Earthborn (Homecoming) (54 page)

The gornaya (GOR-na-ya) is the great central massif lifted by the surging of the Cocos plate, with perpetually snow-covered peaks that are higher than any oxygen-breather can climb. Because most peaks are constantly invisible in clouds, they are not used as landmarks and are almost never named. Instead, rivers and lakes are used as landmarks, with their deep valleys forming both the highways and the habitats. The border of the gornaya was determined, before the return of the humans, by the lowest elevation where the digger/angel symbiosis could survive.

Because the folding of the land into the ranges of the gornaya left most ranges running southeast to northwest, the rivers also run in those directions. This, rather than sunrise, the north star, or magnetic north, determined the cardinal directions of the diggers and angels (they had no compasses and even on clear days could rarely see the north star and could see sunrise or sunset only at the edges of the gornaya). Thus “north” in the names of various places means northwest of the gornaya, “west” means southwest, “south” means southeast, and “east” means northeast.

North Sea—the remnant of the Gulf of Mexico, a narrow sea jammed between the Texas/Veracruz coast on one side and the Yucatan coast on the other.

East Sea (Gulf of Florida)—a new sea opened in the straits between Cuba and Florida by the new rotation and northeastward movement of the Appalachian plate.

South Sea—the remnant of the Caribbean Sea

West Sea—the Pacific Ocean

On the Atlantic side, the gornaya gives way to a great fan of lowlands, much of it raised up from the ocean floor, covered with rich soil eroded from the gornaya and carried by great rivers which deposit new soil during flood seasons every year. The jungles there are rich with life, but since vast areas spend part of the year under muddy water, most of the fauna is arboreal. Diggers and angels who lived near the edges of the gornaya often sent hunting expeditions out into the wilderness, but they never went farther than the distance they could travel to carry game home before it spoiled. Three great regions of jungle are distinguished by the angels and diggers; their names were translated into the language of the Nafari and Elemaki
and eventually those names replaced the names in the digger and angel languages.

Severless (SEV-er-less)—the great north wilderness, including the land that used to be Chiapas and Yucatan. The great rivers Tsidorek and Jatvarek flow through it; the Milirek marks its western and Dry Bay its eastern boundary.

Vostoiless (voe-STOY-less)—the great east wilderness, including the land that used to be Cuba, which forms most of the northern shore and a mountainous peninsula running eastward. The Vostoireg and Svereg Rivers flow through the lowland plain. The Mebbereg, the third great river of the east, is generally regarded as the southern boundary of the Vostoiless.

Yugless (YOOG-less)—the great south wilderness, which includes a low, wide isthmus between the Pacific and the Caribbean and reaches eastward to include a mountainous peninsula made up of what were once Jamaica and Haiti (or Hispaniola). The Zidomeg flows out of the land of Nafai down into the heart of the Yugless, and the northern boundary is the land of Nafai and the land of Pristan, where the humans first landed.

Opustoshan (oh-POOSS-toe-shahn)—in contrast to the well-watered jungles of the three great wildernesses, the fourth uninhabited land was called “desolation” by the diggers and angels because, being in the rain shadow of the gornaya, the area just west of the Milirek is desperately dry, to the point the vast regions are nothing but blowing sand. Soon the land rises to the old Mexican plateau, however, but the diggers and angels regarded it all as uninhabitable.

An anomaly in the gornaya consists of a region of subsidence running on a north-south line, where rivers,
whether flowing “north” or “south,” formed lakes. As the rivers wore deeper channels into the mountains, the lakes subsided incrementally, forming fertile terraces up the canyon walls, so that the shores of the lakes have fertile land ranging from a few meters to as much as five kilometers in width. The seven lakes are named, from “east” to “west” (as the angels and diggers thought of them; we would say from north to south):

Severod—fed and drained by the Svereg

Uprod—source of the Ureg

Prod—source of the Padurek

Mebbekod—fed and drained by the Mebbereg

Sidonod—source of the Tsidorek, which flows through Darakemba and, farther downstream, the eastern reaches of Bodika.

