Mal Jade Cliffs
The Mal Jade cliffs are a series of towering cliffs that are inhabited by the kin'toni of the Daera Kin'toni Clan, the Daera clan is loyal to the Adon Kingdom of the kin'toni. The Adon Kingdom is a coalition of various kin'toni clans that although not connected by land, are ideologically and politically aligned. All the regions that claim to offer fealty to the Adon Kingdom are essentially sovereign except for the domains of external affairs and defence.
According to their alliance an attack on any one of the Adon Kingdoms essentially invites retaliation from the other powers of the kIngdom. The Adon kingdom is among the most recent political developments of the kin'toni nations and also happens to be counted as one of the most militarily strong, the disparate regions of the Taerel that make up the kingdom are known to specialise in particular form of warfare. There are five regions that the Adon control in all of Taerel and each region takes turns at leading the others for a period of one decade.
The last decade was that of the Daera clan from the Mal Jade Cliffs. During their time of rule, the greatest number of wars were conducted, and the largest amount of land was won. The Daera like the other members of the Adon Kingdom specialise in one particular form of war, for the Daera of the cliffs that discipline is that of Archery. Armed with the unique longbows formed of the willow-wood trees that grow only in the region, the kin'toni archers are said to be able to shoot the arrows off a hummingbirds wings mid-flight without drawing blood.
In the kin'toni wars, their skill has drawn only but awe, one of the most devastating sights to ever greet a kin'toni warrior is said to be the arrow rain of the Daera, said to so dense that it blocks out the moon and the stars. In the recent wars fought by the Adon, the Daera played a pivotal role, nearly completely leaving their cliffs to a man, and fielding the largest archer company to ever have been fielded in the history of all the kin'toni wars since the fall of the Xerea Empire of the zu'aan.
The prowess of the Daera at their war is definitely influenced by their homeland, for the cliffs are a difficult place to life for the kin'toni that are not capable of flight. The Daera adapted to this challenge by the use of archery, it is said that the very first thing a Daera converted kin'toni learns is the proper technique involved in stringing a bow, for the kin'toni that cannot use a bow in the Mal Jade cliffs cannot eat or in fact travel. The cliffs do not have any land for farming, but they stand around some of the most fertile plains in the whole of Taerel.
However, they are rife with the presence of carnivorous plants so much so that every second plant found in the plains and forests found at the foot of the cliffs is likely to be a carnivorous plant.
History
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
The history of the Mal Jade Cliffs is rather recent and the most important of which has happened more recently still, when the Daera helped found the Adon kingdom which is now considered to offer serious challenge to nations like the Ashat and the Itkal kingdoms which are ancients in comparison to the Adon. The founding of the Adon was first conceptualised at the first round table conference that occurred in the Puvesir Autumn hills, nearly a century ago, in that first round table it was decided by the participating independent kin'toni nations.
That the politically united kingdoms like Ashat and Itkal had begun aggressive posturing, and it was predicted that one of these nations may soon choose to begin attacking and consolidating their smaller neighbours, the Daera were highly concerned by this line of argument being one of the smallest neighbours of the Ashat Kingdom, they also held land that had long been viewed by the nation whose bureaucracy would undoubtedly identify the value that could be extracted from the lands that covered the bases of their cliffs.
As such the Daera were among the loudest proponents of the development of a marital alliance in order to prevent any such engagements with the Ashat, Itkali or any other kin'toni nations that may so choose to initiate wars with their clan and their offshoots. The Daera were accompanied by four other nations, and these were included to the alliance not altogether but one by one. The Daera are seen to be the founders of the Adon Kingdom, and so theirs was the first opportunity to sit on the throne and lead the other warrior clans of the nations for that first decade.
