Yurukan

Yurukan
Capital	None
Ruler	Multiple
Government	Scholar-princes and tribal monarchies
Demonym	Yurukanite
Adjective	Yurukan
Languages	Elven; Targai
Religions	Elven pantheon; Abanir pantheon; dead moon cults

Yurukan (pronounced YOU-roo-khan) is a land inhabited by the descendants of elves whose aeroliths crashed in the forests and tundra thousands of years ago. Many still live in the once-flying cities, led by scholar-princes who rely on tribute from the less sedentary peoples of the region to support their endeavors.

Geography, flora, and fauna

Yurukan lies at the northwestern edge of the Aban Steppe where the grasslands give way to boreal forests and tundra. Nestled between the Northern Wall and the Kuzal Mountains, Yurukan is cold even in the summer and bitterly frigid in the long winters. Snow covers the landscape for much of the year, and the many rivers that flow down from the mountains likewise are commonly covered in ice. Still, for all its challenges, the landscape is somewhat more hospitable than much of the steppe to the south, as the forests and their margins are full of berries, edible roots, and other foodstuffs upon which people and animals alike rely. Bears, reindeer, lynx, eagles, and more are widespread in Yurukan.

Lake Ilithiia and the impossibly still Mirror Lake are the two largest bodies of water in Yurukan, the former fed by rivers beginning in the mountains and the latter supplied by seasonal snow melt in the surrounding forests.

History

There has been an elven presence in Yurukan since at least Y7000^*, though perhaps even longer. When the age of the aeroliths began to come to an end, and the fate of Eita and the Cradle was becoming clear, some aerotheurges and other leaders of the flying cities began to search for locations farther afield to establish new elven societies, away from the consequences of their own creations. One such place was remote Yurukan.

Demographics

Elves and kobolds account for the vast majority of the population of Yurukan, but they are also joined by smaller numbers of orcs, humans, half-elves, and half-orcs. Non-elven, non-kobold peoples tend to be present mostly in the southern reaches of Yurukan and particularly around Mirror Lake.

Culture

Religion

The inhabitants of Yurukan worship both the gods of the Elven pantheon and those of the Abanir pantheon, sometimes separately and sometimes at the same time. It is not at all unusual for even those whose worship otherwise remains close to the traditional elven faith to also venerate nature spirits as do the targai and gatai of the steppe.

Though they are shunned by broader society, Yurukan has the largest number of dead moon cults of anywhere across the Aban.

Society

Life in Yurukan varies greatly depending on whether or not one resides in one of the cloistered cities within the landed aeroliths. For the few that do, the traditions of Eitan learning still hold great sway, and all are expected to devote significant amounts of their time to scholarly pursuits. The scholar-princes themselves are at the height of these ideals, spending most of their lives deep in their work - most see themselves as the legitimate heirs to the nobility of Eita. To many elves of Yurukan, this is seen as a privileged existence, not least because the safety, security, and relative leisure conferred by life in the cities are limited to those who are approved by the local scholar-prince.

The majority of elves in Yurukan, and nearly everyone of other ancestries, instead live semi-nomadic lives in the outlying hinterlands. These clans and tribes pay tribute to the rulers of the cities, supporting them with food and resources in exchange for promises of protection and the consideration of entrance into the aeroliths. In reality, the only protection non-city-dwelling elves need is from the feuds and conflicts started by the scholar-princes against each other, and so gradually this arrangement has begun to be stripped away as more and more elves join the targai tribes to the south or otherwise simply stop paying tribute.

While a handful of aeroliths were set to ground successfully in Yurukan with minimal damage, more crashed into the snow-covered landscape. The corpses of these cities have slowly been scavenged over the centuries for valuable items and resources to repair those still inhabited,.

Languages

Elven, Targai, and Draconic and by far the most frequently spoken languages in Yurukan. Other languages, in particular Common and Orcish, are not unknown in the region, however.

Architecture and urbanization

Relatively few of the elves of Yurukan live in the landed aeroliths, or within their remains. Instead the majority of the population lives semi-nomadic lives, following their herds of reindeer and other animals across the landscape between grazing grounds. For these people, yurts and tents in the styles of those used elsewhere across the Aban are popular.

Government

The peoples of Yurukan govern themselves in two quite distinct methods. Amongst the elves, the more traditionalist in the cities are led by scholar-princes, effectively the inheritors of the aerotheurges and scholar-nobility of old. These roles are not hereditary, but rather each scholar-prince is appointed by their predecessor and their advisors on the basis of scholarly achievements and personal aptitude. Each scholar-prince controls a settlement and its surrounding lands but has little influence farther afield.

Kobolds, other ancestries, and some elves, meanwhile, are led by tribal monarchies typical of those of Abanir. In the last few centuries the power of the scholar-princes have slowly waned in favor of these tribal systems, as one by one the last of the landed aeroliths give up clinging to old elven ways.

Economy

Though they do engage in trade at times with the targai and gatai of Abanir to the south, the elves of Yurukan pride themselves in their self-sufficiency and do not rely on others to acquire the goods they need to survive. Between their herds in the steppe and forests, their mines within the Kuzal Mountains, and resources scavenged from the decaying aeroliths, there is not a great deal they require from outsiders.