Issipod—source of one branch of the Issibek

Poropod—fed and drained by the Proporeg

There are thousands of rivers in the gornaya, running in every canyon and valley. Though the entire gornaya is within the tropics, shifting winds and the extremely high mountain ranges cleft by long, deep valleys cause adjoining watersheds to have completely different amounts of precipitation at different seasons of the year. Rivers are highways, landmarks, and, where the gornaya opens up into wide valleys, they are the source of life in all seasons. Seven great rivers flow out of the gornaya and, after passing through wilderness, to the Atlantic. Four great rivers flow into the Pacific. In addition, some of the rivers have major tributaries. In the religion of the angels, rivers have varying degrees of holiness; the rivers are presented here according to their order in their hierarchy of sacredness (though the names are now a mish-mash of human, angel, and digger names and forms).

The Seven Lake Rivers

Tsidorek—the holiest river, flows north from the lake Sidonod. Because the lake comes near the top of the river valley, there is no major river flowing into it. Therefore Sidonod is the “pure source” of the Tsidorek, and it also has a tributary, the Padurek, which flows from a pure source (Prod), making the water twice pure. Darakemba, the capital of Motiak’s kingdom, is located near where the canyon first widens into a broad valley where intensive agriculture is possible.

Issibek—flows north from lake Issipod, a pure source. It has a major south-flowing tributary, only the two rivers don’t so much join as collide head-on. They once formed a lake there, which filled the long canyon for fifty kilometers before it spilled over the lowest pass in the oceanside range. But the lake eventually found an outlet through a system of caves and drained completely. Now the rivers seem to collide head-on, and since they flood at opposite times of the year, there is always enough water that the outlet is underwater. The result is that the river seems to flow downhill from the lake until it comes to a tumultuous low point, whereupon the valley goes up and the river continues, flowing in the opposite direction. The outlet runs underground for kilometers until it erupts from a cave on the other side of the range and flows into the Pacific. The outlet once had another name, but before the coming of the humans, a digger proved that it was the outlet of the Issibek. However, the river that flows north from lake Issipod and its tributary that flows south to join it are still considered to be the same river, but with two sources, one pure and one not. It is this strange river that Ilihiak’s expedition to find Darakemba followed by mistake, leading them past Darakemba (several giant mountain ranges over) and eventually down into the desert of Opustoshen, where, on the shores of a seasonal river
(bone dry at the time), they found bodies and weaponry suggesting that a devastating battle had been fought there. The corpses were so perfectly preserved in the desert that they could have been five or five hundred years old. Nearby, they found written records in an unknown language.

Mebbereg—flows south from the lake Mebbekod. Not itself a pure source (the river flows into the lake from the north and then out of it on the south), but it has a pure source as a tributary (Ureg, out of Uprod). Akmaro’s first settlement, Chelem, where his people were kept in captivity, was along the Mebbereg.

Svereg—flows momentarily south from Severod, the “easternmost” (northernmost) of the lakes, then bends east and drops down rapidly from the gornaya into the vast jungle of the Vostoiless. Not a pure source.

Proporeg—flows south from Poropod, the “westernmost” (southernmost) of the lakes, and drops rapidly to the West Sea (Pacific Ocean).

Padurek—a tributary river, but a pure source, it flows north from lake Prod until it joins the Tsidorek many kilometers downstream (north) of Darakemba. Akmaro’s second settlement, called Akma, was on the shores of Prod, and it was the Padurek that Akmaro followed northward until he crossed over the pass that led down to the land of Darakemba.

Ureg—a tributary river, but a pure source, it flows south from lake Uprod and then joins the Mebbereg.

The Five Narrow Rivers

Zidomeg—flows south from near Poropod to within sixty kilometers of the West Sea (Pacific), then turns east through the Yugless to the South Sea (Caribbean). Nuak’s kingdom of Zinom was at the head of the Zidomeg, and his people were conquered by
the army of the overking of Nafazidom, downriver from him.

