Zingare

On the other side of the continent floats an island to the north of Caliharah. To most, it’s known as the Garshallan island, but in my research I’ve learned that before the Garshallans made it their home, the fertile ground was known as Zingare.

Climate

Zingare is a temperate region, boasting mild weather almost year round where even the sea spray and occasional rain is cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough not to riddle your body with shivers. This moderate weather lends itself well to agriculture, and the Garshallans who devote their lives to the practice - The Followers of the Trees, I believe they’re called… - are able to grow a staggeringly vast array of crops. Even outside of agriculture, the flora and fauna is beautifully diverse, harboring coniferous shrubs and diverse families of flowers.

Fishing

While agriculture thrives in this region, many who inhabit the island do not devote their life to the craft, choosing to sustain themselves on the impressive array of fish. Whether the fish are dragged up by the tide or hunted from the safety of a ship’s deck, aquatic life is the main source of sustenance for those on the island. There’s even word of a particular crab that burrows deep into the soil to avoid being identified by any predators on land or sky. Unfortunately for the crabs, Garshallans identify their burrows by locating spots on the beach with a purple hue. Not only do the crabs give themselves away, but they’ve keyed us in to the fact that the bedrock on this island has a purple hue to it. Exactly why that is, is still a matter of speculation, as well as whether it was really the crabs or an exploratory dig that revealed the bedrock to us, but I think the crab story is far more fun.

Culture and Gender Norms

The culture of the region is quite diverse when one considers the practices of the Garshallan tribes in contrast to that of the Alium of Kende. There have been many findings and reports of Alium culture written by those who’ve traveled to their capital city, and I couldn’t recommend Bevel Dart’s work more, but I will admit that when I think of Zingare, I more often think of the tribes, so my findings are predominantly linked to them. For example, the Garshallan tribespeople seem to assign roles based on the sex of their people more than any other community structure I’ve experienced. While the art of combat is something that is universally learned, the men in the tribe focus on close combat while women in the tribe tend to specialize in ranged weaponry. Because of this focus, tribeswomen tend to take on the tasks of hunting, protection of children, and scouts for good campgrounds for the more mobile tribes. Tribesman, in contrast, focus on building structures and crafting fires, which also leads them to focus more on cooking and preparing food, as well as preparing furs and leathers for warmth and protection from the elements and combat. While the women tend to focus on protecting children in a combat sense, raising the children of the tribe is a task equally shared by any gender identification. In fact, while tribe families may be rather small, with each woman bearing anywhere between one to five children, the child is raised by the tribe as a whole. The family will still sleep under the same roof, and their connection to their parents is instilled in them under this roof as well as their name, which is a direct homage to their parent of the opposite sex.

Gender Ideals

While gender works as a tool for guiding certain tasks among the tribesfolk, their respect for both sexes is seen far and wide. In Garshallan custom, those who can embrace traits and attributes from the opposite sex into their own persona and way of life are seen as someone truly remarkable. For example, many male warriors tend to hold a strong stoicism, but those who can embrace emotion, empathy, and passion and express it wholeheartedly are seen as great men. Many authoritative figures in the tribes are said to express harmonious traits within them, and I imagine it is that balance that led them to the places they are now.

Geography

The maps I’ve studied of Zingare show a nice distribution of plains lands interspersed between two denser forests at the southwestern coast and in the center of the island itself. The major mountain of note is the mountain that our Alium friends have settled upon. How they managed that with the Garshalla is beyond me, but I’ve yet to hear any complaints from either party in the safety of my cozy little nook in Nashriam. The other ‘mountain range,’ the Sea Spine, lies in the southern waters of the island between Zingare’s coast and the main continent, with the peaks just visible beneath the surface. Some call it a mountain range, but, truth be told, nobody really knows what it is. If it’s a mountain range, it’s certainly a strange one…** Though strange occurrences seem to grow in normalcy with each passing day as of late. It’d be precarious as the Prince away from the Scholar, but I’d love to see them. Anyone want an expeditionary companion? It’s lucky to travel in twos, you know…

Despite the dangers that abound, the northern island of Zingare seems to be beautiful beyond belief. From the lush forests to the purple bedrock, it seems to me to be a place that must be experienced in person, rather than read about in the pages of a book. I can only imagine what it would be like to see a Garshallan village, or to make the hike up to Kende, but bound as I am to the text before me, I can let my imagination run wild and hope that my colorful musings can get you just a bit closer to the sights I long to see.