Pondlings

The amphibious water folk of the **Pondlings** live on two different islands in the Northern Sea. The females (also called Nixes) are human sized frog creatures, usually inhabiting a lake, river or coast the males (also called Vodniks) only live in mill ponds and are the patriarchal rulers of the society. The Pondling cities are located at the bottom of lakes or rivers and consist of several floors. They use silt, driftwood, and seaweed to construct them. The females of the species are restless and constantly busy, while the males are very lazy and spend most of the day smoking marshweed. When angered, the males as well as the females break dams, wash down water mills or drown people and animals.

Consequently, fishermen, seamen and millers make sacrifices to appease the Pondlings. The male Pondlings will sometimes drag people down to their underwater dwellings to serve them as slaves. In order for the slaves to be able to breathe underwater, they are fed a special type of algae called gillweed. The female pondlings have exceptionally muscular lower legs and calves, and can easily snap a rib cage with a kick of their webbed frog legs. The males are polygamous and each one has a harem of females whose size depends on its authority, which is measured by his behavior the quality of his marshweed and the length of his fishtail. The females return to their home pond once a year to lay their spawn.

## The Uska Islands

The **Uska Islands** are a small archipelago between Zemyland and Littlestep, functioning as the gate to the Platinum Strait. This advantageous position has meant that many powers have been interested in gaining a foothold into the island, but this has rarely panned out. The island is covered in forests and swamps, and it is not uncommon that the seasonal storms end up sinking parts of the forests into limited swamps that might last for months at a time. The trees grow so thick and so close together their branches and roots can create massive natural labyrinths, dooming the lost explorers to futilely chop the trees or to take their chances swimming into the murky waters. Mosquitoes and other insects thrive in these conditions despite the generally cold weather all year long, feeding on whatever warm-blooded creature they can find. The coast has very little natural spaces that allows the easy construction of ports, and again, the seasonal rains and storms can cause heavy damage to docked ships. Most of the ports that have been built there have been abandoned over time, either due to the destruction caused by the storms or by the lure of safer ports at far away shores.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t human populations, however. Over the centuries, the many attempts to colonize the islands have resulted in small spots of population, both at the coast and deeper inland. They have evolved into very isolated fishing towns, moving from area to area depending on the swamps and the forests’ changes.

Outside of that, the island fully belongs to the pondlings. Their physiology is quite adapted to survive and thrive in the massive swamps of the islands. Many of the human settlers believe the pondlings use the remnants of an unknown civilization that sunk beneath the swamps, but there’s little proof of that. We do know that pondlings have reused and repurposed many of the structures humans attempted to build, and even began building some of their own. It is believed that the humans’ contact with the pondlings was what originated the pondlings’ underwater population centers. In the deeper areas of the swamps, the pondlings have built imitations of human cities, made out of seaweed, wood and rock. However, their layout is an ever intricate, near impossible to navigate mess, made a thousand times worse due to the darkness of the murky waters. Many old human settlements have been sunk on purpose to lay the groundworks for underwater towns, with the tallest buildings peeking out of the waters, covered in weeds, algae and other vegetation.

The only true successful occupation of the Uska Islands was made by the Princedom of the Platinum Strait. In their campaign to increase their holdings beyond Zemyland, they needed to find a way to control the prized trading routes within the Platinum Strait. While they were conquering parts of northern Littlestep, a platinum fleet disembarked on the Uska Islands, claiming them for the Princedom. The Platinum troops tried to explore the island, but without the help of the locals, this was impossible. However, the human natives’ isolationist customs meant that they weren’t in a hurry to contact with the zemylanders, and the same happened with the pondlings. However, there was no resistance to the claims of ownership, so to this day the area is considered part of the Princedom of the Platinum Strait. Their colonizing efforts, however, are lackluster. Much more successful than any previous attempts, but outside of a small port in the eastern side of the biggest Uska island, the rule of Platinum is mostly nominal. This is fine by both the pondlings and the local humans, since they aren’t really forced to participate in Platinum’s politics as long as they pay a small tribute: basically wood, fish and the occasional help exploring the depths of the abandoned human towns sank underwater.

The small port in the east has been fortified over the years, slowly growing into a strong fortress that could resist the storms and the uneven terrain of the area. This area also includes a great lighthouse, allowing safe travel for the ships in the area during even the harshest storms.

Attempts from Platinum of exploiting the natural resources of the area have been unsuccessful, to say the least. Most zemylanders are not really keen on the idea of living in the ever humid, ever cold swamp full of mosquitoes and mischievous pondlings, so they have little to no volunteers for the colonisation projects.