Jatvarek—flows north (west) out of the gornaya and then turns east (north) to flow though what was once the Yucatan peninsula and is now the Severless. The city of Jatva is located at the very edge of the gornaya, overlooking the vast watery jungle. When Motiak extended his boundaries to take the entire settled valley of the Jatvarek under his protection, he officially gave the name Jatva to the enlarged kingdom, leaving the name Darakemba to refer to the kingdom of his father along the Tsidorek. In fact, however, everyone usually calls the whole empire “Darakemba.”

Milirek—flows north (west) out of the gornaya directly into the narrowest part of the North Sea (Gulf of Mexico), as if the North Sea were a continuation of the Milirek. The nation of Bodika had already conquered the habitable part of the Milirek before Motiak brought them to submission and included them in his empire.

Utrek—entirely within the gornaya until it flows into the West Sea (Pacific), the river with the second lowest source.

Zodzerek—entirely within the gornaya until it flows into the West Sea (Pacific), this is the river with the lowest source.

Pristan—first landing site, now called the “oldest kingdom” but otherwise without power and therefore without prestige.

Nafai—in the narrowest sense, the wide level land near the bottom of lake Poropod, where the Nafari first settled after fleeing from the Elemaki at Pristan. In the wider sense, the entire land over which the Nafari had influence before they abandoned it to form a union with the beleaguered people of Darakemba in the time of Motiak’s grandfather,
Motiab. Politically it was never fully unified; now, ruled by Elemaki, it is divided into three main kingdoms, which in turn are subdivided into smaller kingdoms. The three main kingdoms are:

Nafariod (nyay-FAH-ree-ode)—“Nafai of the lakes,” the kingdom ruled by the king who styles himself simply Elemak, which means
king.
It includes the land around Sidonod, Issipod, and Poropod.

Nafazidom (nyah-FAH-zee-dome)—“Nafai of the Zidoneg,” the kingdom eventually ruled by Pabulog, former high priest of Nuak. It was the king of Nafazidom which first allowed Zenifab to settle his human colony at the head of the Zidoneg.

Nafamebbek (nyah-FAH-meb-bek)—“Nafai of the Mebbereg,” the weakest of the three kingdoms, though territorially it is the largest. Akmaro’s first colony, Chelem, was in the territory of Nafamebbek, but the overking wasn’t even aware of the colony until Pabulog, acting in the name of the king of Nafazidom, brought Chelem into captivity.

Zidom (ZEE-dome)—the small kingdom ruled by Nuak and, after his death, his second son, Ilihi. Founded by Zenifab.

Chelem—on the shore of Mebbereg, the first colony founded by Akmaro, where Pabulog brings them into captivity.

Darakemba—on the Tsidorek, originally just a city and its surrounding territory, where the Nafari migrated as a people after wearying of the constant warfare in the land of Nafai. Later, a larger kingdom—about a hundred kilometers along the Tsidorek—brought under the control of Darakemba by Motiak’s father, Jamimba. In the largest sense, the entire empire conquered by Motiak.

Bodika—the great kingdom downriver from Darakemba; it was pressure from Bodika that lead Darakemba to welcome the influx of Nafari. Though soon the Nafari dominated the original Darakembi completely, at least they weren’t enslaved—they remained full and equal citizens, under both the kings
and the counselors. Jamimba had managed to maintain an uneasy peace with Bodika, but Motiak had to destroy their army, remove their entire ruling class, and incorporate Bodika into his greater kingdom of Jatva.

Jatva—originally, the land surrounding the city of Jatva at the point where the Jatvarek comes down out of the gornaya. Later, the whole inhabited river valley was brought under Motiak’s domination as a protection against Elemaki who were raiding and conquering over the passes from Svereg. At that point, because it was a peaceful “joining” of kingdoms, Motiak gave the name Jatva to his entire empire, much as his grandfather Motiab let Darakemba keep its original name, even as its original inhabitants lost most of their political power.

Khideo—a region of humans only, downriver from Jatva, established in the course of this story.

There are, of course, many other kingdoms and nations, as well as small villages and settlements not under the rule of any king. Also, more and more people—sky people, middle people, and earth people—are migrating out into the wilderness, now that it is no longer biologically necessary for diggers and angels to remain in the higher elevations of the traditional lands of the gornaya.