Nibenese Identity

The Nibenese

Who are Nibenese?

   Nibenese are the inhabitants of eastern and (in a sense, as the Nords and Cyro-Nords of the regions have in many ways picked up the systems of the easterners) northern Cyrodiil.  The Nibenese are hard to define as a people, mainly because of the fact that trying to group them into categories is nearly useless- The Nibenese divide into hundreds if not thousands of diverse tribes and ethnicities.  They are the dominant population of the cities of Cheydinhal, Bruma, Bravil, Mir Corrup, and Leyawiin.  Ethnically their very earliest roots are identical to those of the Colovians, coming from the myriad nedic peoples captured from across Cyrod, Black Marsh, southern Skyrim, and the Deadland edges.  Under Ayleid slavery their old tribes were mixed and purposefully broken, destroying what old ties might have been known to them and breeding with other nedes with an interest lying solely in the production of new generations of slaves.  Thus the peoples of those regions mixed and over times became a more or less similar ethnicity of post-slave nedics.  After these nedics were freed in the revolution of Alessia, they migrated out across the eastern river valley of Cyrodiil, settling down on the rivers and continuing the trades many of them were forced to perform under those ayleids who did not own slaves solely for torture or sacrifice, including river agriculture and the production of silk.  The Niben character of diversity in religion and society was established early on as the tribes and villages acted mostly independent of each other, the early emperors maintaining very loose decentralized states.  Under the Marukhati these religions transformed, being regulated and organized as saintly entities rather than full fledged gods as the Marukhati attempted to unite the tribes under a singular god.  Though infamous and often monstrous, the marukhati greatly shaped the lives of the Nibenese, bringing many of the tribes together under more rigid organization of merchant nobility and village identity, and the shape of the greater temple of the nine divines.  One of the most significant later influences would be the Akaviri, whose presence was lent to many Nibenese architectural styles and cults.  Their weaponry, most famously the katana, were also adopted by the easterners, and the highest nobility interbred often with the people of the far east.  The Deep Niben and many of the river villages are wholly post-Nedic in population, but the larger towns and cities are all incredibly racially diverse, featuring peoples from all over Tamriel, both those who have lived there for generations and nibenized, and those who retain their home culture and settled within their lifetimes.

   If we do wish to divide the Nibenese into categories, we can only really divide them into very large and encompassing subgroups that often internally divide a hundred times once more.  However, for the purposes of understanding the people generally, these divisions are useful.

Civilized Nibenese-The Nibenese people who reside in the thinner jungles and swamps closer to the Niben's eastern edge, the sparser western wetlands and hills, and the floodplains of the northern Niben.  They identify by village more than by tribe;  Though many still record and remember the peoples from which they came, if asked what they are they will more likely declare what village they are from than what tribe their ancestors belonged to.  The majority of their names are heartlandizations and pseudo-heartlandizations of old tribal names.  For example;  Tribal Nibenese: Soku-Shuzi.  Civilized Nibenese versions:  Socucius, Socucio, Sokuce.

Nibenized Cyro-Nords- These Nibenese people are the ones who reside in the lower parts of the Brumath highlands and in the Cheydin highlands. These regions began their histories as territories conquered from the ayleids by Nords before Alessia's revolution, and it was from these lands that the Nordic mercenary lords of Colovia were hired.  The freedslaves in these regions did not tribalize as directly as their southern neighbors, and were civilized in the ways of the Nords.  When the Nordic Empire collapsed, the majority of the Nords fled their colonies of Bruma and Cheydinhal to return home to their families, leaving behind the Cyro-Nords who were quickly claimed by the at the time Marukhati Alessian Empire.  Though their language is different from the southerners and their society less tribal, they more or less have joined in the lifestyle of the south long ago, governed in the same fashion as the civilized Nibenese and adopting many of their names.  Still though their names can be mistaken for the more gentle of Colovian names, houses like Tharn and Krately.

Tribal Nibenese- These nibenese people are the ones who reside in the deep jungles of the Niben, distant from the thinner jungles of the Niben banks and mostly off of the three main delta offshoots of the Corbolo, Silverfish, and Panther, along the smaller deep Niben rivers.  They can also be found throughout the Blackwood alongside argonians, and in the Cheydin highlands closer to the Valus and within the Valus themselves.  These Nibenese are the ones who have not transitioned into the more pseudo-feudal lifestyle of the civilized Nibenese, and bound themselves more by identities of tribes and tribal confederations rather than villages or the lords they serve.  They are historically difficult for the empire to work with, the deep jungles hard to traverse making reliable collection of taxes and enforcement of laws impossible.  Often times because of this the job of ruling them is often ignored, and the tribals are allowed to do their own thing while being pushed as far away from Nibenese society as possible, and only intruded upon (violently) when particularly annoying, such as when they raid the interests of the merchant nobility.  They are similar to the ashlanders in that they are tribal individuals who live the old ways of their people, and for it are ostracized and made to live in the most inhospitable and unusable region.


Nibenese Culture:
   The culture of the Nibenese is difficult to define due to its vast differences, so its perhaps best to first look at the most basic overlying features.  The Nibenese value philosophy, piety, learning, mercantilism, ceremony, and intrigue.  The method by which their society moves is far different from Colovia, operating on intrigue, subterfuge, and money.  The disputes of the nobility are often fought amongst themselves, not by open bloodshed or war but by plotting and working behind each others backs, utilizing their schemes and spies and the assets under their authority to either subvert the will of their opponent or enforce their will on their opponent.  Open bloodshed (not counting assassination, which while fairly common is highly frowned upon and seen as tasteless) is seen as a very last resort for only the most dire of confrontations.

   The Nibenese are governed under a pseudo-feudal system of merchant nobility and battlemage aristocracy.  Seeing as these aren't exactly super familiar entities or ideas, compared to the relatively simple feudalism of Colovia, I'll take a moment to explain them and their history.  The merchant nobility dates back to the days pre-Marukhati, and the battlemage aristocracy date back to the years following the War of Righteousness.  The merchant nobility were established early on as enterprising Nibenfolk who maintained and arranged trade along river systems, ensuring the survival of villages while pulling a profit for themselves.  By the days of Ami-El these merchant Nibenfolk had become an institution often valued by the commoners, who not only oversaw and ran the trade of stretches of riverlands but often funded and supplied the infastructure and defense of many of the villages.  As the Marukhati came into force they made these merchants into official facets of their far more centralized government, the services they often provided becoming official while cementing and justifying their authority over the river tribals and peoples.

  When the Alessians fell for good following the War of Righteousness, the battlemage aristocracy were those who rushed into the fold to fill the gaps in power.  Unlike Colovia or the Nords, the use of magic is central to Nibenese combat as well as practiced and studied by many individuals in ceremony and esoteric ritual.  The most powerful of the warlords following the fall were all battlemages, many of whom were previously battlemages or court ritualists in service of the merchants or the now defunct high class of alessian priess.  They used their strategic education, sheer magical force, silver tongues, and ceremonial and ritualistic piety and intrigue to woo and conquer the many merchant lords, becoming kings and queens of the rivers, hills, and floodplains, holding domain over the merchants below them.  This system continues to the modern day, their descendants tutored from youth by master elven mages, Colovian strategists, court spies, and their parents in order to eventually replace them and continue their dynasty among the battlemage aristocracy.  It is altered under the Septims, though, with one of the families of any county ruling over all the others and the merchants beneath them from their county seat.  Those that hold these seats fight a vicious and sly game, secret and quiet but lethal with the other battlemages, who all yearn for their position of power and their regional dominance.  Because of this the Nibenese rulers tend to be powerful and seemingly unknowable, as only the greatest among them at this game ever stay in power for long.  Famous Battlemage Aristocratic families include the infamous Tharn, the ancient Caro, and the fair but ruthless Carvain.

