Ankayaman

Ankayaman is a region located in the far north of Iman, encompassing most of the Soktien Rainforest. Ankayaman

extends from the borders of Arcamana to the Kaipo Ocean and from the Sea of Aelin to the Sea of Auros.

It is home to several cultures of kaipo descendants, such as the reclusive Alari, several tribes of kuri and the yubbi whose tribes exclusively inhabit coastal regions, most prominently the Coral Isles.

Ankayaman is also known as the Dark Forest, as a large percentage of its extension is completely covered in a dense equatorial forest that is sacred to the kaipo. Although there have been expansion efforts by the imanean, especially before the Kaipo Insurrection, the kaipo managed to retain control of the forests through several means, from strategy to sheer force. The Blackwood Battle marks the end of the Insurrection wars and helped define the limits of the Ankayaman territory south of the Black River, making the Blackwood Valley effectively a kaipo outpost region.

Conversely, Arcamana retained the Cronewood region and, Belenia, the Witchwood Pass.

Ankayaman's flag is a silver tree in a blue circle surrounded with a green field.

Etymology
Ankayaman is the imanean orthography for Ankkajamaan, although the meaning of the word itself is debatable. It is believed it stems from the pluralising Old Kaipo word for "and",  'm, usually translated into arcaman as "am" or "an", kakkaja, "mother" and the suffix -aan, a general loose suffix used to turn nouns into names. Thus, Ankkayamaan would come to mean "Mother", as in the mother forest, or mother earth that the Old Kaipo inhabit.

That meaning, however, is a source of debate as the Alari are known to still speak Old Kaipo and there are no known examples of them using proper names to name regions or physical features, instead relying on very objective naming after the features themselves (such as the region names Blackwood, Midland Woods, Wetwood).

Of course, information on the Alari themselves, including their linguistics, is quite scarce, so most sources of study in that regard – generally kaari who have been to Ankayaman or are natives to it – are unreliable at best.

Ancient history
There is little known about Ankayaman's early history as sources are scarce. Most of the Kaipo original literature is kept closely guarded among the Alari in the Midland Woods, and, due to the dangerous nature of the rainforest for outsiders, not much more than the borders of the various woods have ever been explored by imaneans or even urgunites. Therefore, the majority of what is known about Ankayaman has come from Alari diplomats and kuri tribes.

There is no specific date that marks the establishment of society in Ankayaman, but it is known that the kaipo are not from that region originally. It is believed they migrated from other forests in the north, beyond the Kaipo Ocean. The kuri call those the Piku Swiann Sumann, which is Kaipo for "Land Beyond the Mists", while the Alari simply call it Pianninen, "Motherland". Upon arrival, they settled in the Northwoods before moving inland and effectively settling across the whole range of rainforests.

The imanean, however, never did move too far into the forests as they believed them to be cursed, not to mention a whole wealth of new and dangerous fauna to be dealt with. Imanean cities in Ankayaman, have thus been established mostly along the borders of the forests and the coasts, both eastern and western.

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