Dirwen River

Dirwen is a large river flowing through the West Coast of South Estisia. Forming by three unique rivers, they creates the wonderful landscape that have crafted the way of people inhabiting by these rivers for the past thousand years. The name come from its width that keep expending from its source until it eventually flow into the Esparia Ocean.

Dirwen and its three sources paves cultures of Valonian, Durni, and Krin.

South Estisia

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Geography

Formation

Dirwen consists of three rivers: Durn, Ferson, and Gioson. Durn is formed by the melting ice glacier from the Grand Range and the heavy rain of the mystical jungle. Flowing straight downward to the inland it's one of the longest river in the southern hemisphere.

Ferson come from the Iron Height, the mountain with large iron veins underneath its abundant forest. The mountainside getting corrode by rains make its color partly reddish. The result also forms iron-sands concentrated around its bank. Gioson come from Lake Gios - A large central lake. Despite the weakest of the three it surprisingly has the cleanest water.

Dirwen begin when Ferson and Gioson meet together called the Golden Basin. They flow westward around a few hundred kilometers before Durn also meet, making the river wider and more powerful.

Not everyone agrees with the definition though; Some may call it starting at the basic or their favorite three. Overall, they all agree that the river end the same way as it reaches the west coast, flowing out into the Esparia Ocean.

Lake Gios

The beautiful lake and the source of Gioson. Peaceful and brim with life, it is where many crops that first gathered and be cultivated throughout the continent, is originated. The lake also have the clearest, unfiltered freshwater.

Several meters up from the lake water level is a natural line splits the abundance of evergreen forests and the less grown shrubland, showing that the lake was supposed to be large and more enormous in the past; This is because of the great gravity dam.

The dam was constructed in 747 BVE by the Empire of Kritus to provide more fresh water to their capital, Knirk, as well as to control floods. Because of the usage it had, it's so vulnerable that if it breached the flood would severely devastate the whole country.

Ecosystem Cycles

Dirwen can incredibly rise up high during the summer, causing the flood to the surrounding area along the bank from a few weeks to a whole month. It can even form a deep lake at the Durn confluence, known by the theological name - Galvon's Sorrow. In contrast, the water in Dirwen may become low and red in the winter due to Durn's weakened current, allowing Ferson to flow more.

Fauna & Flora

Land

Over the course of the river(s), the forests are indistinguishable as the main factor of their liveness. The largest one is obvious the mystical jungle covering the Durn, with Earth Jaguar, an apex predator, as the well-known species.

Horses seem to be dominated in the lower area. People use it as a way of transportation as well as incorperate with their culture - look at Valonian, for examples. They are scatting around the midland but the majority of them live near the mouth. The native breeds are sadly hard to find these days since the Horsepower Genocide in 32 BVE.

Water

Basses, pikes, and catfishes are a crucial part of many civilizations in this river. They are so numerous that one man can easily catch them year-round. They are caught and raised in man-made fishing ponds for quick food and reserve them when drought occurs. Economically, some people are carefully bred for certain quality like weight and tastiness so they can sell them for an expensive price.

Several food recipes contain those creatures, from a simple meal with simple preparation to a ceremonial cuisine with various ingredients such as Fish In Flatbread, the expensive seasonal Valonian dish.

Vegetations

by Adcheryl

Although it originates from Lake Gios, Millets can be seen around this river. It yields in such a significant amount that even months of flood the people can face no shortage. The other plants being cultivated are buckwheats, celeries, and papyruses. There is also non-native species like lemons, limes, and peppers.

Type

River

Location under

West Coast of South Estisia

Included Locations

• Duris
• Gigia
• Knirk
• Sartonia
• Valone

Related Ethnicities

• Krin

Inhabiting Species

• Cloud Horse

Notable Settlements

For a long time people started settling and taking advantage of the river to the point that a few of them get bigger and form its domination. Some ain't do that but having a connect to river somehow.

Knirk

The former capital city of the Empire of Kritus, the first dominator of the river. Not only the location they settled which is the Golden Triangle that provides the best strategic value, they also built a mega road network and lots of bridges thoughtout the river to double its connectivity.

Standing for a thousand years, the city survives every rise and fall of an empire, becoming rich of buildings, cultures, and history, which inspire several cities like Valone. And speaking of Valone...

Valone

The most recent river power. Needless the say the city succeeded from the Knirk of both buildings and culture. It was established by the immigrants from there around 400 BVE.

Being known as The City at the River's End, this place is one of the busiest places on the planet. Combining with the Valonus Bridge as a tollway with a low tariff in a location like this is no surprise why Valonia becomes wealthy so quickly, suppressing its predecessor before it even fell.

Duris

The small town by the Durn river, it is what many would call "The Jungle Passage" as the safest place before entering the harsh dense rainforest.

Once under the control of the Krins, now it stands of its own with partly claimed of the jungle. The infinite amount of woods and wild exotic goods keeps Duris somewhat profiting - and makes it safer.

