Saltie Flats
The Lotzi Estuaries, known locally as Saltie Flats, are a vibrant and rich coastal wetland offering plentiful bounty. Mango, marshberries and as fine of fishing and trapping as one can hope. However the name Saltie Flats has very little to do with the ocean itself that this wetland drains to, the tidal estuary being fed and flooded by the mouth of the Lotzi. No this overgrown stretch of marshy coast and its many tributaries, lagoons, and pools as well as the Lotzi and the tributaries that feed it are known to be one of the most dangerous places in all of Kang-Chorath between the months of Aurilis and Derim. That last third of the year some might argue, perhaps convincingly that this wetland region becomes one of the most dangerous places on Valerick. Because from far and wide the leviathans of the Chorathian waterways come. Salt-Spine Crocodiles.
This is their breeding ground, this thick marshland and the pools and tributary banks are where mothers will lay their clutches and where they will spend the next year of their life until their young hatch and reach about three months of age, at which point those young ones move out into the estuaries and mangrove shallows, amongst the overgrown regions right along the coast, making good use of the tangled roots and seaweeds for safety and spending the next two years of their lives hunting amongst the salty shallows, taking anything they can catch, kill and eat as they rapidly grow in size. At about age three, they will leave the tangled kelps and roots and head along coasts and back inland, now at least of an appropriate size to challenge others.
All this to say, those whom live near and within this region, including a village of notable size, Ithwi, which is only three miles up the Lotzi from where the river meets the sea, are very clear on the rules. For those four months you stay at least forty paces away from any edge or riverbank at night, you certainly do not paddle or canoe at night, and you do not trust any body of water, at all, ever during those four months. Only two years ago, the eldest son of the mayor went missing, his laputua found a day or two later. Some hunters returned a lower leg that matched the boy's to the village almost a week after that to bury. They'd found it washed up on the riverbank near an obvious crocodile slide and the leg showed signs of having been torn and ripped free by a crocodile from the body it had been attached too. They brought the leg back to the village, having heard that Mayor Tulam's son had gone missing before they'd gone off on their hunt. The mayor had identified the leg from a tattoo on the foot.
Excerpt from Mayor Sura Tulam, speaking of his son Benjein after a funerary rite before his friends and neighbors in Ithwi.
This is their breeding ground, this thick marshland and the pools and tributary banks are where mothers will lay their clutches and where they will spend the next year of their life until their young hatch and reach about three months of age, at which point those young ones move out into the estuaries and mangrove shallows, amongst the overgrown regions right along the coast, making good use of the tangled roots and seaweeds for safety and spending the next two years of their lives hunting amongst the salty shallows, taking anything they can catch, kill and eat as they rapidly grow in size. At about age three, they will leave the tangled kelps and roots and head along coasts and back inland, now at least of an appropriate size to challenge others.
All this to say, those whom live near and within this region, including a village of notable size, Ithwi, which is only three miles up the Lotzi from where the river meets the sea, are very clear on the rules. For those four months you stay at least forty paces away from any edge or riverbank at night, you certainly do not paddle or canoe at night, and you do not trust any body of water, at all, ever during those four months. Only two years ago, the eldest son of the mayor went missing, his laputua found a day or two later. Some hunters returned a lower leg that matched the boy's to the village almost a week after that to bury. They'd found it washed up on the riverbank near an obvious crocodile slide and the leg showed signs of having been torn and ripped free by a crocodile from the body it had been attached too. They brought the leg back to the village, having heard that Mayor Tulam's son had gone missing before they'd gone off on their hunt. The mayor had identified the leg from a tattoo on the foot.
'Deep down, somehow I knew. I knew the day after he was due to have made it home. I should not have let him take that fishing trip out through the Flats and out into Sunda Bay. I knew breeding season was coming, I knew the Salt-Spines were arriving. But my son was so eager for his first fishing expedition alone, such a monumental moment and occasion. So eager to prove he was a man of the rivers now, and in my pride and foolishness, out of love, I acquiesced. I hate not the beast for what it did, for it did as a great hunter must do. It saw opportunity, prey, and took it. Such is the natural order of things. I feel only sorrow to myself for not being the parent he needed in that moment.'
Excerpt from Mayor Sura Tulam, speaking of his son Benjein after a funerary rite before his friends and neighbors in Ithwi.
