Ichik'i
The Nyssan Jungle is a morass of swamps, hilly woods, and choked waterways. Manatees meander through the rivers and creeks, finding a perfect feeding ground under the mangrove roots that float on the surface of their watery ranges. There is no game trail to follow; there are no roads or pathways. Quicksand, clouds of stinging insects, and tangled thornbushes choke the small amount of dry ground that manages to drag itself above the muck and the slime. The easiest method of travelling is the waterways that meander hither and yon through the misty swamps, and even these are so overgrown that one would need to be able to travel below the surface to make anything more than walking speed. Or canoe speed, as it it were.
Far inland from the eastern coast of Taisha, these jungles and swamps stretch in an explosion of biodiversity that reaches all the way to the Seraph Mountains. And there, upon the lower slopes, before the wetlands and rainforests finally give way to grassy meadows, lie the cities of the Taishando Lizardfolk.
Constructed in strategic places, the only permanent structures in a Lizardfolk city are the temples and the wall mounds. Everything else is made to be washed away in the frequent floods, and rebuilt quickly.
Their temples, built in honor of their strange goddess, the divinity they call Nyssa, are erected on a scale, and engineered, to survive all but the fiercest flooding; and even then, some Gnommish researchers believe the cleverly built structures would stand a fair chance.
The surrounding wall mounds are an ingenious bit of engineering in and of themselves. Made of gradients of silt, sand, and stones, they are built in layers in such a way as to essentially create massive seives that let water flow as it will. These wall mounds surround a temple complex and its supporting domiciles in every instance, and in each city, the only entrance is underwater, through a tunnel built into the wall mounds.
While it has been many years since the last tsunami claimed many of the Lizardfolks' temporary villages and hunting camps, the reptilians have a plethora of rituals and lore around recognizing and surviving sudden raging flood waters, as well as attacks by poisonous swamp creatures, and what mushrooms to eat after a lucky black mamba manages to land a bite. A big part of that lore is to "flee to Ichik'i" when a tsunami hits. This is ingrained into every Taishando Lizardfolk by the time they can form complete sentences. "When the sirens scream, flee to Ichik'i". This is enjoining all lizardfolk to run to the nearest city.
The origins of the phrase are really quite interesting; in the Taishando Lizardfolks' distant past, they were nearly wiped out by The Lowland Tsunami. Their king at the time, named Kal'Ichik, eventually built their first 'place of refuge', which in turn became the Lizardfolks' first permanent village, which quickly grew into a city they named Ichik'i, after the renowned leader. So, while the original city is lost to the ravages of time, several more of the refuges popped up over the centuries, and the phrase "flee to Ichik'i" has stuck solidy within the Taishando Lizardfolk lexicon, ever since.
Demographics
The population of any city in the Nyssan Jungle is entirely Lizardfolk, except of course for the odd Gnommish anthropologist who manages to embed themselves within a tribe.
Government
While each tribe is ostensibly led by a council of elder Lizardfolk, there is indeed a monarch who oversees the governance of the people as a whole.
They credit one king, in particular, for saving their people duriing the times of the Great Flood. Kal'Ichik was his name, and he led the tribes through their tsunami enforced exile, and back home again to The Nyssan Jungle.
Comments