Ëhašó River

The Ëhašó, or Iagos River, is located in the continent of Urnimrine. Measuring at 7,539 km, it is the longest river on Olivarenith. The water originates in marshes near the Aragnia Mountains and empties into the Khamalov Ocean. Alongside the Aragnia Mountains, Eŋirhi Hills, and the Örókŋýï Bay, it marks the boundary between the Blýfónic Valley to the west and the Shattered Earth to the east.

Etymology

The Ëhašó River is named for a nearby town of the same name that sat along the banks and for a very long time marked the furthest extent of Ibrófeneð colonization. The town's etymology is one of major contention; the predominant view is that it came from the local language of the newly-emigrated Ürïstúd Family, who formed the similarly-named tribe of Ëžŋýha in 24987 AYM. The Ürïstúd Family is known for labelling all tribal names with the Ë prefix, which comes from the Ïlýrhonid Tribe word meaning 'to be'. In this sense, all such tribal or place establishments represented something in a visceral sense. Ëžŋýha, for example, is a combination of 'Ë' and 'Žŋýha', a Ürïstúdian suffix meaning 'Leaderless', referring to the violent means by which they left the tribe.

The main problem is that the '-hašó' has no surviving meaning in the language. Some have proposed that it is a corruption of the Ïlýrhonidian word 'Howeb' (to live) and its derivatives, but if so, the exact reasoning behind this name (especially considering its status as the 'frontier' of the tribe's territory for a significant portion of time) would be entirely unknown.

Geography and Course

Origins

The Ëhašó River comes from the marshlands of the Aragnia Mountains, which emerges due to the Mountain's relationship with the Örókŋýï Bay to its immediate west. The Mountains themselves are arranged in several east-west rows that, when showered with rainwater, do not steer the water back down into the Bay but allow it to collect within the Mountain (more specifically, between the rows). The abundance of water here saturates the rock and renders water permeation possible to brief extent. Because the mountains in the very middle of each row are the tallest, a small lake forms at times of low rainfall between the western edge of each row and the 'hump' formed by the tallest peaks. When rainfall redevelops, the lake grows until it crosses the hump, resulting a large-scale surge in river width and flow rate that is a major factor in the overall biological and ecological processes that occur in this region.

This supply of rainwater is additionally sustained through movement of water to and from and a brief stretch of low-lying land just north of the Mountains that routinely gets flooded by water from the Bay through the tides. By the eastern ends of these rows, the water in each tributary has grown to occupy a stretch of land more than 12 meters wide and 6 meters deep.

Confluence

There are at least three major tributaries that, upon exiting the Mountains, are steered by the increased elevation and soil thickness of the Üdürïlop Forest northwards. The narrow corridor formed by the Forest and the Mountains is entirely taken up by the River, and this corridor widens as one goes northwards, due to the increased flow rate from the merging of each tributary. By the time it leaves the corridor, it is more than 50 meters wide and carves a 20-foot groove into the ground.

Later Segments

Its path here largely follows the Aragnia Mountains once more, hugging the northern edge before being influenced by the Eŋirhi Hills in the northwest to swerve suddenly to the northeast. From there, with no strict confining landmarks, the River begins to spread out, creating a very large delta into the Khamalov Ocean. This delta can reach more than 5 kilometers wide even before it reaches the Ocean.