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[✗] [World Lore] - [The Gulunga Archipelago]


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The Gulunga Archipelago

Somewhere in the middle of the Great Oceans of Eos, a small chain of islands rises from the deep. Idyllic, peaceful, and the retirement home of all manner of peoples who seek a more simple life beyond the hustle and bustle of the larger continents. 

 

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Geography

Magma bubbles up from deep sea volcanoes, holes punched in the crust of the world by ancient forces of one form or another. Over the centuries these subterranean extrusions brought forth the island chain known to its inhabitants as GULUNGA (Or Galunga to the tourists that frequent its rainbow colored beaches). Each island in the chain boasts a unique ecosystem, from sun scorched lowland prairies to verdant cloud forest jungles. Dozens of smaller islands surround the three big islands of Ku’ahi, Moai, and Galoha. 

 

Ku’ahi

Ku’ahi is mainly composed of red rocks and rolling hills surrounding two large dormant volcanoes. Upon the upper slopes of the larger volcano, dubbed “Kilipili” by the locals, the environment rapidly changes to that of a cloud forest. The Vog (Volcano Fog) creates a perpetual haze which chills the highland forest and gives it an ethereal atmosphere that the natives believe acts as a border to the Spirit realm. Tikis thus fill the forest, and this marks the only place on Ku’ahi that the sacred Koa tree grows. The Koa tree is used by the natives for all manner of seafaring vessels due to its natural strength and watertight properties. 

 

Moai

In stark contrast to the red rocks and rolling hills of Ku’ahi, Moai is made of black basalt rocks rising up in staggering spires up to a singular extinct caldera volcano. Drenched with regular rain, the island is craggy and covered in rainforests that drain into lowland black sand bogs. The island is by far the oldest of the Big three, and Koa grows abundantly upon the island. Also found in this tropical environment, cooled by regular rainstorms and feeding from the black basalt lava flows from the extinct volcano “Leylipa”, is the Ohi’a tree. Bright red flowers denote this sacred plant, much more a shrub than a true tree. Said to be a gift from the Volcano Spirit, the natives use it for medicinal purposes. Great stone carved heads of ancient make dot the shoreline, keeping a careful watch of the final of the big islands.

 

Galoha

The largest of the big islands, Galoha contains five active volcanoes, with the largest in the very center of the island dubbed “Bub’Kahuna” by the Gulungans. Galoha is the driest of the islands, with lowland prairies composing a majority of the biosphere of the island. Small patches of rainforest follow clean streams down into the grasslands of Galoha, making the land perfect for agriculture. Plantations of exotic fruits, such as pineapple, dot the island. The volcanoes create large patches of new island and great lava fields. Where lava rock meets ocean, the waves crash ashore and form a rainbow of beaches with sands of red, white, black, and even green. 

 

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Civilizations

 

Gulungans

The main civilizations of Gulunga are the Gulungans. These easy going island orcs live in a simple and care free society bent on making the most of life and having fun. Most Gulungans live in cabanas and bungalows, though this is not to say their society is primitive by any means. Gulunga is a tourist nation, and great resorts and ports can be found on all three of the big islands. Travelers seeking refuge and respite from the rest of the world often stop here for extended vacations and enjoy some Gulungan hospitality. Oyashimans in particular LOVE to visit Gulunga, and have even co-opted the word to mean “large”. 

 

Modern Gulungans often dress in loose fitting clothing featuring tropical flower patterns, woven from imported silks and other light materials which breathe well in the humid climate. Sandals are common, and straw hats form the most common headwear of the islanders. Gulungan food and culture is a conglomeration of those aspects adopted from their regular visitors, the Oyashimans, traditional Uruk cooking, and Tikiling innovations. Traditional foods include rice, the purple root of the Taro plant, fried chicken, slow cooked pork, braised and ground beef, cheese, pineapple, banana, macadamia nuts, coffee, papaya, mango, rambutan, guava, coconuts, and passion fruit. Ancient Gulungans had a more limited diet, and wore loose fitted woven grass clothing adopted from the local Tikilings. The flower patterns remained consistent, and have persisted from ancient times to the modern Gulungan. 

 

Ritual plays an important role in Gulungan life, and it is often that tourists are invited to participate in the Gulungan luau where a wild boar hunted from the grasslands is roasted in a pit. Gulungans worship the Volcano spirit, called “The Thunderer Below”, and will make regular sacrifices to it by tossing live animals and criminals into the mouth of “Bub’Kahuna”. At luaus, Gulungan fire spinners will twirl flaming balls about in a ritual known as “Poi” to please the Volcano spirit. Gulungans will also perform ritual spirit walks into the cloud forests to commune with the Spirits that live there, most ending with the location and sacred harvest of a Koa tree for transformation into a surfboard or canoe.  The Gulungans will never chop down a Koa tree unless the spirit of the Koa tree approves and the Koa tree is “ready” to be felled. Gulungans get ritual tattoos, with older Gulungan elders covered entirely in tattoos denoting the history of their family and clan, as well as achievements. 

