Nbundo River Basin (ɴɓuɴɖɔ)
Geography
The Nbundo River Basin is an expansive flooded savannah in the northwestern corner of Ktavama, known for its rich, fertile soil, winding, sparkling waters, and great abundance of wildlife. While it is called a river basin, it is actually two river basins that border each other and converge at their deltas. The defining features are the two major rivers that feed the basin and mark its boundaries: the Ibada (/ibaɖa/) and the Lingala (/liɴɢala/). These rivers are expansive and lined with several hundred tributaries that feed into lakes, swamps, and marshes: the rivers even empty into deltas that interlock at several tributaries. These deltas, during the rainy season, experience such extreme flooding that they become a lake. The center of the basin is an endless sea of grass, irregularly interrupted by dots of woodland and gallery forests along the riverbanks. The center regions of the savanna are flat with very few hills, as well as arid as they are furthest from the rivers. The exception are the regions closest to the northern mountains.
Ecosystem
The inner regions of the Nbundo are a large expanse of savanna, with grass as far as the eye can see. Typically, the center regions are primarily grass as opposed to open woodlands. It is not uncommon for woodlands to have several miles of grass between each other, with trees generally being widely spaced and scattered. However, as one gets closer to the rivers and further from the center, woodlands become more common, though they are not universal. Even in places where the woodlands are at their densest though, the canopy is open enough to allow an almost unbroken layer of grass on the ground, as is characteristic of a savanna.
Ecosystem Cycles
The Nbundo is a region defined by the harsh extremes of dry and wet: during the wet season it is bountiful and green, and during the dry season it is harsh and unforgiving. During the rainy season, the Lingala and Ibada flood from the enormous precipitations of the highlands, with most of the rainwater being taken by the Tandana (/ʈaɴɖaɴa/) into the Lingala and the Zarugi (/zaɹuɢi/) into the Ibada. The southern, swampy deltas at the ends of the Lingala and Ibada transform during this time of the year from a winding swamp to a giant lake. During this time, animals flock on mass to the southern regions to take advantage of the bountiful greenery and water. Species of all varieties can be seen here at this time: from elephants and gazelles to crocodiles and lions to uncountable species of freshwater and estuarine fish and innumerable birds.
The opposite of this is the dry season, where the center regions of the Nbundo become dry and perilous. In this harsh time, the temperature rises exponentially to sweltering conditions and water is a precious commodity, with many animals migrating to the rivers that border the region. Even in the dry season, the banks of the river remain relatively full and calm, as the Lingala and Ibada are not known to be cruel rivers. Often, the rivers are the best place to be during the dry season, as greenery, while not as abundant as in the wet season, is still quite common along the rivers' edges. As such, many animals migrate on mass away from the center to the rivers during the dry season.
Due to the harsh conditions, bushfires become common during the dry season as the dead plant life provides fuel for great seas of wildfire. These fires have been known to spread for miles, engulfing and devouring any plant life in their path. However, these fires are not entirely bad: the ashes provide the nutrients necessary for the bountiful greenery of the wet season. As a result, many of the plant life native to the Nbundo is characterized by some resistance to fire. In fact, a large percentage of the native flora, in particular the grasses, require fires to reproduce. Because of this, many of the native plants are not suitable for domestication.
The opposite of this is the dry season, where the center regions of the Nbundo become dry and perilous. In this harsh time, the temperature rises exponentially to sweltering conditions and water is a precious commodity, with many animals migrating to the rivers that border the region. Even in the dry season, the banks of the river remain relatively full and calm, as the Lingala and Ibada are not known to be cruel rivers. Often, the rivers are the best place to be during the dry season, as greenery, while not as abundant as in the wet season, is still quite common along the rivers' edges. As such, many animals migrate on mass away from the center to the rivers during the dry season.
