Among the well-traveled, the Elphand Lands (also called Elephas) are a remote and inhospitable place, where only the faintest traces of civilization’s touch remain. These lands feature an abundance of cavemen, monstrous beasts, and forests thick and wild. The winters are harsh and long, the springtime rains intense, and the people equally stern and intense.

The southern edges of this land pay some allegiance to Viridistan, and some settlements give a nod to the City State of the Roglaras. On a great lake deep in the wilds of Elephas sits the faded city of Damkina with its fabled market.

Cavemen are the most commonly-encountered inhabitants, though elves – particularly wood, wild, and blue – hold sway over large swaths of territory. Around Damkina travelers encounter more Ghinoran and Orichalan folk.

Characters with Knowledge (region) ranks for adjoining map areas are familiar with all the information presented below. Those specifically familiar with the Elphand Lands know all this and more.

from The World of the Wilderlands:

The Elephas is wilderness, with little worthy of the name “civilization,” save for a few sputtering sparks, either savages rising beyond their station or civilization ancient and decadent and long in decay. The Vast Irminsul, a forest of trees of gigantic proportions, dominates the southeast; home to the Aelphen tribes, wild men once ruled by elves long ago, today forest savages worthy of their distant Tharbrian cousins who rule the Plain of Lethe to the southwest. The Sidhe Hills were the last hold of the Aelvoress elves, once masters of the Aelphen and keepers of ancient secrets; today it is haunted by banshees, with the nearby Folkvangir Forest home to more Aelphen tribes.

The Greatflood Vales, so named for the vast, earth-shattering flood that formed them when first the Great Glacier cracked and retreated thousands of years ago, are home to diverse barbaric tribes and villages, a mix of Aelphen, Tharbrian, and Valonar with influence from various exiled peoples of far-off lands. To the northwest, past the great Guarding Range, is the Land of Beasts, where Cavemen, Tharbrians, and Amazons vie with saber-toothed beasts, mammoths, and dinosaurs. To the east, the Forbidden Forest, where even the fearless Valonar dare not tread…

from the Wilderlands DMG

The northwestern region of the Wilderlands, known as the Elphand Lands, is divided by three rivers, three large lakes as well as mountain ranges and steep hills. What remain are dense woodlands (dominated by the expansive Irminsul Forest), bogs and the rare grassland here and there. Transportation of goods, or even communications and simple travel are both extraordinarily hazardous and time-consuming, leading to tendencies of isolationism and self reliance in settlements. There is little civilization here.

Most of the human population, aside from the villages, consists of elphan cavemen. There are also bands and communities of the northern human confeds, a race of obese hunter-gatherers scattered about the region. Located off of the map proper and to the west and south of the Land of Beasts lies the land of Demi-Giants, who raid into the Elphand Lands (and beyond) on occasion.

The only significant settled population center of the region is the city of Damkina on an island within the Vast Lake, where rules the Lord of the White Throne — a remnant of an ancient empire who is sometimes referred to as “The White Overlord,” although this title is almost meaningless. The forests and plains contain mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and other great beasts. Amazon warriors can sometimes be seen here with their tiger companions.

The Elphand Lands are claimed as tributaries by the Emperor of Viridistan, and the southern section, known as the Eleph Territories (depicted on the Viridistan map), consists of elphan villages that are allied to Viridistan. The elphan cavemen, whose culture is mostly still in the stone age, train and ride their great mastodons in combat.

The Elphand Lands are known for the harshness of their winters and the heavy soaking rains of spring. They tend to be quite cold and inhospitable in the north, growing more temperate and drier in the south. It is not unusual for grass to grow six feet high in some low areas, where heavy spring rains sometimes cause extensive flooding. Elphan tribesmen are common in these areas, for the hunting is good here and resources are plentiful.