Vashim
People: Vashimi. Pale almost to the point of translucency, these people also tend to be ghoulishly thin. Their hair is pale, but baldness is common. Their noses tend to be short or upturned, giving them a slightly pig-like appearance. Eye colors tend to have yellowish or reddish eyes. Males tend to be between 5'2" and 5'10". Females tend to be between 4'10" and 5'6".
Language: Shimese. The Vashimi almost never speak a foreign tongue, though it is said that some of them can communicate with the lizard people of the swamp.
Heraldry: None.
Government: Tribal.
Religion: 95% Cannibalistic Worship, 5% None.
Architecture: There is no Shimese architecture. The swamp swallows any attempt to build. The closest to a building one might find is where one of the Vashimi might have settled as a bed for the night. It would be similar to a nest of sorts, with various reeds, vines, and grasses forming a comfortable bed.
Land Area: Approximately 404,467 Square Miles.
Population: Approximately 1,213,400. 95% Human, 5% Other.
Capital City: None.
Neighbors: Feergrus (North), Hirka (East).
Landmarks: The Twisted Tree, Pit of the Drowned, The Ring of Fire.
Terrain: Bog, Deciduous Forest, Evergreen Forest, Jungle, Marsh, Swamp.
Natural Hazards: Geothermal Vents, Quicksand, Sulfur Springs.
Imports: Manufactured Goods.
Exports: Furs.
Wealth: The people do not carry money, only trade goods in furs if they have more than is useful.
Currency: None.
Declarations, Embargoes, Treaties, and Wars: The Vashimi ignore other countries. Visitors and invaders are not tolerated. Cannibalistic tribes kill on sight, and even the more neutral and friendly people will violently protect their lands from being spoiled by civilization.
Organizations: None.
Those that live near the Marsh of Vashim are survivors with a knowledge of the wilderness around them. The Vashimi survive well in the swamps, and their use of resources is extremely efficient. The skins of their foes become cloth, armor, and housing, with the bones in use for the housing, weapons, and more.
The humans of the Marsh of Vashim are a hardy lot. Many believe they draw their strength from those that fall before them. The heart is especially strong. Thus have most become cannibals, the strongest of them consuming the hearts of friends and foes that have fallen, taking their strength into the tribe. Lesser members consume the flesh and lesser organs hoping to grow strong enough to one day be one who is honored enough to eat the hearts of the slain.
The marsh is a dark place, and the people have taken on a very pale pallor. Their lips are typically stained dark red from blood, though the fruits of the bog have kept them from malnutrition. However, the cannibalistic tribes are ghoulishly gaunt from their practices. Their amazing strength and endurance despite their looks often makes outsiders wonder how much truth there are to their claims.
Due to it being far to the south, most people expect the area to be quite cold. However the southwestern part of the continent is extremely warm thanks to light volcanic activity. Sulfur springs bubble in the bogs and geysers blast off in the distant jungles.
A few of the rumors of the land do spread at times. Tales talk of the Pit of the Drowned. The legend says that all drowned people arrive there and live again as undead monstrosities. A second tale tells of the Twisted Tree that the cannibals make sacrifices to in order to appease its own hunger for flesh.
Another tale is of the ring of fire. Beyond the swamps lays a humid jungle, warmed partly by a ring of volcanoes that jut up out of the jungle, constantly smoking. Many tales tell of the brave explorers who have tried to see what might lie inside the ring, but the volcanoes often weep magma without truly erupting. Between that magma and the air quality, none have returned from entering the ring. Rumors suggest that something terrible lives within the ring.
Many people see the Vashimi as less than human, calling them gray apes or sometimes carnivorous apes. They live in small tribes in their nests built from the remains of their kills and what little the swamp provides for building materials. These tribes rarely grow very large, as the different tribes of Vashimi usually have little love for each other. The dangers of the marsh help keep their numbers down as well.
The main danger of the swamp that people talk about are the lizardfolk, often called troglodytes by the Feergrus. Those creatures and the Vashimi share no love for each other. These creatures call themselves the Naxaeless.
There are also rumors that many of the Shimese are shapeshifters. These rumors call them lycanthropes. For the most part, the Shimese despise these claims, saying that only a corrupt person would become a lesser animal. They believe humans are the strongest and that the only corrupt shapeshifters are the Feergrus.
A surprising number of the people of Vashim are fairly civilized. Those that live south of the swamp, far from other civilizations and people, have forsworn the cannibalism of their cousins. These denizens of the Shimese Jungle are less dismissive of the lycanthrope rumors but still claim that none of their people have such powers.