 

Gulunga is said to run on “Gulunga Time”, denoting how everything on the island seems to run at a much slower pace than the outside world. The Gulungans will often spend most of their free time cooking, hunting, surfing, drinking, swimming, sailing, or relaxing. Gulungan music often features the loosely tuned guitar and music board, which is played in an almost lazy fashion to make droning and gentle island tunes. The favorite drinks of Gulungans are the Pina Colada and Mai Tai, brought in as imports from foreign lands but finding fertile ground in the tropical island environment of Gulunga. Surfing on sacred Koa boards functions as both a ritual and recreational activity, with prestige in Gulungan society heavily correlated with surfing ability. 

 

Each island of Gulunga is ruled by a Chief, dubbed the Kahuna, who participates in the Great Surf-Off annually when the waves are at their highest to determine the Rex of the entire archipelago. The Chief himself does not have to win, and may select champions from his demesne to represent him. Individuals may also enter to win glory for themselves, and the winner of the Surf-Off is crowned Nui’Kahuna, and is the spiritual ruler of Gulunga. In reality, all the Kahunas, including the Nui’Kahuna, vote equally upon a tribal council.

 

Tikilings

Ironically Gulungans are not the first inhabitants of Gulunga. The first beings to set foot on the ancient island chain are known as the “Tikilings”. This halfling culture is regarded as mystical and sacred by the Gulungans. The Tikilings live a hunter gatherer lifestyle amongst the most remote cloud forests and volcanic slopes of the islands, always within areas constantly shaded by Vog. Tikilings carve from the Koa trees great and ancient masks which they pass down for generations. These masks cover not just the face, but the entire body of the Tikiling. Tikilings speak old Gulungan, a language adopted in part by the Gulungan orcs who arrived much later. Tikilings live in holes they masterfully carve into the Koa trees, which they then cover with their mask while they curl up to sleep to keep the cold Vog out. Gulungan historians believe it was the Tikilings who built the heads upon Moai. 

 

Ancient Voyage Print | Hawaiian Art from Hawaii - HawaiiArt.com


History

The first people to arrive upon the archipelago were the Tikilings. For centuries they lived a simple but utopian existence in the verdant Koa forests that covered Gulunga. Their language was never written, rather it was spoken. This language was eventually adopted by the later inhabitants of Gulunga, and codified into a written language by these early settlers.

 

At some point after the fall of Aegis, Urukim migrated from Asulon to the archipelago of Gulunga, landing on the islands of Ku’ahi and Galoha. Blah slowly fell out of favor amongst the general population in favor of the Tikiling language. At first, the Gulungan orcs indulged heavily in their bloodlust and warlike ancestral culture, waging near constant warfare for control over the various islands. The bickering uruks cut swathes through the forests of Ku’ahi and Galoha to build great war canoes, though a lack of easily available metal on the islands required them to adopt tools forged from volcanic obsidian glass that slowed their destructive progress. As forests receded, so too did the Tikilings to those Vog covered slopes. The Koa tree quickly became a commodity of ever increasing rarity. Soon two great rulers, the Kahunas of Galoha and Ku’ahi, managed to seize control of the islands. Turning their eyes towards Moai, each Kahuna built a massive army to conquer the rugged jungles. 

 

For decades the Kahunas waged a brutal and bloody war for control of the central island. The bloodiest battle was the “Battle of the Dammed Rivers”, where the bodies piled so thick that the great rivers flowing down the island into the sea were dammed with rotting corpses turning the water a deep crimson. Witnessing the pollution of her sacred waters, Ankruz grew enraged and called upon the Thunderer Below to assist her in punishing the Urukim. “Bub’Kahuna” erupted and a great tidal wave crashed over the island of Moai. The soldiers attempted to flee to their boats, but had no time as the great wave battered the island. The river flooded as the tidal wave came crashing down upon the Uruks, and many drowned.. The greatest warrior, Kowa’Bunga, threw his Koa shield into the wave and clambered upon it. Kowa’Bunga learned to harness and ride the wave as the first surfer, and soon after many of the uruks swept away in the tide followed suit. The surviving warriors proclaimed Kowa’Bunga the Kahuna of Moai, and Nui’Kahuna of all of Gulunga. Since then, surfing has been the symbol of divine favor and no longer was war the method of deciding rulership of Gulunga. 

 

 

 

Purpose (OOC)

A place for Polynesian and Hawaiin rp to originate for a race other than humans. This is a niche that could be filled and has been fun to write, gives orcs an alternative to blah and regular Krug rp.

 

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Omg Hawaii

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Oijin remembers surfing in Galunga before the local khan put his family on the march.

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YOOOOOOOOO

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Taking vacation in Gulunga 

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MAY THE BIG KAHUNA SMILE UPON YOU!

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GALLUM'DEY, GA'ALLA GALLUM!  CHUAA-GUNN! GA'ALLA GA'JAHN GAAN
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GALLA GALLA GALLA GOOOONG
GALUNGA

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