Editing Other kingdoms (section)

==The Thousand Flowing Waters==

The Ruins of the [[cities of glass history|First Age]] are scattered throughout the world, however the Largest, most dangerous and best preserved Lies in the region known as the Thousand Flowing waters, a Marshland bordering the Ocean that stretches for miles, and littered with islands and estuaries. It is claimed to be where a thousand streams and rivers empty into. The Region is heavily grown over, inhabited by large [[megafauna|aquatic predators]], littered with ruins ranging from piles of sinking stone to well preserved towers, and inhabited by more ghost, shadows, and other things than any other place in the known world. It is also a place where shallow pools lead directly to the [[spirit world|Mirror lands]], and where time acts differently. Stories are told of brave or foolish youth looting the dead cities, and coming back to find everyone who remembered them being dead and gone, and there town unrecognizable. Others claim that the ruins are from the future, not the past. In all the tales, one detail is consistant, and that is that the Twin Sisters originated there, and that things are buried which can make a man wiser than his fellows, or a gibbering fool. The Major rivers are clear for travel, but going further than a few miles into the Tangled Jungle can lead to trouble. The region periodically floods, and many places are covered by the tide, or sink beneath the muck. Some however rise up and fall according to strange magics or half remembered commands from the long dead inhabitants. This Region is far to the East from the Civilized Cities, but the Twin cities do send teams of researchers and explorers to salvage what lore can be found. These are usually well armed, well supplied, and very specific in where they go. Those citizens with wanderlust or a thirst for adventure are drawn to these expeditions, and though dangerous, it a respected and rewarding field.

--by stephen_dean

The Four Cities are dotted like constellations along the intertwining trade routes that provide the raw materials, and are located on high points along the curving paths of great serpantine rivers that snake over a large plain. The Plains are dotted with canyons and cliffs, gradually becoming drier until the Western edges dry into sandy waste and inhabited by nomads and less definable entities. To the East lies the vast sea, clustered in the Marshes and Jungles by the Coast, and edged by mountains that catch the rainclounds, with large passes carved by rivers and edged with ruins. The rivers from the central highlands serve as flowing highways, and the Mountains where the herdsman and small villages of farmers each out an existance in the valleys and glens of the slopes of the towering mountains send forth there goods South. The southern plains stretch to meet the sea, and from this direction, tribute, spices, slaves and raw materials flow, as manufactured goods, cloth, and wonders of the craftsman of the cities are peddled south, and tribute North. The great carvavans, barges and cities to the south allow for large fortunes to gather, and decadence to thrive.

-by stephen_dean

===The Enkidi, people of the marshes===

A small group of villages and hamlets tucked away in the Marshes, near the center of the thousand flowing waters, and hidden in deep with-in ferns and brackish water, far up river. The Enkidu people prize concealment, and are masters of the use of poison blowguns and elaborate traps and deadfalls. They know there home well, and have tamed many species of birds to hunt and guard their watery homes. The people are few in number, and rarely interact with outsiders, outside of raids for slaves, loot or to preserve artifacts from the ruins. Their villages are built in the sinking remains of a large Stone ruins, or around statues with a rounded face of a god, half buried in the marshes, and one of the few large solid structures around to build on. They dress in a large number of bright feathers and fearsome masks, and are feared for there practice of taking the heads of their victims as trophies. They lack any shamans, and claim that magic is left for the Gods alone to know, and so guard the secrets of the ruins in their lands well. The villages are ringed with the severed heads of trespassers, and the beat of there drums they use to communicate with one another, and the shreik of their war cries fills the heart of the unwary exploreres of the region with fear. Those who encounter them are advised to avoid making sudden movements, and the best tools for bribery are any brightly colored fabrics or strong poisons. Some say they are led by an officer of an Iridos military unit sent to explore the region, who went native and is said to no longer be sane. 

-- by stephen_dean

===The Tomb Cities of Achrum===
Every schoolchild knows of the drowned ruins in the Thousand Flowing Waters, which are now the tombs of the dead and undead of an ancient civilization. That civilization now lies submerged beneath the rising waters of the Gulf of Achrum, which the Thousand Flowing Waters surrounds and empties into. Few know that these ruins are actually the remnants of several cities, of which very little is known or has been learned. There are names given in old texts – Areatha the City of the Loom, Hipece the City of Waters, Marish the Named and Unnamed City – but none have been defined beyond mere conjecture. The marshes near Astomo and the city of Omphalo are most-accessible, but also the most perilous, as they are haunted by vampires and watched by the Silent Brotherhood. Most explorers who seek out the tomb cities are lucky to return with sight and sanity intact. (There is a note here in the text telling of a Wanderer of the Wastes, who returned from the tomb cities whole in mind and body, but speaking an unintelligible language which no one could fathom, and he unable to learn any other.) (nb. "Achrum" was not the name of that drowned land, but of one of the rivers that flowed into the land. scholars and explorers still attempt to determine which current-day river was once the River Achrum.)

--Kakita Kojiro

===Colossus of Chasus===

The most well-known of the lost cities of the ancients is surely the so-called “City of Statues.” It lies in the waters between the island chain on which Iridos stands, but its location is easily found as some of its largest monuments and pillars still stand above the waves, with their statues above or partly above the water. Largest of all these is the colossus, an enormous statue that once stood astride the harbor entrance of the drowned city. It still stands there, knee-deep in the waterway between two islands, to mark where the City of Statues once was. The colossus was made of bronze, but with a concrete core that has remained as the bronze has corroded and eroded away over centuries. Observers claim that the colossus and other statues slowly change their positions and expressions, the colossus much more slowly than the lesser statues here. It is said to be bad luck to sail between the legs of the Colossus, and the reports of empty ghost-ships which sail the nearby waters on foggy nights are said to have be the remains of those who have dared to do so.

--Kakita Kojiro