View source for Ikuranntu Blackwater River


{{Infobox Region
|Name = Ikuranntu Blackwater River
|Other Names = Unknown 
|Biome = Blackwater River
|Size = 490,800 square miles
|Continent = Unknown 
|Subcontinent =  Unknown 
}}

==History==
===Historical Overview===
===History by Age===

====Stone Age: Before 1E 0====

====Copper Age: 1E 1-1E 2200====

====Bronze Age: 1E 2200-1E 4400====

====Iron Age: 2E 0-2E 700====

====Ancient Age: 2E 700-2E 2200====

====Middle Ages: 3E 0-3E 2050====

====Early Modern Age: 3E 2050-3E 2600====

====Industrial Age: 3E 2600-3E 2700====

====Machine Age: 3E 2700-3E 2800====

====Atomic Age: 3E 2800-3E 2850====

====Space Age: 3E 2850-3E 2875====

====Information Age: 3E 2875-3E 2900====

====Genetic Age: 3E 2950-3E 3000====

====Awakening Age: 3E 3000-3E 3415====

====Twilight Age: 4E 0-4E 500====

==Geography==

The Ikuranntu Blackwater River is the largest river in this region. The river starts from the meeting of several smaller rivers in the Riverlands that combine into the Ikuranntu Blackwater River. It flows through the mountains, over the plains until it reaches the ocean. The river is at its narrowest near the mountains as it expands over 70 feet across and continues to stay this width as it flows down through Grolewzyk City with the river widening to 80 feet across as it gets closer to the city. The people of Grolewzyk City built canals to narrow the river as it enters the city, but once the river continues on at the other side of the city, the river continues up to the sea of a width of 100 feet.

The river cuts right through the Grolewzyk Valley with a mountain range splitting the Arnu Riverlands to the north of the Growlok Mountains and the Grolewzyk Valley just south of the mountains. To the west, the Growlok Mountains continue south and on the east several hundred miles away lies the Odorock Ocean. The Grolewzyk Forest stretches from the north side of Grolewzyk City and continues on making a snake-like feature that follows along the Cai Mountains to the west and continues south. During the rainy seasons, the river will rise creating fast currents that make traveling by the river extremely dangerous. Many accidents have occurred while navigating through the rainy seasons.


The Ikuranntu Blackwater River gets it name from the black soil that covers the bottom of the entire river until it reaches the mountains. From there the soil changes to a grey color due to the many rocks that serve as a wall to the soil from continuing up the mountains. The soil that is black is due to the currents and erosion pushing sand and silt from the soil around it through the river. There are only 2 manmade structures that have been built in the river, Ravager's End, and the large Guard Post built between Grolewzyk City and the mountains. Blackwater River formation was deposited 36 million years ago and consists of claystone, sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate. Channel sandstones and finer-grained overbank deposits of the fluvial were deposited between 29 and 19 million years ago. 

The slightly younger formation deposits are formed from material eroded off the mountains during a time of increased generation of topographic relief, these formations stretch from Arnu Riverland Mountains. In the Riverlands, the Ikuranntu Blackwater River starts out as smaller rivers that serve as a water source and bathing for many settlements past the mountains. The area north of the mountains are the Arnu Riverlands, home to many small settlements that are compacted together to help provide protect from any predator animals or the occasional kin'toni attack. The tall grass that surrounds the smaller rivers both provide the settlers protection and also are a hindrance when the kin'toni attack. They use the tall grass to hide until the moment is right to attack.


In the mountains, the Ikuranntu Blackwater River becomes very treacherous to navigate as the fast moving rapids make many boats crash against the large rocks that line the river's edge. Only experienced boatmen can navigate this section and the body is littered with the bones of many failed attempts to navigate the mountains. It is believed by some that the kin'toni still inhabit the mountains and the actual cause for many of the boats not successfully passing through. The thousands of square miles that comprised the floodplain of the Blackwater River supported a wide range of plant and animal species. Biodiversity generally increased proceeding downstream from the cold, subalpine headwaters in the mountain range area to the temperate, moist climate of Ikuranntu. 

The biodiversity has increased significantly due the low impact of zu'aan presence since the kin'toni outbreak, the vast watershed that was once to provide cities has reduced as those cities disappeared. Currently, only 6,000 square miles of farmland in the basin is irrigated. 73,000 square miles of the basin is devoted to the raising of livestock, mainly cattle. Forested areas of the watershed, mostly second-growth, total about 39,000 square miles. Urban areas comprise less than 5,000 square miles of land. Most built-up areas are along the main stem. Blackwater river drainage basin has highly variable weather and rainfall patterns, overall, the watershed is defined by a continental climate with warm, wet summers and harsh, cold winters. 


