Southern Floodlands
Water-filled lands populated by massive walled cities and legions of boats.
Only the truest of fools sees the very ocean swell and seek to destroy you, coming over your home and sweeping even you away, then decides to live there. To flee from it's cradle, the ocean must truly hate mortals or fear something much greater deep within the waters of Vhaskus.The Floodlands, lands that embody much of MerGus, the lost thoughts and Mirkfu, the press of eternity philosophies, and where their followers built grand walled cities to watch the efforts of growth within the landscapes be wiped away like waste in a gutter. The Orcs and creatures under the reign of Vhaskus building the cities with walls of immense size. Most stretching high into the sky to blot out the sun, large stone blocks stacked higher than 30 men and formed to fend off the summer floods. For this land is besieged as no other landscape beyond the Dragon's Thorn. The flimsy barriers at the north, those low-lying hills are not capable of fending off the wrath of The Knotted Snake. For as it begins its annual struggles to break free of the knot it’s been twisted into, the waves and tremors rise from the deep south. The floods as a swell of massive waves that race from the equator surging over each other to slam into the cliff-ridden southern shores of Ithungsida, the shores of the Southern Floodlands just aren’t tall enough and they have little to no natural protections. The waves, when they come in the middle of the summer, crash through landscapes like the Alma Bay, down passages into the continent like those that fill the Sea of Hearts and become as a slow swell of storm clouds. Seen in approach, but only in time to prepare, no time to flee. The waters rises the length of two heights of a man in minutes or hours depending on the intensity of the surge. The water can raise as high as 6 men, and sweep away everything, taking any lands not constrained by the toughest of roots inland. Sweeping away homes and lands until they hit the Forkmaw Range. On the most intense surges, the waters of the Dytikan Coast can even rise and flood farmlands. Due to the horrors of this nature, the majority of people live within the ancient walled cities that have been long claimed from the followers of Vhaskus. Scholars have analyzed many of the walls of the cities and found watermarks mere spans from the heights of the walls. They use these as proof that the floods were unimaginably worse in the distant past, truly cleansing the lands of everything and letting all land lay fallow for the weeks that the water drains away to whence it came. It’s even noted that this is likely a reason why civilization has been so nascent on the continent, all evidences of any before the reign of Vhaskus or the dubitable presence of the Yuan-ti in the Middling Jungles being completely wiped away by the vast floods. The rural citizens of the regions, those that live outside of the walled cities, have adapted to this. Building homes out of rafts and boats, becoming inherently flexible about where they live and those they live with and near. Any horrors that are of today, can always be washed away. Many choose to utilize the yearly floods to relocate every year, seeking out better areas and neighbors.
Geography
Much of the Floodlands are actually several feet under the sea level and are only protected from becoming a permanent part of the oceans by a number of breaks and hills that rise just enough to limit the flooding to during the limited flooding times. Due to the mass flooding, only a few species survive to continue living through the years. Several types of extremely resistant grass remain around and keep the soils from deteriorating to a massive degree and most of the forests in the floodlands are ancient towering willows that slowly grow through the years until they can stand above most floods.Flora and Fauna
Lizardfolk are almost only native to the Floodlands. However, Humans and most other species can be found to some degree in the region.Natural Resources
The Floodlands boast high quality seafood and construction, however, most natural resources of the region are too dangerous to set up permanent encampments to try to maintain a location. Many reports of flooded dwarven mines in the first hundred years or so after the Landing of the Fourth Fleet of Iwa have proven to be solid deterrents for other companies.
Alternative Name(s)
The lowlands, floodlands
Type
Wetland / Swamp
Location under
Included Locations
Included Organizations
Owning Organization
Related Ethnicities
Related Tradition (Primary)
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