Notably Less Than Nine Rivers

 

Foreword - What the hell are the nine rivers?

The nine rivers are a set of major semiartificial channels left behind largely by broken piping in the machinery of the megastructure known as the graveyard of stars. 

They are the namesake of this region because of their massive size and distinctiveness. 

There are a lot more than nine rivers in the nine rivers, these smaller waterways known as “natural rivers” are created by glacial meltwater from the frozen cliffs that form the border between the graveyard of stars proper and the nine rivers.  

The rivers listed here are the major non subterranean rivers and are listed from West to East (left to right). 

Note - The Atrament refers to the underworld/underground. Inanis is the very short river basin. 

Surface rivers

Heightmap

Political map 

Ecological map, low rest, high res version available in This post

Calor, river of Flame

Serving as the border between the northern forests and the needle grass plains. The burning river poisons the surrounding environment, leaving a 12 league wide zone of highly fluorinated earth. Surprisingly, an independent and highly divergent ecosystem has colonized this area. Every ecological niche is filled by highly fluorinated pseudo-arthropods.

Much to the chagrin of the vermin, they are too divergent to possess, and so cannot be used for safe crossing. 

Even with the sacrifice of the river spirit Xipe Totec, the surrounding air is highly toxic and corrosive and must be kept intentionally dry to minimize reactions with the air.  

Calor has historically and currently formed an outstanding natural defensive formation, trying to perform an opposed landing across it is essentially suicide, even with truly absurd force overmatch. As such it was the de facto line of control in the war of the yellow throne for several years, with most of the fighting occurring to the northern gap. 

Inanis, river of dust

The various industries of the sunken city unleash a momentous amount of waste. Here lies opportunity: The trillions of tons of sewage, bone, intestine, industrial runoff, pesticide, and thaumaturgic blood poured out every single day are meticulously gathered, pooled, sorted, and squeezed off every single morsel of value. 

First, the organics are sorted out to pay tribute to the court of vermin, any trapped humans are rescued and put to work fishing the more unsavoury things out until they pay off their rescue debt, and anything still useful as a building material is fished out. 

Then comes the moisture, all the water is boiled out and recycled for the sun city. As immense quantities of radioactive material are deposited into the now stagnant stream, the heat mounts, and the solids are melted down into impure slag which can be separated and scraped off.

What is left becomes the 10th river and is scoured of any remaining mana by the academies of the river of dust. It then continues down along its way, ferrying the lords and ladies of the river of dust across the intertidal, so that soot-stained dust may coat the surface of the expanse. 

Many research bases and prisons have chosen the river of dust as a site due to being extremely sterile and having the lowest thaumic levels of the nine rivers. 

Unfortunately, after a century of continuous and stratospheric population growth in the sunken city, shipping traffic has risen to such a degree so as to pose a major security risk to the facilities which once prized the isolation offered by the islands and sandbars of Inanis. 

Since neither the prisons or the prisoners can be safely moved, a partition has been added to artificially divert the river into two parallel channels. The western channel then covers the historic areas, with the eastern channel being the primary shipping lane, bordering a major industrial park.

Merg, river of mercury 

Smallest of all the rivers, at 238m at its narrowest point. 

It serves as the border between the dominions of Tsenkutli and the Sunken city. Notably, due to this supply of mercury, many machines use it for cooling or thermometers. 

Naturally, Merg leeches a large amount of toxic waste, but it has two separate mercury adapted lineages of life which live within. The creatures there are prized for their thick blood and flesh, and the so called mercury drakes (a sort of very large, komodo dragon like lizard) are amongst the most popular mounts for cultivators. 

It is suspected that Cipactli is meant to be Merg’s river demon. 

Tsenkutli, Lord's stone 

The river after which is named the greatest city in the world*. It has always been heavily channelled and controlled as Blackstone embankments have lined its shores even before the arrival of humans into this land.

Since, its colonization by the empire, cog-rails have since been installed along the bottom, which is exactly 50m deep and 6000m wide for the entirety of its channel. Specialized ships can use these rails to move upstream while consuming half as much fuel. There are also extensive developments along its banks and the entirety of its length is built up, monitored and cleaned. The only native life that remains are the various wildlife reserve and aquaculture segments, as well as the nigh invincible insect population. 

