Ildem Archipelago

Place

Place Name:

Ildem Archipelago

Biome:

Archipelago

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

Ildem is the archipelago which no man can sail to. Aye, one has to glide to get there, from the neighbouring island of Yirdem, which isn’t officially considered a part of the archipelago, but is controlled regardless by the masters of the archipelago, since it’s the only way to get to the archipelago without flying. Each island in Ildem rises high above the ocean’s surface, with rocky borders impossible to even get close to without tearing your ship to smithereens. Don’t even think about trying to swim to one of the rocky plateaus of Ildem; even a kin’toni would be battered to pulp by the constant waves and tides dashing against the stones.

One might think that sailing into the stone-walled canyons between the island plateaus offers slightly more safety. And it’s certainly a beautiful path, in any case. The rivers of the lands above all pour into the chasms between the islands, as enormous waterfalls. Almost every island has at least five waterfalls pouring into those chasms. The chasms themselves are deep and full of water, which is why you can sail down them. But all ships foolish enough to sail into the Channels of Ildem, perish. All the water flows straight into an enormous pit in the center of the archipelago.

The abyss is full of mist, but mountainous stones slick with water can be seen poking through the mist on clearer days at low tide. The island of Yirdem is heavily fortified by the Jalka kin’toni clan. After several years of labour, they constructed a great tower on Yirdem, a tower whose girth occupies most of the island, leaving barely enough room for a small harbour and a small village to stand on the shore beside it. The Tower of Yirdem has four balconies, but the ones that face the Ildem Archipelago are the more important. The other two are just for mounting defence mechanisms and giving archers a place to stand.

The balconies that face the archipelago are where a man glides from and to. The gliders of the Jalka clan are a simple, sturdy affair: just a lot of canvas and a frame of the lightest and toughest metals they could find. The top balcony is for men gliding to Ildem; the bottom balcony is for men coming back. For convenience’s sake, each member of the Jalka clan has his own glider. As for the zu’aan civilization on Ildem itself, they’ve constructed numerous bridges across the island chasms — some sturdier and some less sturdy, some more beautiful and others less so.

There are relatively few cities on Ildem; villages contain most of the population. The few cities that there are, though, are all extremely clean; the abyss at the heart of Ildem is basically a free sewer if you build close enough to it. But by common consensus, men do not dump their waste into the rivers, even right next to the waterfalls. This is because there are people who happen to like swimming, the Jalka clan among them, and they would rather swim in clean waters.

Plants

Deep in the abyss at the center of Ildem, there are caves. In these caves grows an aquatic plant responsible for keeping the aquatic ecosystem of Ildem nice and clean. It eats up all the waste that gets tossed into the abyss, and ejects clean water. These plants don’t have a name, because they’ve never been discovered, even during the days of the zu’aan empire. Scientific tech may have been strong enough back then to survive a trip down into the abyss’s caves, but it would be difficult to get that tech back to the surface. Since there were other scientific endeavours back in the day.

Scientists hadn’t yet gotten bored enough or spendthrift enough to send expensive machines to where they couldn’t return from. These unnamed plants — swa'hwra — cover most of the surface of the caves in the abyss. The ones at the front of the caves are larger, of course, since they have the first pick of all the food, but even all the way at the back of the caves, when the water starts rising back to the surface by the force of geothermal heat as well as the force of the water behind it, rising through cracks in the ocean floor or through the springs sourcing the rivers in Ildem

There are still swa'hwra, vying with each other to pick out some edible scraps from the filtered water. As a result, the water you drink from the springs in Ildem are entirely clean, even though a couple days ago that water might well have been filth. You can thank the swa'hwra. There are other aquatic plants hanging out in the abyss and in the rivers, as well as in the oceans. But they’re quite dull, and not really worth mentioning, though they do help keep the ecosystem running smoothly. On the tops of Ilaser’s islands, there’s not a whole lot of interesting and out of the ordinary plants to be observed either.

The climate of Ilaser is somewhat chillier than most; Ilaser’s citizens grow only the usual cool-climate crops and cool-climate trees. There were some people who tried to make greenhouses to grow more exotic plants in, but it never really caught on. There is one plant that’s perhaps worth mentioning, but it grows neither in the water, nor on the surface of Ilaser. No, it grows in the chasms between islands. It’s called the afori tree. afori trees are often the starting points for building new bridges; there’s even one bridge built out of just afori trees and some rope.

This is because they lean out over the rivers, sometimes a long ways out over the rivers. Their trunks are strong but slightly flexible; their roots burrow deep into the walls behind them, anchoring them firmly in place. So you can see why they would make good starting points to build a bridge from; good scaffolding, too.

