Warm Chorus
In the vast delta wetlands known as the Dhala live the ulan belonging to the commune of Warm Chorus. The commune is located near the estuary where the waters of the Sampa finally meet the Gulf of Nirasa.
Warm Chorus is unique among ulan communities in many ways. Most notable is that it is not led by an ama. Due to this, Warm Chorus has no young. Its population consists only of adults, most of which are those ulan called the Changed.
Though the Changed are physiologically well adapted to the rigors of living on dry land, they still prefer a wet environment. The marshes and bayous of the Dhala became the perfect home for the Changed, a place of rest and refuge for an otherwise nomadic lifestyle, forever strangers in strange lands. Most of its population are transitory, visiting Warm Chorus as a place to relax and speak not only with other ulan, but other ulan that shared their same curiosity and unusual wanderlust and restlessness.
The few hundred that make up its permanent residents tend be older ulan who made the decision to retire into a more settled life. Some of these elders make up the loose governing body of the commune, making the decisions an ama would normally make and meeting with foreign diplomats and dignitaries of the various surface races. Visits by surface races are rare, since Warm Chorus has little interest in physical trade, no aspirations for expansion and is also generally too wet, hot and inhospitable a place for most surface dwellers.
Most of their interactions with the surface races are with the dhun from the interior forest sanctuaries of Barendar, with whom they share news, close friendships and some minor trading. Aside from other races, Warm Chorus is also in regular contact with the ulan of the Green-Purple Splendor commune in the Gulf of Nirasa, the place of birth for most of its residents as well as the Blue Warders who dwell in and protect the Dhala.
Most structures of Warm Chorus are grown from the roots of mangroves magically modified by the ancient biomantic arts of the ulan. The roots of the mangroves grow high from the ground and form a dense weave, leaving a large space within for dwelling. These dwellings are partially submerged. Branches are coaxed to grow within the dwelling to provide platforms and floors above the water for those activities for which water is inconvenient or impossible. The interiors are bathed in a soft green bioluminescent glow produced by lichen that grow exclusively within the dwellings.
Warm Chorus is so named from the experiences of its first visitors and founders, who were entranced by the warm evenings full of the buzzing, croaking, roaring sounds of life. Like their aquatic relations, the founding ulan of Warm Chorus endeavored to become one with that chorus, weaving their lives and voices within it.
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