Cape of the singing winds

The cape of the singing winds is a very remote peninsula on the continent of Yirdaahr. Just as the rest of Yirdaahr the region is mostly empty of humans, elves, demons or orcs. There are a few small nomadic tribes that forage and hunt in this region, but apart from that the cape is completly empty. Well more or less for that matter. There are ruins to be found in one place at the southern edge of the mainland, at the beginning of an old eroded fjord at the foot of a group of hills the daring adventurer might be able to find the ruins of a very old and very much abandoned middle sized city. This was once the home of one of the smaller city kingdoms that are so typical for Yirdaahr. In the dawn of the second era it was founded by a small group of demon-human-hybrids that owe their existance to the dark gods they were worshipping. But this shouldnt be about them and their downfall, even if it still affects the whole region.

Geography

So lets talk basics. This peninsula is located in the far north of Yirdaahr, the most eastern continent of Aar. Due to the mainlands geography this peninsula is mostly cut of from the mainland by a mountainridge and is best accessed by sea. If it werent for the witches from Trivol and their kraken. If you sail these seas, be careful. But I should stick to geography now. Witches later. Overall the peninsula could be a quite nice place. The waters in the western gulf between the peninsula and the mainland are shallow and heat up pretty quickly during spring - it never gets hot, its the far north after all, but it gets way warmer than in other places of the same lattitude. In the center of the north we have the plains, a tundra that is a friendly place during the warm months but gets nasty real quick during autumn when the first storms hit. In the west the wrenchwood forest covers the lands with its crippled and twisted pine trees. The center of the peninsula is taken up by the giant glacial lake and the surrounding mountains. Due to the water beeing so murky the fish and other animals in there lost their eyes over time. Even though they arent particular hostile, they do look fearsome. South of the lake the hills begin. These lands can only be described as nice. Flat little hills, some smaller wrenchwood forests, some rivers, a lot of game, a small lake here and there. You would want to build a town the moment you lay eyes on these lands. Well, some actually did, but more on that later. The southern cape of the peninsula is devided in the Fjerdayk-fjord in the east and the singing cliffs in the west that gave the cape its name.  

The Islands

South of the cape you will see some islands. Namely Cilbrktos Gullet, Trestensteen and Auksteen. A little further south are some more islands, but they dont have names. Auksteen, as the name might suggests holds a lot of seabirds, while Trestensteen hosts a giant wrenchwood tree. And I mean giant. The witches of whom I´ll tell you elsewhere hold meetings here and a hidden dark power is supposed to slumber underneath the roots of the tree. Nobody exactly knows what sleeps there but its something sinister. Something sinister that attracts beautiful but deadly moths and butterflies.  

Cilbrktos Gullet

As long as you keep away from the south with its way too many multi-legged inhabitants this is a subarctic dream. A broad, clear stream filled with fish, a huge delta with nesting birds and extensive salt marshes, wrenchwood forests, some hills. And the best thing is - nothing deadly lurks here. There are some smaller felines here that keep the deer in check but leave the occasional sailor alone. The only remnant of civilisation is an old lighthouse that stands lonesome on a small rock around 200 meters in front of the most northern point. The ancient civilisation that also build the city used this island as a meadow for their livestock.  

