Oruti

Oruti human fishing community with a large number of Tabaxi

Zibil, Kotecun, Anoyako and K’oshasha

Oruti is on the farest south-east of the continent, and closest Maligon nation to the axis hole of the cog. As the axis is the warmest part of the cog, Oruti is blessed by warm waters and the brightest light in the aethersphere above. The southern corner is a sheer eight hundred foot cliff on the shore but slopes down to long stretches of soft, almost white sand beaches. To the west of the nation are a small section of the Daaman forests that are in the Oruti territory. Oruti has been shaped by immigration by the Tabaxi, a cat folk originally from lands even close to the axis. After the great human diaspora at the very beginning of the Maligon states, Tabaxi arrived in large rowboats and escaping an ecological disaster that has only really been recorded as a time of ash and smoke. In the years since, Ventures to find the tabaxi homelands has not been fruitful. From their maps, the archipelago seems to have been completely altered by whatever this cataclysm was. Before the arrival of the Tabaxi, Oruti was not densely populated, the name Oruti being the surname of a prosperous human fishing family who had travelled with Ral of the ragged cloth but instead of built a homestead in this land. Now however, the humans and tabaxi have built a society that is uniquely Orutian and one envied by much of Maligon. For example, At aetherzenith each day, shops close and work is halted for at least an hour and half so that the whole of oruti can take a restorative nap before continuing the work of the day. Travellers arriving at this time have been rightfully confused.

Zibil is on the dusty plains close the Oruti Zonamadaaman boarder. Zibil is the home of the Senate forum, where representatives of the districts of Oruti vote on matters of concern twice each month. Each town has two Senators the wilds has a northern senator, southern senator and a senator of the coast, who is traditionally an older member of the senate, acting as speaker and adjudicator in debates. The Senate building and adjoining courthouses is an enormous colonnade square, open to the hair with mosaics of sixir and the birth of magic across the floors. The current coast senator is Ioannis Kondakos, a human in his sixties who served as a senator of Anoyako and Zibil before his position now. The current senator of north Zibil is the divisive young tabaxi Iris Priscea who is beloved by many for her intense rhetoric but has connections to a criminal organisation known as the Ailuros family. Zibil town caters for the political class heavily in the immediate area around the Senate building. The most expensive restaurants such as ‘Crying maiden’ the ‘Zibil Taverna’ and the ‘mockingbird lounge’ have private and clandestine meeting rooms for Senators and their associates. The cheaper eateries like ‘Gardens’ the ‘hooves and horn’ and the ‘amphora’ offer work spaces for the legal assistants and junior aids that work in the senate and courthouse. Outside of the senate district, there are tailors and ateliers designed to keep the Zibilites in the most fashionable imports.

Kotecun is the largest town of Oruti, along the southern side of the coast. The south side of Kotecun are the most dedicated fishermen in all of Oruti, famed for their trawling methods between two fast paced kayaks, and the wildly diverse yields this part of the sea can produce. Kotecun relies on both this fish trade, and the fresh fish couriers that are paid handsomely for rushing the catches across the continent. Kotecun takes great pride in its sleek carts, some of which are designed to be pulled by wind sails rather than horses. These have come, somewhat patronisingly, to be known as catwagons, and are popular as recreational vehicles in Tryb and Grandkalev. Kotecun also produces some of the most prised glassware of the continent, hand blown from the sands of the Oruti south-west beaches.

Of all these accolades however, Kotecun is probably most famous for its criminal element. A square mile of the southern tip of the town is called the ‘Throat-slitters quarter’ or ‘little wonderverg’ and is famed for its cut purses, charlatans, hired assassins and it’s speciality: Silent untraceable burglars. A dwarven crime organisation under a leader going by the alias Gortle Goldentooth have recently set about recruiting from the quarter, something that worries the senators more than home grown illegal enterprise. an emerging situation across Oruti are the fights between these Goldentooth thugs and the Ailuros family gang of zibil. Taverns in Kotecun often serve only varieties of ‘Jaunty’ an Orutian liquor flavoured with a whiskey like base and a heavy dairy cream. These bars include ‘the whiskers’ ‘the scrimshaw hook’ ‘Manzoutkus and associates’ which contains a theatre in its top floor. In the Throat-slitters quarter, there is ‘the five moon night’ a meeting ground for criminals and the ‘Kotecun midnight diner’ ran by a mysterious scarred human known as the teacher.

The clifftop town of Anoyako has become a hub for magic in Oruti, the Anoyako Scroll library being a valuable resource to spellcasters and historians, especially in the south coast. The reason for this is not as simple as one might expect. Dating back to the mass exodus of the Tabaxi, Sixir has been considered the patron god of this fledgling culture. Preachers of the Tabaxi were quite vocal in their opinion that Takamul had abandoned the Tabaxi of the spoke archipelago to be extinguished in her ‘ash and smoke’ cataclysm. How this lead to the mistress of magic becoming more popular is unknown, but the majority of Orutians, tabaxi and human, consider Sixir to be the countries most important goddess. This is eagerly shown in Anoyako, in the architectural devices of the scroll library and the rituals of the people. The ‘Anoyako Sixir’ is given to a depiction of the goddess with a tabaxi head, and may be seen in shrines, venerated as one of the multitudes of aspects of her across the cog.

