Young Writers Society

I could reaaaalllly use help with a title so I'm ALWAYS open to suggestions.

Tarketh(Orange)

Tarketh is pretty fair in regards to equality. The rulers have done well with their system. They also avoid conflict mostly because the lives of their soldiers are valued. They are the only race that has actually managed to basically share an entire island with the elgari and have it be completely peaceful. However, they are also a very proud race and many of them dislike the Ekor (Blue) because Ekor are godless and ruthless in the Tarketh's opinion.

**maybe should give each race some kind of unique trait?
Tarketh are extremely physically advanced compared to the others? Adaptability, flexibility, endurance/athleticism they have a high heat tolerance of up to like 200 degrees or something? All these 'advanced' traits have a representing animal god? **
Many parts of tarketh are moderate to hot climates. The cooler areas generally have those with a little bit paler skin and are considered from boonies. They are a little classist in that way. Those in the city center wear a lot of thin fabric and jewelry. Trinkets are a sign of how much you have. And not just gold but anything that required skill to make. The more someone shows signs of having a certain god's favor, the more desired they are or admired. I guess they can be seen as similar to a greek lifestyle only more advanced. Some kind of mass transportation thing has recently been invented that is revolutionary. Those in the city center are all about that. Maybe its air ships? Idk
MAYBE they think the elgari are the descendants of their animal gods and that's why they avoid conflict?
Well either way. They have a really amazing army. Very skilled and strict. However they don't have the highest numbers because it's not mandatory for anyone to join the military. On a child's 7th birthday they get to choose their future. I mean many don't choose until they are older but age 7 is when they are allowed to start an apprenticeship. All are expected to choose one apprenticeship by age 12. Even if they are to live with their family and help on the farm it's always been mandated by the royal family that each and every citizen of tarketh have a form of secondary skill other than their family trade. It helps keep the community going strong because it forces connections in the community. It also causes a unity so that arranged marriages are less common. Some of these rules have been in place for hundreds of years and some have become more recent in the last hundred.


Sondossa is flanked by cities from each coast. It has direct trade with blue people and it has indirect with red and white thanks to surrounding territory alliances. The river is what separates sondossa from blue territory, and that's where most of the city lies. There's a valley that splits across from the city and the forest just beyond that leads eventually to ixim. There are only two bridges to cross the valley. Both sides of sondossa have their own towns where trade is popular. They often work together as well. It's two towns allied into a giant city with some traveling distance basically. A lot of people call it north and south sondossa. North sondassa is on the river and they do a lot of trade with the blue people as well as the fishing villages that live along the river on both sides. South sondassa is the slummier half of the city. There's a lot of forest surrounding it which means people get away with a lot more sometimes. Many people in this city worship the god of 'conversation' or whatever. One of the gods is good with persuading people and basically being able to convince people into what they want.

Ixim moderately isolated due to a dense forest, Ixim is considered one of the more 'rural' areas. There's a huge tree city near the far coast. They bring a lot of the wood trade into sondossa. They worship the god of the forest and it seems they are in good faith because for every tree they cut down, it seems the new ones they plant grow faster in the ixim forest than any other place in the world.
Qarcil educated city- qarcil has a lot of fields surrounding the center city which is basically the largest fortress you will ever see. That is where all of their intellectuals go, to study under the guidance of their animal god that represents learning or whatever.
Avalusche- oasis. It's like where the rich vacation. They brag 'oh I'm going with my family to avalusche next month.' and the others are super jealous. It's because the governess of the town married the chief of the elgari that they share the island with and so basically the whole island is gorgeous lol. You can def see the classism when traveling from avalusche to persophos. Persophos is much more equal and they don't charge their people an arm and a leg to travel between it and the other islands. A lot of times it's cheaper for poor folk to travel to one of the other countries' lands and then to avalusche to avoid the upcharge from the tarketh docks.
Charok- dry lands -- most similar to an ancient egyptian type lifestyle. Mostly flat, lots of palms and shrubs. life centers around the river . Charok is where many book passage to avalusche so a lot of merchants and travelers are constantly creating traffic through the city.

