Topal Bay

	What Anvil and Abecea are to Colovia, Leyawiin and the Topal Coast are to Nibenay. Due to its strategic location, the southern coast of Cyrodiil on the left bank of the Niben river had long been site to important trade outposts. The mouth of the great river was colonised by the Ayleids who built a city on the bank of the river where men had already established their settlements. In time, this would be the site of the great city of Leyawiin which expanded even onto the right bank of the river, the burghers subjugating the local Khajiiti very much in the same manner as they were once subjugated by the Ayleids.
	While humid much like the Blackwood region to the northeast, the Topal bay's climate is much more suitable for civilised life. The coastline is dotted with fishing villages and trading outposts while further inland, small tribal communities retain their traditional way of life. Most of the settled people speak Nibenese tongues as trade remains the most important part of economy. Furthermore, Leyawiin and certain other population centres have seen an in-flow of Nibeneans throughout the years, leading to the introduction of many aspects of Nibenese cultures. Nevertheless, the sunny coast remains a distinct part of Cyrodiil that might remind one of the river-based societies of the Niben, yet paradoxically resembles the Gold coast in many ways as well.
	As one follows the many rivers that flow down from the Blackwood further inland, the character of the Topal bay soon changes into its primal form. The thick mangrove forests and the ever-changing flows of rivers force the tribes here to a nomadic way of life. Ignoring civilised conventions, the Austrasilvans, who one might consider closer to their northern neighbours, the Atrasilvans, live in a wide range from the left coast of the Niben and far beyond Gideon. They are great hunters and fishermen who fashion their vessels out of tree trunks brought down from upstream.


	A great island sits in the Abecean sea like a crown jewel - Stirk. Throughout the centuries, its inhabitants have used the location to their advantage, engaging both in trade and plunder. Likewise, Topal Isle has served the same purpose to the Kithran people.
Old legends tell of a tribe belonging to the Kothri clan that left the mainland in search of new lands to settle - and discovering Topal isle. Since then, the Kithran have excelled as sailors, merchants and fishermen, their kin settling on islands further southwards that are today part of the southern district of the Imperial associated territories.
Although they were once known for their piracy, the Kithran are fishermen and great hosts who make good living treating Nibenese merchant aristocrats to the luxuries of island living. The island's most recognisable feature are the big egg-shaped rocks that the islanders have positioned all over the sandy beaches of their island in the hundreds.

	The rolling of a rock is a ceremony in which a boy becomes a man, and once an islander passes away, he is buried with a rock; his body is laid in a grave before a rock is rolled over it. As a result, big rocky piles can be found throughout the island. A famous proverb that is known beyond the island alludes to a person's passing as him "rolling the stone". As scholars have learned a long time ago, the egg-shaped rocks actually have a ritual meaning.
For several months every year, the island is home to another population - that of the nesting offspring from a particular race of Argonians that live on the Topal coast of Argonia. The annual arrival is celebrated by the Kithran who welcome the "Great return" for a specific reason - the nesting eggs are an integral part of the islanders' diet. Although the practice has long been banned by the Empire, the people of the island nevertheless still indulge in eating the Argonian offspring for religious purposes, and one might even find the peculiar eggs in the inventories of shady merchants around the Nibenay and Heartlands.


	To a Nibenean or a Heartlander, Topal isle may seem like a place at the edge of the world, but only because few have ever even heard of the many islands to the south of Tamriel that are organised as the Imperial associated territories - a collection of autonomous islands that are subordinate to the Empire only in name, for they are exempt from taxation.
	Among the islands is Kibi, an insignificant mound sticking out of the Padomaic Ocean about halfway between Topal bay and Pyandonea, inhabited by the Ki people that followed in the footsteps of their Kothri ancestors and left their home island in the Topal bay. Since then, the Ki have lost the knowledge needed for seafaring vessels, partly due to their fear of the "sea demons" - the Maormer. Throughout their stay on the island, the Ki have been subject to Maormer pirates and slavers, an ironic twist to the situation on Topal Isle.
	As a result of the constant raids, the islanders have developed a culture very much hostile towards Mer, although unlike the famous Nordic hostility, theirs is of a far less bloody nature. Once every month, the men of the tribe gather together on the beach and form two groups. One group paint themselves in blue using the dye of a certain species of sea slug that inhabit the seafloor around their island (these slugs have been gathered by Nibenese slug hunters who would sell them off to various textile plants of the Niben Bay but the practice was made illegal by the Empire a long time ago, shifting the dye-making process to domestic sea slug farms that dot the coastline of the Trans-Niben all the way down to Leyawiin). These men represent the so-called Sea Demons. They climb rudimentary rafts before embarking on a trip around the island, with the women, children and the elders throwing insults and coconuts at them throughout the way. Once they make their way back to the starting point, they disembark; now, the second group step forward, brandishing wooden swords and clubs, and tortoise-shell shields and turtle-shell helmets. In an hours-long ritual, the brave warriors act out offensives against the "Maormer" before finally crushing their enemy when the first of the combatants have entered a ritual trance. Now, the whole community start dancing on the beach and the ritual rafts are set ablaze.