Geography
The Saltie Flats are lush and thick estuary lowlands where the Lotzi, one of the largest rivers in the world, rushes to join the sea. Some fifty or more kilometers in each direction on land is encompassed by this biome but its core, its heart, the pulse of its existence is the Lotzi Estuaries, the Delta where that river meets the ocean. The area is lush, overgrown with mango and papaya trees, lush reeds, brush and swampberry vines, tangled vines that bear heavy tangled fruits of a deep purple hue that are heavy and sweet, though not like grapes, more earthy and honey like in flavor. They are a staple foodstuff in this region of Kang-Chorath and are oft cultivated, however they need marshy pools and swamps, their bases actually growing along and through reeds, atop water, and the vines that bear the fruit extending and tangling up along the shorelines. They grow in clusters, creating tangled mats along some areas of shallows that can hide grave danger, thus farming these crops is a task that requires great fortitude.
Ithwi is the largest centralized community in this region, the village proper numbering near two thousand inhabitants, a size perhaps better described as a small town over a large village. Built right on the Lotzi only three or so miles from the sea, it is as busy a river port as one will find through the first two thirds of the year, a notable amount of trade passing through its piers and docks. It is the primary point of shipping for smaller communities within the region as well, both farming and trapping sorts scattered about the wetlands. In total some forty thousand people live within the Saltie Flats or bordering it and relying on its ecosystems. In that reliance comes understanding and comes of course a level of acceptance.
For this region has a more ancient history, but one not of sapient kind, but of mighty beast. A predator most symbolic to the Chorathian culture, indeed it is their national animal, if ever such a thing would be formalized. Lords and ladies of the rivers and coasts, masters of the realm. This is of course reference to the Salt-Spine Crocodiles that give the region its name
Ithwi is the largest centralized community in this region, the village proper numbering near two thousand inhabitants, a size perhaps better described as a small town over a large village. Built right on the Lotzi only three or so miles from the sea, it is as busy a river port as one will find through the first two thirds of the year, a notable amount of trade passing through its piers and docks. It is the primary point of shipping for smaller communities within the region as well, both farming and trapping sorts scattered about the wetlands. In total some forty thousand people live within the Saltie Flats or bordering it and relying on its ecosystems. In that reliance comes understanding and comes of course a level of acceptance.
For this region has a more ancient history, but one not of sapient kind, but of mighty beast. A predator most symbolic to the Chorathian culture, indeed it is their national animal, if ever such a thing would be formalized. Lords and ladies of the rivers and coasts, masters of the realm. This is of course reference to the Salt-Spine Crocodiles that give the region its name
Ecosystem
The region, most of the year is a typical wetland region within the larger Chora Jungles geographical zone. Humid, damp, sticky, with overgrown plant life, plentiful insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds of small and moderate sizes. It has all the typical mammalian life you'd expect, including jaguars, capybara, various monkeys and apes as well as more aquatic ones like river otters and others. However atop the hierarchy of these natural beasts, though the jaguar may rule on land and the massive anacondas that can lurk unseen might be titans indeed, one predator sits alone. With none challenging its dominance except when it makes forays out into deeper ocean waters to move between islands. That is of course the behemoths known as Salt-Spine Crocodiles. Capable of being well north of twenty feet in length and weighing in excess of two thousand pounds, though this is only the males, this species dominants the food chain near any bodies of water it makes its home in all across Kang Chorath.
Yet what makes this biome so different, and so dangerous to its sapient inhabitants is that once a year Salt-Spine crocodiles from all around return here, as they do to two other regions on the other major land masses the Chora Jungles encompasses, to compete, and breed. The males, the larger by far and more aggressive, congregate, as do the females. Females travel in bands and seek the strongest, most successful and well fed males. Males for their part become hyper aggressive, fighting and even maiming and killing each other, and killing anything that is larger than a few pounds that isn't a female crocodile that is foolish enough to get to close to the stretch of water it has marked out as its display domain, storing these corpses, wedging them amongst sunken deadwood, hiding them amongst overgrowth on the river bank, as offerings and symbols of its prowess to impress and earn the right to breed with any gang of females that happens into its stretch of water. For only when being thus gifted with sustenance will such a gang let their guard down and be receptive to mating. Though much smaller than a male, the females will travel in groups of five or more, easily capable combined of severely injuring or even killing a male should it attempt unwelcome advances on any of their number. Thus the courtship, one that spells death and danger for anything not wise enough to avoid the region.