   Nibenese commoners rarely involve themselves in the intrigue and sneaky dealings of their lords and ladies, though influential and powerful secret societies and citizen conspiracies have been known to exist and should always be assumed to exist somewhere in the Niben.  The majority of these Nibenese make their livings directly in the service of the merchant lord, tending to fields of crops or gathering silk or turning said silk into wearable clothing or producing dyes or etc. etc.  The Nibenese of the cities have a great deal more options in employment, many of them operating businesses entirely independent of the palace.

   The Nibenese are known for their religious fervor and awe, described as pious, numinous, and by Colovians, superstitious.  The wide range of entities worshipped by the Nibenfolk, both civilized and tribal, ranges in the hundreds upon hundreds, and are all different and varied.  The only common unifying feature between the Nibenese is that regardless of who or what they worship, they also revere the Nine/Eight Divines, and hold them above all else.  In this the Nine are viewed as major but distant gods, who protect us in the long term and provide us with the standard by which to live, but do not intervene in every day affairs.  All the other worshipped entities are viewed as minor gods, much less powerful but so much closer and involved with the every day affairs.  These gods are house gods, personally worshipped entities you go to for your more 'petty' (though in this case petty includes things up to your personal survival) prayers and needs.  Most Nibenese will hold three of the Nine in especially high regard and then hold membership in another half-dozen cults to minor gods.  Though too numerous to list here, the general categories of minor gods include saints, who are outright worshipped and painted into the most mythic light, daedra, the cults of which are strictly regulated by the Imperial crown and subject to lawful search and siezure at all times, totem animals, whose upper cult echelons are strange and secretive societies, animism, widely practiced by the working Nibenese, strange reverence, including the worship of things like concept-spirits or the veneration of a spirit that represents the act of living in your home, and finally, foreign gods.  Yes, foreign gods.  The Nibenese view on the existence and importance of minor spirits and deities leaves them in the position to be completely acceptant of the validity of other's pantheons, with cults holding worship to these foreign deities with common interpretations being that they are attendant to the more familiar Nine.  This acceptance of foreign gods counterintuitively makes them the ideal missionaries for the Imperial Cult of the Nine:  Their message is sweeter and less hard to swallow:  Your gods are fine and worth worshipping, but these gods are greater, and love you.

   (SHAMELESS PLUG)  If you want to know more about Nibenese religion, I'd suggest continuing your reading here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/3w9anx/cults_within_nibenese_society/

   The temples of the Nibenay are numerous and dot the landscape, housing various cults or shrines.  The architecture varies wildly, coming from the styles of different tribes and periods, including tall pagodas, northern chapels, Colovian inspired cathedrals, domed temples in the image of the great Temple of the One, pillared Heartland godshouses, colorful decorated temples in the image of those used by the akaviri, ancient repurposed marukhati ziggurats, and great galeried temples.  Shrines also dot the roads through the thinner jungles and the edges of the rivers, small statues and pedestals and obelisks honoring saints and spirits.  The religious ceremonies of the Nibenese across the landscape are emotional and colorful, ranging from the fervid to the solemn to the joyous and everything in between, bearing bizarre rituals, glorious feasts, and colorful and varied dance, among other things.  There are few official universally recognized holidays in the Niben, but rather dozens of regional festivals, ceremonies, celebrations, and days of blessing and prayer.

   In general the Nibenese commoners prefer to embrace the mythic and wondrous side of history, recounting the events of the world and the exploits of ancients in grandoise terms and scenarios, frequently involving the impossible, wondrous, or divine, with things like conversation or assistance from animist spirits being common, as well as superhuman feats and jocular narrative when in appropriate audiences.  They often find Colovian insistence on accuracy boring, prefering a good story, inspiring heroism, and encounters with the awe-inspiring to glorified tales of martial conflicts.

   The Nibenese fashion comes in a variety of flavors, that like all other aspects of their myriad culture can only be broken down in simple terms by their large subgroups, as any further attempt to differentiate would require pages upon pages of text.  In the lands of the civilized Nibenese, the common styling within the cities, the many villages, and the palaces of nobles are the extravagant and colorful garb they are famous for, brightly colored and often extravagantly patterned outfits made from flowing billowing silk of the highest quality and arranged in dozens of styles, from sarees and kimonos to multilayered tunics, and can be as simple as a mono-colored blue toga or a sleek patterned silk vest and as complex as garb made from dozens of sashes and layered cloaks.  Still yet there are those that go nearly nude, preferring to wear little in light of the heat and humidity, wearing no clothing but loinclothes and sandals, and sometimes silken sashes.  This sparse way of dress is very common among those whose occupations involve hard and frequent labor, such as stoneworkers and carpenters and often farmers, for whom the clothes could become unbearable, and not only that but would deteriorate and degrade under the sweat of their body and the wetness of the air.  Many decorate themselves in jewelry and trinkets covered in and made of things like shells, small coins, beads of wood, beads of glass, beads of stone, and beads of bone, feathers, the bones of fish, and other small totems and shiny items.  The Cyro Nords, while a slight bit more reserved, also dress colorfully, wearing layered and attractively tailored outfits of cotton and silk and imported Colovian furs to keep themselves warm in the cool highlands and during the chilly and sometimes snowy winters, and in the case of the Brumath, definitely snowy winters.

   All of the Nibenese peoples are know to extensively engage in bodily modification at a level not approached by any other human group.  While there are some Nibenfolk who do not make religious and tribal art of their body, a great number do.  Tattoos are very common, inked in patterns that range from the strange and complex to the highly simple.  These tattoos serve all sorts of purposes- some cults necessitate certain markings to distinguish them as members, many of the ethnicities have traditional patterns they bear, and others bear tattoos to detail their status or living.  A rare few individuals are utterly covered in tattoos, images of holy patterns and symbols and the markings of their tribe covering every inch of skin.  Some Nibenese cults and ethnicities engage in the older art of scarification- the act of producing raised patterns on the skin through purposeful and directed mutilation and letting the tissue become scars, as well as the use of brands to produce images on the skin through permanent burns.  It is not uncommon, for example, to come across a Niben man with odd raised bumps that form an equally spaced line across his brow; This is the result of scarification.  Also practiced is bodily piercing, and while it may not sound odd at first it becomes so once the level to which it is practiced is realized.  A few tribal groups utilize plugs, and it is not uncommon to see a Niben man or woman with an ear utterly perforated with a dozen rings and objects all of varying size.

   Ornate masks are common ritualist and ceremonial garb, and several of the battlemages, priests, and esoteric organizations can be found with strange masks.  Some tribes in the deep Niben wear their masks constantly, as part of some tradition or religious obligation.

   The tattoos and scars are notable amongst the battlemages, who have magically altered themselves and bound charms and power to their person through the ritualistic application of their markings.