--

Ekor(Blue)
The Ekor are a race of pale skin, pale haired people. Since their skin is devoid of color, they get bold colored tattoos. The vividness of the tattoo often indicates status. So if you are rich you have big bold bright tattoos that you update often. Where as if you are poor or maybe you have been traveling outside of blue territory your tattoos fade or you have many small ones.

--

Elgari (white)
The Elgari are the longest living and oldest race in this world. They’ve got basic written history from before any of the other races. There are things even older than that. They know the earth and the animals more than the others and are where the shamans come from. Shamans can pretty much do magic. Certain kinds of magic, create fire or water, move the trees and command animals. Kind of like avatars with the elements, but also plus animals and some can do certain types of super simple transmutation but it’s limited to what the item has the potential to be. (water to wine, sugar into poison, etc. nothing living) Some can even revive the very recently dead and heal wounds. They are the best healers because of their knowledge. The other races kind of view them as not fully human because they are the only ones who carry such abilities.

The elgari are the widest variety of people because they are spread out all over the place and many from the other regions who visit them sometimes choose to settle down with the elgari. They are the most neutral of all the cultures and they are the most accepting. Basically anyone who is homeless can travel to the elgari and they will be taken in so long as they aren't a murderer or rapist. Thus a lot of thieves and bastards and orphans end up there. With the thieves, they are basically given what they are needed. Thieves have no reason to steal from those that provide for them. They don't really have things of value. That and no one wants to really make the elgari mad because of legends about their power.
Most elgari really can't do much anymore. A lot have animal companions and stuff but it's like. They can't tame wild beasts, they can only understand basic stuff so many have pets or whatever that they either raised from birth or that they befriended/adopted. They can't summon the elements but only manipulate what's already there and even then it's somewhat limited. Nothing crazy. They are really adept at hunting an healing though because they are very in-tune with the earth. Even those without elgari blood are taught enough to have skills that surpass many others.
They are a really passive race and honestly everyone else is scared of them because there's been enough tales in history about people's attempts at attacking the elgari and basically getting their butts smeared.
So it's easier to just leave the elgari lands alone. They did get pushed back to basically the edges of all land they inhabited but it only made them stronger once various villages and tribes were forced together to become huge cities. It forced them to advance to keep their people alive and so they began creating libraries and things like that to store all their information. The reason the elgari are so weak is mostly because of bloodline thinning. When a strong one arises it's usually just winning the genetic lottery in terms of how much of that bloodline affects the person.
So they stopped being as primitive and now they have huge cities of old stone that look like they were formed by the earth itself. Very beautiful cities because the people there are so capable of manipulating the elements and objects around them. Like… money doesn't mean as much to those who can often create what they want in one way or another. So basically like. Other people attacking them actually made them become unbeatable lol.
So yeah. The elgari are pretty simplistic. They like their comforts.
Also having a trade treaty with the elgari is really hard to get but if you do you are basically ballin for life.

During the Boska Expansion of 806 the Elgari of Ardassita made a last stand, pulling parts of the earth itself and creating a mountain overnight, barely a hundred feet from the Boska's resting army. The strain took the lives of many, and the falling earth of incomplete sections killed even hundreds more, but it stopped Boska entirely in it's tracks.
Using the earth to make mountains overnight caused the land of Ardassita to split into a series of islands now known as the Ardassita Isles.


Ardassita: Ardassita is basically this massive fortress. It looks like a giant mountain on the [Boska] side and on the other side it has half a city carved into the side of the mountain and an entire settlement between the mountain and the ocean. It was the first actual Elgari homestead, erected as a last defense against the encroaching [Boska]. They took so much of the land in a rush to throw up the fortress that it broke apart the continent into a cluster of islands. Like there is no way that an army can just bust down a gigantic mountain that appeared overnight. It's considered a historical landmark to the elgari. Elloewaera was actually attached to Ardassita but the land connecting them was broken away during the battle. This war was hundreds of years ago and since then the wall has had a road carved into it so that people may cross from one side to the other, though it's easier to just sail around.


