Sarthuun
Overview
The Avaréth are the isolated forest civilization of the Titanwood Cathedral. Their society developed within the densest and tallest Titanwood forests in the world, where steep mountain walls, enclosed canopy systems, and dangerous terrain shaped a civilization built vertically into the forest itself.
Unlike the expansionist or migratory tribes of Gondara, the Avaréth remained deeply rooted within the Cathedral for most of their history. Their settlements evolved gradually from elevated family platforms into interconnected canopy villages, cliff settlements, and the legendary city of Ming'Kaala, one of the greatest architectural wonders on the continent.
Avaréth society is decentralized and clan-oriented, centered around stewardship, continuity, and protection of the Cathedral. Though not a warlike people by nature, they became fiercely defensive of their homeland after early conflicts with the Saarthuun, whose invasions into the Cathedral ended in catastrophic failure.
In the modern 1930s era, the Avaréth remain politically isolated within Gondara. The Cathedral and its peoples are legally protected under Gondaran law as a preserved cultural and ecological homeland.
Geographic Bond
The Avaréth homeland lies within the Titanwood Cathedral, a massive enclosed megaforest located between the mountain walls of the Vidar ranges and the Talakar Strait. The Cathedral contains the tallest and densest Titanwood forests in Gondara, with average tree heights reaching nearly 450 feet and canopy systems dense enough to create continuous elevated travel routes.
The environment shaped every aspect of Avaréth civilization. Dangerous forest floors, constant moisture, thick undergrowth, predators, and limited sunlight encouraged elevated settlement construction over centuries. Most Avaréth communities developed directly into the trees themselves, connected through rope bridges, suspended walkways, ladders, and elevated platforms.
The Cathedral acted as both homeland and natural fortress. Mountain walls enclosed the eastern and western approaches, the Talakar Strait formed the southern boundary, and the dense canopy created a nearly impassable interior unfamiliar to outsiders.
Survival Model
The Avaréth survive through a combination of terrace farming, forest gathering, fishing, hunting, and controlled resource stewardship. The civilization developed around long-term sustainability rather than expansion, with settlements carefully adapted to the carrying limits of the Cathedral environment.
Terraced farms are common along cliffs, riverbanks, and canopy breaks where sunlight reaches the ground. Fishing villages among the Saltshore Clans provide fish, shellfish, and crabs, while hunting parties gather game throughout the forest interior.
The Cathedral itself provides enormous quantities of renewable resources including timber, medicinal plants, fruit, mushrooms, fibers, resins, and freshwater. Rainwater collection systems and mountain-fed gravity channels supply most major settlements.
Large-scale industry is intentionally absent from the Cathedral interior. The Avaréth instead favor careful maintenance, woodworking, ropecraft, and long-term environmental stewardship.
Settlement Structure
Avaréth settlements vary heavily by region and environment.
The Highgrove Clans inhabit the deep Cathedral interior and maintain the most vertically developed settlements. Villages are commonly constructed between 50 and 150 feet above the forest floor, with homes built directly into living Titanwoods and connected by bridges spanning neighboring trees. These settlements gradually accumulated over generations, often layering newer structures above older ones.
The city of Ming'Kaala stands as the apex of Avaréth civilization. Constructed high within the upper Cathedral canopy nearly 350–400 feet above the ground, the city developed around massive interwoven elder Titanwoods and expanded over centuries into a layered vertical metropolis. At its height during the Saarthuun invasions, Ming'Kaala temporarily housed nearly 24,000 inhabitants.
The Greycliff Clans inhabit cliffside settlements and mountain passes, constructing terraced stone communities connected by stairways, bridges, and carved cliff routes.
The Saltshore Clans maintain fishing villages and coastal settlements along the Talakar Strait, while the Farwarden Clans inhabit more open northern forests with lower elevated settlements commonly built only 10–20 feet above ground level.
Social Order
Avaréth society is organized through clan continuity, regional stewardship, and inherited settlement responsibility rather than centralized state authority.
The civilization is divided among four major cultural groups:
- Highgrove Clans
- Greycliff Clans
- Saltshore Clans
- Farwarden Clans
Leadership is centered in Ming'Kaala, where the Council of Twelve Elders governs broad cultural and diplomatic matters. Every three years tribal leaders travel to Ming'Kaala to participate in the gathering of the elders, where disputes, trade arrangements, and regional concerns are discussed.
Social status loosely follows a vertical and geographic progression. Outer settlements tend to remain closer to the ground, while the deepest and oldest Highgrove settlements occupy the highest canopy regions. However, Avaréth society functions more as a gradual environmental hierarchy than a rigid caste structure.