   A very excellent place to look for reference on Nibenese clothes, tattoos, and piercings would be this gallery, put together by the talented LadyNerevar:  http://imgur.com/a/Wu1iS .  I highly suggest you take the time to look through it, as it does a wonderful job of showing the variety that would be present among the civilized Nibens.  Additionally, also by LadyN, http://img15.deviantart.net/ee50/i/2011/041/b/0/character_thumbnails_by_lady_nerevar-d397m1f.jpg does a good job with additional Nibenfolk, of the more village or tribal dwelling variety.  For additional sources to immerse yourself in, try this link:  https://www.google.com/search?q=India+tribes&safe=off&rlz=1C1TSNP_enUS555US555&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBmauLieHKAhVHrB4KHSxYDJMQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=643
and this one:
https://www.google.com/search?q=burmese+tribes&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC5pe1ieHKAhVBqh4KHdeqCvcQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=643


  Nibenese agriculture revolves almost entirely on plant products, the jungles not suited for the husbandry of larger animals.  Rice and a wide variety of other crops both exotic and common are grown all along the rivers, the western bank, floodplains, lower Brumath, and Cheydin highland, nearly all of it gathered by the merchant lords and distributed.  Moths are also kept in large plantations devoted to silk, and chickens are kept as well in many villages.  Cows and pigs are kept in the more expansive regions, like the Western Bank and the Cheydin Highlands, but are otherwise a fairly uncommon sight, outside of oxen occasionally used to help haul goods over overland portions.  More exotic animals can be found in places like the deep Niben, most notably the giant Cyrodiilic newts from which the crocodile leather-esque material referred to as newtscale is made.  Common varieties of Nibenese farms include mountain terraces, which are popular in the Cheydin and Brumath, flooding fields like those found in the floodplains and occasionally on the western bank, and cleared jungle, where during the proper season patches of jungle are cut down and burned and used for farmland, and once the season ends the space is allowed to be reclaimed by jungle.  Fishing is a common proffession (whether primary or secondary) among the villages directly upon rivers (that is to say, the majority).  These fishermen harvest the natural bounty of the rivers, bringing back the many varieties of plentiful fish, as well as shellfish like snails, shrimp, crayfish, and mudcrab.  Seafood and vegetation is the primary diet of the majority of Niben people south of the highlands.

   It is hard to list all the things grown, primarily because there is just so much. A few notable crops out of the vast many include things like rice, coffee, melons, tea, beans of different varieties, raddish, sugarcane, and regional species of cabbage.  Cocoa plantations also exist, but little of it is used by the Nibens themselves; most is exported to Nords, who have had a love for the bitter plant ever since they first found it when they controlled the highlands.  The Nords refine the cocoa into fine Nordic chocolate, a treat that is beloved across Tamriel, even begrudgingly by many elves.

   The eastern peoples have a deep and heartfelt love for the arts and music, the most famous of Cyrodiil's painters, poets, virtuosos, and playwrights coming from the rivers and the villages and towns that dot them.  All of the cities have great ampitheatres and playhouses, and even the smaller villages are known to play out shows in local clearings.

   Some cults are known to use mind altering substances to commune with their deities and to have religious experiences, though the majority of these are highly regulated by imperial authority, with only a select few communities being permitted to produce the substances then exported to these cults.

Regions of Nibenay

Blackwood

The Blackwood is often described as the least inhabitable portion of Nibenay, and yet tribal peoples still live deep within it and many Nibens call the lands closer to the river home.  The Blackwood is bounded traditionally as the lands south of the Panther river and east of the great Niben, all the way to the border with Black Marsh, losely and tenuously defined by a long stretch of hills branching off the tip of the Valus down to the coast.  Its climate is boggy and hot, and a great majority of the whole region is almost consistently flooded with at least a foot of Niben water, spilling out from both the many small delta rivers that branch off, and from the actual waters of the great Niben river itself.  Though the edges are often sparse enough or high enough that numerous villages, towns, and palaces of the civilized Nibens dot them, the inner depths are horrendous swampland. These flooded mires are full of mosquitoes, great spiders, swamp trolls, mantraps and great pitchers, crocodiles both normal and giant, and most gravely, many of the numerous diseases and parasites that also call Black Marsh home.  As you aproach the southern edge the Blackwood becomes more hospitable, the pleasant tropical jungle of the Topal Bay taking over and covering the landscape in ferns and palms, hiding the wretched landscape further inland from the eyes of those approaching.  Overgrown ruins unrelated to those common to most of Cyrodiil, built by who knows what peoples fill the bogs and swamps- perhaps constructions of the nedes who once inhabited these lands, or ancient argonian palaces.
The primary inhabitants of the wild swampy Blackwood are tribal Nibenese like traditionalist Keptu, alongside tribes of Argonians that spill out from neighboring Black Marsh.  The river's edge bears the standard diversity of the Niben, with dozens of villages dominated in population by the civilized Nibens and towns that bear sizeable minorities of all the Tamrielic peoples.  Argonians make up a notably large portion of the population, perhaps around 30-35%, living amongst the towns and within their own villages.  The majority of these Argonians are more or less Nibenized by necessity, though many villages along the river's edge are tribal in their society.  One of the major riverside crops native to the region harvested by both Nibenfolk and Argonians are cyrodiilic sugar palms, the harvesting of which was the initial purpose of the ayleid plantation atop which Leyawiin was built.

reference pictures
http://i.imgur.com/urzbl2P.jpg  small branching river in southern Blackwood
http://i.imgur.com/nC4KfB0.jpg  swamp canopy often thick and obscuring
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Bald_Cypress.JPG  majority flooded in knee deep water
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/11723193.jpg marshland everywhere
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u4ohmhAY6mw/UWy0K34j4_I/AAAAAAAAAo0/IFAKtjK2UQU/s1600/IMG_0184.JPG  ground can be deceptive
http://thanjaitours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ta-prohm-temple-cambodia.jpg an unknown ruin
http://i.imgur.com/V3edHok.jpg Cypress dominates