Most of the watershed receives an average of 8 to 10 inches (200 to 250&nbsp;mm) of precipitation each year. However, the westernmost portions of the basin in the Arnu Riverland Mountains, as well as southeastern regions, may receive as much as 40 inches (1,000&nbsp;mm). The vast majority of precipitation occurs in summer in most of the lower and middle basin, although the upper basin is known for short-lived but intense summer thunderstorms. Winter temperatures in the northern and western portions of the basin typically drop to -20&nbsp;°F (-29&nbsp;°C) or lower every winter with extremes as low as −60&nbsp;°F (−51&nbsp;°C), while summer highs occasionally exceed 100&nbsp;°F (38&nbsp;°C) in all areas except the higher elevations of North and West mountain ranges.

Due their thousand miles of light the river goes through many different biomes, its waters flow from the North mountains surrounded by cold forest to green prairies in the south, then mountains to the west and coast to the east. Along these water streams many zu'aan tribes sail to travel and trade, however there are few settles on the riverbank. As the river drains a predominantly semi-arid region, its discharge is much low and variable. The river flood twice each year, once in spring with the melting of snow on the plains of the watershed, and in summer caused by snowmelt and rainstorms in the mountains. The flood of the river was controlled in the past by dams, many of those dams don´t work anymore and the wild flows destroy every day the wooden docks and bridges made for the tribes that cross the river. Iron and concrete bridges became on precarious ruins dangerous to walk on.


==Plants==

Many species of the vegetal life around the Blackwater River seem to be affected by the black soil of the river, these evolutionary changes are mainly of appearance, represented in a dark pigmentation and downward tilt of leaves and stems. This downward tilt at the ends of leaves is due the weight of particle accumulation that gives to some plants a spiral shape. A remarkable characteristic of this dark coloration is the blackest plants reflect less brightly than the same species of plants with normal coloration. 

Most of the surveys of the floodplain forest flora found 220 species of vascular plants growing in the remnant river section. This inventory was conducted long after extensive forest clearing had occurred and did not include a comparably rich flora of wetland plants found in non-forest communities on the floodplain. Studies of this 75-mile floodplain remnant revealed a mosaic of aquatic, riparian, and terrestrial communities, including oxbow lakes, ponds, marshes, sand dunes, shorelines, in-channel islands, sand bars, forests, and agricultural fields. Natural vegetation communities along the Blackwater River feature forests with a wide variety of species. The dominant floodplain trees are vaeree, a large slender tree with blue leaves, kiala, a small stocky tree with dark grey leaves and hyea, a tall tree with blue-grey leaves. 

Subdominant trees include peach-leaved xea trees and yellow-leaved kaer. Common shrubs and woody vines included xare, a blue lived scrub, iarle, a small woody srub and naeu, a long green vine. Some of these berries are poisonous and other are edible, the near the plants are to the river the darkest their fruits are, the coloration does not affect the flavor. There are few herbs that can be used to make medicine, instead many plants are used to dye cloth or make black paint, and the colorant is easier to get from some plants than directly from the black soil. These forests form a successional series of ecological communities, from the youngest, dominated by kaer formed on fresh alluvium on low benches, to the oldest, dominated by xea on high benches. 


The river initiates the succession by meandering across its floodplain during floods and eroding older forests on the outside of river curves while creating point bars on the inside of curves for pioneer tree establishment. Approximately two-thirds of the floodplain forest flora occurs in the successional xea forests that depend on river meandering. Downstream the overall floodplain flora becomes considerably richer, particularly the woody component. On the lower portions of the river, cottonwood and willow are the dominant species on recently deposited and exposed sandbars accumulated by past floods of the river. Further successional species are more diverse than in the northern reaches of the river, vala (a tree with dark blue leaves), tae (a tree with light blue leaves and silver bark, cyai (a small but narrow tree), and several aer replace  xea and kaer and forms an intermediate successional stage. 