Ardassita Isles:
Ursonis: Once where prisoners from the war were held, but now it's just a homestead.

Dorianus: the smallest of the isles. Just another homestead to various elgari

Opalis: is barely connected to ardassita by a bridge. Is a main hub for a lot of tradesman and fisherman and basically anyone escaping red or Tarketh and needing to find charter.

Ardassus: The largest of the islands. It's now a shrine to the earthmother that many make pilgrimages to.

Ellos Volcano:Mostly uninhabited, it was the first land of Ardassita to be destroyed for the creation of the mountains This left the volcano isolated in hopes that, if an eruption were to happen, little to no lives would be lost.

Joor: lots of farming here. And blacksmiths

Elloewaera: forest and farmlands

Ghanziel: swamp/marsh where all the buildings are built up off of the ground because the summer melt-off from the mountain floods everything. The ground is marshy too. Most of the city is concentrated around the river which is also why everything floods but yolo they ain't movin.

Adis and Ahrin:

Ithicas:

--

Misc:
The Red Bridge The only way to reach Lyovis is to take the Red Bridge. It's the home of most of Boska's royalty, the waters filled with enough carnivorous water beasts to deter any invader.
Skeaf Thaad is an independent island, with no ties to any other place and no actual legal system. It is up to the inhabitants to protect their lives and belongings from travelers. Skeaf Thaad is where most smugglers come to find distributers or merchants willing to deal with stolen goods. It's where merchants come when looking for the rare or new from around the world, but haven't the means to obtain it in the morally right way.
Gravesite Weqrox Ranusche
Ancestral Burial Ground for many Elgari and Xoprarians.It's a series of caves filled with the bodies and belongings from hundreds and hundreds of years before. It's considered sacred to the Xoprary and is said to have old Elgari magic thrumming in the earth itself. The Elgari of Kirasig and north Xoprarians have shared land for a very long time with great respect for each culture.

Eralun was born in Edran. Her mother is Elgari, Taarnish and Boska. She was a nomad. Her father’s clan is in Edran, North Xoprarian, but his mother is Xoprarian also half Elgari from The Owos. He is the youngest of eight so he’s the least important of the sons.
Eralun has two brothers and when her grandmother, the clan leader in Edran, died, her mom took advantage of the chaos and moved them out of Xoprary and to Taarne.
Taarne is not really a great place to live. Eralun’s mother grew up there but it’s one of those ‘i had good kid memories so obvs that’s the choice to make’ but then they end up being on the poverty line for a while. Eralun doesn’t get along with her family at all. Her younger brother hates his whole family and her older brother is kind of a screwup who also is a mama’s boy. Eralun’s mom is very mean and selfish and her fathers kind of gone from being a father to just existing ever since they left his home. He works a lot and she’s always making them go broke by trying get rich quick stuff that costs them a lot more than it saves them
So when eralun is around 17 she leaves home. She’s left a few times before but always come back after a couple of months traveling from friend to friend around taarne.
When she’s 17 she goes to ogeron for a handful of months. She works in a small stall helping an old lady sell food. She gets her first tattoo on her back after a long shift. It’s an old elgari rune. She gets it because she has some kind of weird magicy-stuff happen to her but also because she wants to get in touch with some of her ancestry. She meets this guy while she’s in ogeron. He’s kind of weird. He’s from skeaf thaad. He’s creepy as hecko but he seems interested in her and she’s 18 and stupid and she’s never had someone show an interest in her.
She travels with him. He kisses her and things like that. having someone is kind of nice, but when they get to skeaf thaad she realizes he’s kind of a lowlife. He’s a smuggler. He’s not a merchant. It’s not that she’s morally right enough to hate smugglers but she values her own standing and doesn’t wanna go to jail anytime soon.
She leaves him. She hops on a different boat to illote. The merchant she rides with is somewhat flamboyant, big nosed guy named Ttam who seems exasperated at everyone's existence. He’s not very smart but at least his ship is in fair condition. She spends a year or two in Ilote, working with the Ttam doing travels between persophos, avalusche and illote.
Eventually she ends up staying in the ekor mountains during the last few months working for Ttam. then she ends up getting some more tattoos and her hair changes some more.
She digs tarketh. She spends most of her time there traveling but she does see almost that entire country from one end to the other.
Boska she feels kind of at home but it also brings out the bad in her. Boskans are brusque and snappish so she kind of lets her temper control her behavior more. It makes her a stronger person. She gets better at defending herself and learning to use her size and stature to intimidate with an equally large personality.
Eventually she makes her way through the mountains to Ardassita. Ardassita is amazing, she spends a whole month there doing odd jobs and stuff to get by and just enjoy the city. Also the ardassita isles have a ton of history for the elgari.