Due to the harsh conditions, bushfires become common during the dry season as the dead plant life provides fuel for great seas of wildfire. These fires have been known to spread for miles, engulfing and devouring any plant life in their path. However, these fires are not entirely bad: the ashes provide the nutrients necessary for the bountiful greenery of the wet season. As a result, many of the plant life native to the Nbundo is characterized by some resistance to fire. In fact, a large percentage of the native flora, in particular the grasses, require fires to reproduce. Because of this, many of the native plants are not suitable for domestication.
Localized Phenomena
The Nbundo is known for an environmental effect not seen anywhere else in the world: seasonal desertification. During the dry season, the land becomes so harsh it can almost be described as a desert. Droughts of this intensity are not seen anywhere else in the world and can only be evidence of Magic. More specifically, this is believed to by scholars as evidence of Lae Lines, networks of magic that flow across the world. As negatively charged magic is known to break down substances to their base forms, it is believed that during the dry seasons, the Nbundo lae line becomes negatively charged and breaks down water in the soil, resulting in the intense conditions. In the wet seasons, the lae line becomes positively charged resulting in the opposite. However, while the central reasons of the Nbundo are oppressively dry, the regions close to the rivers experience a much more typical dry season. Within a few miles of the rivers, the dry season, while still a difficult time, is not much different from other savannas across the world, and it is only the most central regions of the Nbundo that become a desert during the dry season.
Fauna & Flora
Fauna
Due to the abundant assortment of grasses and other plant life, the Nbundo is home to a wide menagerie of animals, big and small. During the wet season, great herds of animals are abundant, to the point where one herd may have only a mile of empty space between each other. Wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, buffalo, and rhinoceros make up a great majority of the grazers found in the region, with giraffes, other varieties of antelope, warthogs, and ostriches also common. Chief among them in the central regions is the addax, an antelope so adapted for the desert dry seasons that they can remain in the center all year round, subsisting on what little vegetation is available and getting all the water they need from those plants, never once needing to drink though they will when presented. However, by far the largest and most impressive of its menagerie are dundaru: the Nbundo elephant. While it is doubtful that these elephants are a different species than other elephants on Ktavama, they are much more adapted for the desert conditions than other elephants, with broader feet and longer legs that let them travel longer distances, and a smaller body size on average, as well as the largest ears in proportion to their bodies of any elephant. In the wet season, they bulk feed on buds and fresh green leaves, but they switch to drought tolerant plants. While they can go without water for three days, they would much rather spend their time wandering the vast stretches of the Nbundo to get to the rivers when in need of a quick drink. The animals that can do the best in the Nbundo are those that are adapted to travel long distances, thus making the dry seasons less horrific. The exceptions to this rule are those that are adapted to spend their lives around the rivers, and those are found in arguably just as great abundance. A normal sight in both the Lingala and Ibada rivers is the hippopotamus, to the point to where they are one of the most common herbivores in the region. Close to hippos in that regard are the Nbundo waterbuck, who graze on the bountiful aquatic water plants and wade knee deep into the water.While herbivores can be found in great abundance for sure, a wide variety of insectivores are also common. Most common among their prey are the chungaba and the drugaba: the former, meaning "tower builders" are a kind of termite and the latter, whose name means "cave builders" are a savage species of ant. Chungaba termites construct massive mounds, some of which can exceed 25 feet in height, dot the central regions of the Nbundo where it is driest and the termites stock up on huge supplies of grass, fresh and dead, for their stores during the dry season, both for them and the fungi they farm. Drugaba ants on the other hand dig complex tunnels deep into the earth, some that stretch for miles upon miles underground. These two insects often come into conflict with one another, as the drugaba ants will eat just about anything including termites. But both these colonies are food for larger insectivores. Chief among them is the Nbundo pangolin: this is a large animal, about the size of a large dog, and covered in armor, with sharp scales lining the tail for defense. These pangolins stride along the grasslands and deserts, slashing their claws into the walls of the termite mounds to get at the supple bugs within, and are followed by assortments of other insectivores as well. Specifically, the aardwolf and bat-eared fox are known to follow these pangolins to let them do the hard work, as they simply lick up the ground with the termites on it. Conversely, the Nbundo aardvark is known to generally prefer the ants that it digs up in the earth, but is known to eat termites on occasion, and they are often followed behind by much smaller pangolin different from the giant one. Most notable among the myrmecophagous animals of the Nbundo is the Sha, an unusual, large canid with a downward curving snout and a long tongue they use to simply pull the ants and termites out of their tunnels with little to no trouble. However, these animals are not exclusive myrmecophagies like the aardvark or pangolin and will readily take to other arthropods like millipedes, grasshoppers, and moths, as well as fruit and berries during the wet season.
