Great Iron

Great Iron (Essu: Vannaqanggat /ⱱɑn.nɑ.qɑɴ‿ʁɑt/ ) was a large Essu town in western Rakkimar. It was regionally known because it was built around a massive iron meteorite, uncovered 4000 years ago, that provided the metal for most of the local tribes - they made winter pilgrimages there to acquire metal for cold forging. 
== Name ==
Great Iron was so called because of the immense meteorite that lay at the modern town centre. It landed hundreds of thousands of years ago, the largest fragment of the Great Essu Iron Meteor, but was hidden for millions of years until after the last glacial maximum, where it was discovered by the Essu in the -3000s as the ice retreated. In Essu, the name Great Iron was coined, which was Vannaqanggat (from vannaq 'iron' + inggat 'great, grand' w/ onset vowel harmony mutagenesis). Here, most of them spoke Rakki and an Essu dialect known as vannaqanggu.
People of Great Iron were known as the Vannu, A lot of them were animalfolk - there was a large population of sealfolk, lynxfolk, and sharkfolk.
== Location ==
Great Iron was located in the far north of the Danderillon. It lay about fifty miles south of Solvenger across Qanoyaq Sound, the waterway that separated Anticosti Isle from mainland Indratera. Great Iron was to the north of Bracken by quite some distance; it lay on the terminus of the Cape Auril Peninsula.
== Geology & History - The Meteorite ==
At some point several hundred million years ago, an immense meteor broke up in the sky over what would become Indratera's northern pole. It probably caused a local extinction event of the Tarkassian/Rakkimarran dinosaurs and early megafauna. Anyway, it was buried through countless ice age periods and geological epochs. Finally, some of it became uncovered after the 15-12kya ice age, and it almost fully became revealed after the end of the last glacial maximum 9-5kya.
The meteorite that it was just one fragment of is now known to scholars as the Great Essu Iron Meteor, which now is scattered across Rakkimar. Its largest fragment created Rakkimar's Starfall Crater, and one of its next largest fragments landed on the Cape Auril Plateau, here, where it was discovered by local Essu people in the mid -3000s TE.
The local Essu dug out a site around the meteor, which they realised was absolutely huge - this fragment was inconceivably large. The local Essu tribe settled a town about two miles from the meteorite, on the coast. They used much of it for their iron, cold forging it for tools - in Rakkimar, the Rakki were the only culture who developed smithing and forging metal, whereas others like the Essu used foraged metal or cold forging to make tools like spearheads. The town grew to a sizeable population, and other local Essu, Yuren and local tribes without sources of reliable iron would make pilgrimages to Great Iron in the winter, walking across the sea ice maximum. They would trade for iron from the immense rock, and return before the ocean thawed again. 
== In Modern Times ==
In the Collapse Era, Great Iron had a population of about 3,000. The great meteorite sat in the centre of town, barely reduced in size, covered in tool marks that told its history. 
Because the Rakki people brought with them a knowledge of metallurgy and smithing, and because trade brought other sources of metal, the meteorite was mainly used for artifacts, art, traditional tools, and such - modern tools were built of regular Rakki iron, and the meteor was used for the stronger, more valuable, or more traditional crafts like harpoons, spearheads, and jewellery. 
Again, Great Iron was culturally Rakkimarran, and the Rakkimarran Way was that of collectivism - not focused on making income or money, but focused on community instead. Therefore, it didn't really have 'exports' besides art, traditional objects, and local food such as whale and caribou. Instead, the people ensured they all had the most safe and happy life. They didn't commercialise the meteor, since it was so important to them. 
A lot of local Essu and Kintirakki (half-Rakki half-local) people came to Great Iron for pilgrimages to see where their ancestors had mined metal for their tools long ago. They felt the marks and looked at the chips in the rock from thousands of years ago.
Category:Places