Thursday, June 28, 2007

Geography, Part I

Kavkeska is the country of the Kavkyina, the Kavka-speaking people. The land is a peninsula roughly the shape of California, but slightly larger and with a rather different climate and terrain.

The country is historically divided into three parts. The North, which connects Kavkeska with the continent, is extremely mountainous and cold. A great river runs from these mountains into the Central area, which used to be a sea bed and is extremely flat and fertile, with wide flood plains surrounding the river. The South is almost exclusively a fishing community rounding the coast, with advanced sailing technology, and acts as Kavkeska's outlet to the world.

Between these three areas there are two major forests called the Black Wood and the Green Wood, the former being a pine forest separating the North and Central regions and the latter a deciduous one separating the South and Central regions.

There are three principle cities in Kavkeska, one in each of the regions, which are collectively called "The Three Sisters". "Three Sisters" is thus a name for Kavkeska collectively. Amnatum is the largest city in Kavkeska, and lies at the mouth of the Amnolen River (alternative spelling: am nolen'; the Amnolen is also called ol slivduin, lit. "the river"). Ek is the second largest city, and surrounds a bay of the same name in the South.

The third sister is so small it could hardly be considered a city at all; it is called Sas (pronounced "shosh") and lies in a valley in the North between two ridges. Sas is actually two communities: the city itself, which operates mostly by hunting and herding, with some horticulture, and the structure that it supports higher up at the meeting of the two ridges. This structure may be called an academy or a monastery, but the literal translation of its name, Kavoen, is "mountain island".

The whole country is in the northern hemisphere, and as such the North is cooler than the South, even more so because it is so elevated and does not benefit from the warm winds that buffet the South. As an added result of these winds, the South maintains a more steady, mild temperature than does the North, at the price of occasional storms.