Gaaijvla Kilmpakki (Nonlit. 'Gaaijvla's Embrace')

Public geographic record
Property of the Royal Atheneum of Hövnís, Eörpe

Gaaijvla’s Embrace is a valley situated at the foot of the Kuusamaj mountain rage, close to Biegjun’s south pole. It’s a former impact site and still holds the dilapidated remains of the Yggdrasil DI-44 generation ship that brought the Bieggjan’s ancestors to the planet.

Etymology & Definition

The name of the valley originates from the belief of the site being the cradle of creation, where the deity Gaaivjla first settled the children on Atakieh and Lihkuus and nursed them until they were able to care for themselves. This belief appears to be shared among several Bieggjan clans, though the exact details of the stories and myths can vary.

Origin

The crater is thought to have formed circa 25 million years ago when the Yggdrasil DI-44 generation ship crashed into the surface of Biegjun. The impact from the ship and the aftermath of the crash is likely to have had led to serious consequences in the following years, but there's not enough research to fully determine what those consequences were or what outcomes and changes in the environment they might have led to.

Current Day

Gaaijvla’s Embrace appears uninhabited by the native Bieggjans. Among tribes aware of the crater’s existence and location there seem to be a unison view of the region as a cradle of creation that’s since been “cursed”. Entering the valley, as well as drinking the water and eating fish from its river outlets, is commonly seen as dangerous and placed with a strong taboo. The consequence for doing so being struck a curse/sickness at best, and at worst be possessed by an evil spirit called Oniijavat.
Research has found no contaminants neither in the valley’s air nor the water, and the region appears to have been safe to live in for thousands of years. It could be possible that these taboos originated from potential negative effects caused on the environment by hazardous materials leaking from the shipwreck at one point, and the belief that the place is dangerous has somehow persisted even if these contaminants are long gone.

Geographic Data

Type

Valley (Impact Crater)

Climate(s)

Subarctic

Mean Temperature

Primary Terrain

Forest, Lake

Geographic Features

Kiita Truml
Namug

Locations of Note

Oniiji Tjakha
Yggdrasil D-44 Shipwreck

Known Fauna

Soomja

Known Flora

World

Biegjun

Affiliation(s)

Ancient Humans

Geography

Gaaijvla’s Embrace is an impact crater estimated to being 45 kilometers in diameter and 3 kilometers in depth at the center. Most of the crater is waterfilled, forming a large lake of estimated 33km in diameter that surrounds and submerges most the shipwreck. The rest has developed into a densely forested valley with an unusually high concentration of ground foliage that makes the terrain difficult to traverse.
The crater has one river inlet that feeds the central lake with water from the mountain, and a number of smaller river outlets that end in a vast wetland region called the Pahlamuut swamp further downland.

Geographic Features

Kiita Truml

(Nonlit.'Tangled Mess')

An unusually dense pocket of forest close to the crater’s central lake. The thick underbrush makes it nigh impossible to traverse without specialized equipment and it’s the only currently known habitat of the rare Soomja.

Namug

(Lit. 'Black')

The word for black in several local Bieggjan languages, this is also the name for the large lake that make out most of the crater’s diameter. The lake is estimated to be 33 kilometers in diameter, and 3 kilometers deep at the deepest point. It inclines rapidly, reaching an estimated 2 meters depth already at a distance of half a meter from the shoreline.
Namug’s waters contain a large amount of suspended sediments, making the lake cloudy and murky. Aquatic life in forms of plants and animals is observed to be much lower and less diverse compared to most other bodies of water found on the planet.

Locations of Note

Oniiji Tjakha

(Non-lit. 'Danger Rock')

The valley's two natural entrances features an Oniiji Tjakha, a kind of stele raised to warn others of dangers found past it.
These two particular landmarks feature primitive drawings reminiscient of some tribe's iconography of the deity Juoyl. While it could be interpreted as a belief of the deity somehow being present or having touched it, it could also simply be that symbols of Juoyl and Seempola (or variants thereof) in this context means 'cursed' or 'haunted'.

Yggdrasil DI-44 Shipwreck

The central feature of Gaaijvla’s Embrace is the dilapidated and mostly submerged remains of the Yggdrasil DI-44 Generation Ship that brought the ancient ancestors of the Bieggjan to the planet. While studies of the wreck suggest that the impact wouldn’t have left any survivors, the majority of the ship’s passengers likely evacuated the vessel prior to the crash using escape pods and that way were dispersed across the planet’s surface.
Due to the current state of the wreck, and major parts of it at some point looking to have been scavenged and removed, it’s been difficult to find anything of use for scientific study.