Sulysh Lake of Thousand Isles

Place

Place Name:

Sulysh Lake of Thousand Isles

Biome:

Lake of Thousand Isles

Size:

Unknown

Continent:

Unknown

Subcontinent

Unknown

Geography

Despite its name, the Sulysh Lake of Thousand Isles is not exactly a lake. It is a large water inlet just inside the Western border of the continent, with a river that connects it inland. The river goes across the continent to the Eastern border and has ports along the way for merchants and trader ships to dock. During the outbreak, it was the border and ports on the lake closest to the river’s entrance that most wanted to shut down. Inside Sulysh, there are many Isles of various sizes. In the early days of Taerel, the region had been mountains, but after a devastating earthquake, a large portion of the Western region collapsed into the sea.

What was left of the mountains became the Isles that many used for their homes. The larger Isles held large bustling towns with a couple thousand, while the smaller islands only had enough space to house small villages of a couple hundred at most. Some isles didn’t have any homes, but instead were completely dedicated to being distilleries. The distilleries took up most of the land on the small islands, needing a second dedicated to storage until the finished products could be sold. The larger islands were split up so half of the land was dedicated to distilling, while the other half had the immediate storage.

There were various types of alcohol being made, ranging from gin to beer to wine, made form the various fruits and vegetables grown in the region. Not many, but some of those who lived on the isles dug and made underground storage. This was not common due to the region having a tropical climate- meaning that flooding was not uncommon. During monsoon season, the smaller isle residents would often have to take refuge on larger isles because their homes would flood from the large amount of rain in the short period.

The largest of the isles, unlike the others, had a large cliff shelf with a cave near the bottom of the wall face. The early zu’aan of the isle built a walkway on the cliff face going up (from about ship height) and going down (from the top of the cliff) to the cave. The cave outside of monsoon season had little tidepools and acted as a breeding area for fish farming- though during monsoon season, the tides rise to the point that the cave would flood and be concealed underwater. The residents, after the first few seasons, made a chainmail gate that they close during the first rain as before they lost most of their fish to the lake before that.

They also dug an above ground entrance tunnel to the cave so that during that time, they could check in on the fish and feed them if they were not able to get enough from the plants in the cave itself. That way they could guarantee food if fishing in the lake was sparse that season; they kept the fish in the cave until they were to be eaten, so they were always fresh. The older fish (a season or two old) would be released into the lake as a way to keep the population high, as there were many isles to feed and their success or failures were all tied together.

Plants

The Ghalor kept many agriculture plants for farming. Most were native to the region, and they moved the already established plants in a way that better suited farming. Some of their major produce was bananas and oranges specific to the region; which they traded for a high price as they were seen as a luxury type food. Along with those trees, they also kept some grain type plants specifically for their alcohol production. It was often that the large islands would hire or supplement smaller islands so that the entire district was strictly optimized for farming that specific plant. The larger isles that had produce farming kept a larger variety of fruits and vegetables more similar to a farming specific region like the Toras Terrace or Old’kali Volcano Valley.

One commonality across all the isles was the xir tree. The xir wood was harvested and produced for trade as it was very good for building- especially ships or structures that needed to be strong but flexible as well. Besides the alcohol, xir wood was their largest export. The largest variety of plants in the region though, are those under water, due to the ocean floor being extremely deep (abyssal plain of 10,000 feet or more). Close to the surface there’s a large variety of sea grass like plants. The two major species are called ‘athor'ook’ and ‘athor'nark’. athor'ook is a standard looking tall grass, that shifts between two red colors.

The ‘dormant’ red is a pale almost peach pink like red which is the standard color as it moves with the waves; when the grass is touched or thrown out of rhythm with the water it turns to a deep mid-level red. While limited in nutritional value, the grass had detoxifying properties and is sometimes used to treat infected wounds, or sites of venom injection. athor'nark gets it name from the slight blue tinge to it and the fact that it looks like a standard grain plant placed underwater. The plant holds no specific beneficial properties to zu’aan or kin’toni beyond decoration.

Getting about midway to the ocean floor, there’s large stocks of kelp like plants that grow to be 200-300 feet long. It looks like and functions similar to standard kelp, with the exception that due to the depth the plant has minor bioluminescent properties and rely on decaying remains for sustenance. They grow in large underwater ‘forests’ where larger sea creatures can hide within, and drop the remains of their prey for their consumption. On the ocean floor, (not that any of the zu’aan or kin’toni have the technology to go down there) there are a handful of coral like species.

Unlike the other plants, they are purely carnivorous in nature and do not bother with photosynthesis. They developed stronger bioluminescent qualities similar to the other deep-sea creatures of the lake. In a similar fashion to the other predators, they use their light to entrance whatever creature they can into swimming into their tendrils or into their plates. They inject a toxin which causes paralysis, allowing them to easily pull in the creature and slowly consume it. They are not limited to just living creatures, as they will also consume bones or other plants if they happen to come into contact.

Animals

Due to the varying sizes of the islands, there wasn’t much consistency on land dwelling creature. The larger islands had small farms, with a small variety of animals, while the small islands only had space for animal or produce farming, so the inhabitants more often than not opted to go with produce farming. On the large islands, the most common animal kept was similar to a pig, commonly called a cinse. The creature when fully grown is extremely hefty, often weighing in at more than 3x that of the average zu’aan. They had multiple colors, but the most consistent across the breed were light tan patches or spots.

Cinse have a similar build and look to a pig, with the exception that their ears lay flat against their head and do not have the strength to hold themselves up. Because of the limited space to raise them, they are not often sold- alive or as meat- as the costs far outweigh any gain that zu’aan or kin’toni could get.

The majority of species in the region were aquatic in nature, living in the reefs that formed on the submerged mountain. There were anemone like creatures- one type called poa has many tendrils that face up toward the surface. They have a tubular body that they submerge in the sand and rock, with a mouth hidden in the center of the tendrils. Poa often move locations about once a month or more if food is scarcer than normal. At night, their tendrils light up with their bioluminescent chemicals which they use to lure in small fish.

The poa are not a large species, the biggest recorded was about the size of a zu’aan head in height and tendril mass. The poa would often catch and eat wild neon tetra fish in the region as they were perfectly sized for them. The outer west coast that connected to the region would often have the whale like creatures Bassu stay there for periods of time. When full grown, the bassu is too large to fit through the pass into the region, there has been incidents where a bassu calf has wondered in and had to be removed before it got too big to leave.

This happened because one of the main food sources for the bassu- a sea slug type creature named ‘paal’ due to its round fluffy appearance- would travel into the region as a safe mating ground before leaving back to their hunting and living grounds off the western coast. The zu’aan (and later kin’toni) would keep fish farms for easier catching and harvesting, as the constant merchant and trader ships, pirates and navy moving in the region would scare most fish to extremely low depths that made it difficult for them to catch.

There was specialized equipment that could be used, but if was often too expensive for those on the smaller islands to obtain and maintain, so the largest island decided to use a cave they discovered to farm enough fish for everyone in the region. Everyone pitched in on care, maintenance, and feeding in exchange. There were about 5 different fish varieties kept in the cave, from large catfish like species, to midsized bass types, to smaller versions of salmon type fish. 

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	Ghalor Tribal Zu'aan

Place

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Sulysh Lake of Thousand Isles

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This article is written by Crystal Iris. Copyright 2026 Crystal Iris. All rights reserved.