For most of it's history, the remainder of the basin was hinterlands and there was little contact with the central parts of the basin. The central parts of the basin are more-or-less united in a single culture by the dawn of 4100ad. It is not the culture of the remainder of the planet, and it was not always united. At the dawn of 4100ad the hinterlands of the basin are still not united.
Almost everyone on this map speaks a language called Mythra today, but some use Nycoba, Megnish or one of the dozens of Enurate languages in day to day life. Sixty percent of the people on this map can speak enough 'Elvish' to conduct business at the present time. In early modern times it was not even six percent.
Each of the five lands on this map, the four deeps and the Midlands, has it's own history. The deeps were always Megnor lands. Since well before the Energy Age, the north deep was mainly one kingdom and a shifting array of buffer states. Hb'Nah was the seat of close to a thousand kings. By 5000bc. it was already the imperial city of the north deep. The Energy Age united the entire planet, this basin included, for a few hundred years, but once the fossil fuels ran out, Hb'Nah became the imperial city again and remained so for another three thousand years.
For almost all the years that empire existed, the great menace was the lowland Trolls on the far side of the great Toumda river. They could never stand up to the navies of the Megnors, but ages of piracy and raiding came and went for at least ten thousand years, back into prehistory. The Trolls pursued little high culture, though in some ages Gothax and it's predecessors were impressive cities. No Troll civilization of those times was able to last more than four or five hundred years. Other than the interruption by the Energy Age, the empire of Hb'Nah probably lasted twenty thousand years. Some of its ceremonial functions continue today.
The other deeps have distinct cultures, but no large political entities. The West Deep had magnificent civilizations as great as any in the North Deep, and the city of Delthassa is on a site that has been settled since pre-historic times. The chieftain culture was not as strong there, and Delthassa and it's predecessors were often ruled by religious orders. Some were quite enlightened. The dimorphism of the sexes is not quite as great in the Western Megnors and women had rights in most kingdoms of the west. In classical times the kingdom of Delthassa was one of the largest, but was smaller than Maine or Valeria. In contrast the empire of Hb'Nah was as large as France or Texas.
The southern Megnors never developed large cities and Dorlone did not become large until modern times. They had an agrarian culture with small scale business and industry. In their culture women had a very different role to play from men up until the cure for aging. The southern Megnors were the only ones to have significant battles with the Nycoba of the midland forests.
The Salt Megnors remained mainly nomadic herdsmen thru ancient times and were fiercely xenophobic until after the Energy Age. Today they still eat more meats than any other culture in the basin. They never built the grand cities and civilizations of the northern and western deeps, and many remained ephemeral for several generations after the remainder of the area had changed over. There are still no large cities in the area today, and their region is probably the one where an outsider will receive the least welcome in the lands of the Central Lumpral Basin.
The Nycoba Empire of the Troubled Times is the largest single political entity the basin has ever seen. It was technically ruled by kings, but it's real power was held by the 'god' LaunJu, who called himself God Manifest. There is strong evidence that this god was actually the wizard Brancettrabble, and he conned his way to godhood by preserving some technology from the Energy Age.
The Nycoba were never a militaristic or highly politicized people, living mainly in beautifully built tree houses and practicing a religion very much like modern Scientific Kortraxian. They had little specific agriculture, but maintained a highly guided hunter-gatherer economy in spite of their high culture and learning. There was often friction between Enurate and Nycoba peoples because of the Nycoba religion and sexuality.
The central part of the Lumpral basin has two main climate zones, the deeps and the midlands. The midlands climate is similar to many parts of the planet, the weekly variation in temperature is greater than the yearly, but the yearly is perceptible. Most precipitation falls during dark. In the higher altitudes, snow is possible.
The climate of the deeps is the most extreme on the planet. There is almost no variation in temperature thru the week or year. The sunlight is dimmer and redder than it is in thinner air. Part of the reason is the sun never gets very far above the horizon, most of the reason is the thick air. Most of the deeps are over six miles below sea level, the deepest are seven miles below sea level.
There is no standard time of the week or year for precipitation, and the humidity is such that it doesn't really have to rain. Everything that isn't growing is rotting. Aerial plankton causes a steady mist to fall even from cloudless skies, though it is difficult to tell whether the skies are cloudy or not. Agriculture is limited by the amount of sunlight. Plants are nearly black because most that can survive this climate have multiple photosynthetic pathways.
Large flying animals are common. Dactyls were a big problem in ancient times but they were largely eradicated before the Energy Age. The myurialah are vegetarians, but they weigh up to a thousand pounds and can wipe out a family's crops in one dark.
Many aspects of Megnor and Nycoba culture have spread thruout the planet. Megnor cuisine and dining habits are common in the Highlands and many other basins. The Nycoba were always the most promiscuous race on the planet, and had a sexual culture like the mainstream of today's Highlands in pre-historic times.
The Megnors and the Nycoba have produced the finest woodwork of any of Kassidor's people, though they differ widely in style. The Nycoba woodwork goes into large structures and has some echos of Dwarvish work in stone. The work of the Megnors is fantastically detailed. The only thing similar is some of the dynastic works from East Asia of Earth.
From the earliest times the Megnor were scholars. They used complex symbologies at a very early age and considered themselves much more learned and cultured than the Elves who conquered them in the Energy Age. In spite of their learning, they never actually discovered the scientific principal and thus never got far with technology.
The art that Megnors advanced the most was the art of live theater. There are many different branches to their theater, with one of the categories of differentiation being the amount of audience participation and ad-lib that is employed. In some the audience is presumed to have studied their part.
The Megnors put more study into the art of comedy than the Jews did on Earth. If you could speak Mythra or Megnish well enough to understand the double-entendres, you might get it. Those who know only Centish or Kassidorian will not. There is one well known commedian who immense crowds laugh at, who's delivery is as a statue issuing proclamations. When translated, they don't sound anywhere near as funny as the untranslated proclamations coming from Washington in the first quarter of the 21st century. But that comedian filled halls all over the Delthassa island chain in the Lazhan delta for centuries.
Singing in the fields has a deep tradition in the more populated central parts of the basin, and once the Nycoba picked up agriculture, they used more modern methods so their fields were smaller and the workers closer together. Most of the Nycoba folk songs were invented by their women as they worked in the fields over the last five thousand years. They were the only folk tradition in this basin to routinely use four part harmonies in minor keys. That talent translated as poorly into world wide record sales as did Russian heavy metal during the Yeltsin years. Nycoba girls still sing in the fields today, as well as they did then, and if you get on the right outcropping with the right mics, you never know what could happen. But then Russian heavy-metal bands are still available years closer on the tubes.
Nowhere in the Lumpral Basin is really a 'destination' on the world music scene. There is music enough so you won't miss it if you stay in the cities named in the central part of this basin. Outside this central basin you could get several weeks of difficult travel away from as big a musical happening as an old Yankee fife and drum muster on a village green.