Sauoomsae

Geography

The sauoomsae, or the River of Life, starts its first breath from Lightning Lake and traverses into the Cold Swamp. Itself remaining forever warm all along its path and is seasonally feed rain water from the Range. All that water helps make sauoomsae the widest river in the world.
Despite the river's vastness, much of the knowledge we hold about its course comes to us from a lone returning survivor of a century's past mission to map deep into the topology of the Cold Swamp and chart the river's course. In this regard, two phenomenon came to be known:

1. the giant river-spanning pyramid that meets shore to shore at the halfway point on the river's length.
2. the upward trajectory the river takes into the Deeper Swamp's frozen sky.

Fauna & Flora

Ranger Shore

Bats: Mammals with their forelimbs adapted as wings and capable of flight more manoeuvrable than birds.
Deer: Hoofed ruminant mammals with compact torsos with long, slender legs and small tails.
Raccoons: A medium-sized nocturnal scavenger with brown, grey and black patched fur.
Big Cats: Dark-furred ambush predators in the higher forests and jungles that border the shores.
Foxes: Many species of omnivorous foxes of similar shape with thick fur, bushy tails and pointed ears.

Both Shores

Otters: Carnivorous marine mammals with diets based on fish and invertebrates.
Beavers: A large, primarily nocturnal and semiaquatic rodent known for building dams and lodges along the river.
Birds: Kingfishers, herons, terns, cormorants, ducks, ospreys, egrets and other birds densely populate the immediate area.

Cold Shore

Wildmen: A species of large bipedal ape with no discernible neck and an extra joint in their legs.
Giant Insects: Mostly consisting of spiders and ants that crawl through the canopy or under the earth.
Giant Armadillos: A mammal with leathery armour banded in 13 hinged shells and long sharp claws for digging.
Winkin: A trioecious Kin species capable of flight and patrol beyond their native tree.

River

Fish: Most, if not all, of the fish in the lake were originally brought in from alternative water sources in the Range or the Step to expand fishing opportunities. The river is capable of supporting small communities of fisher folks, but they also attract random swamper raids to catch small schools, which makes fishing groups a target.
Finkin: A sexually monomorphic Kin species it is rumoured to dwell in the river waters from Rangers transferring guppies into the shores.

Natural Resources

Hot-Rocks: Rough and black outcroppings that are easily found at the foot of the Bad Step having fallen off the mountain face. Hot-rock have high thermal conducting properties that are perfect for constructing in-home stoves but do not emit heat on their own; as shown when they are mined from the ground and lose their heat.
This suggest that there is some heat source deep in the earth and they line most of the sauoomsae's river bottom.

Alternative Name(s)

River of Life

Type

River

Location under

Lightning Lake

Contested By

• College of Birds

Related Tradition (Primary)

• Cormorant Fishing

Inhabiting Species

• Bearded Bear
• Black Mark

Related Myths

• One World