Jurn Kjarda

The Jurn Kjarda is a nation located on the northern coast of the western continent

## Language/-s

There is at least five languages being spoken in the Jurn Kjarda:

Ninkil /nɨŋkɨɬ/

## People

It is mostly inhabited by the native jurn. They are an ambivalent shapeshifting humanoid species. Their basic shape is human, although both slimmer and taller, with brouder shoulders than most humans would have had. Other differences are the ears shaped like those of bats, the six canines per jaw and the dazzling eyes, speckled with all colors from the rainbow, as well as gold and silver, on an amber and green base. Aside from the jurn there is also significant nugus kusami as well as quainsian minorities, the souveraign state of Quainsiu being nearly completely self-autonomnous.

## Settlements

Nunnusk:

is a settlement in the midst of the Jurn Kjarda,

not yet reached by the modern concepts importet from the outside world.

Like all settlements of the Jurn Kjarda, it is mostly a forest, below its canopy, however, woven structures create a beautifull maze below the branches.

What differentiates Nunnusk, which in the language of the Jurn Kjarda means "\_Heart of flowers\_" (The word also means core/center), is that its structure is not woven from dull but bloomings vines which change color along the seasons.

A street which a visitor would describe as being covered with a bright blue-white color in spring, becomes purplish in summer and, after having had mirrorcolored fruits of metallic cover, loose their petals in autumn, for their leaves to become red and copperish, sometimes golden abd amber in hued subtle colour.

The streets within the settlement all orientate themselves towards its core, which is a grove of ancient trees, fabsolutely forbidden to come to harm, as the ashes of dead members of the village are given to them as nurishment and offering, strenghtening the villagers belief that they harbor the memories, which in Jurn Kjardan is equal to the soul of a being, as shapeshifters visual identities are easily changeable.

The houses of the people are mats woven of leaves and straw, intervined young trees substituting for walls and the branches of the ancients as cover and ground for new etages in the house. The Jurn Kjarda themselves sleep in hammocks and basket-like beds that hang from the branch-ceiling.

Between the houses the trees are planted like fences and mazes, sprinkled with consumeable plants, luring game inside, which in a hunt won't be able to exit by its own will. Not matching the pattern of the hedges, a labyrinth of small trenches filled with fish and giant fresh-water isopods.

## Quests

Al

/alɬ/

The "al" is the main animal dish of the jurn kjarda in the lowlands. It is better described as the giant freshwater Isopod.

In the time of harvest, every 30~ days, everyone is participating in catching the local stock of them.

Herefore the trenches are blocked with personal fish traps, every several jumping widths, to wich its owner is walking through the water, repetedly clapping on it, to make their cattle flee the other way.

Upon entering the fish trap, the "al" can't exit and are brought out of the water alongside it.

It is to note, that young larvae up to the size of a thump can easily exit through the hull homeever.

For every bigger one a long way back to its catchers village awaits them. The bigger the Isopod, the more likely its alive arrival.

Within the village now, the elders look throughout the catch, and assign both the catcher of the most, and that of the biggest "al" with the village's blessing.

The village's blessing means 1. a pouch of drug berries, pretty good at destroying one's sense of pain and fear, as well as speeding up the healing process upon being put on a wound.

The only side effects are a state of blissful stoned naïvety and the other four senses going hyperactive.

2. For foreign adventurers an aditional free pass to travel throughout the jurn kjardan lands and borders unhindered for the next month.

That is for those who win the "al"-catching game that is.

After sorting out the winners, the 24 biggest of the Isopods, going up to the size of a watermelon, are kept in a small pond in the villages center where they are fed with pretty much all delicacies their kidnappers could provide.

In exchange, the resulting ootheca are layed into the shallow waters of the trenches within the village's borders, constituting for the large maiority of the new generation of giant freshwater isopods in the vicinity.

The remaining "al" are boiled alive in hot water, afterwards either dryed under the sun, smoke-dryed or eaten in a great feast. The 24 survivors from the last harvest in the past now have to kick the spoon too.

They are baked with lots of vegetables and bird eggs, while the village celebrates them

## Events

"Askskinkikudankut"

/aɕks.kɨns.kɨː.kuː.daːŋ.kʊt/

\_free-blood/relatives-doer-village-belt/cycle\_

Every spring a festival is held in the jurn kjarda, where young people, mostly males, visit other settlements afar, looking for courtship, love and comradeship.

They meet the local youth there, on the outskirts of their settlement, and they perform a ritualistic dance, where the newcomer dance in several small cycles, faces outwards, crossing their arms behind the backs of their neighbors, while their local counterparts, together with the protective adults, dance in one big cycle, faces inwards, around them, keeping them captive in their ranks.

Their interaction is yet limited to the "song of a strangers face", which is inspired from a dialogue of an ancient tale of love.(lore follows in #wiki)

The visitors swear to do a lot for the subject of their love, tell of beautifull places to take them to of beautifull songs and presents to give them. The hosts ask in denial and tell of broken promises, for which revenge to expect.

After a while, as some have found each other with their gazes, single visitors break loose from their cycle and perform a dance, where they try to show the utmost of their bodical capabilities, especially that of shapeshifting magic.

If they one, with whom they keep their eyes locked, approves, they leave the cycles and head inside the village.

After hours of dancing and singing, all those that have found someone for them were led inside. The rest is personal interaction.

But before that they exchange their entire names, as well as those of their parents and grandparents, to avoid having mutual ancestors in those generations, as well as to avoid sharing one of the descendency lines. afterwards they have found their mates. At least until midsommer, when everyone heads back to their own settlement.