West Niben Banks or Trans-Niben

Almost opposite in nature to the Blackwood it lies across from, the West Niben Banks are idyllic.  It is often seen as the driest portion of the southern Nibenay, which in the end is a rather meaningless statement to make, the non-jungled lands still rainy and dotted by marshes.  The West Niben Banks stretch all the way from the inland sea of the Niben Bay all the way down to the western side of the Topal, and is inhabited the whole way down by a wide variety of peoples.  The landscape and geography is more or less similar with some climatic variation by latitude.  On the southern shores the tropical and comfortable climate of the Topal Bay can be found, though only a few miles inland much of it fades away, the palms only continuing a small distance along the river's edge.  Where this tropical climate and the mildly forested plains of the rest of the bank meet lies Leyawiin, one of the Nibenay's ancient cities and a site of racial tension even into the modern day.  The majority of the West Banks are fertile plains thinly covered in forest and filled with small rivers branching from the Niben, from Leyawiin all the way to the vicinity of the river Sarto at the southern end of the Niben Bay.  The border to Elsweyr, which runs all along the thin strip, is marked by great rolling mountain hills, that in some places extend out across the plains haphazardly to near the river's edge. Much of the plains and these hills are contested by the Khajiit and the Nibenese peoples, the claims held by nobles on both sides frequently called against each other in vicious and petty feuds.  These lands are among the few in Nibenay that can sufficiently support animal husbandry, cows and pigs both being raised for the purpose of consumption alongside the standard of river life and the yields of plantations.  As the river Sarto is approached the West Banks lose their plain countenance and become more thickly forested, the hills pushing out past the border and forming river valleys where the Niben Bay leaks in, a situation which covers all the lands between the Sarto and the Larsius, and past the Larsius until the mangrove swamps of the southern Heartlands are reached, and then westward until it merges with the wetlands of the Eastern Weald. In the middle of this space on the edge of the Niben Bay lies the city of Bravil, a once beautiful hub of society, fallen under squalid conditions since the late second era.
The city of Leyawiin was founded early in the first era by Nedic freedslaves, building a community on an island just off the shore from which Ayleids once commanded their fellow men to harvest the sugar palms lest they be put in their master's gruesome galleries.  Like Bravil in the North it was among the first of the strongholds of the Marukhati faith, the rivermen fearful and hateful toward the remaining living former masters.  Today many elves live here, as with the rest of the Niben, the ancient hatreds mostly forgotten except for by the most emotionally charged cults of Shezarr and Pelinal, and on occasion during periods of confrontation.  In modern times the city is home to a much different kind of racial tension, one between the Nibenfolk and the Khajiit and Argonians who both also call the region home, very vocal and in some cases violent minorities of both claiming that the whole of the south Niben belongs to their peoples, citing the ancient merethic pre-Ayleid days when there civilizations dominated the region.  The Empire acknowledges none of it, even going as far as to claim more territory from Elsweyr- miles of hills and plains once part of Elsweyr have been negotiated away from the Mane and into Niben authority.  The Counts of the Trans-Niben, the Caro family - whose history as rulers date back to Righteousness- frequently sends soldiers to pacify or combat Khajiiti and Argonian insurgents alike who demand relinquishment.  Much of the few patches of jungle that exist in the area have been destroyed, denying potential guerillas the ability to fight from within them.  In modern days Leyawiin extends past the original isle onto the West Bank, where the majority of the city lies.  The city's economy revolves around both its great sugar palm plantations and its status as the gateway to Cyrodiil- Many a tired traveler makes brief port in Leyawiin, exhausted from weeks or months at sea traversing the Topal Bay and other southern waters, as well as those who are preparing to set out into the oceans after their business was done in the Niben Bay or the Rumare.  Inns and resorts (for the more important travelers) abound, and the dock markets are full of small merchants peddling trinkets and curios and souvenirs, dishware showcasing landmarks of Cyrodiil or wax figurines of the more beloved emperors.
On the Bay in the more deeply forested regions lies Bravil, founded upon the mouth of the Larsius during the reign of Alessia, after the pacification of the last openly hostile post-slavery Ayleid by the myrmidon centurion Tehau Tash, or as he is known in modern Nibennic, Teo Tasus.  It was in Bravil and the lands around it that the Marukhati's faith first took hold late in the reign of Ami-El, the Prophet Most Simian having traveled there all the way from the Gold Coast via the roads established during the reign of Belharza Man-Bull.  After this it spread rapidly among the working folk of the Niben, the upper echelons of the quickly forming cult becoming a powerful group that performed a silent coup upon the balance of power, making its beliefs the official faith of the Empire and completely remaking the political structure, and most infamously performing horrific pogroms upon the remaining Ayleid peoples.  During these days and after the war of the Righteousness and even the reign of Reman, Bravil was one of Nibenay's greatest cities, the river city of the Niben Bay wreathed in splendor and great manors and having a thriving culture of art and expression.  The Interregnum following the deaths of the potentates ruined Bravil, the lawlessness and many wars by foreigners that were waged across Cyrodiil taking their toll.  By the time of Tiber and onwards to the present day, Bravil is but a ghost of its former self, the majority of its old manor palaces long burned down and replaced by squalid huts and shacks as a population too large for the city is forced into a tiny space.  Wooden shacks lie sunken inches in the mud and pressed close together and atop each other, frequently flooding and in some places requiring elevation by stilts to keep from flooding with sewage and Niben water during the rains.  Nice portions of the city remain, closer to the fortress Palace from which the aristocracy reign, orderly and neat manors on drier grounds inhabited by wealthy Nibenfolk, their yards and estates within the walls decorated with the tropical plants from further south.  Part of the inability to recover lies in the seemingly permanent ineffectiveness of the Battlemages under domain of county Bravil; none have been able to last long before they were torn down and replaced by a peer.
The countryside's dominant peoples are the Khajiit and the Nibenese, villages composed almost exclusively of either scattered all across the west bank.  One of the more famous wholly Khajiit towns would be Trariraj, also known as Border Watch, though which border it watches has changed with the years.  The towns throughout bring about more ethnic diversity, with Bretons settled down from days on merchant ships and the descendants of Colovian migrants creating large and significant minorities.  The city of Leyawiin is strangely populated, the Khajiit and Argonians forming a third of the population alongside the ethnic southern Nibenese, who make another whole third.  Bravil similarly has many beastfolk alongside its Nibenese, though not quite as much.  The populace of Bravil contains large minorities of nearly every race, all equally living in squalor, whether its the city's large Breton population or its significant number of High and Dark Elves, brought to the region often due to exile from their homelands or to find employ or tuition among the many magical schools and colleges of the Nibenay.  The Altmer of Nibenay in particular are frequently the victims of (sometimes self-imposed) exile, cast out of their homelands for the breaking of traditions in ways viewed almost heretical.  Some are the descendants of those cast out centuries ago, themselves fully Nibenized.

reference pictures

http://i.imgur.com/LY5NrOw.jpg sandy Topal beach
http://i.imgur.com/bfDiejR.jpg Topal Mouth on horizon
http://i.imgur.com/9w7xjxo.jpg manor in Leyawiin
http://i.imgur.com/I5UtBkP.jpg intricate metalwork and balconied buildings up to three stories tall common in the city
http://i.imgur.com/hF6gv3V.jpg Leyawiin wall
http://i.imgur.com/vZP7fbC.jpg Atop fortification in hills
http://www.tierratravels.com/admin/upload/Cambodia-14.jpg Fertile and verdant plains
http://i.imgur.com/nRzYydq.jpg River Sarto
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oGIfSxClVfU/VPTvxgckKUI/AAAAAAAAXPQ/fM-eyGTAmEM/s1600/beauty%2Bof%2Bwoodwn%2Bhouse%2B6.jpg nicer home on Bravil outskirts
http://i.imgur.com/yKSuz0D.jpg Deeper Larsius villages
http://thumbs.trulia-cdn.com/pictures/thumbs_6/ps.79/9/3/7/9/picture-uh=7a78f617cf5d17d81025c5eec99d1ca0-ps=9379270297997da2f10b3f0bfac8935-2579-Spanish-River-Rd-Boca-Raton-FL-33432.jpg Bravil manors seem so distant from squalor
https://www.colourbox.com/preview/8104097-slum-on-dirty-canal.jpg wooden shacks upon stilts avoid constant floods
http://s3.amazonaws.com/estock/fspid2/127700/slums-thailand-urban-127713-o.jpg structures haphazard, decayed, and waterlogged in the city
http://www.waterandmegacities.org/wp-content/uploads/varanasi-river-ganges-21-620x200.jpg large town upon the river

