Nēwatheka

Known to the High Elves as Chishi (乙子), the “Child of the Second Sky,” this vast western continent is the homeland of the Nēwatheka peoples—gatherers of wind, weavers of voice, and travelers between forest, steppe, and sea.  

Geography

  Chishi lies west of the continent of Chichū, separated by a narrow sea just a few hundred kilometers wide. The bulk of Chishi is an ancient craton that split from Chichū over 110 million years ago. This northern mass is eroded and steppe-bound at its core, while young volcanic mountain ranges rise sharply along the west and east coasts. A mountainous northern peninsula arches northeastward to connect with the island chains that extend from Chichū.   The western mountains taper northward into a **Mediterranean coast**, dotted with sheltered coves and salt cliffs. The eastern mountains descend into a **humid continental forest belt** rich with lakes and rivers. Across the heart of the continent lies a wide **prairie steppe**, stretching to both coasts.   A great **boreal forest belt** sweeps diagonally across the continent, crossing highlands and valleys. South of this lies an older, smaller craton—sutured to the main body since the Archaean—which is entirely **tundra**, broken only by low, ancient hills.  

Peoples and Languages

  Chishi is inhabited by the Nēwatheka, speakers of a macrofamily inspired by Proto-Algic. These Mesolithic peoples rely on foraging, coldwater fishing, root-divining, and seasonal reptile migrations. They build skin-domes, bark shelters, and stone tent circles, and maintain sacred fires in wind-protected gullies and volcanic vents.   There are 15 languages spoken across Chishi, grouped into six regional clusters:  

• Olketa (Western Mediterranean): *Haruča*, *Balkemi* — dwellers of sun-bays and coastal bluffs
• Netashi (Subtropical Peninsula): *Zhawa*, *Teqen*, *Loswi* — cliff-trail peoples and hot-spring dwellers
• Danzima (Eastern Humid): *Orani*, *Fezha*, *Kiskoro* — forest-edge lake-foragers and ash-bark storytellers
• Tamweta (Interior Steppe): *Chūrta*, *Nequani*, *Eskiva* — nomadic glider-drivers, fire-runners, and signal-drummers
• Ilzhikha (Boreal Forest): *Sawe*, *Druhna*, *Ethika* — highland mushroom-finders and thunder-song bearers
• Voqwen (Southern Tundra): *Nōxeta* — ice-wind walkers, aurora trackers, and hollow-bone chanters

 

Fauna

  Chishi, like the rest of the southwest quadrant of Erthas, has evolved entirely without placental mammals or birds. Instead, it is home to:  

• Featherless gliders with sun-sensitive throat sacs
• Steppe-dwelling scaled herbivores and burrowing quadrupeds
• Lake-bound megafauna resembling armored amphibians
• Thermal-reliant cliff reptiles, some bioluminescent
• Migratory sky-forms and ground-nesting drake-things

  Marine mammals are rare but increasingly present on the western and northern coasts, a result of recent contact with Dainan via cold ocean currents.  

Mythology and Lifeways

  The Nēwatheka see themselves as the voice of the land's breath, not its rulers. Their cosmology names three principles:  

Hawe, the wind-thought or traveling voice

Noxa, the still-deep or memory below

Zekwa, the sky-shard or dancing thing

Most groups trace lineages through river-spirits, ancestor-gliders, and sacred sky names. Rituals involve breath-chants, step-maps, and silence circles. The Nēwatheka drum with skin stretched over bark, signal with mirrors, and call with voice-winders carved from fossil reeds.  

High Elven Contact

  The High Elves refer to the continent as Chishi (乙子), “Child of the Second Sky,” in reference to both its position west of Chichū and the brilliant skies seen from its tundra and bays. Though never colonized, it is considered a place of deep dreaming and unrecorded time.   Elven records speak of luminous cliff carvings, wind-routes cut through the stone, and a people who “breathe in chorus with the smoke of the world’s bones.”