Lore Snippet

Gonna be working on getting the manaberry site up after we finish moving, but I thought I'd share a little bit of the writing that's been done so far! This section is all about the region known as Ealei. 

Special thanks to ende and kali for helping me with the writing <3

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THE CRADLE OF MANA - EALEI

 In a temperate, almost tropical region of Eyre, an ancient tree grows within a sheltered cove. This tree has likely gone by many titles over the ages, but to the people of Eyre, it carries the name of Yggdrasill. 

The Cradle of Mana refers to the entire region of Yggdrasill's embrace. It includes the cove within the mountains where the great tree spreads its boughs, as well as the surrounding shallows where beneath the crystal waters and white sands Yggdrasill's roots grow to fathomless depths. 

The region is often referred to simply as the Cradle across Eyre, while only locals or people who spend a lot of time visiting tend to use the more intimate name of Ealei (yah·lay), an old Ieldic translation of the word "cradle" that carries connotations of "home" and "family".

Ealei is one of the safest territories in Eyre due to the influence of the Manawell, and is only rarely visited by deadly miasma or the equally dangerous shylldric swarms. 

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YGGDRASILL

 The Cradle of Mana's most remarkable feature is surely the great tree, Yggdrasill. Its massive canopy stretches out over several hundred miles across almost the entire range of mountains that make up the Cradle. Here in the branches of this ancient tree lie not just one, but many thriving settlements of all sizes, and is in fact the homeland of an entire population of people -- the winged and vibrantly spirited ieldi.​

The cities nestled within the boughs of Yggdrasill are fantastic works of art that are visual testaments to the ieldic tenant of maintaining harmony with the environment. Buildings are constructed to flow with and around the surrounding tree limbs, or else built within the structure of the branches themselves using gentle elemental magics to persuade the wood into taking new shapes. Structures are linked together in a graceful web of hanging walkways that are often decorated with enchanted lights. It is this lighting that often gives the impression of looking into a twinkling starlit sky when viewing the underside of Yggdrasill's canopy at night.

Manaberries, which are one of Eyre's most traded resources, grow exclusively and abundantly from Yggdrasill. The tree also bears many other types of fruits, in fact the most common trade product from the higher reaches are fruits and berries grown from trees that have been grafted directly onto the wide branches. In this way, Yggdrasil is not only one massive tree, but also a collection of expansive orchards and smaller groves that have been laboriously cultivated by ieldi that specialize in botany and silviculture. The grafted trees grow more robustly here than on any other place in Eyre, most likely due to being directly nourished by Yggdrasill.
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The ieldi are very proud and incredibly protective of their great tree. While clearing branches and similar acts of regular pruning do happen, the tasks are carried out with great caution and always accompanied by ieldi that specialize in arboreal care and manaflow stabilization in order to minimize and heal any hurts caused to their home. There is always a concert of efforts while removing any branches due to concern for any cities built below and the potential for disaster should any large objects fall near inhabited areas. It is considered a heinous crime to damage Yggdrasill wantonly, and is one of the few transgressions that ieldi will punish with exile or in extreme circumstances, even execution.  

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MANAWELL

 At the mouth of the Cradle, the crystal clear waters are shallow and form a pleasant stretch of calm sailing all the way to the base of Yggdrasil. There are sprawling cities built atop platforms suspended above the water that welcome all visitors and traders to the great tree. However, to either side of this broad sandbar is a staggering drop where the waters of the Cradle continue down into a deep abyss.

This immeasurably deep pool of water that hugs the inner curve of the Cradle is called the Manawell. It is the literal source of all mana that flows into Eyre, the lifeblood that sustains the world and keeps the miasmic veil from consuming everything. It's unclear whether the Manawell flows from the tree Yggdrasill, or if the tree grows so large because it sits directly within the well. There are schools of study focused on this mystery, but none have made advancements toward one point or the other.

An Ancient Spirit lives within the Manawell, and can be seen from time to time in the summer months when it is awake and comes close to the surface. To outsiders, it can be an alarming sight, as this Spirit takes the form of a positively massive white serpent. The locals know that it harms no living creature, and can be observed swimming in playful arcs beneath any boats brave enough to venture out over the deep waters of its domain. While the Ancient Spirit is visible, fishing in the Manawell can be a lucrative venture. The Ancient seems to scare up a lot of fish with it antics and would appear to enjoy helping the locals feed themselves, but be warned that any fisherman that takes more than they should may find his boat overturned by a rolling serpent's coil as punishment for their greed. 

