Evoris

General introduction

The Evoris river is the second longest and most important river in the Confederation of Tarrabaenia. It flows directly through Tarrabaenias heartland and divides the Tarrabaenian Grassland from the eastern hills. It is a major river used for transportation and flows through and by Tarrabaenias capital Savína. Even though it is short in comparison to other rivers on Erana, it is a major factor in Tarrabaenian history, aiding the Tarrabaenians in their struggles first against their Duiniken overlords and then the aggressions of the Messellat Mdûlûn from the South.

Source, course and mouth

The Evoris' source is in the northern arch of the Sévo mountains. From there the river goes south, first in an eastward arching curve, only to turn west again on the height of the Aspria promontory. The Evoris then meets the Grey Sea on its nothernmost top, the Éstuba Bay.

The Evoris mainly flows through flat land and thus is a very peaceful and slowly flowing river. While it has no major tributaries except the Corber River that flow into the Evoris only a few miles before it enters the Éstuba Bay. All other tributaries come from the East. The are small, but numerous, so the lower two thirds of the river are navigable.

The waters of the Paunis are slighly muddy and rich in minerals. This makes its banks good areas for agriculture and also contributes to the fertility of the northern part of the Gray Sea, which is exceptionally rich in ocean life.

The Evoris in the past

The Evoris has a natural as well as a cultural history. While it is not particularly rich in sediments, its river bed changes every now and then, though very rarely. The last major shift occurred during the times when the Tarrabaenians arrived in this former Duiniken-settled land shortly after the beginning of the Era of the Earth. It was at this time the eastward curve of the Evoris developped, when the old riverbed was filled up with silt. These changes of the run of the river are dangerous to the people living around it. On the other hand the old riverbed left a stretch of very fertile land that is ideal for agriculture.

On the other hand, since the course of the river changed, the annual floods in spring have become much milder and more calculable. The Tarrabaenians have adapted well to the nature of the Evoris river and it has become a major point of identification for the Tarrabaenians. Interestingly, although old Duiniken writings are extant, even some mentioning the Evoris, which they called Gour Fhurouden, the mentionings of the river are short and rather unceremonious, hinting at a much lesser role of the river in Duiniken culture.

By the Tarrabaenians the river is seen as male as almost all river gods are male and worship of the Evoris has been introduced in historical times for political reasons. The Tarrabaenians inherited the Duinikens old enemies, the Messellat Mdûlûn, and fought many battles against them, some of their most successful ones involving the Evoris. This has led to the religio-political role of the river and its eminent role for the Tarrabaenians and their self image.

Evoris - a river of battles

While the Duiniken were mostly fighting on land and did not gain supremacy on the Gray Sea at any point in time, the Tarrabaenian people made extensive and successful use of their waterways in their continuos struggles against the Messellat Mdûlûn. No sources state anything about the navigability of the Evoris before the change of the riverbed, so maybe conditions were not fit for a military use of the river.

However, since the Tarrabaenians immigrated from the North and were also settled in the North, they had ready access to wood which they started to use for shipbuilding, an idea which was probably incited by the Duiniken recruiting Tarrabaenians for battles against the Messellat Mdûlûn, which also involved some naval battles. The Tarrabaenians, although unfamiliar with the challenges of seafaring nonetheless made most effective use of rivers and canals, either blocking of attempts to travel upstream by ship either by the Duiniken or later on the Messellat Mdûlûn or aiding land troops by providing supplies in troops, weapons of Men from other sources or enabling retreat by water. In fact the fall of the old Duiniken capital Slaitcár was facillitated by the Tarrabaenians taking advantage of the Evoris' proximity to the city: When the Duiniken army was on their way home from their pyrrhic victory at the Battle of 'Uihhmeis, the Tarrabaenians met a city stripped of almost all defenses, only housing those, who had not made their escape yet. The Tarrabaenians kept troops incoming via the Evoris and seized the situation to plunder the city and slight the city walls.

After the Tarrabaenians had replaced the Duiniken and their own conflicts with the Messellat Mdûlûn flared up, they founded their own capital on the banks of the Evoris, which had served them well durin their uprising. But now they also had to adapt to marine seafaring, as the Mdûlûn could land on the shore of the Gray Sea or press inland on the waterways at any time. While struggling at first and suffering painful defeats, the Tarrabaenians worked hard at developping their ships to be able to withstand those of the Mdûlûn. At first they increasingly managed to thwart Mdûlûn advances on rivers with the Evoris playing an especially important role, being the waterway to and from the newly founded Savína. Later on they used intelligence to learn about advancing Mdûlûn fleets and intercept them before they could strike. One invention made early on, is the aptly named 'Evoris rudder', called péten Evoris, that enabled Tarrabaenian ships spat out from the rivermouth to change direction rapidly without risking stability. This let Tarrabaenian get into a striking position before the Mdûlûn could react of rearrange their fleets and brought some major victories on the mouths of the rivers of Tarrabaenia in general, but first and foremost on the Evoris, where this technology was first employed.

Culture and traditions around the Evoris

It is not surprising, that the Evoris has taken on a prominent role in culture. The river god of the same name is one of the most prominent deities aside from the main pantheon of the Tarrabaenians. There is no other river god playing such an important role anywhere and while river gods of other rivers are revered along the course of the respective river, Evoris is the only one to receive supraregional worship.

The Evoris' spring floods are welcomed with a festival as they bring fertile soil but also precious clay for Tarrabaenian pottery. At the same time the festival is a time of sacrifices of appeasement as to plea for the floods to not become too extreme and endanger people, cattle, fields and settlements. While commoners use the festival to direct an Ossecrássió to Evoris, for example to ask for a measured flooding of their fields and good fresh soil, there are also public sacrifices for Evoris and the war god of the Tarrabaenian pantheon, Cretátors, as the river is inextricably connected to the Tarrabaenians being able to stand their ground against the southern invaders. For this sacrifice twenty-seven horses are drained of their blood and the blood is libated into the river. This represents the many deaths that supposedly coloured the Evoris' water red during the many fights that took place on it. To really reach a certain degree of colouration, strong pigments boiled from the roots of the Sámblás (pl. sámblaés), a flower that is used to dye fabric as well are mixed in with the blood.

Type

River