Woodworkers, bridgewrights, engineers, and stewards hold high social prestige due to their role maintaining the survival of canopy civilization itself.
Reproductive System
The Avaréth practice monogamous family structures centered around long-term household continuity and inherited family trees.
Children are raised within the household platforms of their parents and are commonly tethered to either the home structure or a parent during early childhood for safety within the elevated environment. Young Avaréth are taught balance, climbing, and bridge movement from an early age.
Family identity is strongly tied to place and residence. Individuals who marry into Avaréth society and permanently settle within the Cathedral are culturally accepted as Avaréth regardless of origin. However, Avaréth who permanently leave the Cathedral and integrate into foreign societies are generally considered to have joined the culture they now live among.
The Farwarden Clans maintain the highest rates of intermarriage with outside peoples, particularly with the Mera’kai.
Combat Doctrine
The Avaréth are not a militaristic civilization, but they are highly capable territorial defenders shaped by centuries of hunting and environmental adaptation.
Avaréth warfare emphasizes ambush, concealment, terrain denial, and defensive warfare rather than organized field battles. Common weapons include bows, slings, javelins, and spears. Hunting traditions heavily influenced their combat methods.
Settlements are commonly protected by false bridges, collapsing ladders, hidden pitfalls, falling logs, and rockfall traps. Many routes through the Cathedral are intentionally confusing or unstable to outsiders while remaining familiar to local inhabitants.
During the Saarthuun invasions, invading forces successfully raided perimeter villages but failed catastrophically after entering the Cathedral interior. Many invaders fell into what later became known as the "Maws of the Cathedral," where collapsing routes, hidden ambushes, falls, and terrain isolation destroyed entire raiding groups.
Different clans developed different defensive specialties:
- Highgrove Clans specialize in canopy warfare and elevated ambushes.
- Greycliff Clans dominate mountain passes and cliff defenses.
- Saltshore Clans defend coastlines and landing routes.
- Farwarden Clans conduct patrols, tracking, and frontier defense.
Inter-Tribal Relations
The Avaréth historically maintained limited but stable contact with neighboring civilizations.
The closest long-term relationship developed with the Mera’kai, particularly through the Farwarden Clans, who maintained northern trade routes and diplomatic contact.
Relations with the Saarthuun were historically hostile following repeated coastal raids and failed invasions into the Cathedral. Though perimeter conflict continued for generations, the Saarthuun never again attempted large-scale penetration of the Cathedral interior after their early defeats.
The Avaréth did not participate in the broader tribal coalitions that later unified Gondara and largely remained isolated during the colonial era.
Cultural Systems
Avaréth culture centers heavily around continuity, stewardship, environmental integration, and inherited place.
The Cathedral itself forms the emotional and cultural center of Avaréth civilization. Rather than worshipping the forest directly, the Avaréth view the Titanwoods as the foundation upon which their society survives and continues through generations.
Family trees hold enormous cultural importance. Homes, bridges, lineage, and ancestry often remain tied to the same living trees for centuries. The civilization favors maintenance and preservation over rapid expansion or large-scale change.
The Avaréth are renowned throughout Gondara as master woodworkers, bridge-builders, ropewrights, and canopy engineers.
Death & Burial
The dead are buried quietly near the roots of their family trees without marked graves or tombstones.
The tree itself serves as the memorial and lineage marker. Families remember where their ancestors rest through oral tradition and inherited knowledge rather than permanent grave markers.
Ancient trees often contain generations of ancestral burials around their roots, physically tying the living and dead together through the continuity of the forest.
Historical Continuity
For much of their history, the Avaréth lived in near-total isolation within the Cathedral. The Farwarden Clans were the first to establish long-term contact with the Mera’kai, slowly expanding the Avaréth understanding of the outside world.
The greatest external threat came from the Saarthuun, whose early coastal raids shocked the isolated Saltshore Clans. Though the Saarthuun initially succeeded along the perimeter, their attempts to penetrate deeper into the Cathedral failed disastrously.
In the modern Gondaran era, the Cathedral and the Avaréth peoples became legally protected under national law. Though fully recognized as part of Gondara, the Cathedral is treated as a protected cultural and ecological homeland with substantial political isolation and restricted outside intrusion.
Legacy
The Avaréth remain one of the most unique civilizations in Gondara and the builders of the only known true canopy civilization in the world.
Their settlements, bridge systems, and environmental adaptation transformed the Titanwood Cathedral into one of the greatest inhabited wonders of the modern world while preserving the ancient forest that made their civilization possible.