Animals

Creeping up from the depths of the rivers, some say from the depths of the abyss itself… swimming through the rivers, climbing up the cliffs, watching for the clouds to cover the moon… waiting for the world of men to drop its guard… approaching, slowly but surely, getting closer and closer to its prey… then a woman glancing out her window screams. She’s seen it too late. It’s already found its way to the daer berries trees. Its cheeks are stuffed with them, and when the men with weapons arrive, it’s gone, taking half a tree’s worth of daer berriess with it. Then it descends the cliffs, climbing down carefully, dropping into the water, and vanishing.

The men mutter curses and return home. That’s maybe ten less daer berries pies to be eaten. Called seraer — generally just seraer — these creatures have four long, gangly legs thin as walking sticks. That’s basically all you’ll see on a cloudy night, just the enormous legs. Apparently it terrifies some people. Their bodies hover up to twelve feet above the ground, supported by these enormous legs. The feet at the ends of these skinny limbs are strong, muscled, and webbed. Seraer do most of their swimming with their feet, since there’s not a whole lot of muscle on their legs nor a whole lot of room in the rivers.

Seraer’ faces are a bit insectoid, containing antennae-like ears, large black eyes, some bony armour akin to an exoskeleton, and mandibled jaws. Despite their snouts (hidden under the armour) being quite small, seraer have an extremely keen sense of smell, which they use to hunt down daer berriess, which are their favourite food. seraer look less insectoid after they start eating, because they’ll stuff their mouths with daer berriess and expand their cheeks to hold the fruits. This makes them look a little ridiculous, honestly. When they can’t get daer berriess, seraer eat fish instead.

They don’t seem to like it that much, though. Oh, and seraer have little puffy cottonball tails. Don’t question it. Ildem is home to quite the number of seabirds. Foremost among them are the annoying gaerials, but fortunately those nuisances fly off elsewhere for the winter. Eqally fortunately, even when it’s summer, there’s the shawk bird. shawks bully the gaerials like they were born to do so. They eat the gaerials’ eggs, they hunt and kill the gaerials — sometimes even for fun — and if gaerials are trying to eat something, shawks drive them off and attempt to eat it themselves.

shawks, however, will not go anywhere near zu’aan or kin’toni, unless a zu’aan or kin’toni happens to be bullying gaerials as well. They recognize a kindred spirit when they see one. A young boy once tamed a young shawk by bullying enough gaerials with it. They were inseparable ever after. Because of this friendship, it was learned that shawks live about as long as zu’aan do, and also that shawks don’t like cats or dogs. Unlike gaerials, however, cats and dogs are the ones terrorizing the shawk.

ually fortunately, even when it’s summer, there’s the shawk bird. shawks bully the gaerials like they were born to do so. They eat the gaerials’ eggs, they hunt and kill the gaerials — sometimes even for fun — and if gaerials are trying to eat something, shawks drive them off and attempt to eat it themselves.

shawks, however, will not go anywhere near zu’aan or kin’toni, unless a zu’aan or kin’toni happens to be bullying gaerials as well. They recognize a kindred spirit when they see one. A young boy once tamed a young shawk by bullying enough gaerials with it. They were inseparable ever after. Because of this friendship, it was learned that shawks live about as long as zu’aan do, and also that shawks don’t like cats or dogs. Unlike gaerials, however, cats and dogs are the ones terrorizing the shawk.

Historical Timeline of Ages

Age Name	Dates	Controller
Stone Age	Before 1E 0	Unknown
Copper Age	1E 1–1E 2200	Unknown
Bronze Age	1E 2200–1E 4400	Unknown
Iron Age	2E 0–2E 700	Unknown
Ancient Age	2E 700–2E 2200	Unknown
Middle Age	3E 0–3E 2050	Unknown
Early Modern Age	3E 2050–3E 2600	Unknown
Industrial Age	3E 2600–3E 2700	Unknown
Machine Age	3E 2700–3E 2800	Unknown
Atomic Age	3E 2800–3E 2850	Unknown
Space Age	3E 2850–3E 2875	Unknown
Information Age	3E 2875–3E 2900	Unknown
Genetic Age	3E 2950–3E 3000	Unknown
Awakening Age	3E 3000–3E 3415	Unknown
Twilight Age	4E 0–4E 500	placeholder

This article is written by Xerxes Worldweaver. Copyright 2026 Xerxes Worldweaver. All rights reserved.