Valley of the Divine and the Three Great Deltas
Composing the eastern side of the great Niben Bay, the Valley of the Divine has often been seen as the philosophical heart of an already philosophical people.  The greatest of the Niben's temples dot its sparse and thin jungles, alongside hundreds of villages and farms for rice and silk, located on the Bay and the edges of the three primary basin rivers.  The boundaries of this beautiful land are marked to the north by the banks of the Corbolo, and to the south by the banks of the Panther.  From the bay eastward it continues until the rising elevation plateaus and the jungle becomes in many places impenetrably thick, from which point it continues only along the Corbolo and the central Silverfish, where the river's edges are sparse and the near impenetrable jungle continuing on the hundreds of rivers that split off from them.  Though the panther as well is clear along these regions, it is considered part of the Deep Niben, and will not yet be discussed.  Past the Corbolo lies the Floodplains and the beginnings of the Cheydinh Highlands, to the East lies the Deep Niben and its jungles, and to the South past the Panther lies the grim swamps of Blackwood.  The geography is for the most part calm here, with some rocky shoals seperating the bay from the land and rolling (on occasion mountainous) hills forming river valleys.  Elevation increases steadily as you go eastward, a gentle and hardly noticed grade often only realized once you ascend to the top of a hill or look out from atop one of the many trees.  No cities lie here, the clearings too small and the jungles too dense to sustain them.  But large temple towns do, sprawling and diverse communities built around the great god-palaces, like the House of the Cult of Hero-Saints, or the Red Temple of the Smiling Potentate, and the Dozen Pagoda Towers of the Anamist Monks, just to name a few of many.  These temples belong to no single architectural style, built across the eras and ranging from the incredibly ancient to the fairly modern.  As the Nibenese are often unsentimental about history outside of what is told in tales, the most ancient of these temples have existed for so long and passed between the hands of so many cults that have came and went that the ancient relics and exquisite frescos, painted walls, and tapestries within have lost meaning, the remainders of religions past often absorbed by new faiths and incorporated into their own myth, a new story made to account for the objects.  These temple towns are filled with the devoted and the full of awe, and the breeze carries the sounds of joyful dancing, solemn chanting, holy song, and the scent of rich and varied burning incense.  Massive statues and shrines look over the landscape, some of which stand a hundred feet tall, great monuments to saints and gods.  The roads and monuments throughout are lit and in some place nearly covered in candles and lanterns and small totem offerings, left by pious pilgrims and visitors just wishing to partake in the moment, an act welcomed by the Nibens.  Monastic orders abound, living in monasteries in the river mountains and in clearings, spending their days in meditation and ritualism, among other things.
Two of the three primary rivers of the Niben Delta that sprawls across the Nibenay are counted as directly being part of this region, despite penetrating deep into lands considered 'The Deep Niben', and many of their subrivers sprawling out across it.  These were the first domains of the merchant nobility, and their most ancient fortresses and palaces lie within it, set within the mountains that make the river valleys of the Corbolo and attached to river banks of the Silverfish.  The peoples here are lively and exotic, and it is here among all the rivers and temples that the 'beating heart of Cyrod' first began to pulse.
The inhabitants of this region are wildly diverse peoples (a phrase I am sure is beginning to be tiresome but nonetheless applicable), both in their cultural practices and in ethnicity.  Bretons, and Elves join the Nibenese in large numbers, both descendants and first generations of previously mentioned merchants, exiles, and tutors employed by the nobility and School of Julianos, valued for their percieved knowledge and magical ability.

reference pictures
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/HainanSanya2.jpg  statue of triplet saints Minava, Salmacia, and Belisara on the Bay; near Corbolo mouth
http://edugeography.com/images/cambodia/cambodia-08.jpg  river palace-temple
http://interactivejungle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/jungle_india.jpg  within the Corbolo
http://francedailyphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Giant-Virgin-Mary-statue-in-Le-Puy.jpg  Sed-Yenna/Settiana with Reman
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/44/32/cd/4432cd4c13649695affbbdb441d507c3.jpg  villagers friendly if peculiar
http://cracksmacker.moruadesigns.com/savagetide/files/scene-ruins7.jpg abandoned marukhati ziggurat
http://i.imgur.com/YISC9Fz.jpg colovian inspired cathedral
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Zhengding_Lingxiao_Pagoda_3.jpg  pagoda temple
https://ericgerlachdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/chinese-budhist-temple.jpg  temple built in the style of Akaviri
http://www.anthroarcheart.org/grfx/o86f.JPG  ancient merchant fortress along the Silverfish
http://i.imgur.com/XerkaQ3.jpg quaint niben home
http://www.escapeartist.com/ecuador/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/07/BECC10-660x432.jpg village on the Panther near the bay
http://photorator.com/photos/images/a-small-farming-village-in-the-jungle-near-vang-vieng-laos--34817.jpg village on the Silverfish
http://i.imgur.com/7FEy27G.jpg  young girls attending a religious ceremony
http://www.chinatourguide.com/china_photos/Hangzhou/Attractions/Leifeng_Pagoda_view.jpg  temple on the edge of the bay

Niben Floodplains
One of the smaller regions of the Niben, it is arguable that the Niben Floodplains aren't truly a unique region at all, and rather just part of the larger Eastern Rumare Floodplain- which physically is very much true.  What differentiates the Niben Floodplains from the Heartlands portions is not the landscape but the peoples.  The inhabitants of the Floodplain are almost entirely Nibenese, who spend their lives and make their living farming the wetland, tilling the fields above water and harvesting rice from the ones below.  Unlike the occasionally hilly and mildly forested Eastern Floodplain, the Niben Floodplains are almost perfectly flat in all directions, and almost half of it is just below the water level of the Rumare and the Niben River, the result of which is a half foot or in many places deeper water covering wide swathes of the silty fertile landscape.  While all of the Niben farms and farms extensively, these Floodplains are almost nothing but farms, what little spaces not filled with crops being the villages of the workers and the fortresses of nobles, positioned on what little high ground exists.  To its west is the much larger East Rumare Floodplains; to its southwest lies the the river's edge.  Its Southeast is braced against the banks of the Corbolo opposite the edge of the Valley of the Divines, while its Northeast follows the river up, divided from it by the rapidly ascending and overgrown mountain hills that mark the edge of the northern Deep Niben.  Its northern border is defined by the lower hills of the Cheydin Highlands, the early elevations still taken advantage of by the enterprising Nibenese and covered in farms on terraces.
The peoples of the Niben Floodplains are almost exclusively working Nibenese of different varieties, the interior of the plains offering little to foreigners except expanse on all horizons for miles.

reference pictures
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/china/geog/Rice-TransplantingSeedlings.gif Niben workers
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Village_in_caprivi_flood_plain.jpg When looking toward heartland, horizon is naught but endless watery flatland
http://i.imgur.com/tsODTOA.jpg  workers taking a break
http://i.imgur.com/e7xwWb7.jpg  where the floodplains meet the northlands
http://www.wildfotoafrica.com/index.php/portfolio/image?view=image&format=raw&type=img&id=6957 a floodplain village
http://pnwsalmoncenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/BQ-Floodplain-Restoration.png nearing Corbolo

