#nam huattam

[seeliragh-fr]

i’m sure they’re fine

[seeliragh-fr]

in the seeliragh verse there’s a huge variation of architecture and lair constructions, but generally larger types of dragons prefer a warren-like dug out lair to a constructed building, though cavernous lairs can be embellished with all sorts of ‘house-type’ additions. The biggest reason is that tunneling allows dragons above a certain size to ensure that their quarters will actually fit them, but also because in some areas it’s costly or unfeasible to craft wooden or brick walls and floors strong enough to support them. a big exception to this is the light flight, which is known for its massive palace complexes, designed for imperial dragons. most of the grandest of these structures (like the Seagate of Name Huattam) are early fourth-age projects undertaken by long-dead empires, though some more prestigious lairs will claim lineage to the original builders. in the modern era, the vast majority of these palaces and temples are effectively cities; many lairs share, maintain, and improve on the original construction.

in general, though, integrated lairs become a marrying of classic Dragonesque(tm) lair caverns, and carved or built additions and towers, catwalks, staircases, and furnished rooms for the smaller types of dragon. all of them sort of end up looking like those european medieval fortresses that are built into the sides of cliffs and things.

the rest of the seeliragh-specific stuff is going under a break!

the seeliragh lair is a sprawling set of caves carved into the side of a canyon wall in the Carrion Canyons. the original lair was a series of large, bare rooms level with the floor of the canyon that were carved out by Kalestryx the Red, who to all appearances disappeared sometime in the middle of the fourth age, along with her consort and children. the lair has since been expanded upwards into the canyon wall by Veruka and her children, in order to accommodate everyone. in comparison to the whorl-like tunneling pattern of the original rooms, the expansion’s walls are rough and spartan. besides the communal nursery, dragons generally tunnel their own quarters or collaborate on a series of personal rooms that are shared. since ridgebacks are so big and their plating is so thick, they don’t strictly need many furnishings, and in general the Seeliragh dragons prefer not to. so most of the interior construction of rooms is focused on often elaborate carved alcoves in which dragons display the borrowed pieces of their personal caches, or arrange tokens for friends and loved ones to take in turn. now that Tenroen’s family has begun cohabiting with the Seeliragh dragons, however, there are some efforts underway to create living spaces for the much smaller and culturally distinct light flight denizens. the interiors of many existing rooms and hallways are also being remodeled and embellished with a distinctly mirrorlight-promenade-like flair, courtesy of the architects and stonemasons among Tenroen’s children. Veruka fucking hates this but also thinks it’s really funny when her grandkids complain about it so she’s allowing it to happen and secretly everyone is grateful anyway

Worldbuilding Wednesday Prompt #2-

What kind of architecture is present in your lore? Does it draw from real-life counterparts? How does the architecture affect daily life in your lore? Is it more beautiful, or practical, or both?

[seeliragh-fr]

Nam Huattam - Staple food and common dishes, Cultural wear or items, Proximity to other lands and settlements?

Staple foods for the region Nam Huattam is in (eastern side of the Sunbeam Ruins, kind of up near the Gladeveins) are a lot of long grain rice and barley dishes, coupled with cooked orchard fruits (oranges, figs, lemons, citron family, and plums mostly, but some others). Meat options include mostly seafood and waterbirds, of which i actually have site-specific canon species picked out but are buried somewhere in my notes. eggull, definitely. most common regional meat-based meal is a kind of slow-cooked rice with fish type dish that i’m sure has a real name in real life. also, meat is usually cooked with heavy fruit or honey glazes

Acolytes at the Nam Huattam have a sort of dress code, which hearkens back to a time when their denomination of lightweaver worship was widespread and there were many similar temples, which were all color coded. In meta I build all the acolyte outfits more or less around this base combination, adding and subtracting stuff based on the dragon, etc:

its kind of a clusterfuck but you get the idea. i use a lot of the golden sage set, the ethereal flame set, daisy accessories (emblem of worship to the lightweaver in-lore) and teardrop pearl jewelry. there are a couple variations: kitchen staff wear white tunics, for example, and garden/orchards staff wear brown (as well as vinters). diviners and magic-users wear purple or magenta. and the marshal of the library and archives wears blue! This is all only for acolytes; dragons who have plead sanctuary or live at the temple for other reasons can do whatever they like.

Nam Huattam is situated just off the coast of Sunbeam atop the Seagate, which is a gigantic ruin of an ancient aqueduct in the shallows of the bay. It’s extremely close to the province’s only large populated area, which is a lair-town called Beltier. The whole region itself is called the Kentam province, and is pretty close to the southernmost border of Nature and the Gladeveins. Kentam is one of the provincial territories of a light flight empire called Palster, which is just a fancy way of saying that Palster is the name of the giant lair-city nearby that makes all the rules for the smaller clans in the area. I’m borrowing a little bit from some really cool lore I saw once that revolved around the granting of clan charters, but this post is like. long enough already. i have a gigantic lore bible for the seeliragh verse that takes forever to go through so i may come back and add or clarify things at some point when it’s not 2 in the morning. yippee!

here’s the prompt list if you want to see me spontaneously generate more novels worth of dragon headworld information on command

[seeliragh-fr]

i love the idea of the deities being evoked for various qualities or tasks in their respective wheelhouses.. i’ve played with it a little bit in lore before, but now i’m thinking about the existence of roadside shrines or small honorary offering spaces in lairside guest quarters or public spaces.

you could always do little renditions of the World Pillar, for instance, where travelers may leave charms or offerings specific to their desired deity- colorful strings of beads of correct color tied around the appropriate place on the little stone carving, or a bowl of chipped travelers’ runestones at the foot. flights may have region-specific incense cakes that may be prudent traveling tokens if you happen to need your patron’s attention far from home.

