Nidalery
Nidalery is one of the key realms of Outer Tilog, containing roads leading from the city to the southern provinces.
Studying only its geography one could mistake Nidalery for an appallingly ordinary region, a place of transition between different types of terrain; a place where forests, hills and plains meet and form a fertile soil with rolling levels of elevation which would naturally be followed by lush vegetation and rich biodiversity. Nidalery does, however, also include some of the extraordinary attributes of its neighbors.
A world-traveling philosopher studying the Colonies hypothesized that if it was not for the runoff water from Outer Tilog, Nidalery would be, in fact, rather boring. The Water (always capitalized by the small, secretive minority of people who can read and write) makes Nidalery what it is today; no other force could possibly have such a huge impact on a region. It reaches Nidalery via three routes. The first, most prominent one is "Kt'ng'grroo" (literally "The Purple Stream"), the river between Nidalery and Rollsovar. Runoff water from Steepglades forms a great lake on the shore of which Outer Tilog City is built. Kt'ng'grroo starts from this lake. The second route is a network of small underwater rivers. The third way The Water reaches Nidalery is by small streams running from higher ground, i.e. Outer Tilog City and Kt'ng'grroo.
If one would gather some of The Water in a decanter and look through it, he or she would see a distinctive purple hue. Then one would smell it, all the while swilling it around in the decanter (probably thinking how posh he or she looked at that moment), experiencing a distant, faint aroma not quite resembling anything - somewhat off-putting, yet enticing to one of a curious nature. Encouraged by this to taste The Water, one would do so, only to convulse violently for a while, swell up all over and explode in a shower of small chunks of posh meat.
The plantlife of Nidalery has adapted to this abnormality, almost seeming to try to best The Water in wicked qualities. Treacherous swamps blot the lowlands, a sweet, pungent stench emanating from great carnivorous plants and ornery insects the size of a man's fist buzzing around contributing greatly to the Nidalery Experience. Many a traveler walking on duckboards has been spotted being torn under the surface of water by long tentacles. The highlands are relatively Water-free, and thus (only) dangerous due to worgs and the locals, which have built hamlets on the slopes. Nidalery produces surprising amounts of food, or at least organic products considered by some to be edible, on irrigated swamps. The foodstuffs are not poisonous as the crops have filtered the Poison out of The Water. The most successful product of Nidalery, a mushroom known by the locals as "Krtwa" grows in caves beneath the Highlands. Feasting on the humidity from underground rivers it grows in plentiful numbers. The reason for its success? Why, it is extremely intoxicating.
A typical peasant from Nidalery stands small, with limbs twisted from malnutrition, eyes set deep in their sockets, teeth almost completely lacking and hair growing in small blots here and there. A people conditioned with shameless oppression to servitude, they never look anyone straight in the eye and rarely speak their consonant-riddled language to outsiders. When they speak they tell you to leave. Prone to cannibalism, even heathens worship major daemons in Nidalery in the obvious absence of a benevolent god. Indeed, if one is traveling alone - he or she should never be - it would be best not to be around when the locals return from work on farms and caves and the Krtwa juice bottles pop open, lest they will be attending dinner as the main course and a pagan ceremony as the centerpiece.