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CLOUDSPIRES

 Surrounding the Manawell are the Cloudspires- tall, pale mountains that are perpetually shrouded in a gently rolling cloud bank. Unlike other mountain ranges on Eyre, the Cloudspires do not have jagged peaks, but most often reach their zenith in sweeping plateaus. These elevated plains are covered in grassland and are home to a few quiet farming towns. These remote villages are often visited by the playful kyulin,  who love to caper and dart with the spirited winds that rush through the tall waving fronds of grass .   

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THE STONE TOWERS

 ​The outlying towers of stone that rise up along the outer curve of The Cradle are yet another place where intrepid folk have settled into homes and villages. Each tower hides a honeycomb of connected inner caverns that provide perfect locations for soothingly cool stone dwellings. Rather than primarily using rope and wood, there are places in and outside these great towers where shallow steps have been carved directly into the face of the rock. For those less sure-footed, it's possible to traverse the interior passages that connect the greater sections of caves like an expansive warren. ​

In addition to fishing, villages founded in this area often specialize in animal husbandry, nurturing specific species of creatures and fungi that flourish in the sheltered caverns.     

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 ALETHRYNN MANGROVES

 To either side of the mouth of the Cradle grow expansive mangrove forests. The trees here grow hundreds of feet high, towering above the pristine waters while their exposed roots form mazes and channels below. Though the settlements within the mangroves are not so numerous by comparison to the cove itself, you will find no less wealth of friendly smiles and welcoming faces when visiting the communities scattered throughout. You may in fact, in the nature of smaller towns, find more of an abundance of hospitality and warmth to visitors.

Structurally the villages in the mangroves are very similar to the cities near the base of Yggdrasill. Larger buildings sit comfortably atop stilted wooden platforms suspended over the water, while fishing skiffs and boathouses bob gently all around. Dwellings and other smaller constructions are nestled into the trunks and branches higher up, accessible by wooden staircases that spiral up from the water around the perimeter of the large trees. Hanging walkways link the high reaches together in a gently swaying crisscross of lit paths characteristic of the ieldi.

Boats designed for the deep waters between Kyendi and Ahza are unable to enter the shallows of the Cradle, and are forced to moor just outside of the mangroves to do their trading with the local businesses or else contract with shallow water vessels to ferry their wares to the larger cities within the cove. ​It is for this reason that the largest city at the outward edge of the mangrove has grown respectably over the years, and is often packed full of marketplaces and trading hubs catering to people who want to trade with the Cradle but are unable or unwilling to make the extra effort to move their goods through the shallows. 

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GENERAL POPULATION

 Though all races are present to some degree in and around the Cradle, ieldi are definitely the dominant populace. They are considered the ruling Kin in this region, but are generally lax about laws concerning outsiders. The major exception being when it comes to building homes in the higher reaches of Yggdrasill, which is a highly regulated venture due to the ieldi's love of their tree.

Otherwise, the free-spirited ieldi love to trade items and stories, and welcome all peoples to visit the Cradle and stay for a visit, or just stay! They are not shy about taking in new residents and do so with much gusto and flair, with officials and neighbors more than willing to offer their opinions, expertise, and resources to any new buildings or homes being constructed within their cities. This can be both a blessing and a curse.. as woe to the individual who asks an ieldi their thoughts on construction basics of hanging walkways without setting aside enough time to hear an entire pitch on why nurturing a naturally formed living vine framework is always superior to any fabricated ropes or other such materials and oh you also want to hire a shaman to ward your home against wood mites, those things are horrible- speaking of which they do know a very reputable shaman who will also paint the warding in gorgeous patterns over your hearth and where are you going they haven't given you the name yet..

The waters of the Cradle have an interesting pirate situation, mostly consisting of m'rasi who left their homeland in search of adventure and freedom from their peoples' stifling traditionalism. The ieldi tend to view them as unruly puppies who need a bop on the nose, but aren't causing any real damage. Those pirates who DO cause serious trouble have learned very quickly that although the ieldi may not be a warrior-race like the m'rasi, this doesn't mean they aren't more than capable of dealing with one ship of ruffians. Marauders that prove themselves too dangerous to ignore are quickly put out via a battery of the most obnoxious hexes and curses, and often relocate to the the seedier regions of Eyre rather than deal with troublesome ieldic law enforcement. The longest-running pirates view their actions more as a game, only taking what they need which is only ever a small portion of any ship they ‘capture’. Many of the pirates actually moor their ships in the ports around the Cradle and openly frequent the taverns and pubs. The pirates think they are wining and dining incognito, while the ieldi hide their smiles and pretend they don’t know who these silly pups are. It is worth noting that on the rare occasion the Cradle has been threatened by shylldric invasions, the pirate m'rasi have leaped to its defense – this may also explain some of the fond feelings the ieldi have for ‘their m'rasi’.

Incidentally, the cheeky name for the m'rasi ("moro") is fairly commonly used here.