Opalis is a very famous landmark for the Elgari. It’s basically a trade island. Eralun does some ferry work for a week or two in which she sees some of the crazy stuff that gets taken in and out of there before her curiosity gets the best of her and she decides to make a trip to opalis.

Eralun meets Pescren whenever she's kind of perusing through the marketplace and there is a young man with his mom selling food and some livestock products. She's working some wool and he's bartering with a mother of three children.
She's been visiting opalis for two weeks already and she's been considering staying in ardassita for a few more because she's enjoying the weather and has made a friend or two. She's observing some of the food, a little flustered because hey this guy's cute ok. She's afraid to start conversation but when he greets her she smiles big and bright and chirps 'hello!' with as much enthusiasm as she can. He smiles so obviously that was the right move.
They end up bantering for a bit and god she really wants to talk to him some more but his mother is staring her down and he's also awful at multi-tasking customers and talking to her about a random animal species and their weird habits or some 'nerdy' stuff.
So she pays and says 'maybe another time?' and slips off with her heart pounding and hands tingling from where they brushed against his.
She knows in that moment that he's the one.
It's just something deep in her core.
There is elgari on her mom's mom's side. She knows little bout them other than their family name of 'moon'. Which is so typically old elgari that even if she tries to be level headed she can't help but listen to her gut instinct as much as possible. However, she really likes to not listen to it in situations such as this. At this point, she is willfully ignoring she even has a gut at all.

His father is a traveling merchant, so he is gone for most of that first week because he brings their products out to the other cities and also sells some to trade boats and travelers along the way. He makes pretty good money because they are all crafty as hell.
She goes between ardassita and opalis for a good week, coming by every day to buy fresh fruit to eat. She offers him some too but he only accepts one or twice and only one time isn't reluctant.
They talk about geeky stuff.
She sees him in the street on a bicycle type of thing? She comes out to talk to him about it. He helps her try to use it and she's awful at it but maybe she'd be better if he wasn't touching her and making her skin feel like it was on fire.
She ends up crashing the bike thing and breaks something idk but that calls it a day. She feels really bad and she's like 'oh god he won't want to see me anymore' and she's apologizing to him so much and he shakes his head like 'it's okay. It's an easy fix' and then he hugs her and it's like she's frozen before she just buries her face in his throat, breathes in deep and hugs him tight.
But then the ferry horn goes off and Pescren has to catch it to get back home because his family's farm is on elloewaera and not opalis.

So the next time she stops by is the following day. She spent all morning looking to replace the part on pescren’s bike. she grew up in a culture where many gift people with trinkets and random objects pretty frequently.
Unfortunately it's more of a courting thing in this region. Esp. elgari cuz they put their 'soul' into what they make so it's said that getting a gift from an elgari is like getting part of their heart. Even tho it's something she bought, the sentiment is basically 'I have the intent to date you'. Esp because she’s mentioned to both of them about her elgari blood and she has some kind of hyper-awareness of stuff around her that freaks pescren out constantly.
Well he's taken aback and is flustered and goes to receive it from her. then mom stands up and is basically like 'you should leave' or something I'm not quite sure. Either way what she says is taken as a way of Eralun being rejected and Eralun, flustered, leaves with her gift.
Pescren is awful with standing up to his mom and his mom has no idea that Pescren is all about Eralun since it's only a recent thing and he didn't wanna tell them yet cuz he knows Eralun is a nomad or whatever and isn't sure she'd stay for him.

