Post by Harkovast on Dec 15, 2015 22:20:20 GMT
The main divide between Jaydia and Vellastrom is not the central mountain range. A far greater barrier to movement is the Wahdaq jungle.
The jungle itself is dense and dangerous, going from dense trees and undergrowth to deep swamps that teem with insects. The air is humid and hard to breath, the heat sweltering and with the trees blocking vision of more of twenty feet in some places navigation becomes hopeless. No army could hope to march through such terrain and emerge intact.
Explorers or traders sometimes try to find a passage through the jungle, but to do so is to run a terrible risk.
The jungle is not uninhabited and the people who dwell there are as hostile as they are merciless to outsiders.
These are the dreaded Wahdaq.
The first clue to the danger is grisly totems left as warnings in the jungle. Mummified corpses bound to trunks or skulls impaled on spikes or branches, as well as feathers and carved wooden figures hanging from the trees show visitors that they are not alone.
The observant may come to realise that there is movement around them, and shortly after that the terrible war cry "WAHDAQ! WAHDAQ!"
Suddenly ferocious warriors covered in greasy war paint emerge from all around, even from hiding places under the swamp water just a few feet from their targets.
Armed with deadly knives and firing poisoned blow darts from all directions, these warriors slaughter the outsiders, dragging the few survivors away as captives. These may face an even worse fate than their comrades, being slaughtered in sacrificial rituals, some of which culminate in the native warriors eating pieces of flesh cut from their prisoners.
The Wahdaq are a people of water and death. Physically the Wahdaq are a strange looking race to outsiders, covered in fur with a leathery bill on their faces. This bill his highly sensitive to vibrations and allows them to hide underwater and detect movement around them.
Wah-Daq have a bone barb on their wrists that they can use as a close quarters weapon. The barb produces a powerful poison that causes great pain and paralysis. This substance is also used to coat their weapons to make even small wounds they inflict crippling.
The Wahdaq are a people completely adapted to their environment, needing nothing from the world beyond their borders and giving little thought to anything outside their jungle home.
What to outlanders seems like a foul swamp, to them is a land teaming with life and providing everything they require.
Every area is unique and meaningful, many of them being sacred and blessed by the gods.
The Wahdaq consider it their most important task to defend these areas from outsiders. They believe that terrible dangers will descend on all the world if they fail in their duty and allow these areas to desecrated. They believe that deep within the jungle, in areas even they fear to go, the gods slumber, perceiving the world as we perceive a dream. Should the gods be awoken, they would unleash unspeakable violence and destruction across Harkovast. In their dreams the gods know of every insult and transgression against them, and only the dedication of the Wahdaq can appease them.
The Wahdaq very specific regarding the punishments that must be inflicted on invaders in order to appease the gods. For venturing into some prohibited areas, the Wahdaq will take people captive and are willing to trade them back to their people (or the opportunistic slavers). For entering other areas, the gods demand death and in some cases even worse! Ritual cannibalism is necessary to punish the worst offenders, showing the ultimate disrespect to the worst transgressors.
The Wahdaq do not consider ignorance an excuse and struggle to even believe that anyone could be so oblivious as to not understand what is and is not sacred ground. The Wahdaq don't blunder around offending the gods, so why should they tolerate this from anyone else?
There are designated meeting points in the jungle where the Wahdaq will negotiate with outsiders, selling them captives. The Wahdaq need little from the outside world but will trade for trinkets like hats or jewellery that they find amusing.
The one thing the Wahdaq have been observed to take from outsiders is the designs for wooden crossbows. These are copied from crossbows carried by Eslum explorers and have gradually come to replace their traditional blow pipes as more effective weapons.
Normally life in Wahdaq society is a tough, hunter gathering existence. Though the jungle provides all the Wahdaq need, it does not give up its spoils easily. The Wahdaq mostly focus on survival in their harsh environment, and don't spend time worrying about things that don't relate to this.
Women mostly raise children, protect their eggs and gather plants and food from the jungle, while the men form hunting parties to track and kill the beasts of the jungle.
Their society is made up of numerous small, self sufficient villages, ruled by councils of shamans and village elders, most of whom are female.
Amongst the hunting bands of the males, prestige and pride are very important, with young hunters eager to prove themselves. The men often engage in mock combats, both to improve their skills and show off their toughness.
A common contest involves the two opponents striking each other on the legs with flexible, light staffs. This is not a battle of skill but a test of courage, endurance and aggression. The object is not to defend but to keep striking until your opponent is driven back. Wahdaq men take their personal honour and reputation very seriously, and if one of them shames himself or is humiliated by another Wahdaq it is quite a scandal that will spread like wild fire through their tight nit communities.
