Kerrid

essences: oil, tar etc
A heavily-inhabited river/swamp/delta/estuary region in the southern Isthmus.
Impossible to unite due to the many crooked little streams leading to remote villages, the area is broken up into dozens of county-sized holdings, each based around one of the two industries of the area: extracting oil and other flammables from the ground, both for sale as fuel and for refining into oil-shell, or extracting tolls from the vast number of traders heading on to the Bindkelp Sea (via the Ozcan Wilds) or Sigmenod (thence Caracar ).
For matters of international defence, the various holdings will occasionally hold a concord to discuss raising a force, and each individual holding keeps a few Oil-knights on hand for matters of repelling non-state-funded piracy and extortion.
Cultural connection to Alzig and Rellig.
native professions:

• Lantern Knights - Sufferers of a leprosy-like affliction called Tar-creep, which slowly spreads an oozing black tar over their bodies, rendering them resilient to harm and able to move through the marsh unimpeded before inevitably killing them. Kept segregated from the rest of society, Most Tar-crept suffer out their existence in isolated villages of other infected. Lantern-knights, however, bind themselves into their armour and wear special lanterns that hold blue marshlight spirits to demarcate themselves. So flagged and confined, they are able to live amongst the common folk (if with a good amount of distrust) and earn a living as soldiers, swamp-divers, and other various tasks. They are the only heavily-armoured troops that can operate in the marsh, giving them a deadly edge. Other troops are also afraid to engage in hand-to-hand, for fear of infection, and the Knights have little fear of death. From it, the Knights can gain a sense of purpose, earn respect, and learn to cope with the pain of Tar-creep. As such, the various orders that train the Knights never struggle for recruits. The Knights are mercenaries, plain and simple, loyal to coin and contract and little else. It makes you start weeping oil and tar from lesions in your skin, which eventually cover your whole body and smother you. Also, they're called knights because they wear all-over armour, but it isn't always metal and they aren't always great combatants. They are able to wade through the swamp relatively unimpeded, and also, who wants to risk stabbing someone who might give you a disfiguring terminal illness. They wear lanterns that burn the oil they weep, which has a bluish light - Lets people know to keep a distance. Oh also, they're extra resilient to injury in a kinda zombie-like way - You can get boromir'd with arrows and still walk away, Plus dangerous beasts know to keep a wide berth. the oil is a transmission vector and it gets everywhere if they aren't well sealed, with a lantern wick to burn off the excess they produce.
• Other commonplace military units of Kerrid are boat-based raiders and flaming-fuel trebuchets.
• Oil-crackers – hedge-alchemists create Oil-shell, Hurr, and other oil derivatives.

Oil-shell

a term for a material that can occur naturally in Kerrid (in crude lumps or as part of animal shells), as well as being produced by oil-crackers. it can have a wide range of physical properties, colours, and so on. very useful in a variety of roles (see the list below), some of which are only recently being explored. despite being a centuries-old practice in Kerrid, it has only recently spread beyond, largely due to 2 things: a trend for oil-shell jewellery among the wealthy of Reld, and the various Hurr-producing oil-crackers in towns all around the reach.
uses for oil-shell:

• handles for tools
• jewellery - especially when it was a fancy new import
• bottles, jars, dishes and similar
• waterskins
• windows
• buttons, buckles and the like
• possibly wheels? certainly wheel-rims and axles
• shoes (either just soles or the whole thing)
• clothing, especially waterproof pieces
• pipes, drains etc
• armour and protective equipment
• nets and bags
• condoms?
• reusable food wraps
• small boats/coracles
• seals - for example, on lantern knight armour and on windows/doors
• material for sails
• paint
• coinage?
• lenses?

Geography

A huge low-lying maze of riverways, swamp, oil, tar, sand, rotten wood and stagnant pools, Kerrid drains the entire southern half of the Isthmus into the Nidari Reach, trailing tainted water miles out to sea (known as The Slick).
fires often break out in the more oil-filled regions of the swamp.

Individual Holdings:

• Shimmerbridge: a less prominent holding, it sits at the junction of a minor waterway and a large road (at least by Kerrid standards). It is notable for the foot-long (or occasionally larger) dragonflies that patrol the swamps nearby, and whose wings festoon the fancier buildings - thus giving the town its name. Desperate for more trade.

Fauna & Flora

• cormorants
• escaped Mosquito-wolves
• fire-breathing alligators
• paraffin-phoenixes
• oil-shell clams and winkles
• water-buffalo with flammable milk

Natural Resources

• oil
• tar
• natural gas
• paraffin
• bitumen
• Hurr - a gaseous drug that is produced naturally in some places and can be processed from other oils. typically only stable for a few hours/days, and so isn't widely traded, but is seen in some areas with Kerridan exclaves (e.g. Rhythonze).

Type

Estuary / River delta

Location under

Isthmus