The Rookery, The Barrier Mountains (The Roo-Kar-ee)

The Rookery is simply what most residents of Venus refer to it as, a linguistic assimilation of the cha'ari term “Rohkaa’ri”, roughly translating to “Home of the People”. This name comes from the origins of the cha'ari people, which are said to hail from the various peaks and mountains of this mountain range. In a sense, the boundaries of The Rookery are hard to define because there are no city walls or political boundaries. Instead, The Rookery comprises the whole of the Barrier Mountain range, with dense population centers every hundred miles or so.
In the time before the planet was tidally locked, the Barrier Mountains served as a shield between the storms of the brutal seas and the small settlements on the other side, allowing for a somewhat peaceful existence. However, once the planet changed, so did the mountains. The seas withdrew and with it, its bounty of food. The villages were unable to live in the shadow of the mountains which now became frozen and teemed with what were once nocturnal predators. It was primarily in the mountains themselves that life would continue, albeit with more difficulty.
The Rookery comprises several dozen small villages and nesting grounds that dot the peaks and cliff sides of the mountains. While there are a good number that can be reached through carved and worn paths in and out of the mountains, the majority of the various settlements throughout The Rookery are largely inaccessible through any means except for flight, meaning that they are largely isolated from the outside world.
The mountains stretch several hundred miles and as such encompasses several different biomes, even before the tidal locking. From deserts to tundras, from jungles to savannah and all in between. There are even a few scant places where the sea still meets at the Barrier Mountains. All of this diversity has led to the Rookery having one of the most diverse ecosystems and cultures in all of Venus.
One feature that The Rookery has that many other land masses don’t is that parts of it actually extend across the sunlight barrier of the planet. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that some residents of The Rookery find themselves in perpetual darkness, it does just further show the breadth of this region.

---

Inhabitants
Though in the days of yore, the mountains that The Rookery finds itself in were teaming with small villages in the various nooks and crannies of range, nowadays the only society you will find will be high in the air amongst the peaks. The cha'ari may not always live in The Rookery, for they may fly elsewhere and only return a few times a year, but almost every cha'ari is born in The Rookery. With this binding them all together, all cha'ari share a culture unlike anything else on the planet.
The individual villages of The Rookery dot the entire mountain range, leading to a great diversity amongst its residents in terms of both lifestyle and appearance. Despite being of the same species, depending on where they were born in The Rookery, they can take on a vastly different appearance than had they been born elsewhere. Those born in the snow and dark will typically exhibit features similar to that of the owl, which the cha'ari hailing from the more temperate regions of The Rookery will have colorful plumage. The diversity grows even greater from here, with beak shape, eye positioning and even size varying wildly amongst their people.
Villages can vary in size from location to location. Even when a cha'ari is away from their home in The Rookery their home is maintained and kept by those who remain in the village. The expectation being that a cha'ari will spend their formative years in the village as well as their sunset years, with the bulk of their life spent elsewhere and only returning on occasion. Because of this unique structure of life in The Rookery, families will often live in the same home for generations, adding and changing over the decades. This leads to very close-knit communities as many families will have known each other for countless generations.
Though the smaller villages all have their place, on the rare occasion that all of the residents of the Rookery must be brought together, they would arrive in the largest village in the mountains. This meeting, called The Parliament, calls any cha'ari of adult age to discuss whatever matter has brought them there. Due to the nature of their society, issues are non-binding and every village and to a lesser extent every resident of The Rookery is allowed to self-govern, so the Parliament is only called to bring attention to the most serious of issues that will affect everyone living in The Rookery so they may be prepared for whatever it to come.
Though the vast majority of villages in the Rookery are populated entirely by cha'ari, due in large part to their remoteness, it is not completely unheard of for a member of another race to end up residing in a Rookery nest. Wandering vrii or adventurous humans will make the occasional appearance, but when they decide to take up residence, it is a unique circumstance. Often times they’ll remain sedentary in their village for the rest of their life, making them a constant in the village with new cha'ari being born, leaving, and returning home to roost every passing year.

Type

National Territory

Included Locations

• Byrd's Passage
• Stone's Throw

Character Knowledge

• Characters just now arriving on Venus - The mountains in which The Rookery reside are massive and can be seen from miles and miles away. You can’t see how anyone could possibly climb those mountains and while you’re sure it's safe, you don’t envy those that live there.

• Characters not from Venus, who have spent some time there - The Rookery reminds you of a collection of small city-states rather than a proper settlement. You’re not sure how they keep things running, but it seems like they’ve got it working so more power to them.

• Characters from Venus - You’ve probably never been to The Rookery and never will, but from what you can tell its a pretty alright life, if a little uneventful. Sure there's game and the occasional attack, but it's mostly just isolated.

• Characters from Venus who are from The Rookery - You grew up here, maybe have run into a few “cloud people” and most definitely have your own experience of The Hunt. You’re just hoping a Parliament doesn’t get called, as whatever is important enough for that is never good news.