Wahdaq are very communal, cooperation being essential to surviving and hunting successfully. The Wahdaq place little value on material possessions (which are simply made form what they find in the jungle) and concepts of organised wars and battles, or even serious theft are mostly alien to them. If a village attacked another they would waste resources and effort that could be spent on survival and most likely have nothing to show for it at the end.
The aggression they show to outsiders is in stark contrast to their normal existence which, while it might not be described as peaceful, is not marked by that kind of wanton violence.
Several different groups of explorers have tried to penetrate the Wahdaq jungle and most have met an unpleasant fate. Those that avoided disease, starvation or wild predators often pushed their luck too far and fell prey to Wahdaq warriors.
The most successful expedition was undertaken by several well funded Eslum parties, sent by Crown Prince Resadeo the Mariner.
Of the largest of these parties, only one man returned. Half starved and raving he spoke, in periods of lucidity, of constantly fighting off Wahdaq ambushes and attacks, his parties numbers and supplies dwindling. Finally his group came across lost ruins of an ancient city, long over taken by the jungle. When he spoke of the city his stories became bizarre, rambling about terrible three armed giants, the ever burning green flame and the dread Matriarch of Chalnotek.
Most people dismissed this as the ravings of a mad man, perhaps mixed with Wahdaq mythology. But the man brought with him, clutched tightly to his chest, a broken bronze tablet, that he claimed held the forbidden secret of the lost city. He said that carrying the tablet caused the Wahdaq to stop attacking him out of fear, but even so he barely survived the return journey, leaving all his companions dead in the jungle.
As he died, he begged the crew of the Eslum ship that was due to return him to his home land to destroy the tablet, or caste in into the sea, or "we will all share the fate of Chalnotek."
Eager not to return to their crown prince empty handed, the crew ignored his warnings. However, the other ships on the voyage home reported the vessel carrying the tablet behaving strangely, and odd lights flashing on its deck. During high seas it turned away from its course, sailing into the storm and being lost forever.
Where the lost ship ended up is unknown, but reports have spread across Harkovast speaking of the strange tablet, the secrets carved into it bringing power but also terrible ruin to those who try to decipher its symbols.
Some fear that this is but a taste of the great power that the Wahdaq guard in the jungle, secrets Harkovast is not yet ready to learn.
The jungle itself is dense and dangerous, going from dense trees and undergrowth to deep swamps that teem with insects. The air is humid and hard to breath, the heat sweltering and with the trees blocking vision of more of twenty feet in some places navigation becomes hopeless. No army could hope to march through such terrain and emerge intact.
Explorers or traders sometimes try to find a passage through the jungle, but to do so is to run a terrible risk.
The jungle is not uninhabited and the people who dwell there are as hostile as they are merciless to outsiders.
These are the dreaded Wahdaq.
The first clue to the danger is grisly totems left as warnings in the jungle. Mummified corpses bound to trunks or skulls impaled on spikes or branches, as well as feathers and carved wooden figures hanging from the trees show visitors that they are not alone.
The observant may come to realise that there is movement around them, and shortly after that the terrible war cry "WAHDAQ! WAHDAQ!"
Suddenly ferocious warriors covered in greasy war paint emerge from all around, even from hiding places under the swamp water just a few feet from their targets.
Armed with deadly knives and firing poisoned blow darts from all directions, these warriors slaughter the outsiders, dragging the few survivors away as captives. These may face an even worse fate than their comrades, being slaughtered in sacrificial rituals, some of which culminate in the native warriors eating pieces of flesh cut from their prisoners.
The Wahdaq are a people of water and death. Physically the Wahdaq are a strange looking race to outsiders, covered in fur with a leathery bill on their faces. This bill his highly sensitive to vibrations and allows them to hide underwater and detect movement around them.
Wah-Daq have a bone barb on their wrists that they can use as a close quarters weapon. The barb produces a powerful poison that causes great pain and paralysis. This substance is also used to coat their weapons to make even small wounds they inflict crippling.
The Wahdaq are a people completely adapted to their environment, needing nothing from the world beyond their borders and giving little thought to anything outside their jungle home.
What to outlanders seems like a foul swamp, to them is a land teaming with life and providing everything they require.
Every area is unique and meaningful, many of them being sacred and blessed by the gods.
