Okoton (pronounced OH-koh-ton) is a nation in the Laqto Rainforest located where the Arteries of the Rainforest open into the massive Okoton Estuary. As the cultural heart of the rainforest, the people of the Laqto often say that all rivers lead to Okoton.
Geography
See also: Okoton Estuary
The nation of Okoton is located entirely around the Okoton Estuary. Fed by the Arteries of the Rainforest, the many rivers that originate in the Fangs of Khurazar to the north and in the Southern Fangs to the east, in the estuary this vast amount of fresh water mixes with the saltwater of the Mhasmuth Ocean as it flows out to sea. The region is full of life, aquatic and otherwise.
The Okoton Estuary is split into three large branches, alongside a number of smaller ones. The largest, from west to east, are those fed by the Okoton River, the Shuwala River, and the Okelga River. Sandbars and small rocky islets are common throughout the estuary. Several barrier islands can be found in the Itkahi Bay, where small maritime outposts are frequently established. Water depths are generally shallow, not exceeding 80 feet.
Located near the equator, Okoton 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 Okoton home. Humans, elves, half-elves, grippli, anadi, and leshies are all especially common. Settlements in the region tend to include individuals of many ancestries and backgrounds.
Culture
Religion
Most inhabitants of Okoton worship the deities of the Aserdian pantheon, and in particular Rasalas. In Okoton Rasalas is seen as less conservative and more future-looking than is typical for the god elsewhere. Richly decorated temples to the deity are found in close proximity to the docks in each major city in Okoton, and in many smaller settlements as well, where they serve as both centers of religious worship and as gathering places for the crews of the many barges and ships that regularly ply the estuary and beyond. In addition to his aspects as a god of trade and cities, the Okotoni also consider Rasalas to be responsible for waterways and those who live near or travel upon them, a domain otherwise more typically associated with Tucana.
Other faiths are common in Okoton as well. The worship of various spirits, ancestral and natural alike, is widespread, and most settlements have a particular collection of water spirits associated with their local stretch of the estuary to whom they regularly give offerings. Other pantheons, like that of the elves, are also venerated in Okoton.
Society
Okoton is a highly dynamic and ever-changing nation. A popular saying in Okoton is that one wakes in a different city each morning, as the bridges between the stilt-neighborhoods may change configuration by the time one passes by them again in the evening. New residents regularly arrive from farther within the rainforest, and so too do others depart. With its location at the confluence of the Arteries of the Rainforest, everything from the Laqto eventually passes through Okoton, whether that be goods like fruits, spices, medicines, nuts, and resins, or people and the practices they bring with them.
The people of Okoton eschew titles and even the informal granting of prestige, at least during one's life. Even those in leadership roles are known only by their titles on occasions when it is absolutely necessary. This all changes upon one's death, however, at which point all who new them join in singing their praises, literally, to all who attend their funerary celebrations.
Economically Okoton is centered heavily around trade, both with the other peoples of the rainforest and with those in distant realms, such as Brightmarch and far-away Kea Racha. Its people prosper greatly from this, especially due to the cultural obligations of wealth sharing. Anyone who comes into wealth, whether in the form of resources or money, is traditionally expected to share a portion of it with their community, meaning their neighbors and the inhabitants of their village or city as a whole. The percentage scales, but is generally anywhere from half to almost ninety percent, depending on the windfall, given out in the form of feasts, donations to those less fortune, and the commission and distribution of artistic works.
Multiple orders of ascetic monks have been established in or near Okoton, though they usually reside in outposts hidden in the rainforest away from the cities and the estuary.
Languages
Aserdian and its dialects are the most spoken languages in Okoton. Common and Elven are widely known as well, and it is not unusual to hear other tongues in the cities of the estuary.
Architecture and urbanization
Effectively all settlements in Okoton are located on, or else very nearby to, the water. From the smallest village to the largest city, most are collections of wood and thatch buildings constructed on top of pillars driven into the soft soil of the riverbank or shores, connected by both open channels in the water and by bridges and walkways. Some communities, mostly villages farther north in the estuary, have an almost organic feeling as most of their homes are instead grown by shaping living mangrove trees, a technique similar to that used by the aquatic elves of the Cradle. Okotoni settlements rarely build vertically, with most buildings two stories tall at most, and therefore cities in the region have a tendency to sprawl out along, and at times across, the estuary.
Food and cuisine
The Okotoni diet is based largely around seafood. Fish serves an important role, of course, but so do to water snakes, crocodiles, crab, and shrimp. Rice paddies line the banks of the estuary near the cities, along with orchards from which various fruits and nuts are harvested. Foodstuffs are not commonly traded with people across the sea, owing to the time of travel, but much culinary influence has moved in both directions between Okoton and Kea Racha.
Government
Though the cities and villages of Okoton were originally established by nomadic tribes of the rainforest that migrated south and settled near the coast, tribal loyalties are no longer at the root of the region's politics and governance. Instead loyalties now lie with the city, each of which is some form of republic, though the precise details vary between them. Temples and clergy hold great sway in Okoton as well, especially those of Rasalas.
The cities of Okoton have a close, if informal, alliance with the inhabitants of the Broken Traverse to the south. In many aspects of their culture and governance they remain quite similar.