The Lírmenach

Also known as the Lír, the Leermen, or the Scarfolk, the Lírmenach are a strange people living amongst the myriad caverns, warrens and platforms along the jutting walls of the mighty Worldscar. The name is old Rozsan for "chasmfolk". They are sometimes collectively called the Nikkalese after their major settlement, Nikkal-at-Scarsend.

The Lírmenach trace their origins back to the First Age Valamo-Rozsan Wars, wherein thousands of prisoners and other slave-caste citizens were liberated from a series of New Rozsan work camps by The Chorus of Seasky and an elite group of their worshippers. Two of the Chorus, Thunderlord Ronom and Lightninglord Ranarim, remained with the diaspora for a while to ensure they settled their new home successfully, gaining them the epithet "The Slave Kings", among many others.

Settlements

The Broken Empire

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And its myriad peripheries. Map represents much of Waking Materia's Gamma Quadrant.

Most Leermen settlements may be found where the curvature of the Worldscar's base creates a calming of waters, such that fishing is more manageable and residents may travel to other platform settlements via kayak or canoe. Most such locations are along the Voidward reaches of the mighty chasm, between Ket to the west and Nurin to the east. The most major of these settlements is the impressive city of Nikkal-at-Scarsend (banner image).

Along these platform settlements are often rows of boat-markets where much of the society's trade occurs. The caverns and warrens within the Worldscar's mighty walls are primarily residential. Not to be mistaken for mere caves, these residences can be expansive and finely carved by Stoneshape-type magic, influenced by the methods of the Kettites.

Origins

The Lírmenach are a genetically diverse people, rooted not in culture or geography, but in adversity. They are primarily of Old Valamonian, ancient Rozsan and Kettite stock. The former two groups were a diaspora directly fleeing the violence of the Valamo-Rozsan Wars; those from Ket joined later, largely as mentors to teach the new people how to carve out cliffside settlements in the Kettite way. In fact, some of the oldest warrens in the area predate the Lírmenach, and instead seem to be ancient residences of a people ancestral to the Kettites. As such, some of the population is also there for reasons of scholarship.

Culture

The Nikkalese survive primarily on a combination of fishing, kelp farming, collecting of eggs from cliffside waterfowl, and trading of minerals for produce with the neighbouring Kettites and Nurinians. With the help of the Kettites in particular, who also live a cliffside lifestyle, they also engage in extensive breeding of nutritious, cliffside vines and subterranean fungus. Advanced stonesculptors, they have not only created vast indoor warrens for living, but also terraces for orchards, which are irrigated with ease due to the vicinity of the water below.

Language

The Nikkalese language is a highly unique blend of ancient Rozsan, Valamonian and Kettite with a strong focus on hand and body signals due to the sometimes roaring volume of the local river.