Rod'dyn Great Lakes

Place

Place Name:

Rod'dyn Great Lakes

Biome:

Great Lakes

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

Yar’dyn Lake is situated in the heart of Rod’dyn. There is a peninsula that juts out into the middle of the lake, and upon this peninsula is built the castle of the Urane clan. The Urane clan didn’t build the castle themselves, of course — though they did oversee its construction, and they did pay the zu’aan who worked upon it handsomely (in copper coins which they themselves minted). But now they do have a castle. Only members of the clan are permitted to enter the castle through the front door, and only those bearing meals are permitted to enter through the secret back door.

The name of this castle is Khaniada. There’s a bustling village on the Yar’dyn peninsula, outside the gates of Khaniada, and soon the name of village will have to be dropped in favour of the name of city. A boom town, some might call it; its name is Vyniada. It grows and it grows under the oversight of the Urane; zu’aan and kin’tonis have begun coming from other lands to settle here — or to rob the people who live here. Watch your purse. Morin’sa Lake is located in the northeastern corner of Rod’dyn, and it is controlled by a man who’s begun to call himself a King of Pirates.

He politely informs those pirates who object to the title that he doesn’t call himself *the* King of Pirates, and this satisfies most of them. He doesn’t leave his island much anymore, anyway, and he doesn’t command the captains who dock on his island to pay taxes. He just asks them to replant all the trees they chop down to repair their ships, and to clean up after themselves. Peasant villages watched over by Urane outposts line the edges of every single one of the fifteen lakes in Rod’dyn. These villages are generally farming or fishing villages, or villages of a variety of different occupations.

But there are also a few smiths’, carpenters’, and masons’ villages, and plenty of other villages that a tourist might find interesting. The Urane have large military bases situated at strategic points all around the lakes, to defend their lands from foreign invaders. They also have constructed newer military bases by the lakes which are controlled by the Landlocked Pirates — just, not too close to the water. Certain pirates are beginning to put cannons aboard their ships again, as civilization begins reviving the technology of the past and gunpowder becomes more readily accessible.

But rumour has it that cannons aren’t the only siege weapons the pirates are beginning to get their hands on. Supposedly there’s a crew sailing about that has a giant mechanical crossbow situated on the prow of their ship. Between foreign armies, domestic pirates, and an increasing number of bandits, the Urane clan has its hands full with the defense of their territories. Really, it’s quite to their credit that they’ve managed to hold together the immense stretch of land which they more or less control.

Plants

The vegetation variety in Rod’dyn is bland if you don’t take into account the plethora of crops that the farmers grow. On the shores and islands of the lakes grow a type of palm tree better suited to slightly cooler climates than its vacation destination cousins. This tree is called the Ssanad’vur Tree. Unlike other palm trees, it does not grow coconuts, but instead grows a smaller, lighter, and sharper seed pod, called a spear nut. It’s less tasty than a coconut but it does have its admirers. Other people, who do not admire its taste, nevertheless recognize its versatility.

These people use the spear nuts as ammunition for slings. (You don’t quite know how effective it is as a weapon until you’ve either slung it into your enemies or been that enemy who’s had his heart run through by a literal nut.) Other than the Sanad’vur Tree, there also grows a good many pines and oaks and other trees of the ordinary sort useful for building — specifically, ship-building. As for the other naturally-growing plants in Rod’dyn, you have the seaweed and other generic aquatic plants that grow in the lakes, the wild ferns and grasses that grow in the small forests that litter all Rod’dyn.

And the weeds which the farmers have to try to get rid of every single year. Oh, and the wildflowers. There are wildflowers, but nobody but unimportant little girls pays any attention to them. This brings us to the crops grown in Rod’dyn, of which there are many. The farmers of wheat and barley and sesame and rye and other grains deserve the first mentions, since they farm the most commonly farmed crops. By their efforts is the market for bread sustained, and by their heroic sacrifices are the people of Rod’dyn fed. The Urane clan praises grain farmers and bids more people become grain farmers.

Since grain farmers are the most easily taxed of all the citizens of Rod’dyn, and also because you can find a good market for grains just about anywhere in the world. Then there are the fruit farmers, who grow apples, pears, cherries, spear nuts, other nuts, grapes, and all manner of berries. The Urane clan also praises the fruit farmers, but especially the grape farmers, since they happen to like wine with their… ‘meals’. It’s the berry farmers, however, who are the most prominent among the fruit farmers, since the people of Rod’dyn know of about a hundred different kinds of berries, and there are people who want all of them.

Besides, berries aren’t particularly difficult to farm. Varying cloth plants farmers also live here, since there are certain people who would rather wear finely tailored clothes over bear fur or rags. The cloth farmers aren’t nearly as praised by the Urane clan since their guild is smart and has figured out ways to reduce taxes. As a result, flax and cotton farmers make the largest profits out of anyone. This is kept secret, of course.

Animals

Fat birds known as cheishmaths have begun nesting near the city of Vyniada. They’re called cheishmaths, because their heads are disproportionately small compared to their large girth. cheishmaths are professional thieves; it seems as though they don’t know how to forage in the wild for insects or any other kind of food, and that the only food they know how to get comes from the garbage dumps, windowsills, and crowded streets of the city. You can occasionally find a few cheishmaths in the villages around Rod’dyn, but they are already noticeably fewer in number when you walk three miles away from Vyniada.

Cheishmaths cannot fly very fast or very far and are not found on the islands in any of the lakes, except for one island close to Vyniada — it isn’t really that far away from the shore, and you could probably question its status as an island, since a tall man can walk from the shore of the mainland to the shore the island without getting his head wet. Fiercer birds, which you can actually find on the islands in the lakes, are known as varalaa'kalra. They look nothing like cheishmaths, despite the number of cheishmaths that they can eat in a single day.

Varalaa'kalra — or just kalra'aiala, for short — are as large as a small child, and spend their days constantly on the wing, searching for fish to catch or cheishmaths to devour. They seem to hold a grudge against cheishmaths — or maybe they just find cheishmaths particularly tasty. Still, kalra'aiala refuse to nest anywhere close to cities, villages, or civilization in general. There are very few kalra'aiala, and perhaps they like it that way. Female varalaa'kalra only grow to be half the size of the male birds and spend most of their time watching over their two eggs.

Mother kalra'aiala always lay two eggs, and these two eggs always hatch into a male and a female. The eggs also take more than a year to hatch, and few sights are quite as inspiring as a mother Knightbird sitting on her eggs in the dead of winter. When the eggs hatch, which is generally in the dead of winter, the baby kalra'aiala are already covered in soft downy feathers and can already fly. Their mother then spends two more years teaching them to hunt properly and fly with the skill and speed befitting an Emperor’s Knight. Unless their mate dies that is.

This is usually the only time when mother kalra'aiala will hunt — to teach their young. Male kalra'aiala return to the nest every evening, bearing food. He only shares with his mate, and not his children, unless one of his children is injured. Sometimes young kalra'aiala will pretend to be injured, in order to get free food, instead of hunting. If their father ever realizes this — he generally does — the child is thrown out of the nest. Neither its mother nor its father will ever think about it again.

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	Urane Kin'toni Clan

Place

Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

Rod'dyn Great Lakes

Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

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