Aalda Esso

## Geography

### Aalda Essor

Aalda Esso is a far-western city state, despite the nations small size it is (relatively) highly populated.

## Aessor Peoples

The Aessor peoples are incredibly pale and seemingly ill-suited to live in a desert climate but thrive due to their thin and tall bodies requireing little food or water to  survive. They are tall and gaunt but human-like in that beyond their white to grey skin the hair and eye colour of the people is varied. They also have distinctively long-black nails and bright red lips. They adjust to the harsh climate by wearing "sui'hes", large tan sheets that cover the entire body save the eyes, protecting them from the sun. This is a large part of the culture of the Aessor people as they believe exposed skin to attract danger and death. As such criminals from the twin cities are stripped naked, then send out into the sand gulf to die.

## Culture

The Aessor culture is built on a strong foundation of survivorship, memories still fresh from the generations spent trekking across the sand gulf, children are taught to hunt Mymcar from a young age. In recent times, since the settling of Jihn and Tohr, though the life of an Aessor family above the poverty line is relatively comfortable there still persists a strong tradition of resilience with many coming of age ceremonies for each sect exemplifying this.

### Aduðma'ara

The closest thing to a war cry the Aessor possess, having only recently encountered other sentient species they had no need for methods of intimidating opponents. During the crossing of the sand gulf pillars where found with small inscriptions, one one such pillar was a crude depiction of the endless along with the phrase "Aduðma'ara". It is unknown what language the phrase is written in, nor why it was written, but it was soon descovered that chanting the phrase could repel the endless, as all things with the endless the results are hard to describe but the result is similar to a cornered serpent backing away from a loud screeching noise.

As a result the Aduðma'ara has been adopted as a battlecry, whispered in two voices, a lower chorus chants "Aduðma'" with a higher joining and finishing "ma'ara". The 5 syllables loop without pause and with a large enough Aessor army the drone becomes loud enough to sound as millions of feet shuffling towards their target.

## Geography

The geography of Aalda Esso consists of 2 cities, Jihn and Tohr, the coastside Tohr is the main food supplier of the nation and produces fish and labour whereas Jihn holds the aristocracy and deals with the politics of the other Kashari nations. The path of unity between the two cities is therefore vital to transport trading goods and food amongst the nation as the only safe method of crossing the gulf. Neither city was built by the Aessor, they are both gigantic and capable of holding millions of people in even the city centres before decending into slums further out. The Aessor believe the cities where gifts from the gods to keep them safe from the sand gulf.

### The Path Of Unity

The Path of Unity is the only known safe route across the Sand Gulf

## History

It's unclear the origins of the Aessor but from their adversion to sunlight it can be assumed that they where once a cave-dwelling species that where forced onto land centuries ago.

They migrated from the north to Aalda Essor after being chased out by something that isn't remembered by the modern populus as the elderly story-keepers died out during the generations spent crossing the sand gulf. The majority of the population died with the crossing leaving only a fraction of the original migrants remaining to populate JihnTohr.

JihnTohr is belived to be a holy land prophesised as the true home of the Aessor and gifted to them by the gods as a safe haven.

## Society

### High lords

The Aessor hold a traditional societal structure, of a series of lords with five serving high lords who hold dominion over the nation, the high lords hold palaces in Jihn and have inhabited and renovated mountainside ruins far more complex that the Aessor masons can build as a palace. High lord status is not hereditary, a high lord is determined by a combination of wealth and combat prowess, without both and the ability to defend them, a high lord will surely be dethroned. This often leads to negligence by the high lords of their people and so many especially on the western side of the country aren't even aware of the ruling classes existence.

### Astemymra'ah

##### (translates as "those who have seen the truths of the stars and the water")

The Astemymra'ah (pronounced "ast-yim-rah") are those who have gazed upon the truth of the skys and survived, the wisest and most mystical authority of the Aessor they are the healers and the localised jury of Aalda Esso, they are recognised by the high lords but

## Myths and Folklore

The majority of Aessor folklore comes from the Gulf, legends of creatures spotted while travelling that eat or hunt people.

### Dhac

The Dahc is a semi-humanoid being that looks to be made entirely of Sandstone. It does not eat, it does not sleep, it does not tire, it exists for the sole reason of wandering the gulf and killing as many sentient beings as it can.

The Dhac is always slightly faster than it's prey, it matters not if one runs or crawls it will catch them just the same, and they will be found days later with a chunk of the face removed between the eyebrows and the lower jaw.

The only way to survive and encounter with the Dhac is to sit, wait, and prey that someone finds you. It won't kill prey that isn't running or fighting as it thrives on the thrill of the hunt and it tends to avoid groups.

Criminal sent to the gulf are often marked in the shape of the Dhac's killing bore in the hopes that it will be seen as an invitation.

Fear the Dhac, for the hunt is endless and the tide of death unrelenting.

### The Endless

The Endless is an indescribable giant mass of orange-red Arthrupod limbs that burrows in the sand underneath the Gulf, many attempts have been made to depict it but none have succeeded in truly exploring the Endless' shape.

It's assumed that the reason it kills people is to eat them but it's unknown how it eats as it has no visible mouth.

Bodies are rarely found but those that are show little damage, as if the sight of the creature killed them with shock. The Endless can be damaged though, it's limbs recoil if spears are lodged into them so the best escape strategy is to retreat while fending off attacking limbs with slings and thrown spears.