Naem Wet Meadow

Place

Place Name:

Naem Wet Meadow

Biome:

Wet Meadow

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

Naem’s terrain is defined by its pools, its perpetual atmosphere of wetness, and its propensity to suddenly change state from solid to nothing without warning. Other than these traits, the several regions of Naem can be quite different from each other — the similarities between the Shifting Cliffs and the Botanical Pits are minimal, when you go beyond the water-induced instability.

The source of all this water is the damaged and malfunctioning Dam of Naem. There is a waterfall in the mountains that also pours water into Naem, but it doesn’t pour in nearly as much as the Dam. The river that the Dam was supposed to redirect now overflows straight into Naem. Some water still sneaks past the turbines, but it’s not a lot.

The Dam itself, like every other place in Naem, has pools, a perpetual atmosphere of wetness, and a propensity to suddenly change state from solid to nothing without warning. The interior of this concrete monolith has cracks and holes in both floor and ceiling, and through these fissures you can see the once-mighty hydroelectric turbines sitting jammed and unyielding. For obvious reasons, this dam stopped receiving maintenance in the first year of the Third Era. It stopped working altogether a couple years later, and the river it held back began overflowing into Naem.

So that’s why Naem is still wet. It gets even wetter when it rains — and when it storms, a thick layer of water covers practically everything. But even during a storm, Naem wouldn’t be nearly so wet if the dam functioned properly.

The Shifting Cliffs are a region of Naem slightly higher in elevation than the rest of the land. It’s one of the first places new wanderers will head to, since it appears more stable than the rest of the bog and its also the only part of Naem visible above the fog. Taking the form of naturally square pillars of stone, the Shifting Cliffs stretch out quite a long ways into their surroundings. These pillars, when sunk into the ground, form natural paths leading up towards the Shifting Cliffs. But, since we’re in Naem, it should be fairly clear that these pillars are not the safest of paths — step on one, and there’s a good chance you’ll feel it sink beneath your feet or begin shifting in some direction other than down. Sometimes they’ll even shift upwards.

The Botanical Pits, another region of Naem, are much less of an eyesore than the rest of the bog. While most of Naem is covered in white, greenish mist and black, greenish water, thus forming a colour palate that grows rather stale quite quickly to the eyes of one living in Naem, the Botanical Pits add some freshness to the air, the water, and the eyes. Many and various flowers grow here, and the water appears much brighter when it’s jumping down a waterfall. This is also where most of the fog comes from, though, so the somewhat beautiful waterfalls that you can find here are a double-edged sword.

Plants

One of the plants that grows in the Botanical Pits, though it doesn’t just grow in the Botanical Pits, nevertheless stands out quite a bit more when seen growing there. It’s a kind of bush, or perhaps a very short tree, with extremely long roots. These roots have saved lives more than once — if you (foolishly) stand on the edge of the Pits, look over the edge, and yet do not suddenly find the grassy mud beneath you crumbling to nothing, it’s because these roots are holding up the ground for you. And if the ground does start collapsing, more than once have men grabbed the roots of these bushes and been thus delivered from the sharp stones beneath them as well as the ominously looming whirlpool that all the water in the Pits rushes towards.

These long-rooted plants are called nathucari. They’re not the only reason that Naem hasn’t yet become one homogenous soggy mess, but they’re one of the main reasons. They hold the land together wherever they grow — or at least, they help hold the land together. It’s difficult to have an entirely secure piece of land anywhere in Naem.

Nathucari are most common in the Botanical Pits, and their large numbers are what allow the Pits to exist at all. If their legion of roots wasn’t there to hold the place up, the stony walls of the place would soon dissolve beneath the force of the constantly rushing waterfalls which are the signature landmarks of the Pits. But nathucari also grow nearly everywhere else in Naem. Of course, their roots aren’t nearly so visible when they grow in these other places, since in those places they’ll probably be covered with large amounts of earth and water — but their roots still grow as strong and deep, and still try to hold together what little land they grow on. On the surface, though, they just look like small bushes.

A myunie is basically a leaf with a root. Think of it as a fern, except larger, and with only one enormous leaf. Myunies can grow in the shallowest soil possible, thanks to their extremely skinny roots which spread out quite far. They’re to blame for many of the pieces of land floating in the bogs of Naem — the dirt they gather forms a small island, and often grows grass and other plants, furthering the illusion. As soon as you step on a Myunie, though, its roots instantaneously lose the thin covering of dirt that they’ve collected; what looked like a more or less solid piece of land is exposed for the impostor that it is. Then you fall into the deep water that it was floating on top of.

The actual leaves of the mmyunies are quite tough, and are similar to canvas in many ways. In the past, these leaves were often as material for clothing, and, more often, rain jackets. The leaves are completely waterproof. If you got enough of them together, you could probably sew up a sail for a boat — but you’d have to find some pretty strong string to make such an enterprise work properly.

Animals

The limbless and amphibious zoropud is a common sight in Naem, though due to their timid nature and proficient diving abilities, it’s not a long-lasting sight. Short and thick and roughly the size of a bedroll, these blue slimy creatures have slick skin that is only slightly less damp than water itself. While they have the ability to breathe through their skin, zoropuds do not like to do so since it messes with their muscular system and slows them down. They die if they dry out, since their muscles, including their cardiac muscles, need immense amounts of water to function properly. (That being said, it’s almost too much fun to see a zoropud dry out — it shrinks to about a quarter of its ordinary size, turns a very dark blue, and becomes prime material for a gourmet barbeque.)

Zoropuds have faces, unlike most of their limbless slimy cousins. And they’re cute faces, especially the ones that belong to baby zoropuds. Their eyes are large and dark, their snouts are short and slightly upturned, their mouths are tiny, and their tongues are long, their ears are prim. Zoropuds don’t have bones, so their faces are formed out of cartilage.

A zoropud doesn’t really swim, so much as it crawls along the bottom of the body of water it happens to be travelling through. It can swim — just not that well. But if it wants to return to the surface, it can do so easily by bunching up its muscles and jumping up to the surface. Whether crawling or swimming or jumping, though, a zoropud remains extremely floaty when in the water, and is susceptible to strong currents. They tend to stay away from places with strong currents for this reason.

Zoropuds eat basically anything they come across. Berries, specks of dirt, mushrooms, grass, fish, carrion — if it can be torn up into little pieces and inserted into the tiny mouth of a zoropud, they’ll eat it. Zoropuds are practically immune to poison since their digestive systems will only grab the specific nutrients that the zoropud needs from the substances within its stomach. Poisons are not on this list of nutrients.

It’s very well known by all explorers that insects are particularly prevalent in swampy regions. Naem is no exception, being the home to at least fifty different species of insects. Twenty-five of these fifty species love biting zu’aan, and seventeen of these twenty-five love biting kin'toni. There is an eighteenth insect, however, which only bites kin'toni and does not bite zu’aan.

This insect is known as the quir’kun, and not much is known about it other than its love for the flesh (not the blood) of kin'toni. Its bites leave enormous welts since it basically tore a small chunk out of your arm. Quir’kuns seem to congregate in greater numbers in certain places and at certain times. They make distinctive buzzing sounds when they do congregate. kin'toni that know of these insects stay well away from them when they’re in large swarms — they have stripped a kin’toni to the bone in a matter of minutes before.

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	Enachia Kin'toni Clan

Place

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Naem Wet Meadow

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