The Inner World of Skartaris

In the savage world of Skartaris, life is a constant struggle for survival. Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal sunlight, one simple law prevails: If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead.

 

First Appearance: Skartaris is a fictional Hollow Earth fantasy setting created by Mike Grell for the sword and sorcery comic book Warlord, published by DC Comics. Skartaris debuted in 1st Issue Special #8 (November 1975), where the character Travis Morgan, a US Air Force pilot, discovers a passage into this world through the Earth's North Pole. Subsequent to that first issue, the Warlord series tells of Morgan's adventures in Skartaris.

History: Skartaris is a land supposed to exist within the core of the Earth, and is the setting of the adventures of Warlord. Although it was originally believed that Skartaris existed within the Center of the Earth, Warlord would later discover that it actually exists within a separate dimension that is sometimes accessible from the rest of the world.

 

Geography: It is bowl-shaped, and their sun never sets, but is always in the middle of the sky. The properties of time are slightly skewed in Skartaris, due to its unique properties. Also... there are Dinosaurs. 

Colonization: Originally, Skartaris was colonized by the immensely advanced early Atlanteans, who constructed great architecture and technology throughout the land. However, after Atlantis suffered the Great Cataclysm, and the majority of civilization was wiped out in what was essentially a massive nuclear war. Radiation mutated many of the survivors into almost unrecognizable humanoids, such as the Lizardmen, and the Skartarians were forced to slowly rebuild things and rebuild their world on their own. Travis Morgan, the Warlord first encountered Skartaris when his plane was forced to crash over what he believed to be Yukon territory after an unsuccessful reconnaissance mission in Russia for the United States Air Force in 1969. Due to the strange rules of time in Skartaris, he first reappeared in the outside world as the Warlord in 1977, after what he believed to be only several weeks of adventuring.

Fun Fact: According to creator Mike Grell, Skartaris' name "comes from the mountain peak "Scartaris" that points the way to the passage to the earth’s core in Journey to the Center of the Earth." Grell also stated he never drawn a map of Skartaris. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, he said, "Anything that can happen in fantasy happens in the lore and it’s one of the reasons I always refused to draw a map of Skartaris. Year after year after year went by, and I was always hounded by the editors, 'When are you going to have a map?' The reason I refused was because once you draw a map, you establish boundaries. And why would you want to put boundaries on your imagination?"  

 

Dork Note: Well, someone must have eventually created a map, because it exists!