or, riffing off this post which i love, there might be deity-specific effigies in places where their governance is at play; a squat stone Tidelord might sit under a shingled roof of clamshells at a crossroads miles away from any ocean. tall, thin shrines housing the windsinger might be encountered on winding paths away from civilization, with weathered coins strung up beneath the eaves so that they clink musically together in the breeze. bronze flamecallers might be interred at the mouths of kilns or in front of smiths’ workshops, the head and wingtips buffed bright with many years of rubbing for good luck. in place of a hearth deity, the earthshaker might reside in a little alcove in kitchens or living quarters to hearken to home and safety. the possibilities are endless! the color-coding of the flights means you can do so much with banners and ribbons and pigment and talismans to add little details and texture the world.

[seeliragh-fr]

outfits for some of the nam huattam newcomers

[seeliragh-fr]

the general consensus out in the boonies is that the dig was a fool's errand, and you shouldn't go messing with stuff that's been buried so deep if you don't want to invite trouble of the absolute worst kind- namely divine attention. people are definitely worried about some kind of petrification monster rising out of the rubble to terrorize sornieth, but most folks figure the statues are dragons that were returned to the earth as a reward for their devotion- whether they wanted to be or not.

Weekly Lore Prompt:

Does ur clan think it’s statues, petrified dragons, or something else?

If preserved, why? Was it salvation? A punishment? An accident? Or something else.

Try to answer before the truth is revealed to make it more fun

[seeliragh-fr]

Sonorel and Chiel are so fucking psyched about the comet. they're camping out in Nam Huattam's tallest spire with the undercroft's largest telescope and they keep dragging Alkatiel up there so Eiret can proofread their trajectory calculations

[seeliragh-fr]

despite my track record of only ever posting silly comics i DO have some longer and more serious ones in the works about the nam huattam temple and some seeliragh lore stuff

[seeliragh-fr]

a fun nam huattam detail is that they get a lot of coatl residents who have really drab plumage because of that thing about coatls becoming duller and washed out when they’re ill. i think in some places neutral colors or naturally drab dragons are still kind of seen as bad luck.... so they all end up in kentam hehe

[seeliragh-fr]

which two dragons have the most surprising friendship ?

FASCINATING QUESTION... my instinct was to go with cal and broom but there is actually an even odder couple at Nam Huattam and it's Hirielsi and Heliot :

Hirielsi is a transmuter with the ability to purify water who is functionally blind due to what are essentially magically-based sensory issues. Heliot is a member of the temple guard (the Wallwatch) who plead sanctuary at the temple after showing up out of nowhere with grievous injuries. She has declined to explain this to anyone, and also bears a striking resemblance to a legendary warrior from the Southern Icefield who is supposed to be dead. Hm! One wonders.

They have nearly nothing in common on the surface and would likely have never become close under any other circumstances, but their friendship is genuinely very sweet. Hirielsi is cheerful and slightly embarrassing and does most of the talking. Heliot mostly looms silently, but in a supportive and listening sort of way.

pov the most frightening person you have ever met is just following this tiny woman around all the time

[seeliragh-fr]

the funniest thing ever about nam huattam is that it plays by redwall rules where you have this idyllic pacifist monastery full of benevolent monks situated in an extremely uneventful backwater that hasn’t seen conflict in 400 years, that also happens to be absolutely stacked with extremely competent warriors and martial artists

[seeliragh-fr]

in the seeliragh verse obelisks are the first dragon breed whose discovery is concurrent with the timeline of the characters. Previously for bogsneaks and the ancient breeds I just headcanoned them as wildly rare or secluded remnants of cultures that were slowly making their way into public awareness again, after the devastating inter-flight wars at the beginning of the fourth age. But I just really liked the dig and the reveal, so the discovery of the obelisks happens in the seeliragh verse as it does on-site! in this case, however, earthshaker is a far more distant and unpredictable presence, and the obelisk dragons themselves lack a conscious awareness of him. since the news broke along the trade routes of their emergence, there are many who have taken it as a sign of the twilight of the fourth age, and the end of days. others regard them as unholy, strange false creatures masquerading as dragons. to make things worse, rather than being wholly new creatures, some of the newly-unearthed obelisk dragons seem to have indistinct impressions of being alive before their entombment in stone.

[seeliragh-fr]

:)

[seeliragh-fr]

notn is tomorrow so shoutout to Mundy, who was also the first dragon I ever gened myself :’)

he’s a naturalist in nam huattam’s province now, but he has... more enthusiasm for it than actual skill

[seeliragh-fr]

I named my lad Thomas so he would show up in the dragon search but his actual name is Tavish, or Thamhain or Thaumas! I like to think it's an old earth flight name that's slightly different in a lot of regional dialects so he gets called different things.

[seeliragh-fr]

January Dragon Share Day 3: Planned to Sell/Exalt: Saliyet of the Iron Jaws!

I had bought Saliyet (she/her) as exalt fodder but fell in love with her colors and cool tattoo-adjacent lace pattern. So now, she’s a pirate captain in the Kentam Bay, leading a fearsome band called the Iron Jaws! She was once rescued and nursed back to health by attendants at Nam Huattam, and repays her gratitude by keeping the local waters free of worse criminals and smuggling goods in without the huge taxes imposed by the imperial Light lairs. She claims it’s good for business, but word of mouth is that she might be softening up as the locals grow on her. Unfortunately, one particular lardermaster at Nam Huattam does not seem inclined to return her advances...