Niyone

The Niyone Confederation is an alliance of small chiefdoms situated amidst the plains and hills of south-central Idiri. It shares an often-disputed eastern border with the kingdom of Ulamba, and is bounded on the south by the Ragged Coast. Becoming steadily drier and flatter to the west, it eventually meets the edge of the Desert of Fallen Stars, where its boundaries shift as fluidly as the sands.

Niyone boasts far less political organization than neighboring Ulamba, and is loosely governed by a ruling council made up of each chiefdom's rain priestess. Its main centers of population are more holy sites than cities, with towns grown up in the vicinity of the area's most sacred ritual centers. The population of these areas shrinks and grows with the various festivals of the year, though they are also nuclei of craft production. Like most other Xhalantu, the people of Niyone love and prize their cattle, though without as much hilly upland territory as Ulamba they are unable to raise such sizeable herds as their rivals. Their most valuable trade goods include salt mined from the Drowning Moon Lake area, and the rare and exquisite bikuna wool. Far less wealthy than the lands along the Sea of Sala'ah, the people of Niyone tend to value less tangible things such as storytelling and dance over material goods.