Amlawé

Known to the High Elves as Heimi (乙未) under the Kanshi Chihyō system, this microcontinent rises like a crown south of Teimi—its ridges fog-wreathed, its forests deep with breath. It is home to the Lwendari, rootward kin of the Maŋgwəta-speaking world.  

Geography

  Amlawé lies directly south of Teimi and is roughly twice the size of Old Earth’s Germany. The mainland is divided by climate and elevation into two major regions, with a small eastern island forming a third cultural zone:  

• Northern Amlawé: A subtropical landscape of folded ridges, cloud forests, and braided rivers. The air is thick with mist and insect-song, and bright-leaved canopy trees tower above fern-glens and warm pools.
 
• Southern Amlawé: A colder, more temperate belt of humid continental valleys, marked by seasonal rain, highland meadows, and long, glacier-fed rivers. Autumns here blaze gold, and winter fogs fill the hollows.
 
• Eastern Isle: A detached sliver of humid continental land, about 1/6th the size of the mainland. Its cliffs rise sharply from the sea, enclosing deep mossy gorges and rocky promontories. The coastlines are rich in shellfish and medicinal marshes.

  Amlawé’s terrain is tectonically active, part of an ancient subduction arc. Uplifted ridges and fault valleys shape both travel and myth. The original fauna was dominated by marsupials and reptiles, though Xenarthrans and Archontaglires arrived via land bridge from Dainan.  

Peoples and Languages

  Amlawé is inhabited by the Lwendari, speakers of a distinct branch of the Maŋgwəta macrofamily. They are known for seasonal gathering, arboreal hunting, thermal grove rites, and hilltop spirit sanctuaries. Their lifeways are marked by silent kin-cycles, mud-thought storytelling, and flint-paint rituals.   There are six languages spoken across Amlawé:  

• Jekani – Spoken in the fog-fed northern valleys. People here trap lizards, gather flowering bark, and build reed-roofed vine houses.
• Onwole – Found in cloud-forest escarpments. Known for bird-mirror rituals and bark-ink face-marking during fog cycles.
• Tamzura – Hill-basin language. These groups cultivate fire-dances and leaf trails, and keep ancestor stones in water-circle glades.
• Embaka – Spoken in southern highland valleys. They dwell in hollowed oak dens and practice root-breathing rites before winter.
• Ndashi – River-gorge dwellers. These peoples navigate by bark whistles and paint their maps in melted frost-ash.
• Kwohitu – Language of the eastern island. Kwohitu speakers gather reef-shell, grow tide moss, and carve wind-spirits from cliffbone driftwood.

 

Lifeways

  The Lwendari practice seasonal rotation, moving between upland campgrounds, riverside shelters, and canopy lean-tos. Communal fires are placed in stone hollows to preserve them through rains. They travel barefoot, guided by root-form maps and wind-seed tokens.   They craft:

• Cord blades of flint set into resin-backed bark handles
• Rope-ladders used to ascend fog-ridges for sky chants
• Clay-hollow drums filled with seeds to echo the soil’s rhythm

  Their cosmology revolves around the Tree Beneath the Water, the Breath That Sleeps in Mud, and the Stone That Waits for Memory.  

Fauna

  Amlawé’s animal life includes:  

• Glider mammals with dew-sensitive fur used for forest signal-scenting
• Tree-dwelling lizards that click communicatively and are often mimicked in song
• Marsh-dwelling marsupials used for ceremonial skins and meat gathering
• Highland herbivores with downward-curving plates on their snouts used for digging frost-root

  Few predators exist beyond the cliff-creeping glider-things known as “night eaters,” believed to be watchers of lost kin.  

High Elven Contact

  The High Elves refer to the land as Heimi (乙未), an ambiguous calendrical glyph meaning “half-completion” or “deep-breath before descent.” Some maps call it “The Middle Rise,” indicating its placement between Teimi and the polar lands beyond.   Elven astronomers have noted Amlawé’s fogs align seasonally with rare celestial patterns, but little else is recorded.