Standing at the north side of town, the Scroll library is a white building, as most of the buildings across Oruti are, with four corner standing blue mosaicked domes and one larger central dome made of blue tinted Kotecun glass. Inside, priests of sixir transcribe and protect the scrolls, which are kept in cubby holes built directly into the clay of the interior walls. The ward around the library has many privately owned book sellers, antiquities sellers and magic shops attempting to lure in those seeking the library. There are some impressive magical items that find their way to shops such as ‘Yoshimasa’s’ ‘cat-eyed Sixir’s horde’ and ‘Bluto Blutoson’s jewellery and enchanment’. Outside of the academic magical pursuits Anoyako has one large pub ‘The scroll case’ run by a human named Charlotte Juliacob that serves food and makes lunches wrapped in waxed paper to be eaten in the grounds of the scroll library while studying. The other reason a traveller may visit Anoyako is for the daredevil activity of Cliff diving, which occurs all the way to the eight hundred foot edge of the clifant border.

After the scroll library, the second largest building in Anoyako is on the south-west most edge of the clifftop. As the jewelled metal sign outside states, it is ‘Mystery temple of the goddess of magic and patron of our aethersphere, the one true force controlling both the spellcaster and the layfolk towards their true and most fulfilled destiny of magic and truth’ but this chaotic building is thankfully known by the locals as simply the ‘Mystery temple.’ The Mystery temple is not associated with any known order of clergy of Sixir, instead being operated and owned by ‘Fooseg the wise’, an orange tinted tabaxi who is always in some bizarre combination of robes, headdresses, jewellery and ceremonial accessories. The building is as eclectic and chaotic as its owner, its exterior baring it’s official name, some liturgies by Fooseg, some replicas of Elven art and some mosaics similar to those found on the senate floor in Zibil. The interior is a maze of mirrors, blue curtains and strange friezes depicting Sixir bestowing boons on Fooseg himself. The ‘services’ of the Temple happen irregularly throughout the month, sometimes twice a day and are always delivered by Fooseg the wise. These services are what he believes will most please Sixir at the moment, and have ranged from liturgy reading to performances of long and improvised songs, dance and live visual art creation. While not much is known of his past, Fooseg seems to be a spellcaster of some considerable skill, as these ‘masses’ often become a sort of magic show, with illusions and low level spells used to enchanting and disorienting effect. Fooseg can also be struck by sudden inspiration while out in Anoyako, doing private ceremony for those whose ‘destiny is becoming more true by the second!’ With his non-sanctioned priesthood, eccentricities and lively attitude Fooseg the wise occupies a unique position in Anoyako, equally revered and mocked, but fiercely protected by his fellow townsfolk.

K’oshasha is the newest settlement of Oruti, built in response to the last war. While Oruti was nominally in the winning ‘Army of the Bear’ allied nations it was only because they had surrended to the naval forces of Ringiff in the first skirmishes of the war. K’oshasha was founded to be a training ground by the senate to avoid such an embarrassing showing again if they were threatened. In the seventy five years since this has occurred, the paths to do this have been multitudinous. One of the most popular has been the teaching of the K’oshasha martial art, The Ambatu. Ambatu is a form of twirling kicks, incorporating rhythmic movement and acrobatic invented kicks. Monks who study Ambatu can control a crowd and intimidate an opponent with their flashy strikes. To augment this unarmed attack, the Orutian army have developed flails and whips as some of their primary bladed weapons. The Oruti navy is also stationed in K’oshasha, building their Trireme boats of three oar banks. The decks of these have ballistas and catapults, some that fire grappling hooks. The difference between the Oruti navy and most over Maligon fleets is the crescent shaped metal ram at the very bow, taking advantage of their wicked speed. These Trireme are often painted dramatically, with patterns and images of Sixir. The uniforms of an Oruti soldier are layers of cloth and sheets of bronze metal, covered in metalic strings of beads that obscure motion and cover the faces and hands of the soldier. A traveller can attain this unique armour, curved swords and flails if they like, from the K’oshasha surplus shops.

On the northern outskirts of K’oshasha, there is a crumbled temple, of the same construction as many of the Zonamadaaman elven kingdoms. These are even less examined than the wild Zonamadaaman ones, much to the chagrin of the eastern Museum of the fair folk in Rai’nldin. The temple appears to be some early elven worship of Etolik, perhaps a tomb or mortuary for preparing the recently deceased. The reason that it is almost entirely speculation is it seeming suffers from a petrification curse, one that resists any attempts to dispel it. Researchers, soldiers and raiders have all been turned to stone, some restored with magic and potion but unable to remember what has happened. Many of the statues that can be seen from the outside seem to be anachronistic to the design of the temple itself, implying that they are earlier victims of this enchantment. From time to time, hunters will insist it is some type of creature, rather than an errant spell effect, but many of these hunts have either ended in petrified disaster or found nothing at all. Worryingly, in the last fifteen years or so, Local Oruti children have taken to leaving out gifts and presents on the ‘holidays’ of the month on the steps of the cavernous temple. In an anonymous report delivered to senator Ioannis Kondakos, a little girl was questioned by her uncles after being caught leaving freshly picked before the Hokekaso festival. She said that it was for ‘the pretty snake lady’ who the boys of the neighbourhood had called ‘Miss Etolik’

Oruti has natural plains, much of it untouched. Badgers, foxes and hyenas prey upon frogs, rodents and rabbits. on the wilder northern boarder with Zonamadaaman, it is not uncommon to see a rhinoceros, short haired mammoth or some of the various forms of dinosaur that those in Zonamadaaman rear. Along the coast, Oruti is known for the giant Oruti crab, with its pale blue shell and the hundreds of varieties of tropical fish that only swim into the waters closest to Maligon at this part of the cog.