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--- polemos:4th_age:factions:gyag [2021/10/13 23:40] – Blake Anderton
+++ polemos:4th_age:factions:gyag [2024/08/16 00:50] (current) – Blake Anderton
@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 //No harm can come to the man who has lost everything; yet the one who sacrifices gains more than he lost. -Gya Proverb//
-Gyag, or greater Gya, is an area in southwest Polus known best for numerous shamanistic tribes and the site of the [[polemos:4th_age:locations:tree_of_life|Tree of Life]].
+Gyag, or greater Gya, is a wide area in southwest Polus known best for numerous shamanistic tribes living among the ancient battlefields of the [[polemos:3rd_age:main|Great War]], and the site of the [[polemos:4th_age:locations:tree_of_life|Tree of Life]].
 ===== Geography =====
+The geography of the Gyag is not easily catalogued, as the region was the site of the climax of the [[polemos:3rd_age:main|Great War]], where it saw the destruction of [[polemos:3rd_age:locations:utopolis|Utopolis]] and many other magical disasters.
+While generally referred to as 'badlands' due to little vegetation able to survive the war-scarred terrain, much of the land is incredibly varied; seemingly random and sometimes inconsistent even day to day.
+Out of the chaos there are some broad regions that are documented, but most of the interior is known only to the hardy yet savage tribes that brave these wilds, usually out of desperation or ecstatic mania.
+==== Bloody Plateau ====
+FIXME NE highlands
+==== Howling Labyrinth ====
+Dominating the central heartland of Gyag, up through the northwest to the western Chloros range, the Howling Labyrinth is a turbulent tangle of windswept canyons, bottomless caves, and craggy badlands.
+The land is a heaving mix of twisted layers of natural stone and overturned cities that form sharp spires that whistle in the unending gusts of magic storms, wounds of [[polemos:3rd_age:events:elesh_rebellion|The Great War]].
+The region has some of the most severe magic wounds of the continent, if not the world, and only rarely sees normal weather patterns.
+For this reasons pools of water are brackish and often toxic, and little vegetation grows.
+Animals can be seen, but are often twisted into monsters by the wounds and angry spirits.
+Only the bravest Gyag journey amongst the labyrinth, and exile to its clutches is often seen as a certain death for most.
+Still, meager tribes have adapted to its dangers and delve its depths to find treasures of the lost world.
+==== Shimmering Flats ====
+Dominating the southern and eastern flatlands of the subcontinent, the shimmering flats are a wide desert of salt and fine white sand.
+An unnatural stillness from magic wounds prevents most wind and rain, and only a few distant wadis support scant life.
+At regular times each day, the stillness is broken by distant rumblings of hooves, screams, and other sounds of battles long forgotten.
+At night the sands reflect the star and moonlight, leading to shimmering waves of light that bring moans and whispers of the ancient wounded.
+Those Gyag that do brave the flats know that one must not listen to the sounds, or risk following them further into the nothingness to join them in death.
+==== Silent Shore ====
+FIXME
+==== Havens Perilous ====
+FIXME
+==== Veil of Retribution/Crystal Desert ====
+A crater formed by the final battle of the [[polemos:3rd_age:events:elesh_rebellion|Great War]], the crystal desert is all that remains of [[polemos:3rd_age:locations:utopolis|Utopolis]].
+Concentric waves of glassy crystals dominate the crater floor, evidence of the intense heat of the explosion that destroyed the city.
+Petrified ash remains of Elesh's faithful can be found, but no structures stand, even in ruined form.
+Standing stones warn that angels will punish any that approach the tree of [[polemos:4th_age:locations:tree_of_life|Tree of Life]] at the crater's center, and desiccated skeletons of those that have not heeded these warnings lie scattered across the region.
+=== Valley of Death ===
+At the center of the crystal desert is an inner valley between the roots of the [[polemos:4th_age:locations:tree_of_life|Zayulonzoes (Tree of Life)]].
+For the [[polemos:4th_age:religions:gya_shamanism#hyiisi|Hyiisi]] pilgrimage to the valley is the highest sacrifice one can make.
 ===== History =====
+Gyag was once home to numerous ancient civilizations that are lost to history, except that they presumably sided with Elesh during his [[polemos:3rd_age:events:elesh_rebellion|rebellion against heaven]].
 ===== Government =====
@@ Line 44: / Line 88: @@
   * [[..:religions:gya_shamanism#kuy|Kuy]] - The ascension is an internal, mystical individual experience of transcendence when a person's pain and sacrifices are so great as to achieve enlightenment. Many adherents practice self-mutilation, sometimes to the point of extreme measures such as amputation.
-  * [[..:religions:gya_shamanism#qwu|Qwu]] - The ascension is an external, communal experience but still requires individual sacrifice.
+  * [[..:religions:gya_shamanism#qwu|Qwu]] - The ascension is an external, communal experience but still requires individual sacrifice. This takes many forms, mostly determined by a local warlord.
-  * [[..:religions:gya_shamanism#hyiisi|Hyiisi]] -
+  * [[..:religions:gya_shamanism#hyiisi|Hyiisi]] - The ascension is an external, universal experience that calls individuals in mystical ways to participate in the //babastor//. The mystically called, sick, or old make a life-culminating journey to the [[polemos:4th_age:locations:tree_of_life|Tree of Life]] and are never heard from again.
 ==== Education ====