Tiam's Cradle
Description
See also: Stargrave & Tiam's Cradle Image Gallery (External)The Cradle is a sharply mountainous arc, with characteristically dagger-like, high-relief orogeny on most of its islands. That said, the larger islands have meadowed plateaus and ultrakarst cave systems that are host to a small diversity of wild and humanoid life. The volcanic nature of the islands makes them very colourful, including black, igneous soils and sands, rusty reds, white glaciers to the bright greens and vibrant colours of alpine plant life, which advantage of the nutrient-rich earth. Hot springs, geysers and fumaroles are common, some hot enough to boil water in.
One reason for the archipelago's sparse humanoid population is the extreme weather: it is often called the Birthplace of the Winds and the Cradle of Storms. Fog, rain and gale-force winds are common. Add to this the frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and Tiam's Cradle feels like a pimordial land, still in its youth.Urint-Ahl
In the far Voidwestern reaches of Tiam's Cradle is a town, now controlled by the Esoqq peoples, is of an architecture completely dissimilar to any other style found on all Waking Materia. The Esoqq call it Urint-Aol: "Of Unknown Make". The reason for the utterly unique architecture being restricted to one small town on an isolated archipelago is because it's demonic. In deep prehistory, a group of Near Umbral demons crossed the Veil to explore the Waking World for reasons long lost. The town is in fact an interdimensional expeditionary outpost. What happened to this group of demons is lost to history, though unless they had ways to resist Reality Corrosion, they can't have remained for more than a decade or two.History
Tiam's Cradle is likely named from the ancient ascendant demigod of the feathered dragons, Tiam. It is here that Tiam-Anzu populations were at their most diverse in Antediluvian times... until a group of ghost elf (enari) Lodges swore a blood oath on the entire species, beginning what scholars generally call the the Second Dragon Wars. The local Tiam-Anzu were nearly annihilated, and their God-Ambassador to Humankind, Tallari, rescinded their blessings over the plane. The Sphinx God also cursed the enari dragon hunters to never escape the mindset of the blood oath, thus turning their lineage into a vengeful, distrustful and stagnant people.Demographics
Two lineages of the ghost elves remain on this island, as well as a few tribes of arakh, who are called the Esoqq. The enari have no blood oath against the arakh tribes, but nonetheless relations between the two species is generally antagonistic as both cultures prefer to fight out their tensions. Among the cave systems below is one of only two surviving cheliceran civilizations (yet another species known for their aggression). Aside from some surface raids from the scorpion-folk, the surface-subterranean border is stable.
Politically, the enari are generally divided between tribes for whom the blood oath remains strong in their "genetic memory" and those who have evolved away from it. Tribes that hold faster to the blood oath are generally termed Inquanok, while those who see it as a thing of the past are termed Himadri. It's the Inquanok who tend to inhibit diplomacy between the enari and other species: the blood oath, though only against dragons, appears to "misfire" and even minor physical features can sometimes be seen as "dragonlike" in an oath-addled mind, leading to unpredictable hostilities. This is thought to be a curse from the God-Ambassador of the Tiam-Anzu themselves, as punishment for the Second Dragon Wars.
Comments