The Emeezim Region

Summary
The Emeezim Region is a region consisting of a large, relatively flat mediterranean climate zone located on the western coast of Diaemus' Southern Continent. The region is named after the high concentration of the human Emzimite race, which expanded into it several centuries before the development of agriculture. The region's history has been characterized by the domination of the human Torbud Empire, and other sapient races are relatively uncommon. It is bordered by the Sesset Steppes to the north, Cenni Highlands to the east, and the Asohos Region to the south. Mount Syoza, located near the center of the region, is its most visible landmark.

Flora and Fauna
See Plants and Animals of the Emeezim Region.

Races
Dromeans and Rachnyx have lived in the region for millions of years, obviously. Mount Syoza has been home to the Hakthn Rachnyx, and the spider-like race has populated other shallow caves throughout the region. The latest Dromean group to expand into the region was the Ickpick race during about 70,000 BCE, which sported a prominent black-and-gold feather pattern and distinctive white head feathers. The Ickpicks of what would become the Emeezim Region never bothered with pastoralism. They lived migratory lives, carefully monitoring species distribution to maximize the number of prey animals in their respective territories.

The first human race to settle the Emeezim region were the tall, medium-skinned Taiviev in 12,000 BCE-ish, but the lighter-skinned and more formidable Emzimite culture (who had better spearpoints and gathering methods) expanded through this region around 10,000 BCE, displacing the Taiviev and developing plant agriculture soon afterwards. Some villages in the north are still predominantly Taiviev, but the vast majority of Torbudite people are racially Emzimite.

The successive waves of human migration mostly wiped out the Rachnyx in the area, who never had much of a foothold anyway. During the First Empire, the nobles often led hunts to kill off the Rachnyx that remained (who were seen as killers, childsnatchers, etc.) Only the deepest caves in the land still have any Rachnyx in them, the most notable being the Syoza Caverns, which are still home to their small but ancient Rachnyx civilization

Dromeans have also been pretty rare in the Emeezim region since the arrival of humans. Early on, they competed with the Taiviev for resources pretty effectively, but the Emzimites pushed them out along with the Taiviev during the 10,000 BCE migration. As Torbudite society matured into a complex civilization, some groups of pastoralist Dromeans were allowed to resettle the area in return for military service.

Agriculture
The two staple crops of the Emeezim region are the Emrunath plant and the Abab Tree.

Emrunath is a highly fire-resistant pseudocereal. The plant takes the form of a tall, scraggly bush up until seed formation begins. Its waxy coating and high water content allow it withstand flames of up to 7,000 degrees without sustaining serious damage. Small flowers begin appearing on the plant twice at about the midpoint between the winter solstice and the two equinoxes, and these develop into clusters of grain within about 1/8th of a year. Emrunath kernels are large, spherical, and highly nutritious, possessing a high vitamin A and B content and moderate protein content, about 12%. You can get about a bushel of grain per acre per harvest. It truly is a miracle crop, and is the most widely cultivated food in the region.

Lining most farms in the region is the Abab Tree. The tree's branches only produce one type of usable crop (an oily seed pouch) but the most useful thing it does takes place in the roots. The tree stores its energy in large tubers underground, and these can be cut off and eaten by farmers. Normally, these tubers are located far beneath the surface, and are protected by the tree's tough bark, but cultivated plants are grown on top of mounds several meters tall, which are then excavated as the tree grows, exposing the topmost roots. Farmers then cut careful incisions into the plant, which encourage the growth of tubers in that area. Some of the more massive trees produce tubers the size of papayas, and these are a reliable source of food for farmers even when the emrunath harvest fails.

Agriculture in the region centers around the use of "cleansing fires," or hetzigi. Because emrunath is so resistant to bush fires, farmers kill weeds by simply setting the fields alight. Fallen branches from the Abab Trees are lined along the fields, and the whole thing is sprinkled with oil from their seed pouches. Once the fire is started, it's carefully monitered for a few hours, and when the heat dissipates, manure is immediately spread along the rows of emrunath, refertilizing the fields and completing the process.

Apiarism is pretty common among farmers, both because the two staple crops are low-maintenance and because emrunath does best when cross-pollinated by bees.

Crops other than emrunath are considered luxuries because they're comparatively difficult to grow, but the people do need vitamin C. Thornberries are the most common source. These plants, which normally grow in dense thickets, are cultivated along domed, semicircular frames. The thorns are cut off each year at the end of summer, and the plant goes on to produce 5-8 more harvests worth of berries over the course of the year.

Most other food crops are foreign imports.

Snifflers are hairy, tapir-like animals that stand about a foot tall. Emeezim snifflers have particularly long trunks, doleful eyes, and faded brown coats. The animals provide a relatively large amount of milk for their size and lay eggs regularly. In the wild, snifflers are grazing herd creatures that retreat into a large, group burrow when threatened, but over several thousand years of domestication, their claws shrank into vestigial structures, they laid eggs more regularly, and they lost their fear of humans. While snifflers can be cultivated in a variety of ways, in the Emeezim Region they are taught to sleep in a multilayered wooden hutch, where farmers have access, through various doors, to their eggs, milk, and manure.

