Ynn

While Ynn does refer to a nation, in the minds of most it is simply a haunted forest and setting of fairy tales. The people who live there play little role in its perception and are generally assumed to act no different from the inhabitants of what land the storyteller comes from. It is assumed that they have not adapted or learned from generations spent among the fair folk and their strange lands. This could not be further from the truth.
I am however getting ahead of myself. First I must explain what Ynn is as a place. It is a cloud forest which according to all maps takes up but a single peninsula no larger than the landmass of Leng. Once one sets foot within its borders however it becomes obvious that this is a lie. From outside its borders Ynn is a small nation, but from within its borders it is clear that the cloud forest is larger than all of Occidentia put together. Its expanse may not have any true end at all. The peoples of Ynn maintain connection to the outside world and its finite space by means of a continuous network of rope bridges leading from the coast to their tree houses and villages well into the interior. They dare not touch the forest floor for fear of becoming lost among the twisting forest paths, laid not by men but things of the forest.
You are surely wondering what sort of beings are responsible for such a violation of all natural laws. This is difficult to explain due to the natives queer way of speaking. Though outsiders know them as fairies, the fair folk, or the fey. A human native of Ynn would never use such words except to explain in words an outsider would understand. For within the borders of Ynn these creatures MUST NOT BE NAMED. For names are power, and to name a creature draws its attention and gives it power over you. These names need not be the creature's proper name but only a consistent means of identifying it. To call a being of Ynn "monster" in successive sentences it just as dangerous as calling it by whatever name its foul creator bestowed on it. Letting such a creature name you and acknowledging that name can be just as dangerous for we humans do not know the ways of word magic as the fey do.
How do human beings live among such danger you ask? Well that is simple, as all men do they adapted to their environment in culture and technology. The things in the woods are not ravenous beasts, merely proud and capable of magic with words. Most prefer talk to fight and even those that do seek to do you harm can be bested with iron and spell, so long as they have no ensnared you with words first. Thus the people of Ynn have developed a means of speaking which avoids proper names or even repeating a nouns to refer to an individual. Furthermore they do all they can to avoid telling lies or displaying overt rudeness, for such things tend to bring retaliation from the speech minded fey. With these rules they have managed to form a community and home safe from both the predations of these branch dwelling things and any invasion by outsiders.

Type

Geopolitical, Republic

Demonym

Ynnish

Government System

Democracy, Representative

Power Structure

Federation

Parent Organization

Daqin

Related Ethnicities

• Olm (People of the River)