In addition to the prey, a wide variety of carnivores can be found among the cast of Nbundo's wildlife. Most famous are lions who hunt the massive game animals like buffalo and rhino calves, but hyenas of both the striped and brown variety are also found in abundance. Spotted hyenas are only found within the savanna regions close to the rivers but only go into the central regions during the wet season. In addition to the lion, the leopard and cheetah form the triad of the large cats seen in the Nbundo. Along with hyenas, jackals, servals, caracals, honey badgers, and various mongooses- such as meerkats -make up but a few of the cast of small predators that stalk through the grasses and among the sands. Water bound predators are also abundant, only natural given the great diversity of fish both seasonal and resident. Tilapia, oscars, perch, and catfish form but a handful of the diversity found in both the Lingala and Ibada rivers, with sizes ranging from a couple of inches to a few meters in the case of the gagura-a massive tiger fish- and the goliath perch. By far the most dangerous predator however, as well as one of the most abundant in the rivers, is the Nbundo crocodile, able to easily lengths of 15 ft, with extreme specimens surpassing 20.
Flora
The most abundant plant on the savannas is what the region is named for: Nbundo grass. This grass is the most abundant in the region, adapted to the unique conditions of the Nbundo. With that in mind, the germination of the seeds differs depending on environmental factors, but regardless, it involves the death of the previous generation.* In either case, the grass is burned, easily spreading fire across the savanna. This ash however provides the perfect germination for the seeds to grow, or at least it does in the riverine regions. In the central regions it is more complicated, as the rains do not come for several months. Once the previous grass die, the seeds lie dormant in the ground until the rains come round, at which point they begin to bud and sprout.Natural Resources
The basin's fertility is unrivaled, compared to the surrounding regions: the two major rivers feed many lakes and tributaries, flood in a way that is reliable, and connect directly to the ocean. This makes for excellent farming and navigation. In combination with the richness of the soil, plenty of farmers can generate a successful crop yield by simply letting their animals stomp the seeds into the dirt. The most violent flooding comes from the delta where the rivers end, as this creates a massive lake during the wet season. The great fertility of the land also means that vast swaths of animals are readily available for hunting and fish ready to be caught.
In addition, the basin is also filled with precious metals of several varieties, in particular, platinum: it's so common in fact, that Zazamanc uses it for currency and places less value on it than gold, which is comparatively rare in the region. Platinum is mined all throughout the region and exported all throughout the continent and across the sea to the nations of Kadagard.
In addition, the basin is also filled with precious metals of several varieties, in particular, platinum: it's so common in fact, that Zazamanc uses it for currency and places less value on it than gold, which is comparatively rare in the region. Platinum is mined all throughout the region and exported all throughout the continent and across the sea to the nations of Kadagard.
History
Crumblings are events that make the history of Kaleera complicated, but not impossible to track. Given its fairly flat terrain, the Nbundo is a land that has had fairly little experience with these events (at least in recent history) and as such is one of the oldest places in the world to be regularly inhabited by humans, despite its harsh conditions. While it is likely various powerful cultures have come and gone with time, the only places major civilizations have much presence in the Nbundo are the Lingala and Ibada rivers and as such any ruins have almost certainly had newer cities built overtop of them, which makes archaeological study of these civilizations difficult.