The Wahdaq consider it their most important task to defend these areas from outsiders. They believe that terrible dangers will descend on all the world if they fail in their duty and allow these areas to desecrated. They believe that deep within the jungle, in areas even they fear to go, the gods slumber, perceiving the world as we perceive a dream. Should the gods be awoken, they would unleash unspeakable violence and destruction across Harkovast. In their dreams the gods know of every insult and transgression against them, and only the dedication of the Wahdaq can appease them.
The Wahdaq very specific regarding the punishments that must be inflicted on invaders in order to appease the gods. For venturing into some prohibited areas, the Wahdaq will take people captive and are willing to trade them back to their people (or the opportunistic slavers). For entering other areas, the gods demand death and in some cases even worse! Ritual cannibalism is necessary to punish the worst offenders, showing the ultimate disrespect to the worst transgressors.
The Wahdaq do not consider ignorance an excuse and struggle to even believe that anyone could be so oblivious as to not understand what is and is not sacred ground. The Wahdaq don't blunder around offending the gods, so why should they tolerate this from anyone else?
There are designated meeting points in the jungle where the Wahdaq will negotiate with outsiders, selling them captives. The Wahdaq need little from the outside world but will trade for trinkets like hats or jewellery that they find amusing.
The one thing the Wahdaq have been observed to take from outsiders is the designs for wooden crossbows. These are copied from crossbows carried by Eslum explorers and have gradually come to replace their traditional blow pipes as more effective weapons.
Normally life in Wahdaq society is a tough, hunter gathering existence. Though the jungle provides all the Wahdaq need, it does not give up its spoils easily. The Wahdaq mostly focus on survival in their harsh environment, and don't spend time worrying about things that don't relate to this.
Women mostly raise children, protect their eggs and gather plants and food from the jungle, while the men form hunting parties to track and kill the beasts of the jungle.
Their society is made up of numerous small, self sufficient villages, ruled by councils of shamans and village elders, most of whom are female.
Amongst the hunting bands of the males, prestige and pride are very important, with young hunters eager to prove themselves. The men often engage in mock combats, both to improve their skills and show off their toughness.
A common contest involves the two opponents striking each other on the legs with flexible, light staffs. This is not a battle of skill but a test of courage, endurance and aggression. The object is not to defend but to keep striking until your opponent is driven back. Wahdaq men take their personal honour and reputation very seriously, and if one of them shames himself or is humiliated by another Wahdaq it is quite a scandal that will spread like wild fire through their tight nit communities.
Wahdaq are very communal, cooperation being essential to surviving and hunting successfully. The Wahdaq place little value on material possessions (which are simply made form what they find in the jungle) and concepts of organised wars and battles, or even serious theft are mostly alien to them. If a village attacked another they would waste resources and effort that could be spent on survival and most likely have nothing to show for it at the end.
The aggression they show to outsiders is in stark contrast to their normal existence which, while it might not be described as peaceful, is not marked by that kind of wanton violence.
Several different groups of explorers have tried to penetrate the Wahdaq jungle and most have met an unpleasant fate. Those that avoided disease, starvation or wild predators often pushed their luck too far and fell prey to Wahdaq warriors.
The most successful expedition was undertaken by several well funded Eslum parties, sent by Crown Prince Resadeo the Mariner.
Of the largest of these parties, only one man returned. Half starved and raving he spoke, in periods of lucidity, of constantly fighting off Wahdaq ambushes and attacks, his parties numbers and supplies dwindling. Finally his group came across lost ruins of an ancient city, long over taken by the jungle. When he spoke of the city his stories became bizarre, rambling about terrible three armed giants, the ever burning green flame and the dread Matriarch of Chalnotek.
Most people dismissed this as the ravings of a mad man, perhaps mixed with Wahdaq mythology. But the man brought with him, clutched tightly to his chest, a broken bronze tablet, that he claimed held the forbidden secret of the lost city. He said that carrying the tablet caused the Wahdaq to stop attacking him out of fear, but even so he barely survived the return journey, leaving all his companions dead in the jungle.
As he died, he begged the crew of the Eslum ship that was due to return him to his home land to destroy the tablet, or caste in into the sea, or "we will all share the fate of Chalnotek."
Eager not to return to their crown prince empty handed, the crew ignored his warnings. However, the other ships on the voyage home reported the vessel carrying the tablet behaving strangely, and odd lights flashing on its deck. During high seas it turned away from its course, sailing into the storm and being lost forever.
Where the lost ship ended up is unknown, but reports have spread across Harkovast speaking of the strange tablet, the secrets carved into it bringing power but also terrible ruin to those who try to decipher its symbols.
Some fear that this is but a taste of the great power that the Wahdaq guard in the jungle, secrets Harkovast is not yet ready to learn.
) styled Platypus people! I like it.
