The Broken Traverse is a massive, ancient elven bridge that crosses the Itkahi Bay in the Laqto Rainforest. Though today large sections have fallen into the water, several towns have established themselves on top of the bridge's remaining span.
Geography
The Broken Traverse once spanned 60 miles across the Itkahi Bay, but for centuries if not millennia major segments of the bridge have been missing after they collapsed into the sea. Still, significant sections remain, largely clustered around its massive piers and piles that are still firmly anchored in the seabed below. So long has the Traverse been abandoned that entire ecosystems have formed on it, isolated pockets of trees and other rainforest plants and animals that have managed to find new homes miles from the mainland of the Laqto.
The nation is generally considered to only encompass the bridge itself and where it meets the land on both its north and south ends. This includes the town of Terminus but not any of the surrounding rainforest.
Located near the equator, the Broken Traverse is hot year-round with relatively little seasonal variation in temperature. Seasons are instead defined by the amount of rainfall.
Demographics
Peoples of many ancestries call the Broken Traverse home. Elves and half-elves account for most of the population, joined by significant numbers of humans, grippli, and leshies as well.
Culture
Religion
Most inhabitants of the Broken Traverse worship the deities of the Aserdian pantheon, but worship of the Elven pantheon remains strong as well. Of these deities, Nashira/Celens is particularly popular, as many are naturally drawn to the goddess of curiosity and learning by their proximity to, and inheritance of, the ancient past. Veneration of the goddess centers around offerings given at star-shrines built at the highest remaining points of the Traverse. Other oft-worshiped deities include Tarazet, Errai, Saiph/Satres, and Rasalas, with many Bridgedwellers taking a stance on the god similar to that of the Okotoni.
Society
Bridgedweller culture is in many ways very similar to that of Okoton. Cultural ties between the two nations have long been extremely close due to their proximity and the long history of migration up and down the length of the Okoton Estuary. Their cuisine, fashion, and traditions are broadly shared, though of course with variations and regional subtleties.
Economically the people of the Traverse support themselves through fishing, trade, and by salvaging the ancient elven ruins that lie on the seafloor below. After its construction by the Kingdom of Eita the Traverse was in use for centuries prior to its abandonment as the elves retreated back to the Cradle, and in that time there was much lost to the waves. Long-lost artifacts, magical items, and resources such as ansharite recovered from the waters of the bay can fetch quite the high price in the markets of Yarma and Pela Huban, carried there by merchant vessels leaving the estuary. As for trade, the two largest bridge towns of Passage and Lelluri are both built at large gaps in the span, with docks at the water level leading up to the towns above. While not a destination for merchants themselves, their inhabitants make their livings through resupplying and repairing vessels entering and leaving the bay.
Languages
Aserdian and its dialects are the most spoken languages on the Broken Traverse. Common and Elven are widely known as well.
Architecture and urbanization
The architecture of the Bridgedweller towns is a unique fusion of old and new, with modern structures built on top of the foundations laid by the long-departed Eitan elves. The Traverse itself, though monumental in scale, is largely characteristic of typical Eitan architecture and engineering. Its clean stone and metal construction has been weathered greatly by the centuries, and even sections that are intact display signs of erosion and damage. The ansharite and gold statuary that once watchfully guarded the bridge from atop its highest towers are almost all long gone, carried off to melt down or grace the halls of the wealthy in foreign lands, except for those at Passage, which have been dutifully protected by the town's inhabitants. Each arch of the bridge is just over 300 meters long, connecting the immense piers that anchor into the seafloor. At each end the bridge once deposited travelers onto major roads between Eitan settlements in the Laqto, but these roads, and the settlements themselves, deteriorated even before the Traverse.
Using wood, thatch, stone, and metal harvested from the rainforest or repurposed from decayed sections of the bridge, the Bridgedwellers have built small towns on the Traverse itself, largely around the piers where the bridge remains strongest. Though they take clear inspiration from the architecture of Okoton, limited space has forced the towns to build upwards rather than outwards, and as such most structures are multiple stories tall. Access to these higher levels is largely by systems of ladders, just as is used to climb to the water hundreds of feet below. Lower levels are generally seen as more prestigious places to live.
Some Bridgedweller communities have constructed drawbridges between decayed sections of the bridge, raised at night to hinder the travel of dangerous creatures of the Laqto into their towns.
Government
Each settlement on the Broken Traverse is independent from each other, though they typically coordinate and share knowledge and resources on any matter that affects them all. Aside from a brief period in the middle of the ninth millennium when they were conquered and united under the autocratic rule of Scholar-Prince Matl Axuni, the Bridgedwellers have organized themselves into direct democracies, collectively deciding on the actions their communities will take.
The towns of the Broken Traverse have a close, if informal, alliance with the inhabitants of the Okoton to the north. In many aspects of their culture and governance they remain quite similar.