Locations in Istraloth

Here is a prelimiary list of locations in Istraloth. I'll add more information about them in later posts, and probably edit in more as time goes on.

• Noothal
• Istreeth
• Nisalath
• Diit
• The Ruined City
• Bron'Doth
• Shallow Sea
• Isle of Unseeing Eyes

POPULATION AND LIVING CONDITIONS: Each city houses a maximum of 15,000 people in what might be termed an urban setting. The buildings that literally grow out of the floating island are packed together closely, some reaching four storeys in height. Buildings are kept neat and tidy by the vigiliant horticulture of the Village Guard, who double as a police force and gardening squad. They are armed only with pruning shears, and wear purple uniforms not unlike a bellhop's. People on the lake are well-fed on a diet of fish and lake kelp, although many suffer from the effects of scurvy. Most girls are married to older men upon reaching childbearing age and have several children. Families are not large, however, because of nearly constant attacks by lake beasts, which are drawn to reed mat cities because of their large populations. These beasts are variously described in terrifying ways as multi-headed dragons or giant fish with glowing red eyes: Those who survive encounters with them are usually too horrified to remember much of them at all. Although the men must row out into the open waters of the lake every day to collect kelp and catch seafood for the city, they do so in fear, for isolation on the open water in their woven rafts invites attacks by the lake creatures. The women of the city, who mostly stay off the open water, fear for the day that their sons are judged ready to go out on the rafts, for there are few families who have not lost a child to the lake monsters.

"Streets" are formed in the places on the floating mat of vines between homes. They are bumpy and rough, but since the inhabitants have few carts, they just scramble over them on foot. Clothes are woven from pieces of bark peeled from the larger vines of the raft, which are softened by being soaked in lake water, and then are stitched together. Small fires for communal cooking are lit in specific open-air kitchens throughout the city where vines have been grown to special thickness and are kept hardy and green by fertilizer with food offal to prevent the fire from spreading.

RITUALS: Each child, whether male or female, goes through a major ritual that marks them as an adult. For girls, it is the marriage ceremony, usually around the sixteenth birthday, when they are united with a man of their parents' choosing. For boys, it is the first rafting expedition, usually around their twelfth birthday, when they acquire the joint responsibility for gathering food for the city.

These rituals are overseen by several shamans, itenerant priests who wander across the settlement, sleeping in spare rooms or abandoned homes, searching out boys and girls of the appropriate age, and declaring them upon examination to either be prepared or not ready for the adulthood ritual. Shaman dress as they will, and each has his own vague religious beliefs and ways of carrying out his various rituals and unique healing spells. The only thing that unites the shamans is that each of them was inducted into the strange religious order by another now dead shaman. In a very powerful way, their legitimacy stems only from the willingness of the population to accept their religious power. Shamans are exempt from the duties of fishing or upkeep of the raft's vines.

POLITICS: The mayor of each city is chosen by the elder males (who are given this designation by shamans - some are as old as 85 when they receive the designation, some as young as 20 or 30) of the settlement in a secret conclave whenever the mayor dies. Generally, there is not much for a mayor to do other than direct the Noothal Guard to trim vines in certain ways in order to spur the growth of a new building or public improvement. The settlement is generally too peaceful and self-sufficient to require anything else. If some crime is committed, as loosely defined by common law and the religious diktats of the shamans, or if some dispute arises between business partners or friends, the mayor can either judge the case himself or appoint some elder man to serve as a judge for him. Murderers and other heinous criminals are placed in a raft and ordered to row to far-off Diit. This is usually understood to be a death sentence, judging from how dangerous it is to ply the waters alone with beasts below.

OTHER DETAILS: City inhabitants keep seagulls, which sometimes get lost and fly across the lake to the settlement, as pets. Some seagulls have their wings clipped and hop around the city like feathered squirrels. Each raft is relatively new, only ten years old, so it remains healthy and strong. A new raft will not need to be grown by any city for several decades. The lake people have no written language, but preserve a rich oral history, and enjoy composing long lyrical sagas about their ancient heroes.


SPECIFIC LOCATIONS:

Noothal, Istreeth and Nisalath are the three major reed mat cities of Istraloth's inner lake.

Noothal is the largest floating settlement of the Lake People. It is approximately the same size as a small city, constructed on a pear-shaped mat of vines that bobs back and forth in the north-east quadrant of the lake. Population - 15,000.

Istreeth is one of the two lesser cities of the Lake People. Roughly circular, it generally remains in the center of the lake, above the main spring. Warmth from the earth seeping through the water makes it a slightly unhealthy place to live. Population - 8,000

Nisalath is the second lesser city. Its form is less firm than the others, and resembles a jumble of small islands, crossed with canals and bridges. Its inhabitants use small dingies to move through the canals from building to building. It can be found in the north-west part of the lake. Population - 9,000

Other small settlements, some of which have broken off from the major cities, also exist on the lake. Their number (several dozen), shifting locations and the multiplicity of niche cultures in each makes describing each impossible, but a creative explorer could find all sorts of interesting settlements beside those listed here.

