Dirwen River

Dirwen is the large river flowing in the South Estisia. Forming by three unique rivers, their activity create the manificant landscape in which affect and observed by all people inhabiting along the river for the past thousand years. The name come from its width expended to its greatest near the end of the river.

South Estisia

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Geography

Formation

The Dirwen river is consisting of three rivers: Durn, Ferson, and Gioson. Durn is formed by the melting ice glacier from the Grand Range, and the heavy rain of the mystical jungle. Flowing downward pass the inland it's one of the longest river in the southern hemisphere.

Ferson came from the Iron Height, the mountain with large iron veins, passing through the forest. The mountainside getitng corrode by a rain turns the river partly reddish. The result forming concentrated ironsand around its bank. Gioson came from the abundunce area known as Lake Gios - A large eastern lake. Even though the weakest out of three it has a cleanest water.

Dirwen begin when Ferson and Gioson meet together called the Golden Triangle. It is around a few hundred kilometers before Durn also meet, making it wider and more powerful. Not everyone agrees with the definition though; Some may call it starting at the triangle or their favorite three. Overall, they agree that the river ends the same way as it reaches the west coast, flowing out into the Esparia Ocean.

Lake Gios

The beautiful lake and the source of Gioson. The peaceful and brim with life is where many crops local people that were first gathered and cultivated come from and also provides the clearest freshwater.

Several meters up from the lake level, a natural line splits the abundance of evergreen forests and the less grown shrubland, showing that the lake is supposed to be more enormous. This is because of the great gravity dam.

The dam was constructed in 747 BVE by Kritus to provide more fresh water to Knirk and control floods. Because of the usage it had, it's so vulnerable that if it breached the flood would severely devastate the whole country.

Ecosystem Cycles

Dirwen river can become incredibly high during the summer, causing the flood to the surrounding area along the bank from a few weeks to a whole month. It can even form a deep lake at the Durn confluence. In contrast, the water in Dirwen may become low and red in the winter due to Durn's weakened current, allowing Ferson to flow more.

Fauna & Flora

Land

Over the course of the river(s), the forests are indistinguishable as the main factor of their liveness. The largest one is obvious the myst jungle covering the Durn, with Earth Jaguar, an apex predator, as the well-known species.

Horses seem to be dominated in the lower area. People use it as an alternative way of transportation. They are scatted around the midland but the majority of them live near the mouth. The native breeds are sadly hard to find these days since the Horsepower Genocide in 32 BVE.

Water

Basses, pikes, and catfishes are a crucial part of the river civilizations. they are so numerous one can easily catch them alone. Some have been caught raised in dedicated ponds until it's time to eat. Other than reserved for emergency ration, some are carefully bred for certain quality like weight and tastiness in order to sell them for a high price.

Several food recipes contain those creatures, from a simple meal with simple preparation to a ceremonial cuisine with various ingredients such as Fish In Flatbread, the expensive, seasonal Valonian dish.

Vegetations

by Adcheryl

Although it originates from Lake Gios, millets are generally grown around the river. It yields in such a significant amount that even months of flood passed they still get no shortage. The other plants being cultivated are lemon, celery, papyrus, buckwheat, and Peppers - the specie originated from the jungle.

Type

River

Location under

South Estisia

Included Locations

• Duris
• Gigia
• Knirk
• Valone

Included Organizations

• Valonia Empire

Related Ethnicities

• Krin

Inhabiting Species

• Cloud Horse

Notable Settlements

For a long time people started settling and taking advantage of the river to the point that a few of them get bigger and form its domination. Some ain't do that but having a connect to river somehow.

Knirk

The former capital city of the Empire of Kritus, the first dominator of the river. Not only the location they settled which is the Golden Triangle that provides the best strategic value, they also built a mega road network and lots of bridges thoughtout the river to double its connectivity.

Standing for a thousand years, the city survives every rise and fall of an empire, becoming rich of buildings, cultures, and history, which inspire several cities like Valone. And speaking of Valone...

Valone

The most recent river power. Needless the say the city succeeded from the Knirk of both buildings and culture. It was established by the immigrants from there around 400 BVE.

Being known as The City at the River's End, this place is one of the busiest places on the planet. Combining with the Valonus Bridge as a tollway with a low tariff in a location like this is no surprise why Valonia becomes wealthy so quickly, suppressing its predecessor before it even fell.

Duris

The small town by the Durn river, it is what many would call "The Jungle Passage" as the safest place before entering the harsh dense rainforest.

Once under the control of the Krins, now it stands of its own with partly claimed of the jungle. The infinite amount of woods and wild exotic goods keeps Duris somewhat profiting - and makes it safer.

