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 deepest and widest of the sinkholes are sometimes even home to large subsurface forests.
There are no major rivers or bodies of water in Kiyashe, as the porous rock of the area allows almost all of the water to drain into the subsurface reservoirs.
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
Religion
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
move to economy: sometimes find rare, sought after plants that have survived in the cenotes/sinkholes
poorly mapped as it is difficult to navigate, at least on the surface. underground, very well mapped through the knowledge tends to be tightly guarded
Architecture and urbanization
outposts on top of cenotes?
limestone - below ground, makes it easy to build
Languages
Food and cuisine
water collectors for those on surface, very little surface water but good amount of rain
seafood, crab/fish farms below ground
Art
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.