Tsenkutli itself is the orphan branch of a remarkably artificial set of rivers, with multiple near parallel streams all pre-canalized by the megastructure. While these have deviated over time due to decay. 

Of these branches, two are largely obliterated and empty into the sea of mold, one has since been buried by sediment and flows underwater, though there are plans to excavate and clear it out in order to open a safe avenue of travel. The major complicating factor is that the most obvious opening is underwater during high tide season of the intertidal.

Two more feed into the crawling river, these are intentionally dammed to overflow in order to increase the sun and surface area available to the bacterial colony which forms the river. 

*Arguably, it's in the top 5 at least. 

Xiteyakana 

A river of molten radioactive lead, it forms the western border of the empire and the boundary against which the wyrm hosts are broken. At its narrowest point it remains 6 kilometers of radioactive lead, and Xiuhtecuhtli its river demon, intentionally flooded every underground chamber and water table in the upper and middle atrament with solidified lead. 

This, alongside the presence of a large imperial navy garrison (mostly airships, but also some specially constructed barges and gunboats), means that the only viable method of incursion from the wyrms is to lead the charge themselves, something which they are much too self preserving to do themselves. 

Its population along the main branch is primarily a mix of imperial garrison forces and factories. A smaller, artificially canalized branch was added by imperial engineers to merge with Tsenkutli in order to generate electricity. New settlements have emerged along this branch, mostly industrial towns or noble enclaves. 

Sea of mold 

This is not technically its own river, as it is simply a fragmented branch of Tsenkutli 

After the cataclysm, two billion souls were spilled into the central sea. Here, seizing upon the opportunity, the wyrms quartered and corrupted the central portions of Tsenkutli and the crawling river. Using the star crater as a primordial stew, they melded the minds, bodies and souls of the former inhabitants of the region, reshaping them into armies that would be used to conquer the world. Had these armies not been destroyed by God, they likely would have.

Even after their devastation, the hordes of cancer number at least five billion. Though, by their very nature, they endlessly war amongst themselves. Around a third are controlled under wyrm hosts, the largest 5 all sporting over one hundred million combatants. 

Crawling river - Life

Ruled over by a secessionist branch of the concord of the deep. They have warred against cancer since before the arrival of humanity, and now, in alliance with the republic and the deep church*, they hold back the forces of corruption. The river is the largest of the remaining rivers, with thousands of tributaries and offshoots, which branch out and flow in defiance of topology. 

Currently, the republic is fully invested in its growth and prosperity, having created multiple massive reservoirs, purification pools and algae farms, which currently stretch over 300 000 square kilometers. These allow the crawling river to grow more deeply into the Atrament and to purify, regenerate and recuperate its forces (largely consisting of possessed amphibious sea creatures, many since generally modified by republican scientists to tolerate further stays outside of the ocean and to fight cancerous forces more effectively). 

*They remain enemies, but the republic does not allow conflict between the two on its soil. 

Blackwater

The second large water river, alongside Tsenkutli. Its main branch is universally 22km across for its entire duration, and it is known to be the deepest of all the rivers. Its water has the sole unique property of being less reflective and refractive than normal water, and for such a reason is sometimes preferred for use in fountains or as packing between glass planes. 

Like Tsenkutli, it is heavily populated, with multiple megacities and a score of other metropolises along its shore. 

If one dives far enough into the depths of blackwater (like several km, the only accidental arrivals are from people who drown or are otherwise dropped in while unconscious), one will eventually start to rise. If one does so long enough, they will arrive into a corresponding identical river in the land of the dead.
The land of the dead is a provisional afterlife (a rest stop for souls not yet ready to pass onto the great journey) for several non-human species. Whatever human population it does have are the descendants of humans who got trapped here from other worlds. 

If one eats or sleeps in the land of the dead, they can never return to the lands of the living. 

Full resolution maps

 Trying to upload 8k images here so you can see all the cities. 

How to use: LEFT click on the image, then, once it opens RIGHT click on it and select "open image in new tab". After 15 seconds it will load and you should be able to see it at full resolution and you can zoom in to see all the city names and tiles and all that.  

