party later known as the Crown Keepers arrived in Byroden, many southbound travelers' first stop on the Rifenmist Peninsula. Among these travelers was Opal, a native of Byroden. They traveled into the Rifenmist Jungle in search of the ruins of Qoniira and found their way to Niirdal-Poc, the last remaining city of the Qoniira Tetrarchy. From there they struck out to Niirdal-Sarqet, where they were attacked. One of their members, Opal, in hopes of protecting her sister, succumbed to the temptation to don the Circlet of Barbed Vision, cementing her role as the Spider Queen's champion.
Politics and religion
The patron deity of the Iron Authority is Bane, the Strife Emperor. Outside the Iron Authority, both Avandra, the Changebringer and Erathis, the Lawbearer have prominent followings on the Rifenmist Peninsula. Several other gods have minority followings on the peninsula: Melora, the Wildmother, Sehanine, the Moonweaver, Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent, and—established sometime between 812 and 836 PD — Asmodeus, Lord of the Hells.
Mornset Countryside
Emonian merchants would like to bring the Mornset peoples into the Republic of Tal'Dorei, but the Free Folk of the Mornset are ambivalent about wanting the Republic's protection and yet not wanting to open the door to being governed from afar. Orroyen elves who tire of that nomadic life sometimes move into Mornset settlements.
Orroyen tribes
The Orroyen and Syngornian elves have a close bond, so Syngorn's delegation on the Tal'Dorei Council helps to keep the Republic of Tal'Dorei from interfering with the Orroyen. Like the Mornset peoples, the Orroyen are torn between wanting the Republic's protection against the Iron Authority and worrying that inviting the Republic's military would be the first step toward being dominated by that government.
Qoniira Tetrarchy
Qoniira was founded by, among others, clerics of the Wildmother, druids, and arcanists. The civilization made little distinction between Prime Deities and Betrayer Gods, other than that the former were invoked for blessings and the latter for curses, and the Tetrarchy effectively removed itself from the world rather than take part in the Calamity.
What remains of the Qoniira Tetrarchy after the fall of its satellite cities has been isolationist from the Calamity to at least 843 PD.
Economy
In 812 PD, the peninsula was largely autarkic, neither importing nor exporting in significant quantities. But by 836 PD, the peninsula as a whole was both an active exporter and importer of spell components. It also exported produce and rare metals. In turn, the peninsula imported arms and armor as well as stone and masonry.