Diit is a prison reed mat, located in the south of Istraloth's lake. It is much smaller than the major cities, probably no larger than thirty acres. Constructed of venerable old vines, bred especially for the prison, it resembles a stumpy wedding cake, with increasingly less spacious stories stacked one atop the other. Small courtyard areas on each story's roof are the only outdoor space the exiled prisoners have. Only a small number of outlaws are exiled by canoe to the prison to begin with, and an even smaller population make it past the lake monsters to the island. The few that survive there band together for survival, sharing the chores of fishing and trimming the ever-growing vines. Fear of the lake beasts in the low row towards the nearest major settlement, as well as ingrained social taboos about exile, prevent prisoners from attempting to escape. Population: 75

The Ruined City is an ancient metropolis, hewn from stone, marble and amber. Many of its buildings have collapsed or been destroyed by the ravages of time, but the shell of a great city remains, cloven by the mountain range that makes up the outer rim of Istraloth's lagoon. The remains of splindly towers thirty stories tall and palaces the size of small towns lurk in the shallow waters at the foot of the peaks, waves lapping through gaping windows and doorways. In some places, buildings have collapsed or eroded haphazardly, leaving errant piles across streets and roofs. Streets and alleys can be walked down a high tide, and small boats can ply those further out to sea. An adventurous sould could explore hundreds of homes and dozens of public buildings on either side of the mountains with a small boat and a good knowledge of tides. On the lake side, otters and seals play in the ruins, and various birds make their nests in the crenulations and terraces of the remaining taller buildings. On the sea side, anemones and coral encrust the lower sections of walls, and stingrays and sharks dart throughout the shallow water.

There are no inhabitants of the city, although some buildings might provide reasonable shelter, as a few on the sea side have been lifted up onto sandbars and banks. The sea people believe the city is haunted by malicious spirts, and the lake people fear the monsters that are said to lurk in the husks of buildings. The history of the city has long been forgotten, although myths remain. Treasures may also remain, hidden in parts of the city yet unexplored by the errant tradesmen that appear in Istraloth's waters from time to time.

The descriptions of Bron'Doth and the Isle of Unseeing Eyes can be found in the "General Description of Istraloth."

Surrounding the lagoon continent of Istraloth is a shallow sea, seven to ten feet deep, reaching out about two hundred miles in all directions from the coast. Interspersed throughout are sandbanks and small islands, some only small enough to sustain a few hardy palm trees, most no more than sandy spits. The water is generally calm, clear and warm. Waterspouts and ferocious waves sometimes roll through the sea, but generally don't pose any danger.

The sea is home to a sailing race known as either island or sea people. Their society is loosely controlled by a shared oral history, common law and the dictates of a small group of elders. Most spend little, if any, time on land, living most of their lives on hundreds of small vessels that ply the sea's gentle waves. Many of the ships are sailboats, but there are also small barges, canoes, and rafts among the sea people's crafts. These boats are built from drift wood and lumber harvested from the mainland of Istraloth. Lumber from the mainland is filled with a preservative resin that prevents the boats from deteriorating, and so a ship may be passed down for generations until an infrequent storm or another accident takes its toll. Sails are made from the tanned and stretched skins of aquatic animals, as are the sea people's clothing. Said clothing is not uniform, taking whatever form the craftsman thinks most comfortable or useful.

SOCIETY: Each boat is largely self-contained, and can range from one or two sailors to dozens of sea people in size. An experienced captain runs the ship, and each boat has an established pecking order that is strictly adhered to by the crew, down to toddlers. Loyalty is expected and unquestioning among crews. Marriage and reproduction are expected of all sea people, although the sea people's society is not strictly monogamous. Women remain with their "home boats" throughout their lives, while men must marry into families and stay with the wife's boat until death or divorce. Children do not reach adulthood at a specified age, but are considered to be adults once their boatmates recognize them as such and arrange a marriage for them.

Religion revolves around ingesting the psychotropic bladders of giant flounders, which are prepared and presented to adults during holy days by the captains of the boats, who also function as priests. The hallucinations are interpreted as the communications of the gods of the sea, who are only vaguely described in the island people's oral traditions. If particularly interesting or important messages are divined during these holy days, they are shared at the annual congregation of sea folk on the vernal equinox. This congregation takes place at the "Divining Place," a site a few miles off the coast of Istraloth where a huge black spike emerges from the sea floor, towering nearly seventy feet into the air.

The sea people are generally happy to trade with outsiders, and a few sea people have even travelled to other continents with tradesmen, returning with strange tales of other lands and races.