Deep Niben Karst
The Deep Niben Karst, also colloquially referred to as Greater Corrup, is the easternmost domain of the civilized Nibenese, and a land seen as mysterious, exotic, and enticingly strange, even to the other peoples of the river.  It is where the last strongholds of the tribal peoples must come to enjoy the trade of their brethren, and where the modern civilized Nibenese still cling hardest to their old tribal ways.  The Geography is jagged and rough, great overgrown mountains of limestone karst branching off from the southern tip of the Valus.  Caverns carved by rainwater penetrate them, making homes for many of the stranger creatures and ritual monks alike, who build their monestaries often atop the rocks.  These mountains surround the Panther river, which continues deep into its center until it reaches Lake Canulus, where the ports of merchant lords load what goods the jungle folk have to trade and carry them out into the greater river systems, and where fishermen use trained birds to help collect their catch, a practice dating to ancient times.  River valley plains lie between the rocky and cavernous mountainlands, the many branch offs of the Panther winding throughout them and dissapearing into the ground, often only to reappear in another valley, the waters having continued their course beneath the rock.  Despite the rough face of the landscape there is a beauty to it, a sense of peace and awe inspired by the monolithic rock pillars that watch over calm plains and flooded riversides.  Mornings bring mist and fog, draping the serene valleys in haze through which the strange peaks emerge.  Hot springs exist throughout, water from the subterranean river systems forced upwards by pressure and the volcanic heat of the southern Valus, the greatest and most well known of these springs the home of the city of Mir Corrup, from whence the land gains its name.  To the north is the jungle of the Deep Niben, over which Mir Corrup is given legal domain, to the south lies the inhospitable swamp of Blackwood, and to the west lies the southern edge of the Valley of the Divine.
The hot springs of Mir Corrup lie at the mouth of the Canulus, where the Panther divides in twane before merging into the lake, upon which sits the city's isle.  The city and its many spas sprawl across the island, enclosed in a natural wall of the limestone mountains, which wrap around the island in half circle, the only face exposed being the one facing the lake it sits at the mouth of.  The spas serve the wealthy and prestigious of all Tamriel, most commonly the Niben's lords but frequently seeing and serving guests from as far away as Morrowind or Skyrim.  With all the noblefolk of Tamriel in one place, it would be assumed that backstabbing and plotting and secret murder would be all too common, but it is not.  The city is home to one of the Nibenay's paradoxically most famous and yet little known secret societies, known only as the Masked Men of Mir Corrup.  Who they are is unknown, the unseen ritualist mafia's identity and membership a complete secret.  They are the true power of Mir Corrup, its aristocratic families well known by counts and barons of the rivers to simply be their pawns.  Among other things, such as the control and management of the many black markets of Nibenay and the systematic killing of any bandit groups trying to solidify themselves in the Corrup, they are acknowledged to be the ones responsible for the state of forced peace present within their city:  The lords and ladies of Nibenay are banned by the Masked Men from feuding or plotting while present, and those that break this silent ordinance invariably take a turn for the worse.
The populace of the Corrup's towns and city are as diverse as the Niben Bay, home to the Nibenese peoples both tribal and civilized, as well as the sought after Bretons, Altmer, and Dunmer, alongside Argonians from the Blackwood south from there and the Black Marsh east.

reference pictures
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Bain_romain_de_Khenchela.jpg  spas ancient and well used
http://vacationadvice101.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Guilin-Featured-Image.jpg  beautiful valley
http://worldheritage.routes.travel/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/longmen-grottoes-1.jpg religious iconography carved into rockface
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin#/media/File:Reed_flute_cave.jpg  karst cavern; this one home to hermetic ritualist
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/1_li_jiang_guilin_yangshuo_2011.jpg  karst mountains tower over rivers
http://playa-dust.com/moderate/photos_m/18314368-traditional-akha-tribe-hat-head-dress-burning-man.jpg  nibenwoman in the markets
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4142/4768651344_df55f99a38_z.jpg  village children
http://wfiles.brothersoft.com/b/beautiful-guilin_98193-1400x1050.jpg  villages peaceful under the controlling grasp of the Masked Men
http://lgmtours.com/tour/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GUILIN3.jpg  agriculture fills river valleys
http://www.interasia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Guilin-Mountains.jpg  limestone spires
http://i.imgur.com/rbffMsy.png  communities nestled throughout
http://findvietnam.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/lZIYMgSSmG__5p8dszeFagPH18hMNfjwY5KEhtrtsi-TMho8sA_zPNz4xnwwjHGqHztOmG3chd5MQW3VKevDmZS6uYcRGaFsxD64ECT2xR75v-jbdMUI-tiMfQm3V-KXlw.gif  rivers filled with boats
http://www.chinatravelca.com/wp-content/uploads/Guilin-cormorant-fishermen-J-G.jpg  canulus fishermen
http://www.selamatbercuti.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/south-guilin_Fotor.jpg mornings bring mist and fog
http://www.luxuo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Guilin-China.jpg  calm and fertile lands bear volcanic activity
https://dbf3bb47b670eaaa7be1-968fa800d06a2236454303935cd1d7a3.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/1428776386552965c27604693_16032.jpg  river off the Canulus


Deep Niben Jungle
Beyond the river keeps of the merchant lords, the temples of the divine valley, and the mountains of Corrup lie deep jungles as mysterious as they are dense and foreboding.  It is a primal part of Cyrodiil, ancient and savage and full of exotic life.  The jungle stands impenetrable by all but the tribal peoples within it, who navigate by the hundreds of small rivers beneath the canopies that branch off the Corbolo and the Silverfish.  Nestled between the font of Imperial civilization and the limestone wall of the Valus, the jungle geographically divides into two basic regions, a rocky north and a flatter south.  Both regions are inhabited almost entirely by tribal Nibenese, those ancient and strange peoples who live as the first freed Nibenfolk did millenia ago, and were unable to be forced into civilized systems, the rainforests and jungles too thick for the old Alessians to access in mass.  They did not push further, content to leave the remaining tribals to the lands no one wanted, the unknown jungles where tigers and panthers still roamed and where the art-atrocities, sick jokes, and strange experiments of the now absent Ayleidoon wandered ravenously, seeking to sate their unnatural hungers.  This continues to the modern day, the river lords and even the greater empire itself doing its best to ignore the remnants of bygone ages, allowing them to operate under their own wills, interfering with crushing force only when they raid their civilized neighbors and acting as a friend only when they enter the larger rivers to trade their exotic goods, be it rare alchemical ingredients or deep jungle hardwood.  These tribes organize not by merchant lords or battlemages but by war chiefs, shaman kings, and in rare cases of unity, by tribal confederations.  The tribes have dwindled over the ages and eras, every century a portion giving up the old ways and moving west into the lands of the other Nibens, unable to survive in the jungles.  Many of the young men are enticed away by promises of riches by which their tribe may benefit and glory by which their names will be sung, recruited as mercenaries and bodyguards by the river nobility.
Within the northern side of the jungle, another people can be found- one of utmost rarity and uniqueness.  The last of the non-bestial minotaurs can be found there among the jungled cliffs, hidden for eras and secluding themselves from an empire they felt was a monstrous enemy.  They reside in monasteries alongside tribal Nibens who are happy to be alongside them and serve, revering them as the descendants of Al-Esh and the bull.  These minotaurs hid here in the early first era, after the rise of the Marukhati.  As the Marukhati demanded that it be accepted that their was only one divine entity, and all others were mere servants and saints, it became clear to them that minotaurs had to go.  The bovine children of Aless were an existential challenge, asserting that Morihaus was not just a Nord and a saint as they insisted, but a divine bull, whose interbreeding created a hybrid race of men.  To remove this crisis the Marukhati did what they could to destroy them, slaughtering them, defacing the depictions of Belharza, and using horrid rituals and magic to render many insane and bestial, crushing their minds and the intelligent parts of their souls.  The survivors fled in secret to the lands of the tribal Nibens, who were aghast and horrified as to what the city-men had done to the bull children.  The tribal folks helped build the monastery fortresses, and throughout the remainder of the first and second era hid their locations.  Early in the third era their descendants were discovered, long after the purges of the Alessians were just but memories.
The southern Deep Niben, bordering the Karst to the south and the valley of the divines to the west, are mostly flat all the way to the Valus.  Hundreds of rivers cut through it, and all corners of the landmass are overgrown.  A few mountains can be found, but they are small and stubby.  This area is primarily the lands surrounding the Silverfish.  The northern portion is equally overgrown and cut with rivers, but is rocky and mountainous, the landscape rising to meet the highlands to the north sharply and unevenly.  Cliff faces and bizarre rock formations are present throughout, and rolling green mountains cover the landscape and make jungle valleys of the rivers.  This area is primarily the lands surrounding the Corbolo.
The people of the deep Niben are nearly exclusively tribal Nibenese, with the exceptions of the tiny minotaur communities in the north and small groups of civilized Nibens in outpost villages on the edges.