Gigia

Last but not least is a small Krin town located near Lake Gios. Initiated by the Kritus the town was settled to supply the people and materials in need for the Lake Gios' gravity dam to be constructed.

The town was changed its owner several times by the conflicts in the past. Currently, it belonged to Valonia Empire, and the idea of reconstructing the dam is under discussion despite the local's fear of the failure that wiped a quarter of its population.

History

Early Age

Humans have long inhabited in South Estisia, and without helps of rivers, they couldn't reach deep and evolve. They immigrated from the southern hemisphere around 20,000 BVE, landing first on the East Coast. While many of them inhabited on the east via Hunan, there were some who willingly sailed from West Coast and found Dirwen.

Thousands years later, the western settlers, developing themselves to be capable of agriculture, with established communities alongside the west coast, began exploring. Some of them naviagated deeper into the mainland and stopped at the Golden Basin, founding Knirk. Some went beyond further and met the people of Hunan, founding Ohugas.

Unfortunately those western cities wasn't last long when an unknown disaster killed 80% of the inhabitants. Some sources said it was the great tide, some were the deadly disease. Whatever reasons, it became the Knirk's forbidden region, and very risky to live, and therefore nature reclaimed it so quickly.

In 1247 BVE, the Knirk was grown enough to influence others, when they conquered many local river settlements, forming the Empire of Kritus.

Age of Empire(s)

Thriving as no others did, Knirk managed to suppress a million inhabitants, making one of the most populous places ever recorded. and for the next 500 years, their empire conquered all the midland and the east. From the edge of Grand Range to the edge of Gate Lowland, and from the east coast to Galvon's Sorrow, leaving the west coast behind. They built many infrastructures to secure their superiority such as the Great Dam and the mega road network all leading to Knirk which to these days, is still in use.

In 400 BVE, there was a small crime in Knirk that lead to the banishment of scientists to the west. Hoping for them to be perished, what they didn't realize was that the group survived and settled at the river's mouth - and it was called Valone.

Two tigers cannot share the same river

Valone made a fortune by its own. By developing cutting-edge coins and the Waterway Policy, it brought an incredible wealth into the city. The Valonus Bridge they managed to build across the river's wide mouth is one of the Valonians' engineering marvels.

The skyrocketing economy lead to the conquest of the entire west coast, becoming the Kingdom of Valonia. They monopolized all the rivers with ground-breaking policy on all river towns such as Auqapus. Between 210 BVE to 30 BVE, With an incredible amount of incomes they earned with no major conflicts involved, it was considered as the Valonian golden age.

Ancient skyline by Adcheryl

Knirk however was in the dark age. Prior to 30 BVE the empire faced many unrests throughout significant cities, which lead to the independence of the Ohun, the Durin, and especially the Taestic which control the whole Lake Gios. The drastically lost in treasury led them to cancel the southern expension to giive more troops. The continuing of moral decline told them that it was too late.

Instead, they use these troop they had on the Valonians. Kritus spreaded superiority over Valonian to the people for a long time since the decline, claiming them as their own colony that must belonged to their glorious empire. And in a faithful year of 32 BVE, plenty of fleets sailed toward Valone blocking the port while besieging with the army. Combined with the mass slaughter of the horses it was a great bet that paid off perfectly. The conflict ended in two years.

Other than excessive loots, Kritus started to get rich once again thanks to bridges and ports. It wasn't a peaceful time though as they used these funds to retake their former territories. They succeeded in taking Lake Gios back. However, it came with a pretty big cost.

Last Man Standing

In 15 BVE, the Valonian resistance launched a surprise attack inside Valone with brand new weapons and tactics that liberated the city within 5 days. And for the next 15 years the Valonian and Krin fought in several engagements not only to end the regime of whom, but also the authority over the entire area of Dirwen, Ferson, and Gioson; Whoever controlled the river, control the fate of the South Estisia.

The fight came to the climax with the Battle of Lake Gios, to capture the dam. However, the outcome led to the most destructive man-made disaster human had ever made. Nevertheless, the Valonian army eventually captured the Knirk, dissolving a thousand years empire, and starting the new empire for the next thousand years to come.

Breach of the Lake Gios

It was a tough attempt to capture the dam, the most important structure for the Kritus capital to be suitable. During the War of the Sacked in 3 BVE, the Valonian army had to fight against the heavily garrisoned Krin troops in order to cut off the city supply. The dam was built near Gigia, the town settling for this specific purpose. According to surviving legions, they was going to use the risky but effective cannons with the impact bombs in hope to thraeten the garrison. A few bombs hit the dam and went off well. However, it was too effective the dam started to leak and collapse.

A large body of water slammed the entire Gigia, the surrounding crop fields, and both armies. While this disaster largely affected in a short term, in long term this definitely caused Knirk food shortage. A costly victory, they believed.

As such, the Dirwen become more aggressive in following decades, and the people in Gigia are still haunted by the accident, and its remnant is still visible whereas nature is slowly claiming.