Aoya & Aman — The Beautiful South and Ancient Jungles

Beyond the Road of Bones

Aman, far south of the old kingdom of Annaen, is shrouded in mystery, more so than even Overseas, where the dragons fly. Aman is hard to reach. Between Annaen and the tangled green jungles lie the highest mountains of the world, and through them leads the Road of Bones. It is a desparate and treacherous route, and only recently has it seen any kind of regular travel, when the Naressine West Trading Company opened the doors of their foundation in Rivertown, at the edge of the Edran Forest. From there, an ancient trail winds always south towards the mountains and the infamous road.

Rock falls, unpredictable weather, the thin air and other dangers claim many lives along the high passes, and those who have walked there say that they have seen the shattered bones of unlucky travellers far below the road, withering in the sun and wind, irretrievable. Burial towers, cairns and small memorial stones are common along the road, and superstion says that the souls of the unburied dead haunt the high passes, tempting those on the road to join them.

The more pleasant way into Aman is along the coast, sailing from Naressina south to Xahar and then into the notorious Demons' Run, where it is said that not the laws of nature, but the dark designs of otherworldly creatures control the weather.
Vessels wishing to avoid the Demons' Run sail around the headlands across the Wildwaters into the Aoyan sea, and approcha Aman from the West. It is a long way to sail, and thus Xahar on the Needle Cape is as far as most Naressine merchants will trade. Xahar has become the main port for trading tea.

Not so innocent flowers

“I see you disapprove, Kiana. But did you know that the black Starflower, known also as Night's Perfume, Death's Repose and Dreambell, has other uses than ensnaring a weakwilled fool?”

— Viedro Zi Yarvin, Noble of Irrish

Black Silk

Aman is a land of rivers and forests, with plenty of rain and a climate ranging from hot and sweltering in the south to cool and temperate on the slopes of the northern mountains. In the fields along the great rivers, everything grows in an abundance that would make the inhabitants of other parts of the world weep.
Tea is cultivated in tea gardens all over Aman, and so is the notorious starflower, or dreambell. Among it's more poetic names is also ‘death's repose’.

The brilliant black flowers are most often used for medicinal purposes, but in both humans and zereshi, they cause vivid dreams and hallucinations. The petals are often smoked or chewed, and exported in their dried state reputedly as far as the Eternal Desert, where they fetch high prices on the night markets. An unknown zereshi from Aman opened up a whole new world of addiction by distilling dreambell honey into the liqueur known as ‘Night's Teardrops’. Many an innocent traveler has woken up naked and dazed in the backstreets of one of the large cities of Aman, if they woke up at all. Those who take refuge in the dreams too often become ‘Starchasers’, seeking for bliss in the dream dens of port cities like Indessa and Xahar, where the dreambell is most common.

But the addictive, dangerous dreambell is by far not the strangest plant among the Aman jungles. Compared to the man-eating constrictor vines, dreambell is perfectly harmless. Dreambell will not go out of its way to kill unwary travelers. Unlike the vines.
But perhaps the strangest plant in the whole vast kingdom is the katta tree: Katta trees grow in the dryer, hotter parts of central Aman, and their large pods bear … kattaspirits. These impish beings burst out of the ripe pods by the dozen. They delight in accidents and cruelty. They are considered a field pest, and the farmers of Aman use many signs and charms to guard against them. Fortunately, so the stories go, kattaspirits are not very clever and easily frightened, so even an apprentice summoner has little trouble banishing them. Katta trees need regular exorcisms, which are provided by the wandering summoners of Aman in return for food and shelter.

A plague of spirits

Summoners are found everywhere in Aman. They deal with the spirits that inhabit plants, fields, houses, forests, stones and anything else that belongs to this world, in vast quantities. Charms, warding signs and the like are ubiquitous in Aman. Most encounters are mildly annoying — such as a host of small, screaming creatures trying to carry off fresh pies from a bakery, and then being chased away with a broom. Sometimes, a benign spirit will also grant luck, health or other gifts to a mortal, and the spirit of the Aman River is said to never let a person come to harm.
It is curious about any cargo, though, and takes a portion of everything. Summoners are sometimes tasked with getting the cargo back in exchange for another gift that is more to the river's liking.

How Aman acquired this supernatural plague is unknown. Legends speak of ruined cities in the jungles, of ancient magic and a great tragedy. Some say the gods punished Aman, some say the gods bestowed on the land exactly what the people asked for.

Not all spirits are harmless. The jungles of Aman, away from the rivers, are the abode of unspeakable horrors. Skin eating, shape changing Things wait in the darkness underneath the branches. But perhaps worst are those from Beyond: Unearthly entities that meddle with the world and its creatures for reasons that are entirely their own. In Naressina they are known as demons, and in Aman they walk unnoticed among the living.

Beautiful Beaches

Those who have been there say that when they first set foot on the shore, they wept, and wept again when they had to leave because they knew they might never again see such beauty.

