The River Realms of Kang-Chorath

Demographics and Population

Kang-Chorath by most estimates has a population in and around the neighborhood of some 4.8 million. However getting fully accurate demographic data from this nations is uniquely difficult. Since they have no centralized government, not a proper one, there is no definitive data from any census or other such process for me to present here, and thus I can only really offer my subjective experience from my extensive travels. Based on that I would say that as is common all across Valerick, humans have a steady, though not dominating presence, likely between twenty to twenty-five percent, perhaps more if we count those with latent (that is mixed/half-breed) human ancestry.

My own kindred, those of elven blood, were present but quite uncommon, perhaps combined between Skye, Woad and those of Mixed heritage as much as five percent, maybe less. Halfmen and gnomes and dwarves were starkly rare, I think I only saw or met a handful combined in my travels across Kang-Chorath, though for dwarves in particular this should not be surprising. Tanturs are unsurprisingly dominant, this being their ancestral homeland, making up easily thirty to forty percent of those we met and those we saw.

Beyond that it was mixtures of the less well known ancestries those whom are perhaps not Children of the Ascended, but civil enough and have, seemingly, integrated quite well into Chorathian society, better than almost anywhere else on Valerick. Elemu, Temura, and Goki being by far and away the most common of these, though we did see and meet a select few Ursiya as well. Forge-born we might have seen and met one on our travels, so statistically it would seem the presence of those of Forge-born ancestry is within the acceptable margin of error to simply ignore.

Territories

Kang-Chorath holds claim over the massive islands of Holoru and Harimu, and most of the surrounding smaller islands, as well as everything west of the Symphonious Peaks Range. Much of the outer regions from the core riverlands of both the mainland and Harimu are less settled, and some regions still remain entirely without humanoid settlement. Similarly some of the smaller, more dense jungle islands remain uninhabited, though they are sometimes used as havens for criminals and piracy types.

Holoru however is a different beast. Much of this island remains uninhabited and unexplored, with only the eastern and southern coastal regions and islands seeing settlement thus far. The jungles and overgrowth on this larger island in particular is oft cited and described as actively hostile and even violent, and such rumors and descriptors may not be without merit given some of the evidence we saw, read of and were told of.

Laws

These vary noticeably, both in the laws one needs to know and follow, and the consequences for breaking them, across the various Dominions. Some things are notably similar of course, however every Dominion has at least a few dozen laws unique to them that one should be sure they are aware of before traveling them too extensively. Thankfully they are, at least on smaller and less severe offenses, rather understanding of newcomers and those unfamiliar with their homeland and nation, at least at first.

Agriculture and Industry

Kang-Chorath is an interesting nation, if one dares to call it that. Their structure such as it is defies explanation or proper classification, for they are not truly a confederation or republic or theocratic in the typical sense one would think of. However to myself this is not even the most interesting aspect of the nation, its people and the land itself. Agriculture, or to more appropriately describe it, a sort of hybrid of agriculture and permaculture practices are uniquely interesting to become aware of and learn of.

Within the jungles and riverlands of Kang-Chorath there are various wetland regions, low lying mangrove forests and wet, everglade like biomes, from which tributary rivers flow that all feed, eventually, together and join one of the three main rivers, the three hearts of Chora, the Lotzi, Yuris or Banoru. These wetland regions are unique for their potential and the peoples here embrace that potential wholly. Rice fields, all manner of wetland berry, groves of mango trees, water chestnuts and more are cultivated, encouraged to succeed, selected for, as they were, to hear the peoples of the region tell it, natural wild growing plants. What the industrious peoples in these regions have done, in their brilliance, when building their homesteads, villages, and any other task for which they would harvest plant material that was not to eat, they always insured it was not a food bearing plant. Furthermore they would select for, that is, they would plant in the place of that which they took, a food bearing plant.

Over the generations this has seen those region transformed into veritable gardens amongst the mighty jungle, likely growing enough of those staple crops to feed all of Kang-Chorath. Of course they do trade some of this, in this modernizing era, mostly as jams, other methods of preservation, or dried rice for example, and other foods are imported to add variety to the options for the Chorathian plate. But these staples would be more than enough combined with the almost incomprehensibly wide variety of fauna that the Chorathian people utilize for their diets, for the rich jungle biome provides.

Trade and Transport

The nation of Kang-Chorath is unique in that as one might have noticed on the map, only one major rail line is marked, connecting Ithwi through the northern edge of the Symphonious Peaks up into Susma. Beyond that no major rail-lines and absolutely no major roads are marked and this is not a mistake dear explorer. The nation is not without roads of course, there are roads connecting various settlements, but they are mostly regional, roads connecting settlements in the same dominion, oft with the entire system constructed in such a way to insure all the roads lead back to the Dominion City of that region eventually, very much one road that is fed by many smaller roads that start at other points. not unlike a river and its system of tributaries and feeders. Its present in the flag its present in the road systems and its present in the people.

As to trade and transport, though you can travel through the dominions and you could even bushwack along the shores of the major rivers between the dominion cities, the reality is most transportation by choice is done by boat and ship as appropriate, and certainly almost all the trade.