Only problem is that Pescren has noooo idea where Eralun is staying. She didn't say if she was in opalis or ardassita or if she ferried from the other islands. Nothing. Which means that Eralun spends a good week and a half enjoying more of the elgari culture without even seeing him. She feels despondent though but she also kind of feels at home in this land.

She does wanna see him again but he's always there with his mom so she finally decides to maybe take the ferry to elloewaera. She’s been honestly avoiding it cuz she’s still embarassed about pescren’s not-rejection rejection but she’s gonna look at all the wild animals. Besides she heard they have a lot of wombara and she loves wombara.[ref: see fauna]
She rents maybe Flathorned Raffe?
Anyway she actually spots Pescren working on his family’s field with his cousins. They’ve got a huge Elasbeast and it’s pulling the plow. Pescren is minimally dressed in trousers with his blouse unbuttoned and hanging around his waist. Sweating and his back muscles flexing and all that surprisingly fascinating stuff.
She’s kind of just staring and her raffe is getting impatient and kind of shifting around. She can’t decide if she wants to talk to him or not. She’s nervous
Well his cousins point her out and she’s like shit shit shit and she tries to make her raffe giddyup but the raffe is like um pls im taking my time. And pescren drops the plow and his cousins yell after him but he’s jogging for the fence, calling out to Eralun.
And eralun is like ok well i’m caught and tbh this is secretly what i wanted. And so she dismounts after approaching the fence and she’s barely on her feet when pescren hops the fence but then he stumbles and she and him are like nose to nose and then he’s like ‘hey what’s up’
And she’s like ‘um.. Just traveling. Like i usually do.’
And he’s all ‘I thought you’d left the isles.’
‘No... i just thought i was becoming a bother.’
‘You aren’t a bother.’
He’s so intense about it. It’s like he’s mad at her for thinking badly of herself. She doesn’t know what to say so she’s just like ‘oh okay.’
And then there’s awkward silence and she is like ‘i can’t stay in the isles forever though.’
‘Why?’
She shrugs like. ‘I don’t know. It’s not my home?’
‘Where is your home?’
‘I havent’ found it yet.’
‘I thought you said your family was in taarne?’
‘They are but that doesn’t make it my home. That’s just where my family is.’
‘oh... i see.’ but he totally doesn’t get it. He’s just bad at conversation.
So then she’s fiddling with the harness on her raffe and is like ‘have you ever wanted to see what’s out there?’
‘All the time,’ pescren’s answer is immediate. Like he’s been waiting for years for someone to ask him.
‘Why don’t you go then?’
A shrug. Like he’s a little uncomfortable about answering. Or like he doesn’t know how to say he’s always been too scared to take that first step. So eralun is like 'come travel with me.'
'okay'
Pescren is like so ready and Eralun is taken aback and he's like 'I wanna travel but I don't want to do it alone. There's not a lot for me here. My parents don't need me that much. They have plenty to keep themselves going.'
--tbc

Tarketh:
The god bird is the creator. She laid eggs and hatched humans and animals. When she is about to die she lays an egg and is born again through the egg. In the early days an illness comes and kills this girl’s family. She prays to the bird god for her family back. She’s alone, the only survivor so she starts to travel. It’s over a year before comes across a shaman who she tells her woes to. He says she can be with her family again if she takes this giant egg and brings it to the highest mountain and sings to it while laying it in a nest of (insert plant here). Her journey is long and hard. She meets talking animals along the way who help her reach her goals and stay alive.