Horses aren't very common among farmers because few crops are cultivated which require the use of a plow. Shupaks, however, are. Shupaks are large nodosaurs cultivated for their meat and manure. Artificial Selection has increased their overall size, but made them less boney and all but removed the spikes from these animals. The ends of their tails are removed soon after hatching to prevent them from growing dangerous clubs.

Many farmers keep a small pack of Raptids as pets. These dromeosaurs typically stand about a foot tall, and are let loose at night to hunt down pests.

Spice gardens are common, as simple meals of the kind farmers eat mostly consist of spiced flatbread.

Lumuole Distribution
In this region, lumuoles grow in dense hotspots scattered randomly across the plains. The hotspots are shaped like cylinders, ranging anywhere from 2-5 meters in diameter and 4-7 meters tall. Hotspots are almost never located within 4-5 kilometers of one another. Lumuole colonies can usually be found floating around densely as pinprick-sized specks. All hotspots contain red lumuoles, as well as one other type of the other five colored varieties.

Underground, lumuole colonies can be found growing on the undersides of certain mushrooms.

The exception to the regular spawning patterns is the Garden of Auleset in Kilkir, which is a massive, lightly colonized hotspot of purple lumuoles.

Deities
Deities existing in the netherworld paralleling the Emeezim Region exist in a state of foggy semi-comprehension. They can vaguely influence the course of history, but they're much too diffused to have concentrated effects on anything, aside from during a short period just after their mortal death. Anyway, here are the major ones (obviously, there are plenty of animal shades, ghosts, etc. and people who both had no demigodic descendants and didn't have a big influence on the region):

Termid
Termid is a fire spirit who ascended in 10,200 BCE. He sired 3 children before he died: Syoza, Auleset, and Rits. He is the progenitor of the Termidine bloodline. Torbudite religion emphasizes his power and prestige, and it considers him to be the only true god.

In truth, spirits just aren't very influential in the Emeezim region, and Termid is no exception. Termid is the spirit that engineered the Emrunath plant, making agriculture a far more productive pursuit for Emzimite farmers, but he's had very little effect on the world aside from that.

Despite what Torbudite priests believe, Termid was not Emzimite and was in fact ethnically Chu (a Taiviev group.) His family was a part of a group of hunter-gatherers that persisted in southern Emeezim despite the Emzimite migrations.

Setza
Setza has had a much bigger effect on the region than Termid, but is, ironically, completely unknown to its inhabitants. Around 9,500 BCE, she consumed a purple great lumuole at the age of 45, but conceived no children afterwards, something that greatly distressed her tribesfolk. She turned the location of her death into what would later become known as the Garden of Auleset and proclaimed Mount Syoza as her Holy Landmark (An older Emzimite custom imported from the east.) Thanks to her influence, air no longer distorts the light reflecting off of Mount Syoza, making it visible from thousands of kilometers away.

After her death, she was forgotten within a few hundred years. Mount Syoza and the Garden of Auleset, as one might surmise, were renamed after children of Termid, though that's not necessarily something she would have objected to.

Tzubrili
"Tzubrili" is a protector spirit that watches over the region's Pilasian species. At the time of its ascension in 8,000 BCE, Pilasians were practically extinct due to human predation. Tzubrili was a ground sloth who semiconsciously took a purple great lumuole upon herself and now uses its illusatory powers to hide any Pilasians from those who would do them harm, and lead her kinsfolk to good feeding grounds when hungry. It's unknown why Tzubrili has such a greater influence on the world than her fellows.

Her name, of course, isn't actually Tzubrili. She doesn't have a name. "Tzubrili" is a Taiviev word describing the phenomenon of having all the leaves chewed off of your Abab tree and being unable to find the ground sloth that did the deed.

Nekit
Around 1,200 BCE, a young man named Nekit ingested a great red lumuole. Instead of introducing a new pyromantic bloodline, as he'd hoped, his influence centered around beauty and fertility. He was coddled and pampered in the Torbud capital for the next 60 years of his life, siring 16 children with multiple mistresses (Nekit was kind of a scumbag.) He hasn't had any major effects on Diaemus, aside from introducing the Nekatut bloodline to the world.

Atzel
A shockingly short time after Nekit's life (1,000 BCE!) another great lumuole appeared in the Emeezim Region, this time yellow. It was ingested by a nomadic Taiviev man named Atzel. He continued with his tribe for the rest of his life. Atzel's bloodline spread north and south, to both the nomadic Sessets and the sedentary Torbudites. Atzel, oddly, is one of the few deities in the region which actually responds to worship, in a manner of speaking. He seems to have some control over lighting, and can use it to haunt the enemies of those who respect him during storms.

Lobohka
In 200 CE, a new orange great lumuole appeared, and was ingested unknowingly by a peasant woman named Lobohka in her sleep. She bore several children afterwards, completely unaware of the fact that she was passing on powers that were mostly passive. Her village was dispersed by Sesset raiders several years after her death, and her descendants scattered far and wide. It wasn't until four generations later that the Lobeki bloodline was discovered and traced back to her.