picture references
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140106100941-aerial-congo-basin-horizontal-gallery.jpg  southern deep niben
http://www.amphibians.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RFT-Earth-Day-4.jpg lone rock spire in southern jungles
http://foundtheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Amazon-Rainforest-7.jpg dense rainforest in all directions
http://post.fulldorm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/village-bridge-610x326.jpg  tribal ingenuity
http://www.zastavki.com/pictures/1920x1200/2010/World_South_Africa_Impenetrable_jungle_022100_.jpg  hundreds of rivers beneath thick canopies
http://s3.amazonaws.com/mongabay/peru/600/peru_aerial_1837.jpg  rivers long and winding
http://worldofdtcmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/jungle-forest.jpg  Thick vines, some places are made impassable by their density
https://paulsmit.smugmug.com/Features/Asia/Vietnam-mountain-tribes/i-WBXqSKp/2/L/vietnam-21354-L.jpg northern jungle
http://uclast203-2010.wikispaces.com/file/view/yasuni_park_amazon.jpg/131487841/yasuni_park_amazon.jpg  cascading waterfalls and sudden cliffs frequent in the northlands
http://hdwallpapers360.com/wp-content/uploads/amazon-rainforest-desktop-wallpapers.jpg  strange formations formed by constant rainfall
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/The_Tiger's_nest.jpg  a minotaur monestary


Cheydin Highlands

In Cyrodiil the northern lands are cool and elevated, and Nibenay is no exception.  Beginning steeply with sharp cliffs and waterfalls to the south, and gently to the east with terraced farmlands, the high hills of the Cheydin Highlands mark a clear and sudden shift from the climate of lands south.  The frequent rain that feeds the southern rivers and leaves the earth muddy and wet is not so common here, and the humidity that clings to the skin and carries a constant sense of damp dissapears as well.  The forests do not dominate the landscape quite so fiercely either, the jungle vines and dense wetland trees and shrubs exchanged for northern firs and pines, which form gentle woodlands that sprawl across the idyllic hills.  The north and eastern side are seperated from other provinces by the meeting of the Jerall and the Valus (known to the dark elves as the Velothi), the (relatively) smaller eastern side of the Jerall standing as snow covered peaks overlooking the pine woods and the Valus standing as an imposing limestone wall, suddenly jutting out of the earth in majestic spires.  Both ranes bulge out into the hills they bound, forming pleasant valleys through which the mountain streams flow and eventually form rivers.  In the summers the temperature is temperate and pleasant, the elevation bringing cooler air to the warm east.  In the winters the land is blanketed in a gentle layer of snow, and the peoples don exquisite furs to keep themselves warm.  The rivers that cut across the landscape and eventually cascade into the deep Niben or trail down to the Rumare are fed by snow melt, their waters rising dramatically in the spring but always bearing a gentle flow coming down from the East Jeralls and the Valus.  Like in the western bank far to the south, the more open landscape allows for more western farming, the villages tending to fields of wheat and potato alongside the standard Niben fare, and engaging in the arts of animal husbandry, raising horses, cows, oxen, and pigs.
The climate is not the only thing that changes once one enters the highlands- so do the people.  While the edges are primarily communities of more southern Nibenese farming upon the terraces, the majority of it is one of the two home regions of the Cyro-Nordics.  The history of the Cyro Nords dates back to the expansions of the Nordic Empire, before the revolutions of Al-Esh.  As the warriors of Vrage swept across northern Tamriel, they passed through the Eastern Jerall as well, moving through the river pass that connects the highlands of the Rift to the highlands of Cheydin.  There, with all the associated Nordic fury, they were made outraged by the ways of the Ayleids, tearing to pieces each of the white varlant cities as well as the mer who inhabited them.  At their furthest extent southwards they dominated the regions now known as Cheydin and Brumath, building their outpost-barrack-colonies of Cheydinhal and Bruma respectively within them.  As they destroyed the elven strongholds, they took under their wings the slaves, teaching them of Shor and Kyne and educating them in the ways of nord society.  These post-nedics were the first Cyro Nords, and they swiftly were differentiated from those who would be freed not long after by revolution, living not in tribal villages but under nordic chiefdoms. The highlands would be Nord ruled for nearly two centuries, until the dramatic collapse of the Nordic Empire.  As the leaderless chief-kings feuded over who would be the new High King, the nords of the highlands fled to the motherland, some seeking to return to family and others moving to join the armies of their liege-chief.  As the Nords left the Alessians swooped in, marching north from the Heartlands and Niben, claiming the two cities for themselves.  They were forced under the Temple of the One, their worship of nordic gods becoming saints or quietly practiced secret worship.  The merchants that existed were elevated in rank and supplemented by prospective Heartland traders, and over centuries they Nibenized, adopting the ceremonialism and widespread use of magic of the southerners.  Under the Hestran reforms just over 500 years later, the absoluteness of the Temple of the One was relaxed and diminished, the eight becoming acknowledged as more than just saintly, and the local now mutated nord god cults crawled out of the woodwork, where over the centuries they would be joined by the other Niben cults.  After the War of the Righteousness the remaining hold of the One was shattered, and like the rest of the Niben the mage families would rise and conquer their own pieces of Nibenay.
The now Nibenized Cyro-Nords are so similar to their compatriots and yet so different in their mannerisms.  They share the southerners religious fervor and appreciation of cults, but do not engage in religious celebration or dance on a similar degree, and do not as often engage in the eastern arts of tattoos.  They are often described as being a bit more austere, their still colorful but more plain way of dress reflecting this.  They make their clothes out of materials like wool, cotton, linen, and southern silk.  Ritualism however is still prevalent, the mages and priests often engaging in their strange (and in this case, oft nordic tinged) ceremonies.  Most notably they are where the Ancestor Moth cult has made their primary home, tending to their canticle trees and their holy moths high in a Jerall mountain valley.
In more modern history, the late second era and throughout the third, the Cheydin was made the target of investment for the merchant Hlaalu, dreaming of southwestern silks and hardwood in light of the relaxation of dark elven borders, which in the first era denied all passage by outsiders but in the second began to allow visitors and trade interests into their lands.  The Hlaalu charted the Highlands, deciding upon routes of trade and beginning positive relationships with the local merchant lords.  After Tiber unified Cyrodiil near the closing of the second era, he appointed rulers to the cities of Cyrodiil from those nobles who had sided with him and been loyal.  To the Trans-Niben he appointed the ancient Caro, to the Brumath the Carvain, to the Bay the Satellian (long fallen), to the Corrup the Casplasius (long fallen) and to the Cheydin the Arctus, a noble house of Cyro Nordic battlemages, who's primary recipient Zurin was the first Imperial Battlemage of the Third Empire.  Unfortunately Zurin perished without heirs before the empire would stretch across Tamriel, and the throne of Cheydinhal would lay open for years as Tiber debated over a new recipient.  To the surprise of the Niben Lords, he selected one of the Hlaalu merchant overseers, a dunmer named Melyn Indarys.  Why is a subject of historical debate, but it is believed Tiber did so to ensure the stability of te relationship between Hlaalu and Cyrodiil long past his lifespan... though many historians believe it was also at the request and machinations of Barenziah, who had been newly crowned queen of Morrowind alongside Tiber's appointed king and governor of Morrowind (and one of his personal generals), the dunmer Symmachus.  Melyn himself was a low ranking noble among the Hlaalu, who had been previously directed by the Hlaalu council to watch over Cyrodiilic investments in the Cheydin.  He also had small ties to a minor Telvanni family, under whom he had spent part of his education, becoming a mildly competent mage.  Both of these credential were used by Tiber to give his appointment some level of legitimacy- regardless the Cheydin mage lords have always resented the appointment, which requires the Indarys to maintain a very strong relationship with the merchant lords beneath them to paralyze the battlemage actions and prevent them from tearing the Indarys down.
The countryside is a mix of southern Civilized Nibenese and Cyro Nordic communities, the southern Nibens most often residing in terrace villages.  The city of Cheydinhal's imperial population is primarily the native Cyro Nordic, and the architecture reflects this.  Dunmer are a very large minority across the highlands, both for the standard reason as the other elves of Nibenay and simply because they chose to settle in what is sometimes seen somewhat jestingly in Hlaalu lands as 'The Colony', ironically finding the land lacking ash to be strange and exotic- despite easily being the most normal part of the Nibenay.  Similarly to Chorrol but to a greater extreme, Orcs are a large portion of the population, with one or two Orcish individuals who have risen into the merchant nobility.  few beastfolk reside in the highlands, the cold temperatures uncomfortable to both cats and lizards.

