VENMIRE
LOCATION: South-western Daystar
LANDFORMS: Glacial valley - large, humid basins interspersed among hills, many rivers and streams
CLIMATE: Sub-equatorial wetlands and rainforests, tropical-continental
NOTABLE RESOURCES: Low but extant amounts of iron, abundant meteorite sites, medium and highly fertile soil
PEOPLE: the Vanguard, a catch-all term - pioneers and refugees from all four Tribes, dispersed across Waystone, Ora'Katar, Kryptid, Stiltwater and Caelovicus; the Conclave, Dunerider merchants and intermediaries in commerce
INFRASTRUCTURE: the Over-Under Highway, the Hillsroad, the Kator Route; ferries and cart routes between Waystone, Ora'Katar and Stiltwater
PLACES OF NOTE: [WIP]
INSERT MAP
LANDFORMS: Glacial valley - large, humid basins interspersed among hills, many rivers and streams
CLIMATE: Sub-equatorial wetlands and rainforests, tropical-continental
NOTABLE RESOURCES: Low but extant amounts of iron, abundant meteorite sites, medium and highly fertile soil
PEOPLE: the Vanguard, a catch-all term - pioneers and refugees from all four Tribes, dispersed across Waystone, Ora'Katar, Kryptid, Stiltwater and Caelovicus; the Conclave, Dunerider merchants and intermediaries in commerce
INFRASTRUCTURE: the Over-Under Highway, the Hillsroad, the Kator Route; ferries and cart routes between Waystone, Ora'Katar and Stiltwater
PLACES OF NOTE: [WIP]
INSERT MAP
Venmire is many things. A paradaisical garden, abundant in fruit and fish, where no mortal with enough wit about them could ever go hungry, and a place of refuge from Mesana's harsh nature, even if it wasn't quite as ravaged by the raging storms as it is. A green hell, of countless swamplions and lizards, plants that let one see the Gods or go right ahead and join them, and, perhaps worst of all, bloodsucking, deafeningly-buzzing insects rarely seen outside of it. Though the perspectives vary, the undeniable truth remains - to those that chose it as their new home, there is little else to go back to now, and many among them have already chosen to safeguard this greener pasture to the best of their ability. These Vanguard, by rules of nature, have oft been the fittest for their survival there, though this scantily means one thing. From the driven merchantmen and women of Ora'Katar, to the gently ambitious farmers and fisherfolk of Stiltwater, and even upon the Hills-with-Eyes, there have been a hundred ways to persist, and a hundred stories to tell, from a hundred souls huddled together around the hearth of simple huts and glamorous dwellings. And, there here is much to be found to the keen-eyed, for, though extinct in Mesana, and though poor in quality, ferrous minerals remain untouched by the ravages of the first Cataclysm, whether in the form descended from the skies above, or nestled in its watery hillocks. As the world starves around it, Venmire is slowly growing in importance, though the consequences of this attention, wanted or not, are yet to truly find their way to the scattered settlements.
As history goes, though there is little doubt the Ancient Domain was keenly aware of its existence, the mountain spines that seem to shelter this secluded land are difficult to navigate, and the coastline harsher still, its wilderness shrugging off most attempts at creating a lasting framework of roads and waystations that would allow for a more direct attempt at settlement by Daystar's cultures. Strangest of all, in Riverfolk tradition, Venmire is believed to have been colonized by part of the same flock of pilgrims that arrived at the river delta of modern day Serkara, perhaps even before the larger part of their populations settled in Mesana, and there is plenty proof of that - though mostly reclaimed by nature, there are many sites, such as Stiltwater itself, that have seen human habitation, and plenty more ruins of riverine craftsmanship all across the region's breadth. And though their hearthfire-tales give no indicator as to the reason for either abandonment of these spaces, or extinction of its denizens, it is rather clear that none had ever found their way to Mesana proper; to every onlooker and every curious ear, Venmire is a mysterious, yet blessed novelty. It is on the grounds of this myth, that, during the upheaval of the Age of Shifting Sands, many hundreds of men, women and children from stows most affected by it, took the word of its purported re-discoverer, Rym, as fact. Myth or fact, their numbers dwindled much in the trek there. And they were not alone in this experience.
Antithetical though it sounds, yet morbidly comedic in the turn of history's wheels, Duneriders have explored as far as the entrepot of Tuyash and Vatuana in their past conquests, the very same, valuable hub of arrival that had now become Waystone - yet found little use of the fertile paradise, until many decades later, the baleful months of dust descended upon the Riverfolk - and the threat of famine pushed many, opportunists, volunteers and neer-do-wells alike, to follow the wave of refugees back there. And though their names, or that of the initiative, Tuffyadd Akk-Kelan, or All-Clan Expedition, live in infamy among both Mesana's and Venmire's persisting Dunerider kels (and the Undergrounder crews that knew of the ones that followed), they had at the very least succeeded in charting the course, and starting the drumming heart of commerce at a cliffside neighboring the ore-rich crater of north-eastern Venmire. Though some whisper of insidious forces within the walls of the Palace of Four Winds, most lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of one, heartbroken venture-trader. But where one chance at preserving the societal order of Mesana failed, other rise, and in recent years, the Clan Hyaena has established a strong presence within Waystone, on the back of Dunerider tahynai, riverine trade, and professional footmen.
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