The islands of Aoya lie just southwest of the Wild Waters, en route from Aman to Overseas, basking in the heat of the twin suns and enjoying endless summers. Those who survive sailing past the Needle Cape and into the fearsome Wildwaters, find themselves resting on dazzling beaches of fine white sand, enjoying the shade of palm trees and the famous Aoyan hospitality.
Piles of exotic food await the hungry, often shipwrecked traveler, and after weeks of surviving on ship biscuits or clinging for days to whatever will float, Aoya seems like a dream.

The food that looks so tempting, and which is offered on broad flat leaves by a beautiful young girl wearing nothing but a necklace of sea shells, contains some of the hottest pepper known under the twin suns. The girl with the sea shells knows some very powerful curses, and is here in an official role to make sure the washed up barbarians behave. Her mother hunts sharks with her father.
And the charming little boy playing the conch? His village has great hopes for him. He knew you were coming… because the sea told him so.

The marvelously friendly and easy-going people of Aoya live on the beautiful islands surrounded by the world's most dangerous oceans, because they can.

The People of the Sea

To a Naressine merchant from the big city, arriving here at the end of the world in a sturdy caravel that dwarves the huts and even the largest boats of the natives, the Aoyans might seem primitive. They live in huts, sometimes built from driftwood, and the few household items they possess are carved of wood and bone. There are no large settlements other than that in which the High King resides on the main island, overlooking the only stone port, and no roads. Most people live in small village communities scattered across the hundreds of islands. While their parents fish, farm, and paddle to the neighbouring islands to trade and visit, the children spend their day playing naked at the beach.

Sacred Traditions

“They say an Aoyan ship will never sink.”

— Mendeo Zivanidi, merchant of the West Trading Company

Black Silk

Those same naked children mentioned above learn the names of the constellations from their elders, who also teach them how to steer a boat by the stars. Mathematics and navigation are considered sacred arts, first taught to the people of the islands by Him Who Guides the Stars, and they have been practiced ever since in his honour.
Those who wish to become true navigators seek out the masters of the craft for instruction, who offer their knowledge in exchange for food, services and sometimes housing. As their skills increase, the aspiring navigators accompany more experienced members of the craft on increasingly longer voyages, until their training is complete.

Aoyan navigators are considered to be the best, and they often find themselves working for other seafaring folk: Captains from Aman who need to dare the Demons' Run on their way north, or merchants from Naressina, notably from the guild of the South Traders, who risk the long way across the Wildwaters for spices.

The Call of the Sea

The closest word for ‘navigator’ in the language of Aoya translates to ‘pathfinder’, someone who finds a way across the trackless ocean. But that is not all an Aoyan navigator does: In their own language, they are called ‘gao’, which describes someone who ‘speaks with the sea’. A gao can and does chart a course, but they also advise a ship’s captain on the weather and, literally, the mood of the sea.

The sea can provide a gao with news of events it has witnessed, most often news of severe storms and other vessels, and a gao can literally negotiate on behalf of the ship and her crew for safe and speedy travel.
She Who Calms the Waves is the patron of most gao, and their ability to soothe a raging storm is what makes them living legends among the southern seas.
There is also She Who Brings the Storm, the dark and decidely capricious twin sister of She Who Calms the Waves. All gao deal with this undpredictable and fearsome entity, and all can call on her powers of destruction at need. Dark whispers tell of gao who have even called The Wave that Swallows All down on their enemies.

Both men and women become gao, humans as well as zereshi. It is the sea that chooses them. Often, the local gao will be one kind, and their student the other. There are many zereshi in Aoya, and unlike in other places in the world, relations between the two species have overall been friendly, due to the policy of many High Kings to choose their advisors equally from both. In the words of the Aoyans themselves, they are one people of two kinds. They are Aoyans first, the People of the Sea, and human or not, second.

Huts

“The hut where I lived belonged to a woman called Piri. She made clay vessels and carved wood, and carried me to the other villages on her back. I ran to her for comfort and milk, and so did all the children in the cove at one time. The woman who had carried me in her belly was Nai. She lived with us when she wasn't paddling to the other islands to trade things, or to hunt and fish. She fished with another woman and moved into her hut later, and there was a man there, too, who built boats.”

— Noali Kaliari, formerly of Aoya

Black Silk

In similar fashion, Aoyans emphasise the village community over the importance of individual families: Each hut in a village is owned by the person, or persons, who built it, and lived in by the owners and whoever joins them. Some of these liaisons last a lifetime, others only a season. Sometimes a hut becomes too small, and a portion of its inhabitants builds a new hut. Children happen. Very often in the wake of ‘fun on the beach’. Although parents often live and raise their children together, a life-long monogamous marriage, such as is common in other parts of the world, is not custom. Babies and children are cared for by the entire village, and as much as that is possible, regardless of species. Quite often, certain huts develop a reputation for good child care, and might find themselves housing a large number!
Hunting, fishing and working the fields are similar community activities, where the bulk of the work might be done by certain huts, and the rewards divided among the entire village according to an ancient system.