History

As you might have figured out by now, the peninsula has a long history. Throughout the first era only a few tribes of hunters and gatherers spend time in the region occasionally or drove over to Auksteen on primitive rafts during the calm summer months to feast on the chicks of the auks. For a few centuries a small group of elves build a small town in the wrenchwood forest but near the end of the first era they left to an unknown fate.   Once in the time when the first era ended and the second one began a young civilisation started to build a city at the end of the Fjerdayk-fjord. Where did they came from? To answer that I must start a little earlier. The founders of that city where demons. They followed a small demonic deity, Zurektyl. Zurektyls way was to mix and blend yourself with other races. Her goal was to create a demon-hybrid that possesed the powers of all races. Due to the fact that demons, elves, humans, orcs, dwarfs and fairies can only mix under certain very rare circumstances and their offspring beeing infertile Zurekyl was allways a small mostly ignored deity. Until the day one of her priests figured out a way to avoid these obstacles.   That led to one of the biggest wars in the history of the demons and ended with the followers of Zurektyl being driven out. Or being slaughtered and forced to flee. Speaking about them was put under the deathpenality and their cities were annihilated. Most demons thaught they were all dead and they were soon forgotten.   But a few of them escaped and found a new home in Fjerdayk. The city was only a small refugee camp in the beginning but it began to grow. Soon, some of the local human hunters and gatherers started to trade with the demons and some settled down there. That was the beginning of the experiments of the priestress that found the ritual to bridge the boarders between the races. Zurektyl wasnt a kind goddess so they needed sacrifices. But since they wouldnt wanted to drive away their new found human friends they created a kraken. A giant squidlike beast that obeyed the foremen of the fishermen who happened to be the infamous priestresses husband. He arranged for the poor souls to be sacrificed, his wife arranged for the rituals to take place in secret.   Just how it was bound to happen, the first relationships between demons and humans started forming and the surprise was huge when after only 6 months three women, one demonic, two human, were pregnant. It happens every now and then that a hybrid is born, but it has never happenend that three in that short amount of time were concieved in the same town.   This was the foundation on which Fjerdayk was build. The city grew and became a little famous for its copper workers and art. Yirdaahr was denser populated back then and they had a good flow of ships going in and out the harbour - despite the kraken still lurking in the depths offshore.   In the end what made them strong, was their ruin in the end. After a few centuries the city consisted mostly of demon-human hybrids. Out of fear of beeing overthrown the priests of Zurektyl banned all forms of magic. Only priests were allowed to use magic, the rest of the population was prohibited to do so. Otherwise they would end up underneath the temple...   This was annoying for a huge part of the population, but downright devastating for the small circle of witches that opperated in the harbour. Led by noone else than the firstborn daughter of the high priestress the cult follwed Zurektyl in their own ways and made their living by selling amuletts, magical tokens and potions. With the ban they lost their way of living from one day to the other. Legends say that this day the giant bell of the krakentemple that was raised by captains trying to avoid beeing eaten fell down and squashed the maid of the high priestress. This was supposed to be the boom that started the downfall.   Obviously the witches didnt gave up their way of living peacefully, they left the same night and nobody knew where they went. What noone knew at the time, was that they did in fact took something with them. The husband of the high priestress didnt controled the kraken with his willpower, he had an amulet that gave him the abbility to command the monster. His daughter conviniently stole that amulet before she left with her sisters.   The story of the witches should be told elsewhere, but to give some perspective, now able to command the kraken, they sabotaged the trade in whole cape region. Ships constantly going missing drove even the most greedy trader away and due to its remote location and the lack of bigger empires in Yirdaahr trade came to a halt and died completly in the following years. With no incoming ships food became scarce first, then everything that made life comfortable - exotic snacks, fine clothing, spices, books, tools, everything wasnt avaiable anymore due to the beast under the waves crushing every ship that dared to come near the shores.   That soon led to a violent uprising that turned into an even more bloody civil war that raged for nearly two years until both parties were so decimated that they literally had not enough people left to continue the war. Some negotiations took place, but due to assassinations and a poisoned pot of soup this came to an abrupt end. The townsfolk split up further into small tribe like groups and scattered throughout the region. But left by their enraged goddess the newborn children werent fertile anymore and even with the long lifespan of demons, attacks and fights between the different tribes, wild animals, famine, disease and the winters caught up with them until after around 300 years the last demonhybrid, ironically the priestress who started all this herself, died of a fever in a small cave with a view over the cape and the islands.   After that, apart from the cult on Trivol and some hunters who come into the region between Satulas tub and the wrenchwood forest in the summer to hunt, the cape is now again void of civilisation.