Kiyashe

Kiyashe
Capital	None
Ruler	Multiple
Government	Independent autocracies
Demonym	Kiyashen
Adjective	Kiyashen
Languages	Various; Aserdian, Aquan, Common especially
Religions	Various deities

Kiyashe (pronounced key-AH-she) is a region in southwestern Brightmarch. The cenotes of Kiyashe are home to aquatic peoples that would otherwise rarely be found so far inland. Complex political webs and feuds bind together the cities built into the watery caves.

Geography, flora, and fauna

The Kiyashe Peninsula is a karstic landscape. Caves, sinkholes, cenotes, springs, canyons, and other eroded features are common throughout the area. In some places on the surface, unusual rock formations abruptly jut out of the ground amongst the forests and grasslands of the region. This rough terrain has discouraged most surface dwellers from establishing communities in the region - the large number of predators, especially raptorial dinosaurs, that thrive in Kiyashe is certainly another factor.

Underground, the cenotes and caves of Kiyashe host rich biospheres of their own. Plants, animals, and magical creatures that have adapted to life without ever touching the surface thrive in the underground networks. Even the open cenotes, exposed to the surface above, have highly unique fauna. In some places, surface creatures that have fallen into one of the region's many sinkholes have found niches of their own.

The climate and weather of Kiyashe is similar to the rest of Brightmarch.

Demographics

The subterranean watery communities of Kiyashe are inhabited primarily by merfolk, joined by significant numbers of azarketi, sahuagin, and tritons. Non-aquatic peoples are uncommon in this part of Kiyashe, but not absolutely unknown, as some land-dwellers find reasons to relocate to the cenotes.

Though Kiyashe is best known for its aquatic denizens, the surface is just as populated as is the rest of Brightmarch. Humans, half-elves, elves, and others live in the Kiyashe Peninsula, though the population is largely nomadic and there are exceptionally few permanent communities.

Culture

Society

those that live on surface use trained animals (which?) to find safe places to set up where the ground won't collapse. happens rarely but sometimes

Architecture and urbanization

outposts on top of cenotes?

Food and cuisine

water collectors for those on surface, very little surface water but good amount of rain

Travel

Borders in the subterranean world of Kiyashe are tightly contested, especially in the flooded caves that connect the cenotes to each other and to the sea. Travel between the communities can be a difficult process that requires seeking permission from each ruler who's territory is crossed. Even if such approval is already sought and received prior to one's journey, it is still not unusual to get hassled by guards zealously protecting their sections of the caves.

Government

The aquatic communities of Kiyashe govern themselves quite differently than most of the rest of Brightmarch. Nearly all of the settlements in the cenotes and caves are autocracies, some hereditary monarchies and others functionally military juntas. Most of the cenotes are somewhat isolationist, not only from each other but also from the surface world. Due to their intense competitiveness the various rulers of Kiyashe only temporarily form alliances with each other, to be disregarded at the first hint that one might be able to gain an advantage over their former ally.

Kiyashen rulers are often keen to request tasks to be performed by the few outsiders that manage to gain their favor. In particular, these leaders prefer to use foreign visitors as emissaries, due to their perception as neutral to the region's many feuds.

Economy

Though the settlements of Kiyashe begrudgingly exchange goods with each other, they do not have large scale trade relations with outside communities. The cenotes are not particularly rich in natural resources, and those they do have they would prefer to hoard for their own benefit. Merchants that have come to seek arrangements with the leaders of the Kiyashe almost always leave empty handed.