The deep forest includes several species of kaer, xea, va'rol (a tree with blue, stringy bark), reaca (a tree with long braches and green leaves), realai (a tall narrow tree) and aa'adi (a  silver left tree).  From the middle of the river to the south, forest, shrubs, and coarse grasses occupy most of the active floodplain, while higher terraces are nearly covered with prairie. It´s often to find traces of cut trees. A large portion of these woodlands was removed to provide resources to make tools, fuel bonfires, and build rafts and boats. Also, it´s possible to find the remains of makeshift forts, cabins and huts unfinished or that ended up being destroyed by attacks. Despite the frequent cutting of trees, zu'aan activity does not have much impact on the vegetation.


==Animals==

High biodiversity both within forest communities and across the floodplain could not be maintained without the rejuvenating forces of floods and channel meandering. Similar patterns is for forest-dwelling animals; the number of species of reptiles, insects, small mammals and birds peaked in forests of mid-successional age. Same as the plants, many animals which lives near the river banks presents black coloration due the plants they eat. This ephemeral, species-rich stage was historically sustained by new forests created by a meandering river. These species include eaza, bley, fynra'ni, eemyk, julkta , and kha . These animals use the Blackwater River valley as protection from harsh winters and summer heat.

The anyau are different than other places, due the black coloration of some of the trees their teeth become black and harder, it´s normal zu'aan hunt beavers to get their teeth to make tools and weapons. The floodplain forest community provides nesting habitat for a wide range of bird species, from open country birds in the youngest, post-flood communities, to shrub-loving bird species in middle-aged cottonwood communities, to forest-dwelling birds in the most mature forests. Peaks in both species number and population of birds were reached in older successional forests because of their high vertical stratification. The large size and hollow trunks and branches of older cottonwood trees provided nesting cavities for bird-like lifeforms.






More than 50 species of songbirds were found along the upper Blackwater River, and approximately 50 percent were tropical migrants. 39 species of tropical migrants utilize Blackwater River floodplain forests as stopover habitat. There are more than 100 species of fishes in the Blackwater River such as the veriv, narung, zargf , miets, hoai, yun, kilkil, swo’daq hammerhead, tisaa, lakcua, ili, and ilos each one of these has varieties. Some fishes were introduced by zu'aan and could survive in the river, kiaya and uails have also become established and are a major food source for the ili and the hoai. Some of the threatened or endangered species. These are the least tern, piping plover, and a unique fish species, the pallid sturgeon. 

The aure were thought to live primarily in large, turbid rivers downstream from its confluence. It utilized overflow areas on the floodplain, backwaters, chutes, sloughs, islands, sandbars, and main channel bank lines, pools, and snags. Because it feeds on aquatic invertebrates and fish that prey upon aquatic invertebrates, the lower velocity margins of the main and extra channels were essential habitats for the pallid sturgeon. Some information suggested that aure readily utilized off-channel habitats for feeding and nursery and main channels for spawning.  The k'ahr and the veaer are two examples of common native fish species. This small minnow was well adapted to the river’s turbid environment. 


It lived among the numerous sandbars, feeding on living and dead plant material, and was an important component of the trophic web of the pre-regulation Blackwater River. It is believed since the water is very dark there can´t be seen many of the species that live deeper in the river, there are stories of large fishes that have been seen eating birds and small mammals, which can be unidentified species of fishes. Although the sights are rare the incidence is enough to recognize the kind of estrange fishes is the same and is clearly possible to differentiate these fishes from mythological creatures in the zu'aan stories.

{{Template:Controllers
|Stone Age = Unknown 
|Copper Age = Unknown 
|Bronze Age = Unknown 
|Iron Age = Unknown 
|Ancient Age = Unknown 
|Middle Age = Unknown 
|Early Modern Age = Unknown 
|Industrial Age = Unknown 
|Machine Age = Unknown 
|Atomic Age = Unknown 
|Space Age = Unknown 
|Information Age = Unknown 
|Genetic Age = Unknown 
|Awakening Age = Unknown 
|Twilight Age = [[Grolewzyk City Zu'Aan]]
}}

{{NeartoDesktop
 | Centre    = {{PAGENAME}} 
 | North     = Unknown
 | Northeast = Unknown
 | East      = Unknown
 | Southeast = Unknown
 | South     = Unknown
 | Southwest = Unknown
 | West      = Unknown
 | Northwest = Unknown
}}

{{CrossSiteAttribution
| User = [https://www.deviantart.com/mbman2010 mbman2010], [https://www.deviantart.com/espectre espectre]
| Holder = mbman2010, espectre


[[Category:espectre's contributions]]
[[Category:mbman2010's contributions]]
}}

[[Category: Places]]