Yet what makes this biome so different, and so dangerous to its sapient inhabitants is that once a year Salt-Spine crocodiles from all around return here, as they do to two other regions on the other major land masses the Chora Jungles encompasses, to compete, and breed. The males, the larger by far and more aggressive, congregate, as do the females. Females travel in bands and seek the strongest, most successful and well fed males. Males for their part become hyper aggressive, fighting and even maiming and killing each other, and killing anything that is larger than a few pounds that isn't a female crocodile that is foolish enough to get to close to the stretch of water it has marked out as its display domain, storing these corpses, wedging them amongst sunken deadwood, hiding them amongst overgrowth on the river bank, as offerings and symbols of its prowess to impress and earn the right to breed with any gang of females that happens into its stretch of water. For only when being thus gifted with sustenance will such a gang let their guard down and be receptive to mating. Though much smaller than a male, the females will travel in groups of five or more, easily capable combined of severely injuring or even killing a male should it attempt unwelcome advances on any of their number. Thus the courtship, one that spells death and danger for anything not wise enough to avoid the region.
Localized Phenomena
This season gives the region its name. Though not every Salt-Spine will return to this or indeed any breeding ground yearly, it is estimated that within this small stretch of land during that four month window there could be as many as a thousand or more of the mighty predators all throughout the four months, and of that number easily two hundred or more are likely the most dangerous sorts, the massive, aggressive males. Key to remember to is even across all three known breeding grounds not every Salt-Spine capable of breeding makes the journey every year to one of these regions. We do not know why some will or won't and what drives or factors might influence that behavior, however many animals do not make the journey every year, though it is estimated that within a three or four year window every crocodile of breeding age will at some point make that effort for at least one breeding season.
Fauna & Flora
One might wonder how the wildlife populations in the region recover after this four months. Well part of it is what comes after. All along the rivers and tributaries, tucked away, buried, the females will lay their eggs. The males will disperse, journeying far and wide back to establish their dominance over regions of river, lake or coastlines they had come from. But the females, whom are smaller and weak now with the effort of laying the eggs and from fasting, indirectly, taking less time to hunt and more time to guard and watch over the clutch, are more vulnerable to predation. This combined with the glut of abandoned carrion brings back scavengers, predators and insects. Which then brings in birds, bats and others such creatures that might feed on those insects in large numbers and other mating seasons trigger from this. The eggs draw back smaller reptiles and mammals whom will seek to raid the nest mounds for the boon of such a fine meal. Thus is the harshness of the jungles.
Then comes the hatching and the mothers spend but a few weeks with the newborns. These younglings are in the thousands, each female oft laying dozens of eggs, but if one of a clutch make it to adulthood that is success. They become a key part of the ecosystem for the rivers, mangrove and kelp forests of the shadows and play their own role in drawing back in more aquatic life. It is all interconnected and these mighty predators, despite the devastation they might seem to cause with this mating ritual
Then comes the hatching and the mothers spend but a few weeks with the newborns. These younglings are in the thousands, each female oft laying dozens of eggs, but if one of a clutch make it to adulthood that is success. They become a key part of the ecosystem for the rivers, mangrove and kelp forests of the shadows and play their own role in drawing back in more aquatic life. It is all interconnected and these mighty predators, despite the devastation they might seem to cause with this mating ritual
Natural Resources
As noted the heavy presence of mango, papaya, and swampberries is a foundational reason people have settled here in the area, along with the excellent hunting, fishing and trapping. By necessity they have learned to work with the rhythm of the Salt-Spine breeding season, because otherwise such a situation would not be teniable.
Type
Wetland / Swamp
As is custom amongst the Chorathi for those whom die without anyone knowing their end, the village elders penned a tale for him, read aloud to aid his spirit in passing, to make sure his soul knows and hears that it is time to move on. This is the tale, harrowing yet in some ways closure;
Death Hides Deep
To better understand the the Salt-Spine Crocodile and the Crocodilian family in general, we would direct you to the entry within From Wild Beasts to Domestic Companions, Valerick's Diverse Animal Kingdom that they have. It offers a marvelously well encompassed further overview and introductory examination of this family. Crocodilian Family
Everything I see in your world has so much wonderful detail, and this is no exception. Nice work!
Awww thank you :) <3 that's really my biggest strength (and can be my weakness sometimes). I just, the words, they always escape containment. Its always nice to know when they land and work as I hope they do so I sincerely appreciate that!
I was also really happy to have the chance to canonize Death Hides Deep, that was a fun piece I wrote last Spooktober so for it to be canon and have deeper meaning than just a one off bit of prose is lovely side effect of this article too :)