Gigia

Last but not least is a small Krin town located near Lake Gios. Initiated by the Kritus the town was settled to supply the people and materials in need for the Lake Gios' gravity dam to be constructed.

The town was changed its owner several times by the conflicts in the past. Currently, it belonged to Valonia Empire, and the idea of reconstructing the dam is under discussion despite the local's fear of the failure that wiped a quarter of its population.

History

Early Age

Humans have long inhabited this river. They immigrated from the southern hemisphere around 20,000 BVE. While they from the east through Hunan, some sailed to the west into Dirwen.

The western settlers, developing themselves to be capable of agriculture, established a community alongside the coast. Some of them explored deeper into the mainland and stopped at the triangle. Some went beyond further and met the people of Hunan, founding Ohugas, whereas the triangle people found Knirk.

Those coastal cities wasn't last long when an unknown disaster had killed 70% of the inhabitants. Some sources said it was the great tide, some were the deadly decease. Whatever reasons, it became the Krin's forbidden region, and thus nature reclaimed it so quickly.

In 1247 BVE the Knirk was grown enough to influence others, defeating some local river settlements, beginning of the Empire of Kritus.

Age of Empire(s)

Thriving as no others did, Knirk managed to suppress a million inhabitants, making one of the most populous places ever recorded.

For the next 500 years, they conquered all around the midland and the east. From the edge of grand range to the edge of gate lowland, and from the east coast to Durn confluence, leaving the west coast behind. They built many infrastructures to ensure superiority such as the great dam and the mega road network leading to Knirk which to these days, is still in use.

In 400 BVE, there was a small crime that lead to the banishment of scientists to the west. Hoping for them to be perished, what they didn't realize was that the group managed to settle at the river's mouth - and it was called Valone.

Two tigers cannot share the same river

Valone made a fortune by its own. By developing cutting-edge coins and the Waterway Policy, it brought an incredible wealth into the kingdom. The Valonus Bridge they managed to build across the river's wide mouth is one of the Valonians' engineering marvels.

The skyrocketing economy lead to the conquest of the entire west coast, monopolizing all the rivers with such policies on settlements such as Auqapus. With no major conflicts between 210 BVE to 30 BVE, it was considered as the Valonian golden age.

Ancient skyline by Adcheryl

Kritus however was in the dark. Prior to 30 BVE the empire faced many unrests throughout significant cities which lead to the independence of the Kingdom of Ohun, the Durin, and especially the Taestic Republic which control the whole Lake Gios. The drastically lost in treasury led them to cancel the southern campaign, brought the main troops into the reconquest. The continuing of moral deceased told them that it was too late.

Instead, they use it on the Valonians. Kritus spreaded superiority over Valonian to the people for a long time since the decline, claiming them as their own colony in which must belonged to their glorious empire. Plenty of fleets sailed toward Valone blocking the port while besieging with the army. Combined with the mass slaughter of the horses it was a great bet that paid off perfectly.

Other than excessive loots, Kritus started to get rich once again thanks to bridges and ports. It wasn't a peaceful time though as they used these funds to retake the former territories. They succeeded in taking Lake Gios back. However, it came with a cost.

Last Man Standing

In 15 BVE, the Valonian launched a surprise attack inside Valone with brand new weapons and tactics that liberated the city within 5 days. And for the next 15 years the Valonian and Krin fought in several engagements not only to end the regime of whom, but also the authority over the entire area of Dirwen, Ferson, and Gioson; Whoever controlled the river, control the fate of the South Estisia.

The fight came to the climax with the Battle of Lake Gios which led to the most destructive man-made disaster human had ever made. The Valonian army eventually captured the Knirk, dissolving a thousand years empire, and starting the new empire with a thousand years to come.

Breach of the Lake Gios

It was a tough attempt to capture the dam, the most important structure for the Kritus capital to be suitable. During the War of the Sacked in 3 BVE, the Valonian army had to fight against the heavily garrisoned Krin troops in order to cut off the city supply. The dam was built near Gigia, where it was settled for this specific purpose. According to surviving legions, they was going to use the risky but effective cannons with the impact bombs in hope to thraeten the garrison. A few bombs hit the dam and went off well. However, it was too effective the dam started to leak and collapse.

A large body of water slammed the entire Gigia, the surrounding crop fields, and both armies. While this disaster largely affected in a short term, in long term this definitely caused Knirk food shortage. A costly victory, they believed.

Decades later, the Dirwen become more aggressive, and the people around Gigia are still haunted by the accident, and its remnant is still visible while nature slowly claims.