Anoquit

> *‘Our village.. Our people. We’ll survive. We’ll flourish’*
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> *'Wherever we end up.'*
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> *'Aye. Wherever we end up.'*
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- Meeko and Eoin, looking out over the horizons as they led the Anoquit west.

The **Anoquit** people (pronunciation: *a-NOCK-oo-it;* Yilderet: **ᐊᓄᖂᐃᑦ**) were a tribe and culture of Bronze Age proto-Gildegran and ancestral Danderillic peoples that were notable in the -8000s. They initially lived somewhere between Mount Carm and the shores of the modern Farwydd Basin. However, they were notable for undergoing a great migration in the year -8927, as a result of the raining fire that befell their village, Anoq. The Anoquit had an impact on early Waterdhavian culture too. They settled the village of Y'rontaoq after their migration, which would eventually become known as Yurontok. Yurontok would be the site of the Lusken Empire's first landing on the Danderillon, and the future site of Waterdeep and later Halcyon.

## Notable Anoquit in -8927

* Eoin Blackstone - ᐅᐃᓐ ᕝᓚᒃᔅᑐᓐ - the village's flame-haired master smith, always smiling
* Grace Eti - ᒡᕋᔅ ᐃᑎ - a huntress who existed on the fringe of the village both socially and physically, later helping the group to settle Y'rontaoq
* Orson Eti - ᐊᕐᓴᓐ ᐃᑎ - a fun-loving ankle-biting wild child, later the first reeve of the village
* Viridian - ᕕᕆᑏᓐ - a mysterious drake, later a fey drake
* Meekadox Llawglas - ᒥᑲᑐᒃᔅ ᖥᐅᒡᓚᔅ - the shaman Ainuk's apprentice, and later leader of the Anoquit after the fall of Anoq & Ainuk's death
* Skaa Enat - ᔅᑲ ᐃᓇᑦ - the fletcher
* Wudo Enat - ᕗᑐ ᐃᓇᑦ - the town crazy
* Sula - ᓱᓚ - the town's main farmer
* Tala - ᑕᓚ - the town's other huntress, who was often at odds with Grace
* Ainuk - ᐃᓄᒃ - the old village shaman who was consumed by revenge and greed, leading to his deserved death
* Onur Tenisali - ᐊᓄᕐ ᑕᓂᓴᓕ - the old gruff fisherman
* Kira Tenisali - ᑭᕋ ᑕᓂᓴᓕ - the fisherman's daughter and Eoin's wife in Y'rontaoq
* Ki'mera - ᑮᒧᕋ - a small chimera adopted after it hatched from a meteor

## Adventures in Anoq

During the early harvest in -8927, Ainuk sent Meeko, Eoin, Grace, Orson and Tala to hunt some food. Down at Mammoth Creek, they tracked and felled a wounded mammoth. They also spotted a pair of Eja tribespeople watching them. On the way back, they saw a meteor fall near their village, which contained the baby Ki'Mera, and a cryptic clue. Eoin used the meteor to craft a langseax for Meeko. They travelled northwest to seek answers.

### The Menhirs Lay Open

At the circle of menhirs, they aligned all of the stones' moonbeams to reveal a constellation to follow, and a message. They named the constellation the *Diving Bird*. It led to a small tower on a hillside.

### You Are the Children of Those Who Walked Before

Along the way, they found an Eja forward camp led by Tuhwe, and the hunters had captured Wudo! They retrieved the mushrooms that an ill-fated Anoq hunter, Ukka, had lost when he was killed by the Eja. The quartet freed him from being cooked and eaten, and killed all but one of the hunters. Tuhwe died aflame looking to the heavens. Inside the ruins, they found an almost-perfectly sculpted chessboard, and successfully navigated across it, to reveal their next message from the First Ones. The shape of the warriors on the board was linked to form another constellation, now named as the *Five Warriors*. They camped out in the ruins of the tower.

### Free Us. You Are Chosen

They set off back home after a pleasant morning of fishing and conversation. Back home in Anoq, they rested, and spoke to Ainuk about their findings as well as to Ukka's family. Ainuk and Meeko told them a story of how Meeko was found as a baby on a hillside, after a warlord had received a prophecy (see Meekadox's page). Overnight, Meeko spotted Grace watching Ainuk. Grace made it clear she was suspicious of Ainuk's tale. There was something else.

