The Central Plains stretched over vast expanses of Balebu and were often seen as characteristic of the place.

Elements

Central Plains. Central Balebu featured a landscape of rolling plains and high grass. Occasional snaking rivers, seasonal mires, and small copses of brubber trees were peppered across the low hills. The soil was rich in nutrients and supported juicy grass.

Brubber trees. Brubber was a singular tree with a thick-leafed crown and bare stumpy trunk. Thick veins of sap ran just beneath a thin but tough layer of bark. They relied on badeep for pollinization; their pollen and buds were on the inside layer of their bark.

Badeep. These large bovine animals had a tough physique and could charge at high speeds over short distances, making them invulnerable in direct confrontation. They used their tusks to scrape off brubber bark and drink its rich sap.

Sheep. These smaller mammals migrated across the plains in herds, browsing the grass. They were relatively vulnerable to predators.

Stripounce. These large feathered predators, distant Oshmondian relatives of owlbears, relied on their camouflaging patterns and texture to hide in the tall grass and take their prey by surprise. They hunted primarily sheep but had special retractable canines adapted to hunting the larger badeep.

Tall grass. The wide central plains were overgrown with these hip-tall blades of grass. They fertilized buzlings transferring pollen between stalks. Those stalks shattered in autumn to preserve seeds in the soil until next spring.

Scraelings / Buzlings. These insects proliferated in the central plains' grasses, eating some of the seeds and stalks. Scraelings formed thick clumps that ate the entire grass, while the flying buzlings ate seeds. They needed brubber tree copses for protection when it rained.

Pittbirds. These small birds nested on badeeps' wide and safe backs. They relied on the bovines to walk slowly and smoothly so they didn't lose their eggs. They flew in a radius around their hosts, eating mainly buzlings and also some scraelings.

Flunbirds. These terrestrial birds nested both hidden in the tall grass and in brubber tree crowns. Most could fly. They either hunted buzlings or land or ate the rich scraeling colonies.

Prey birds. Larger predator birds nested in the uppermost reaches of brubber trees. They patrolled the skies, hunting primarily smaller flying birds. They could also take eggs and birds on the ground. Some larger specimens, such as crowned eagles, could even take unprotected lambs.

Exploitation

Orcish Badeep Herding. Many orcish cattler tribes lived on the plains. They used judeep, a waste product of badeep, as well as their milk and meat for sustenance. They rode with badeep herds from brubber copse to brubber copse. This led to a decrease in flunbird populations.

Goblinoid Farming. Numerous goblinoid tribes, mainly goblins and some hobgoblins, lived off the land. They planted crops instead of the native grasses and ate these. Their crops had to be imported from other places or was directly domesticated from the grass, in the case of grainplant. Some tribes also herded sheep.

Human Farming. In contrast to goblinoid farms, human farms were much more extensive and not solely restricted to bodies of water. Humans built large-scale irrigation systems, planted on steep hills with terracing, and removed the entire native flora over large expanses.

Brubber Exploitation. Settled humanoids used brubber trees for various things. They pulled off the bark for clothing and as a writing surface, which meant the trees were fragile to weather and couldn't pollinize through badeeps. Societies restricted to the plains felled brubber trees for wood, both for building and for heating. They also used tools to extract brubber sap for eating and illumination in much greater amounts than badeep did, killing the trees.

Damage

Stripounce Hunting. Stripounces were the only predators in the plains that could pose a danger to humanoids and their cattle. Especially migrating orcish badeeps and huge human sheep herds were threatened by this. Accordingly, most humanoid exploiters hunted down the animals both for resources and to protect their herds. The lack of predators led to a considerable rise in sheep numbers, who browsed vast expanses of grass and caused extinctions of scraelings and buzlings, leading to a decline in bird numbers as well.

Brubber Exploitation. The humanoid overexploitation of brubber trees led to a decline in tree numbers and often to the disappearance of copses over vast expanses. The immediate effect was a disappearance of badeep herds, which removed an important fallback source of food. Both pittbirds and flunbirds also disappeared in that area, leading to the disappearance of prey birds and a drastic increase in scraeling and buzling populations. Many patches of bare ground appeared where the insects had eaten all the grass.

Brubber Planting. Some humanoid societies planted brubber copses to feed their badeep cattle more effectively. This reduced the need for migration. However, the increase in trees and badeep favored bird populations, which devastated insect populations. Grasses could were no longer pollinated and died out, leading to a disappearance of sheep as well. Stripounce grew more agressive both because there were more badeep around and because there were no longer any other prey.