Emerald Expanse
The Endless Jungles of Western Marai
Scenery
See: Scenery of the Oronaga Clan (External)
And: Scenery of the Chiyō Clan (External)History
The Endless Jungles have an immense history; likely many times more eventful than historians are aware.Antiquity
A few of the earliest surviving writings of the The First Empire describe the Emerald Expanse as already being host to populations of Ong, Baraka, Hecath and Watchers. The Empyreals did not appear to have much political or scholarly interest in these peoples despite their intelligence: descriptions are almost wholly through the lens of Empyreal armies displacing and subduing them.First Age
All indigenous races, except arguably the Watchers, were decimated by territorial wars with the Colonial Gods of Egwain. As indigenous populations retreated, large swaths of territory in the Expanse was given over to the arborial Qufit and their cultural allies the Onidoshi, who had developed a strong trade relationship with Alanthan'aravaut during the ongoing, interplanar Dye Wars.
The Expanse is also where the rogue Lichlord, Io'a, started his own savage kingdom, known as Iyō, in the Middle Third Century I.M.. Iyō at its height in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries I.M. would become the third largest nation of the First Age, after the First and Second Empires.The Lost Age
Much of the Khayyamite half of the First Age Emerald Jungles were destroyed by the Deluge, as evidenced by petrified forests in and around the eastern sultanates of Emeralda and Volta.
In Marai, drow and eladrin fought bitterly for control of the Emerald Expanse after the Deluge drowned much of central Materia in haunted brine. These wars would last on-and-off for over two centuries before the drow ultimately emerged victorious after enlisting the help of (manipulating) a few clans of human warriors east of the Endless Jungle. This partnership would eventually become the Maraian Oronaga Clan. The exiled eladrin would come to be known as the Rakuyōsei.Third Age
Nearly half of the Endless Jungle is now controlled by the Oronaga Clan clan of the Maraian Commonwealth. They don't tolerate independent human and/or drow tribes as they cannot be tithed. Any newly-discovered tribes in the Expanse are given polite warnings and standard tithe rates; any resistance is met with an increasingly heavy hand until the the tribe relents and joins the Anacondas, or perish from their "squeezing". The Oronaga never do anything quickly, savouring the journey more than the destination.
Much of the modern Chiyō Clan of Marai are directly descended from the Iyōans. Also displaced (albeit less violently) by the Oronaga over the centuries, they mostly populate the lagoons and coastal islands of the Expanse's Voideastern reaches. Though tensions have eased over the centuries, the two clans are still deeply unfond of each other and often bicker over who are the most direct descendants of Iyō. The Izuka and Dolaghan also carry some Iyoan descent.
A small population of Ong still lives in the canopies of the far Voidwest of the Expanse. If things continue as they are, they too may one day under threat of "forcibly joining" the Oronaga.
The Hecath have survived as well, but are now a wingless, largely subterranean species. Their Queens still dream of the sky and wake in mourning. Few humanoids know about them all, and fewer are aware of their high intelligence and symbiotic lifestyles. The Hecath seem content with this.
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