Tilik Wen
The Tilik Wen is a river system within the Children of Aktar, flowing south into the Wengal lake. Highly unusual for a river system, the Tilik Wen is almost entirely underground, flowing into sinkholes and caves in the western parts of the mountain range and merging with other such streams deep under the mountains before finally emerging again as an aboveground river in the hillscapes of the Wengal shore.
One of the ancient shafts of the shaftbuilders crosses the Tilik Wen, and it was through this shaft that the Agbithans were able to discover the underground portion of the river to begin with.
Ecosystem
The Tilik Wen is home to few living things, as few fish will subsist underwater, and many of the narrow underground streams that feed it are entirely too small to harbor much life. In the parts of the river near the Wengali, some fish do subsist, and the local wildlife drinks from the especially pure waters of the underground stream. A species of cave fish has been known to dwell in parts of the stream.
History
The river's underground portion was largely unknown and unmapped until about 170 years ago, when the Agbithans discovered the Kara Buray shaft in the western part of the range. Through this shaft flowed an underground stream which was ultimately determined to flow into the Wengal. Like many shaftbuilder sites, Kara Buray was consequently settled by the Agbithans, but the river continued to mystify the dwarves who had discovered it. Tilik Wen appeared to gather snowmelt and rainwater from disparate locations in the montane valleys, and converge in the stream deep underground. The unusual form of the river has caused many among the Thaner to suppose that the shaftbuilders engineered the river to flow deep underground for whatever purpose, but no text has been unearthed that would prove this.
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