Ansarién

The Ansarién is the largest and longest river in the Empire. With a length of some 6,520 kilometres, it rises in the far west, far from the borders of the Empire in distant mountains, before flowing eastward through the southern half of the Empire to the sea.

For all of the peoples who reside along its length - including, among many others, the Burhunkasane, Gékhalkasane, Hashurukasane and Ansakasane - the Ansarién has had a great impact on their culture, economy and civilisation. Once considered a foreign counterpart to the Meidorién in the north, the gradual spread of Tarakél political influence to the south meant that, by the time of the Har and Lein periods, the river had become the other great river of the Empire.

Names
Given its length, the Ansarién is known by a great many names; each of the cultures it touches has a name for it, if not several.
 * Itarakoské: Ansarién
 * Hashurukoské: Torakhmis
 * Ansahaské: Mavahisa
 * Gékhalhaské: Tarhames

The Itarakoské name is simply taken from the land of Ansa, in which the river was first discovered; it was said that later on in the Guha Dynasty, even after the Tarakasane found out that the great river flowing through Hashuru and Ansa were one and the same, they were loath to name a great river after their fierce enemies in Hashuru, so instead the nobles insisted on calling it the river of Ansa.

Meanwhile, both Hashuru and Ansa have the same name for the river - it is simply called the Great River, Torakh-mis in Hashurukoské, and Mava-hisa in Ansahaské. The same name is also used by the Gékhalkasane, Tarha-mes. These being the common names, there are also other more poetic titles that have been given to the river.

The Tarakasane, who see in the Ansarién a reflection of their own great river, sometimes also call the Ansarién the 'Flowing Sea', Iluénléni, just as they do the Meidorién; sometimes this is changed to the 'Clear Flowing Sea' or the 'Blue Flowing Sea' to differentiate it from its northern counterpart.

Geography

 * Length: 6,182 kilometres
 * Discharge: 37,200 cubic metres per second (average)

Throughout most of the period in discussion, no one in the Empire actually knew where the source of the Ansarién was; this is in stark contrast to the Meidorién, where the general location of the source in the vast Blue-White Mountains is known.

In fact, the source of the Ansarién also lies in the same mountain range, just about 120 kilometres south of the Meidorién's source, at a glacier. While the Meidorién flows towards the northeast, however, the Ansarién flows first west, then south, and then southeast, through unknown terrains in the far west.

The extent of Imperial knowledge about the river's uppermost stretches is that it flows through a series of gorges; one of the most spectacular, the Seven Gates Pass, is generally regarded as the spot where the river 'enters the Empire'. This spot is very remote, however, and mostly inhabited by populations with at best a loose relationship with Imperial authorities.

Seven Gates to the Brazen Mouth
This stretch of the river is where it flows through another highland plain, this time the homeland of the Burhunkasane - one of the most recent additions to the Empire's subjects. After flowing east through the treacherous Seven Gates, it first flows northeast, then turns dramatically towards the south before gently arcing through the plains to the southeast. This stretch of the river is mountainous, with deep valleys alternating with meadows. By the time the river feeds the Burhunkasane, its elevation has already dropped from some 3,900 metres to 1,200 metres.

At length, the Ansarién flows through the great gorge known as the Brazen Mouth, and through there into a series of hilly ranges, before entering the lands of the Gékhalkasane - the high Gékhal Plain.

Brazen Mouth to the Elm Mountains
The Ansarién enters the Gékhal Plain as a swift but still relatively small river, driven primarily by snowmelt; it is in the plain that it starts to receive and be swelled by tributaries. These tributaries either flow south or southwest from the Elm Mountains, or northwards from the White Flower Mountains.

Growing increasingly large from the rivers, the Ansarién flows first in a southeasterly, then easterly direction, until near the city of Bukandus at the foothills of a branch of the Elm Mountains. Here it abruptly turns southeast, hemmed in by the mountains, before turning east into a hilly area, creating a long, unnavigable stretch of white water known as the Flying Fish Rapids or the Drake Rapids. The massive, turbulent river carves deep valleys and tumbles over rocks for scores of kilometres, before finally finding its way into the broad, flat plain that is the centre of Hashuru.

Hashuru
The Ansarién is already quite a large river when it enters Hashuru, but it is here that it picks up the most and largest of its tributaries. Many of the river's most famous features are also in this area. Emerging east from the Elm Mountains' foothills, it flows southeast and then northwards in a wide, gentle arc; while it flows mainly through plains, there are some areas which are heavily forested as well.

The northward turn continues to Lake Murandova, where the river slows and widens into a lake, and two major southern tributaries - the Rakhdumis and Komekhmis - flow into it. When the lake gradually narrows and becomes a river again, it flows northeast, and this time describes an even wider arc, flowing towards and then parallel with the Cloud Mountains before slowly turning southeast to the region around Lake Condova.