She doesn't seem to have had any real effects on the world aside from the introduction of her bloodline.

Bloodlines
The following bloodlines are the most common in the region. Termidines, and to a lesser extent, Nekatuts and Atzelites, form the ruling class of the Torbud Empire, while Lobeki blood manifests mostly in peasant classes.

Termidine
Descended from the fire spirit Termid. This is one of the older magical bloodlines on the continent, dating back to around 10,200 BCE. This line was prized by Emzimite nobles soon after social stratification began, and by about 2,000 BCE, all major nobles can be assumed to be descended from this line, one way or another. This becomes deeply ingrained in Torbudite culture, and during Sesset rule of the region, commoners sorely missed the traditions associated with pyromancy.

-All Termidines possess the ability to "fireshove," or influence the spread of fire. A fireshover could, for example, snuff out a candle by focusing on it, or turn it slowly (and briefly) into a large blaze. Fireshoving is, unfortunately, rather imprecise, but groups of fireshovers can accomplish extraordinary things. All lumuole types can power fireshoving, and it doesn't take much magic to power it.

-About half of the Termidine bloodline can also "breathe" fire. The fire begins just past the lips, and the heat is transferred forward. This ability is powered by red lumuoles only, but is still pretty efficient, magic-wise.

-Twenty percent of all Termidines have the ability to render normally inflammable things flammable (fireshaping,) so long as enough of their chemical components are flammable (water, for example, could definitely be rendered flammable.) This ability can be powered by any lumuole type but is extremely expensive in terms of lumuole consumption.

-Five percent of non-fireshapers possess the ability of "greater fireshoving." Instead of just influencing the spread of fire, they can actively control it. People with this ability are called Hetzura. A Hetzura could, within a second, turn a flame the size of a candle into a massive dome of fire, or keep a disembodied flame floating in the air beside them. The cost of this ability depends on how much fire is being created or destroyed, and the precision with which it's being moved, but it's generally pretty expensive. Red lumuoles are required for controlling the mass of a fire, and yellows, oranges, or purples are required for shaping it.

--37.5% fireshovers only, 37.5% fireshovers and firebreathers only, 10% fireshovers and fireshapers only, 10% fireshovers and firebreathers and fireshapers only, 2.5% Hetzura only, 2.5% firebreathers and Hetzura only.

Nekatut
The Nekatut line is also associated with red lumuoles, but it goes in a completely different direction from the Termidine line. The line appeared around 1,200 BCE from the fertility spirit Nekit, and can be found in certain villages among minor nobles of the Torbud Empire.

-All Nekatuts are supernaturally beautiful and charismatic. This is powered passively by red lumuoles and requires very little magic. In fact, the decline in magic differs very little from the natural lumuole decay rate in the Emeezim Region, so only a lumuole every few weeks or so is required to maintain this aura. This isn't mind contol, it's just a small boost changing how they're percieved by other people and telling them the right things to say.

-In addition, about 30% of Nekatuts can also bestow this aura upon others, which is rather expensive, about a lumuole per day.

-10% of aura-granters can make people fall in love with somebody. This also isn't mind control. It alters the chemical composition of the brain towards that emotional state but doesn't force them to think a certain way.

--70% aura only, 27% can bestow an aura and have an aura only, 3% All abilities.

Atzelite
A line originating in 1,000 BCE from Atzel, a thunder spirit. Atzelites manifest as several groups of pastoralists that stick to the Emeezim Region and the southern Sesset steppes. They took control of one of the northern fragments of the Torbud Empire during its collapse.

-Atzelites passively absorb static electricity as they walk around (provided that they're stocked with some type of lumuole that is.) After building up their reserve, they can use it to manipulate the electron gradient between themselves or themselves and other objects

Lobeki
The varied traits in the Lobeki line cover, more or less, every aspect of orange lumuole associations. The line began in 200 CE and is found rather rarely among peasants. Its patron's name is Lobohka.

-About 30% of Lobekis have increased durability and pain resistance (they could, for example, block a sword with their hand, letting it bite into the skin but doing little damage.) This requires some sort of lumuole reserve, but happens passively. Additionally, orange lumuoles allow the user to "flare" this ability, becoming virtually unbreakable and feeling no pain whatsoever, physical or emotional.

-About 50% have increased strength. This is not passive and requires orange lumuoles to work. Overall strength is improved by about 30%

-About 20% are terramancers. The scale of earth or rock they move is theoretically limitless, but the amount of magic it takes increases exponentially with mass. 2 Kilograms is about where it stops being worth it.

--30% durability, 50% strength, 20% earthmoving

Mount Syoza
The region's most notable landmark is Mount Syoza, a massive caldera volcano reaching up above the surrounding plains for miles. It's quite striking, especially due to Setza's blessing, which prevents it from fading into blue like ordinary mountains. The city of Syoza sits at its foot. Unknown to humans, deep under the mountain exists what remains of the Hakthn Rachnyx civilization.