Shinovar

Shinovar is a unique kingdom in the far west of Roshar, the only region on the continent that resembles the ecology of an ordinary world. Sheltered behind the great mountain range called the Misted Mountains, Shinovar is spared the direct fury of the highstorms, and as a result it is a land of soft soil, ordinary grass, trees, and animals with internal skeletons of bone -- creatures regarded as strange or unclean elsewhere on Roshar.

Geography

Shinovar lies on the western edge of the supercontinent, protected by mountains that break the highstorms before they reach the valley. Where the rest of Roshar is scoured to bare rock, Shinovar has true topsoil, allowing crops and grasslands of a kind found nowhere else on the planet. Its sheltered position makes it ecologically alien to the rest of the world.

Society

Shinovar is home to the Shin people, who are regarded by other Rosharans as gentle and peculiar. The Shin hold stone to be sacred and refuse to walk upon it where they can avoid it, considering soil the proper place for human feet -- a reversal of the attitudes of eastern peoples. Their society is organized into castes, and warriors hold a notably low status among them. The Shin keep Honorblades as objects of profound religious significance.

Significance

The Honorblades of the Heralds are kept in Shinovar, and the land holds deep ties to the ancient history of Roshar and the Oathpact. Shinovar's role in the broader conflict, and the secrets its people guard, prove far greater than its remote and pastoral reputation suggests.