Lake Solace

Lake Solace is a large lake situated at the top of a mountainous bowl that sits between the lands of Trandafira, the Rucinaranye Principalities, and the Forest of Graves and Grim Borderlands. It is the source of the Kesmili River via the Mitraq Cascades on its northern banks.

The water of the lake is clear and shallow around the banks stretching out into the center through select, wide pathways while the areas around those are very deep and deceptive. The waters remain comfortably warm due to their exposure to the sun, while the rains from the south that feed the lake are chilling by comparison. The lake is filled with a number of water-based flowers, trees, and other plantlife. Colorful fish and other aquatic and amphibian creatures live here as well.

The people who live in Lake Solace build their houses on stilts just above water level with a select number of buildings built to allow the water to cover the floors. Because of the temperate weather and comfortable waters, some of people prefer to sleep outside rather than in their homes. The people live simple lives, some leaving to trade with surrounding towns and cities, but most content to live in the lake and are untrusting of outsiders. Those who pass through Lake Solace are usually smaller groups on foot, and occasionally a merchant caravan, but the help of the natives is needed for almost anyone to make their way through the lake due to the water's deceiving those unfamiliar with them to walk into one of the deep pits avoided by the natives.

Localized Phenomena

The number of fey creatures, though small in size, is something of note for scholars. It is a wonder whether Solace has some connection to the realm of Faerie, some significance to the fey, or if it is simply a place they enjoy.
The most unique phenomena of the region is the perceived ability for the lake's shallow grounds to shift almost imperceptibly, catching wayward travelers who are unfamiliar with the region off guard to fall in to one of the deep, dark pits. These phenomena reinforce the local belief that some other force is causing the routes through the lake to subtly switch in order to trick people into falling into the pits. (It should be noted that while the locals are used to moving through the waters with ease, because it is so frowned upon to go towards the pits, there are relatively few who know how to swim well in deep water).

Climate

Lake Solace has a tropical climate with warm waters heated by their exposure to the sun that shines most days. When storms come to the lake - often from the south or southeast - the weather turns cold as the chilling rain pours down and cools the lake, causing mist and steam to rise on those days.

Fauna & Flora

Fauna

Creatures that inhabit Lake Solace include colorful fish, amphibians (frogs, salamanders, etc.), water birds (herons, ducks, egrets, and spoonbills), crabs, small birds that populate the groupings of trees that grow on islands, and various other animals drawn to the warm waters. More supernatural inhabitants include various fairies - often disguised as fish or dancing motes of light -, small elemental spirits, water-based fey, tropical pseudodragons, the occasional wandering treant, and small groups of kuo-toa.
More and varied creatures inhabit the mountains and cliffs that surround the lake, such as harpies. Some rumors have even brought adventuring types to this region in search for secluded, hidden dragons' lairs.

Flora

The flora of the lake comes in many forms of water-dependent plantlife, water grasses, flowers, and trees. The clear waters showcase the patches of multicolored seaweed-like grasses and plants that grow under the surface of the two to three feet deep lake. Flora sometimes is seen to glow from the deepest parts of the lake where the normally shallow waters give way to abyss deep pits, but the locals believe they are a trick of the light placed there by a trickster god to cause people to swim down and freeze to death from the cold or lose themselves in the dark.

People

The people who live in Lake Solace are spread out between several small settlements with loose hierarchies a piece. The people there are known commonly as "Solacers" and live simple lives in homes built up from the shallows of the lake and on the islands that form in various places. They are often judged for being simple, naive, and superstitious. They are also, the only ones who are familiar enough with the lake to lead people through the deceptive waters, as one could pass from one side to the other where some less-used paths up the mountain sides exist.

Beliefs

Solacers have a number of superstitions they hold to, most revolving around the waters they live in, and because so few people travel through, very little is understood of the intricacies of their belief system.
They find it sacrilegious to wear foot coverings in the waters or head coverings in the sunlight as it is an attempt to block the life-giving waters and light from yourself.
They believe that one of their spirits or gods attempts to trick them into falling in the pits, dragging them down when they fall in. They also believe that this creature, whatever it is, may take the form of people in order to lead them down a wrong path, yet they worship them in hopes that they can appease them.
They have shrines to the spirits/gods they worship built with the floors able to be covered in water during most of the year outside of the dry season.

Type

Crater / Crater Lake / Caldera