Topographic

Ecological

Political

Linguistic

Population

Note - Depending on when you are reading this, the cities are only around 75% keyed, and therefore the population map is incomplete. In addition, the linguistic map is only intended to cover language. 

Hungarian was used in place of Russian for one of the cultures due to limitations in the software. 




Here is a screenshot of what it looks like zoomed it, bonus points if you can find this place yourself. 

Five Eras

 

From Here

Foreword

These are meant to cover the broad strokes of the timeline in between 470 BC and 52 AC. The time signifiers are BC (before cataclysm), AC (after cataclysm), and AE (after emergence). The current year is 522 AE. 

For the sake of preserving people’s sanity, I will use AE when possible for the years. 

Five Eras

1-2nd century - The lost era, also known as the founding era describes the years for which humanity lived in isolated communities buried in the few safe places that could be found, with our civilisation basically being relegated to subsistence agriculture mixed with hunter gathering and scavenging.

Little is known about many parts of this era, as it is estimated only around a third of the communities established in this era have any surviving members left. This is the unfortunate consequence of the unintuitive nature of what constitutes “safe places” not always being immediately obvious. 

For the many living outside the few civilised areas of the nine rivers, this era never truly ended. 

1-3rd century - The carrion or dark era began after a series of kingdoms and dominions were established at the behest of high demons, fiends or even powerful beasts. These were essentially universally methods of controlling the food source that human souls provide in order to prevent the emergence of rival beings of the same rank (in other words, instinctual ladder kicking). 

This era does not have a set date as the first society of this type in the nine rivers existed nearly as soon as humans arrived there. Its peak was in the mid third century, with the density of beings of such power reaching a zenith not since reached at any era since. 

A peace between so many semi-divine beings could never last, and a six year frenzy of destruction would ensue, unleashing chaos that would not be seen again until the cataclysm.  

3-5th century - The solar era is marked by a series of human champions being approached by angels of horizon offering great power at no cost and using their newfound power to overthrow their inhuman masters. 

This era is generally the most peaceful of any of the following eras, and most cities and cultures date to this time. Of course, once their common enemy was vanquished, the various kingdoms did begin to chafe against and turn against each other, but most of these were very medieval like affairs, with warfare being largely confined to a small cast of incredibly powerful warrior aristocrats. 

The first cracks in this seemingly eternal order began to show once the truth of the nature of Horizon and the consequences of his gifts was widely dissimulated. The younger monarchs were largely cut from an extremely prideful and honourable cloth, and as such most dismissed these whisperings as intentional deceptions by followers of the surviving demons of the old era. Those that did not however often committed elaborate double suicides, patricides, or simply threw themselves at their most hated rivals with wanton abandon. Others posited that so long as a critical mass of blessed did not exist, it would be fine, and so sought to eliminate all other dynasties and bear the sin of rulership over humanity alone. 

Strangely, this coincides with a series of manic breaks amongst many long beloved rulers, the most famous of these being Apollion of Zaratin and The Mad King Constantine XII. 

5th century - The unification era, also known as the imperial era, ran throughout the later half of the 5th century and consisted of the city state of Tsenkutli successfully unifying the entire continent at the behest of their god emperor Tezcatlipoca. 

5-6th century - The cataclysm era, also known as the modern era, began 50 years ago with the birth of a new star directly above the imperial core. This instantly incinerated two billion people, and initiated a large-scale push by the wyrm hosts who successfully managed to corrupt the lion's share of those two billion souls. 

A secondary effect of this was a temporary bout of madness afflicting the emperor for a decade, which, alongside the disruption of travel through the centre region, caused the northern and eastern provinces of the empire to succeed. 

Note - Regarding the early followers of horizon. 

This won't make any sense to those who don't have private access to the burning horizon document. 

The powers of Yad Eshel and Tamiel postdate the Solar Era, being introduced during the late unification era to replace the angel Adamas of Horizon, after his sealing at the hands of the Supreme angel Metatron.

As such, the powers associated with the solar monarchs are different in kind to those given to modern pinhole cultists. 

Polity Borders Circa 522AE