The next day they set off, but got stuck in a never ending forest clearing, where they found a mushroom ring. They proved their worth to six guardians, and met Summer, a fey. She was tricksy, and made some of them agree to some not nice stuff. Meeko agreed to take her hand, Eoin agreed to give her a moment, and Orson gave her Meeko's name, amongst other things. They tried some plans to lift the curse, and their solution was... interesting. Eoin, Grace and Orson bludgeoned and beat Meeko to death savagely and quickly, before Grace successfully bargained to have him brought back, and all the curses lifted. In return, she was cursed a little - she became a warlock, could no longer remember her left+right, and when she spoke Draconic she could only shout. 'Successful', the group continued on exhaustedly, but soon a warm, calm golden glow found them, and the hand of Kosose was offered to them. They awoke rested, and Kosose told them all. Ainuk had send them on this journey for his own gain - to seek a weapon, a ritual component, to bring fire and pain to the land and kill the Sunwalkers. With this knowledge, they cleared an old facility lost to time, and crushed the crystal into shards.

### The Chosen Survive

As the sky turned blood red, they rushed home, fire raining down and burning parts of the village. Meeko took charge as the new leader, and they rushed to find Ainuk in the wheat field where so many years ago his back was broken. They tried to make him see sense, but he was consumed by revenge, summoning fire and brimstone. They fought him - he summoned fire spirits in his defense, the Varanu:it spirits. The group fought them off, Eoin swooping round with his angel wings and celestial flame to banish many of them. Finally, they defeated Ainuk, and burned his body in the ashy field. Returning back, they realised that the village of Anoq was no longer safe, and gathered their things for the long march west.

## Epilogue - A New Home

Escaping a place of fire, yet *perhaps* bringing such a curse with them, the tribe settled around a large, natural deepwater harbour on the west coast after a journey of a month or two westward. They quickly set up their new village, with homes overlooking the sea and down by the two rivers. The tribe named the new village **Y'rontaoq**, from a merging of the Yilderet words *y'ron*, *tła* and *oq*, meaning *'The village bridging two rivers'.* Using their natural magic, both Grace and Meeko helped make the land incredibly fertile and rich over the next few years - such a cause was Grace's excuse for staying rather than drifting with the winds like she promised. Meeko, as the new village leader, led his people well. He officiated the marriage between Eoin and Kira not long after arrival, as well as becoming a much better leader than Ainuk. Truly, the people loved Meeko. Orson became the first sheriff of the village, with Ki'mera at his side. Grace lived on the edge of the woods, Eoin travelling between his home in town and his forge in the chalky hills to the north (it kept exploding when he built it in town!).

Eoin and Kira had several children, all born with fiery red hair, and they spent much time with their aunt Grace and uncle Orson. Age was kind to them all, but Meeko was the first to pass away. When he did, at a ripe old age, the village spent almost a year constructing an ornate huge burial mound, to the southeast of the limestone-rich hills. It came to be known as Ławglasqaqquit ('*Greenhand Barrows*'). An impressive burial mound that was covered in intricate stone carvings and contained truly labyrinthine passages, it was a masterpiece. Meeko was buried within, with his meteoric langseax Vengeance's End clasped to his chest. To protect her friend, Grace began a tradition of the Ła:uit (lit. 'green people', translated as *Greenwardens*). She took an apprentice from the village, teaching them all she knew, including how to use Viridian, who by now had grown slightly in size and stature. The Greenwardens continued this tradition for countless generations, as Viridian watched over Meeko's tomb and them all, he himself having a lifespan of countless millennia more.

## Legacy

As Eoin and Meeko said, the people would thrive, their legacy living on far beyond their years. Recognisably traditional Anoquit culture was still noticeably present thousands of years later, lasting into the second century DR, when the Lusken Empire landed at Y'rontaoq (now Yurontok) in the first act of their Beilsa Danderilla (Garden Campaign). The Anoquit people claimed indigenous status in the growing cities during the ensuing centuries - their culture was the native culture of the industrial city of Waterdeep and later the shining city of Halcyon. It could be seen in some of the dialectical language, food, art, and history.

## Gallery

Meekadox, the LeaderEoin, the Master SmithGrace, the Woman of the WoodsOrson, the SheriffSkaa, the FletcherWudo, the MadmanSula, the SowerTala, the TrapperAinuk, Consumed by RevengeKira, the Fisherman's DaughterOnur, the Fisherman