Into the Nanten: the Record of My Exile

Entry 169 - Day 289

We are unsure of what path to take. It would seem that Inifra has found our destination, namely that of the fabled Nantese Falls, but how to get there is the question. They would be some distance to the east after we reach the Nanten River north, which we should do any day now.

The resulting discussion is whether to continue by canoe to the falls or to move on foot once we have arrived at the Nanten. Staying on the river seems to allow the KoraKora to keep track of us well enough, whereas if we turn west for a few days then put to the northern shore, we may be able to throw them completely off our trail.

We could then march east until we reach the falls, where canoes would be of little use in any case. The falls themselves are a result of one of the great mysteries of the world. The legend of their magnitude is only matched by that of their origins.

When the Arbor King still ruled, Matasten, his capital, was at a slightly higher elevation than the rest of the kingdom. The city itself was built upon a hill where the Nanten River split around it. Her towers rose above even the trees of the mighty jungle surrounding it. That is until the collapse of the kingdom and its plunge into a darkness, from which it has yet to recover.

No one knows what exactly happened during the series of coups that laid waste to the political structure of the Nanten Kingdom. Rival faction after rival faction took power in a leaderless revolution whose gruesome brutality was reported around the world. Everything came to an end the day of the collapse.

Whether it was a coalition of breakers, or some power not yet documented, the topography of the Nanten was changed forever. To one hundred leagues in every direction from Matasten, the ground simply dropped a few hundred feet. The result was that the civil war of the Nanten Kingdom was entirely contained by massive cliffs. For a few miles in from the cliffs it is said that the ground was left in a ruinous state by the collapse. But after that, supposedly, everything survived just as it was.

The world knows this area within the Nanten as the Great Recess. The Nantese call it the Great Hole.

The Nanten River, one of the greatest rivers in the world, reversed its flow. Until then it had flowed from the eastern reaches of the Nanten, gaining speed and girth as it flowed around Matasten and angled south at the Highridge Mountains. It emptied down near the Stone Lord's keep. The flow at its mouth was known to push ships hugging the coast off their course during the rains.

Then the collapse happened and the mouth dried up. The water that collected in the mountains and ran into the western stretch of the river were carried back up and through the jungle. Now the water runs towards Matasten, whether from east or west, making it the only river in the world to flow opposite directions of itself. All we have to do is decide how we are to get there, and avoid the KoraKora along the way. Thankfully, it would seem those horrid cannibals are less of a threat to us every day.