Kereminth

From Almeopedia

Kereminth [ˈkɛ rɛ mɩnθ] is the southern coast of Curym. As it’s cut off from the rest of the continent by the Zone of Fire, it is more closely related to those regions accessible by sea: Arcél and Ȟaibalai to the west, Neinuoi to the south, and the Island Sea to the east.

There is an iliu land enclave in the far east, and iliu are numerous in the continental shelf of the adjoining Kraitise Sea. There is little other nonhuman settlement, however.

The humans in this zone, including Ȟamsan on the eastern coast of Arcél, belong to the Melanke race. Languages are divided between two families, Kereminthic and Neinuoian; the Kemic family may be distantly related to Kereminthic, and its speakers are a mix between the Melanke and Kibruise races.

The people of Kereminth learned to stabilize their canoes with outriggers around 3000 years ago, allowing them to boldly paddle their tiny vessels across open ocean. Colonization of Ȟamsan dates to this time, though it was reinforced by later migrations.

Agriculture

Ecologically, Kereminth is an extension of the Arcélian tropical zone, but it independently developed agriculture, by about 1500. Its chief crops were streff, hardroot, and yam; the chief meat animal was the pig, domesticated at about this time. Arcélian crops such as sorghum and teng bean spread to Kereminth, along with the gallene. As in northern

Various reeds and grasses, including streff, are woven into mats and cords and can be used to make skirts; petay grows in some areas and is now used to make cloth, though in Kereminth itself no clothes are normally worn.

Social organization

Kereminth is divided into bands or tribes, rarely numbering more than 200 people. There is much interaction and cultural diffusion, to the point that it’s nearly impossible to make a standard family tree of Kereminthic, which is instead a diffusion area in R.M.W. Dixon’s sense.

It’s only in the last thousand years or so that incipient states have appeared in the Kereminthic area. These are almost always the creation of individual chiefs, and may be based on warfare, gifts, persuasion, family ties, or a combination of these. Loyalty to the chief is based on clear benefits received (feasts, trade goods, war booty), and rarely survives a crisis or the death of the leader.

One of the few persistent proto-states is that of the Nambwe, which has been in existence for some three hundred years. Traders from Neinuoi found the region convenient, and it became a center for trade; the local leaders were able to parlay their access to Neinuoian trade goods (especially weapons) into a small kingdom. Their language, Tombwe, is the best-known language of Kereminth proper.