picture references:
http://i.imgur.com/Jjy1LA9.jpg  one of many terrace farming communities in southwest
http://travelwithjoshcohen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Dollarphotoclub_46246565-copy.jpg  landscape rocky in all directions
http://i.imgur.com/5nUCqL5.jpg mountainfolk descend to Cheydin
http://i.imgur.com/RYNC4fs.jpg  Cheydinhal temple to arkay
http://i.imgur.com/4U5yHha.jpg  bridges cross the gentle city river
http://img3.goodfon.su/original/3308x2000/b/b5/dolomites-mountains-italy.jpg secluded chapel
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3d/66/f8/3d66f8a50b4de3f4c9c98ed86b66a33b.jpg  colors nibennic, form nordic
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/21/02/00/210200a592693624fd02c1bea5174d78.jpg  Cyro-Nord family
http://www.tlportfolio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dolomitemountains2-863x541.jpg valleys formed by small chains branching from Valus in northeast quarter
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AyOfI_xClmk/T4O5aIDA0XI/AAAAAAAAAl0/-2186iFNEI0/s1600/Dolomites-Italy81.jpg countryside covered in pine
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/alpine-village-ches-black.jpg peaceful Cyro-Nordic village
http://images.summitpost.org/original/309538.jpg  deeper valus- through these lands veloth wandered
http://www.dolomitemountains.com/res/photo/gallery/940x400/3204_1.jpg  interior jagged and strange
http://cache.graphicslib.viator.com/graphicslib/media/af/dolomite-mountains-photo_9098159-770tall.jpg  snowwater rivers from east jerall and valus cut through to heartland and corbolo
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/38038874.jpg valley village
https://wallpaperscraft.com/image/alpe_di_siusi_italy_nature_mountains_dolomites_94940_3840x2160.jpg  Valus forms solid limestone wall in east

Brumath Highlands

	The final region of the Nibenay is the northernmost region of Cyrodiil, a steep land where it is winter all year round and the ways of the Nords bleed over the mountains.  Where the Heartlands reach their northernmost extent the land begins to rise rapidly, at a constant rate, and though the elevation occasionally tables out it quickly resumes.  Here the land is terraced extensively, and cold weather grains are grown in the spaces produced.  Cascading streams carve through the landscape in wide ascending river valleys and down to the Cyrodiilic center, fed by the melting southern tips of the Jerall glaciers.  As one heads further north the climate changes from one alike to the Cheydin to one far more arctic.  The air grows thin and the landscape becomes coated in near-permanent snow, the summers bringing light dustings that on occasion nearly melt by the end of the day, while the winters bring incessant blizzards that cover the mountains in a thick layer of snow.  The mountains begin to become far more prominent, the shorter peaks beginning to jut out of the landscape.  As one rises higher and higher the slope of the valley floors begin to bottom out, and it is in these flatter valleys that the most traditional of the Cyro-Nordic peoples make their homes.
    The early history of the Brumath highlands is nearly identical to the early history of the Cheydin highlands, and much of the ancient terraces were constructed in those days by the freedslaves under Nordic care.  Where the histories differ is in the days following the War of the Righteous.  While the Cheydin Highlands fell into the same systems as the south, the Brumath in many places did not.  The Colovians of the northwest invaded as the Alessians collapsed, taking large chunks of the Brumath and putting down their own settlements and forts, and going as far to sieze the old Nordic city itself.  Indeed, the Kingdom of West Brumath was considered one of the Colovian kingdoms in the days before the 2nd era.  However, once the potentates fell, the Eastern Nibens pushed back against the Colovians, in many places pushing them out, to which the Colovians responded and so on and so forth until like the Heartland it was a mix of both peoples.  However, while the Heartland was though both melted into a single alloy, the Brumath was though someone assembled a mosaic of the societies.  Villages wholly Colovian and villages wholly Nibe-Nordic exist within the same lordships, their peoples conflicting and tense in their rivalries.  The Cyro-Nords here in the frozen mountainsides are more primal and ancient in their natures, their faith and ceremony so obviously nordic that some often consider them far more as southern Nords than northern Cyrodiils.  The cults of the nordic gods and of totem animals are popular throughout the Brumath, the love of the northern deities approaching degrees considered innapropriate by some Heartlanders (and considered stupid and backwards by the Colovians).  The totem animals are far more nordic interpretations as well- Cults of the Wolf and other animals not found in the southern rivers abound here.  Of particular note regarding the divines is the aversion the locals show to Akatosh- many throughout the days before the end of the third era rejected him, ranging from not seeing him as a very important member of the Divines to refusing to include him in their venerations.  Once the Oblivion Crisis ended this rejection stopped- after all, it was Akatosh who came to the direct aid of Martin Septim.
The people of the lower highlands are an odd mix of Colovian peoples and Nibennic peoples, scattered within their respective villages and towns.  Once one ascends into the frozen regions, the populace becomes nearly wholly Nordic and Cyro-Nordic, few aside from them being able to comfortably handle the frigid weather.

http://i.imgur.com/jjIcwtY.jpg  ancient stone terraces
http://i.imgur.com/tlLDuRH.jpg valleys of glacial streams
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fc/f1/6d/fcf16d37051e72385fb4b0860f236a28.jpg  Land ascends rapidly
http://www.chinatourguide.com/china_photos/huangshan/attractions/jiuhua_mountain_temple.jpg  A mountain temple in mountainous Brumath
http://www.pd4pic.com/images/glacier-cold-alpine-mountains-pasterze-glacier.jpg Jerall glacier
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/c7/7a/90/c77a9079728819ecebdfc70acf69020f.jpg  Kindly old village ritualist to Kyne, her hat is nested in every year by birds on their own accord.
http://www.lasource.f9.co.uk/images/Images%202008/VillardReculas.jpg  upper mountain valley village
https://d3vjk4jagnknqc.cloudfront.net/uploads/2014/03/Sami-folk-costume.jpg  Brumathi Cyro-Nords
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DoO2iA4BdRA/U0eOKI3ZrHI/AAAAAAAAAb0/EC9-DvQrf9Q/s1600/tromso+%2838+of+69%29.jpg Cyro nord heading out to meet with traders