The other kin'toni nations were taken aback by this political innovation and chose not to provoke any engagement with some of the most esteemed warrior clans in all of the Taerel. However, once the novelty had worn away, the Itkali underestimated the strength of the union of Adon, and initiated an invasion into the Autumn hills territory, the retribution from the other clans was swift and devastating. The Itkali borders were made porous as the Adon warrior clans attacked in coordinated manner from different points, taking up large amounts of land and destroying the precious stores of village blood stocks.
The Itkali very quickly realised their folly and ceased all hostilities and gave up all land that had been seized in the Autumn hills, in return a truce was called with the Adon and the warrior clans freed the Itkali people by took a large bounty of gold for each acre of land that they returned back to the Itkali kingdom, all records of the humiliating war were severely repressed by the Itkali priest class. However, since that particular war, the Adon have come to realise their own marital prowess and the advantage of having multiple points of attack against an entrenched enemy like the Ashat or the Itkali.
As such the Adon are now engaged on a war every other year, almost half of the population of all the regions combined is generally afield in one war or the other, and the Daera are the absolute leaders in the number of warriors contributed to the Adon armies.
Geography
The reason why the Daera are able to so freely wage war without having to leave behind a force to keep their base is secure is because of the incredible surrounding of the Mal Jade Cliffs, the name cliffs is a misnomer, for it would be more appropriate to call them escarpments, for they are the result of formation of block mountains. The block mountains are formed due to a transformative margin that forms when continental plates shift and move away from one another.
In this kind of geological activity the surface that falls directly above the transformative margin is either rent apart in the most severe situations, or it sinks in situations that involve the formation of the Mal Jade cliffs. The sunken part of the ground is called the gabben while the part that remains in place and now appears to be a mountain is generally referred to as the Horst. The Horst has very smooth walls that are generally called escarpments.
The Mal jade cliffs formation is very similar to the process of formation of any other block mountain but the only difference is that walls or rather escarpments of the Mal Jade cliffs are severally pock marked and broken in several places making caverns that are formed on platforms that formed far away from one another. The reason why the escarpment walls are so different from the escarpments of a traditional block mountain is due to unique chemical composition of the rocks that form the cliffs, these cliffs are susceptible to erosion by water due to the large amounts of calcium carbonate present in the cliff walls.
The same substance also allows for the growth of plants and trees within the cliff walls themselves, and this is why the cliffs are an ideal place for Daera who use their bows and arrows to travel between cliff platforms and faces. While they live within the caverns themselves, the bows and arrows of the Daera allow them to repel to other parts of their region with relative ease and comfort. The gabben part of the block mountain system which forms the floor of the cliffs or rather a valley between the cliffs is one of the most fertile region in the world.
There are vast forests here and long stretches of grasslands separate the copse of the forests found in the region. Fertility of the floor is said to be a cause of the formation of the block mountains as well as the frequent erosion of the escarpment walls paired with the fact that it rains on most day in the Mal jade cliffs, for the rain allows the eroded material to reach he depths of the soil in the floor of the cliffs, the appropriate place from which the plants are able to draw their nutrients and thereby grow.
The fertile valley over the years has attracted a large number of animals that have been secure in the region and therefore begun to specialise and form unique species that are found nowhere else in the Taerel land mass.
Plants
As mentioned in the earlier sections, the Mal Jade cliffs are home to one of the most abundant populations of the carnivorous plants and that seems to be the primary reason the other nations have not made a move to try and take one the mal Jade cliffs, and this is also the reason why the Daera choose to live in the cliff caverns which are a much more difficult home than that would found in the valley under the canopy of the trees. The carnivorous plants found in the region however are not as deadly as those found in the bog or the swamps of the Ashat nation.
But seem to be of equal size with them. The Daera although they live in close proximity to the carnivorous plants than any other kin'toni, they seem to have least amount of recorded casualties against the carnivorous plants. It is thought that this lack of conflict between the Daera and the carnivorous plants of the valley floor is due to a harmony that seems to have been established among them, the Daera leave the carnivorous plants alone, they do not try and manage them nor do they try to limit their growth and in return the carnivorous plants do not seem to actively hurt the Daera.