I haven’t decided on the animals yet but what’s important is that she can’t do this without them. Finally when she reaches her goal and is able to do what is needed, the egg hatches and it’s the god bird. The god bird thanks her and asks what is her greatest desire. She says to be with her family.
The god bird says it has been too long and she cannot bring her families bodies back to life. She’s upset but the god bird says that her family can still be with her as they are now. She asks what the god bird means and then the god bird says ‘they have been with you this whole time.’ or whatever.
It turns out that all of the animals who helped her are her family members ,they were born again as animals. It was their love for her that gave them the ability to talk.
The god bird says ‘you have done me a great service and I shall do the same for you.’ and he turns her into another animal. That’s how the great guardians come about. Each animal represents a strength trait.

Ekor:

(God) created the (Blue people) it is known. He spent 3 days searching for just the wood to carve the (Blue people) out of. It was a beautiful deep reddish brown, and (God) was quite pleased with his creations. But the (Blue people) were not pleased they wanted to be all “the colors of the wind”. They cried out to (God) to change their color the deep blue of the great ocean. (God) replied to the people saying that if he were to change them, he wouldn’t be able to see them if they were to go swimming. The next day the people cried out, asking (God) to change them to a the green of new growth trees. (God) explained that green wood is too young and weak to work with. The next day the people cried out to (God) to be turned to color of gold. At this point (God) was angry with (Blue people) he told them that he chose that color because it was the most beautiful color in the world, and they should be proud to have been made from such a impressive type of wood. But the (Blue people) were not happy they stamped their feet and yelled at their god. They wanted to be all the colors of the world. They were not content with this simple brown color. (God) was furious that the (Blue people) were not happy with his choice, and they yelled at him. He became so angry that he decided to punish his creations. He burnt them to ash, removing all the color from their bodies. The burning lasted a whole day and the sky filled with smoke, the smoke lingered for several days. When the smoke finally cleared and (God) looked down upon his creations. —They looked back up at him and told him they didn’t need him anymore. With their new white ash bodies, the (Blue people) had in the found out how to color themselves. They were all the colors of the world and— (God) proceeds to “punish” the people for abandoning him and each punishment is an obstacle that the blue people solve with their technology. (God) punishes them with a great draught, they invent irrigation etc. this format of god putting up a challenge and technology beating it until (God) realizes that he is no longer needed. Thus the Ekor have a (God) but are still considered 'godless' by many.


Elgari:
The earth was very lonely and very barren, so she created the trees, the oceans and the mountains. But the earth was still lonely because none of her creations could speak. So she created animals, but she had never made a living being before, so she did not make them smart enough. She loved the animals but found herself bored and so she tried again. This time, she put a little bit of her very soul into her creation and gave birth to the elgari. She taught the elgari and the elgari learned. They learned to use the earth’s creations, to feel the earth’s soul and to talk with her. The elgari could move the trees and the ocean, could touch fire and enchant animals. They were all that the earth could offer and more. Such is the tale of the first children.

Pescren wants to ride a locomotor so bad but Eralun is like 'they're loud and smelly and they break down all the time.' or whatever. Obviously she's not about that at all.
There is a lot more woods than Pescren was expecting. He mostly cares about how cool the cities are. When they to any place that has something new, Pescren is alwsays trying to show Eralun whatever he can find lol. He's so cute… Eralun is a little more preoccupied with finding people willing to trade or whatever so she can find them a place to stay for the night. Ad then he shows up with a little steam powered trinket and she’s like WHY DO U NEED THAT but lets him keep it cuz he cute.

Pescren is good with ranged weapons. Eralun is better with physical stuff like maces and short swords. There's mostly wildlife to worry about more than anything, but there’s many instances of dealing with bad situations and even badder people in the world as well.

Eralun is only an inch or two shorter than Pescren. She’s much broader than he is--thicker and stockier. She’s solid and Pescren is taller but he's just a lot of lean muscle.
He's beat her in every wrestling match but it might be because having him pin her down makes her feel weak :3c