Due to the difficult conditions of the inner landscape, most ethnic groups that inhabit the central regions live in nomadic, hunter-gatherer tribes that pick up their belongings and move once the desert conditions set in. These tribes tend to move to the riverine lands during such times, but there are those who remain in the center throughout the year, hunting the game that is hardy enough to survive in the deserts. There are also nomadic groups that engage in pastoralism, who invariably transition to the riverine regions during the dry season to feed their herds. Sedentary peoples have long inhabited the banks of the Lingala and Ibada rivers, were they subsists on water plants, fish, and other resources that the rivers provide. While horticulturalism has been practiced throughout history in the Nbundo along the river peoples, it was never in an abundance enough to be considered mass scale agriculture.
With the rivers such prime land for so many people of different lifestyles, it is only natural that the most common cause of conflict in the Nbundo was for land during the dry seasons. While large scale warfare is not unheard of however, most conflicts were generally smaller scale disputes that didn't expand beyond the immediate parties, such as raids on villages or territorial disputes between the various tribes for dwelling. Raids were, and in some places still are, especially common against the sedentary river peoples, which was on of the leading causes for the various civilizations of the past. However, these were often short lived and more of a collection of city states than an organized nation: in some cases, neighbors were of completely different cultural backgrounds, making it unlikely to form a unified society between the two cities.
This eb and flow of civilization all changed around 600 years ago, with the rise of the Cunga-Mali and their empire of Zazamanc. While Ngiama-Tinga was at first like any other of the city states, Their access to the sea allowed them to trade with the northern continent of Kadagard and ideas pass along trade routes as readily as goods. Most importantly to the Cunga-Mali's dominion, trade brought with them the innovations of steelworking and armor designs: with steel weapons and armor outfitting their soldiers, the Zazaman army had significant advantages over the other inhabitants of the Nbundo, who had simple iron weapons and generally armor- or more often shields -made of rawhide was a tremendous asset to their conquest of the region and is a staple to their control to this day.
Due to the difficult conditions of the inner landscape, most ethnic groups that inhabit the central regions live in nomadic, hunter-gatherer tribes that pick up their belongings and move once the desert conditions set in. These tribes tend to move to the riverine lands during such times, but there are those who remain in the center throughout the year, hunting the game that is hardy enough to survive in the deserts. There are also nomadic groups that engage in pastoralism, who invariably transition to the riverine regions during the dry season to feed their herds. Sedentary peoples have long inhabited the banks of the Lingala and Ibada rivers, were they subsists on water plants, fish, and other resources that the rivers provide. While horticulturalism has been practiced throughout history in the Nbundo along the river peoples, it was never in an abundance enough to be considered mass scale agriculture.
With the rivers such prime land for so many people of different lifestyles, it is only natural that the most common cause of conflict in the Nbundo was for land during the dry seasons. While large scale warfare is not unheard of however, most conflicts were generally smaller scale disputes that didn't expand beyond the immediate parties, such as raids on villages or territorial disputes between the various tribes for dwelling. Raids were, and in some places still are, especially common against the sedentary river peoples, which was on of the leading causes for the various civilizations of the past. However, these were often short lived and more of a collection of city states than an organized nation: in some cases, neighbors were of completely different cultural backgrounds, making it unlikely to form a unified society between the two cities.
This eb and flow of civilization all changed around 600 years ago, with the rise of the Cunga-Mali and their empire of Zazamanc. While Ngiama-Tinga was at first like any other of the city states, Their access to the sea allowed them to trade with the northern continent of Kadagard and ideas pass along trade routes as readily as goods. Most importantly to the Cunga-Mali's dominion, trade brought with them the innovations of steelworking and armor designs: with steel weapons and armor outfitting their soldiers, the Zazaman army had significant advantages over the other inhabitants of the Nbundo, who had simple iron weapons and generally armor- or more often shields -made of rawhide was a tremendous asset to their conquest of the region and is a staple to their control to this day.
Alternative Name(s)
Nbundo Savanna, Nbundo
Type
River Basin
Location under
Included Locations
Included Organizations
Owning Organization
Related Ethnicities
Inhabiting Species
Related Myths
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