Instead the carnivorous plants seem to prefer the meat of the pot-bellied that is found in the valley. A plant of particular note in the Mal Ade cliffs though is the willow-wood tree which forms the wood for the unique bows of Daera, the wood of the tree is very springy in youth but as it ages it becomes less so but also gains in strength. The willow-wood grows on the faces of the cliffs, and is the constant companion of the Daera, not only is the bow made from the tree but also the arrows.
For the hunt, it is said the best aim is possible when both the bow and the arrow are drawn for the same tree, and so it is customary for all Daera to draw arrows from the tree which births their bows and to cary with them throughout their campaigns, many a time have these preserved and revered arrows saved the lives of their wielders, and so this centuries old tradition continues even to this day. The string of the bow is drawn from the gut of the spotted tigers that roam the floor of the cliffs,
The drawing of the gut string is a tradition the Daera kin'toni do together as a company upon their commission into ranks of the archer units of the Daera, although all Daera are archers not all archers are part of the armies. The spotted tigers are hunted once the companies are assigned, and at this time the company of archers must observe and spot a spotted tiger on the floor of the cliffs and execute the kill without descending, all members of the company are allowed to loose only one arrow, this must be done until the company is successfully able to take down a spotted tiger.
Animals
There is an abundance of animals in the Mal jade cliffs, and the Daera depend on a wide variety animals for blood, the Daera like most other warrior clans do not believe in the keeping of blood stock and prefer to live in harmony with the land itself. The Daera hunt primarily vrelai-alda (hound deer) that is found in very large numbers on the valley floor, the Daera practice their archery skills in their hunt by trying to incapacitate the vrelai-alda they mean to hunt without causing any significant blood loss.
And they avoid going to floor without first having done so, but those with lesser skill are not dishonoured for going down to the floor to hunt. These clan members however are aware that by going to the floor they expose themselves to the possibility of being hunted by the carnivorous plants themselves. The akrela-ieuali (spotted tigers) in the valley floor are another interesting animal that is found in the Mal Jade cliffs, the akrela-ieuali are ferocious animals here and are known to attack even carnivorous plants,
Their experience with the plants seems to have made them immune to the toxins these plants use in order to subdue their prey. The akrela-ieuali have been seen to target the carnivorous plants when they are unable to bring down prey on their own for the blood of the victims that runs through the plants satiates them just as much as the flesh of the prey they would normally hunt. The Daera respect the ferocity of the akrela-ieuali, which is a solitary animal and deeply territorial, and they only seem to come together in order to breed.
The Daera do not hunt the akrela-ieuali for the benefit of their blood, in fact besides using the gut of the animal for the creation of their bow strings, the animals body is left undisturbed. Lastly the animal of the note that forms part of the diet of the kin'toni besides the vrelai-alda is the ua-aerkea (pot-bellied), which is a large mammalian primate that is much larger in stature than its cousin the sapien money which is found in the Ashat nation. The blood of the ua-aerkea is very appetising to the kin'toni of the region,
But a challenge in its hunting is the animals thick skin and deep layer of fat that makes it immune to the closest of bow strikes. This is the reason why the ua-aerkea are hunted in companies of archers and only when they have descended to the floor of the the cliffs, seemingly the carnivorous plants also seem to enjoy the flesh of the ua-aerkea the most, and unlike the Daera, the carnivorous planes are al to more efficient at hurting them for their toxins are so much more effective on the ua-aerkea.
The ua-aerkea are a social animal and live in large herds which adds to the challenge of hunting them down expect for in groups by the Daera kin'toni, once a ua-aerkea has been brought down, the animals that lived in its pack must scared off or chased away before carrying off the hunted for draining.
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This article is written by https://www.freelancer.in/u/anmoldkaushal Anmol K]. Copyright 2023 Anmold Kaushal "All rights reserved" unless otherwise stated.