SWANAMUTU (Tangor and the Black Human Kingdoms)
Description by Erakliton of Traun.
This will just be a short description of what the Black Lands are. The Black Lands are so called by the Minaeans, because they are settled mainly by a human population known as the Tangor. However, it seems that the name Tangor is not much appreciated by the various communities of black men, because it is the name of the westernmost nation of these lands, the Empire of Tangor, that is not very popular among them. It seems that the black men have developed a new term for themselves, the Swanamutu.
Swanamutu are divided in a number of linguistic groups, forming several stately entities of different sizes. Most live in the jungles and savannas that form the Swanamutu regions. Inexplicably, Alphatian and Brunian maps alike draw mountains all along their lands, but I must correct that information, and assure you that jungles and savannas stretch much more inland than those maps, presumably written by "great" scholars of "great" cultures, indicate. Most Swanamutu share common traits, like their productive activities (agriculture, goat herding, crafts) and a social organisation (division in clans and tribes), but generally have different religions (myths of the origin of the world, totem worship or not, ancestors' cult or not). There are also bloody rivalries among some of the tribes and often even within a nation.
There are also a number of minor cities: these are common in the southern regions, where Minaean merchants have brought democratic influences to populations living in less savage environments. Other cities have also been built by other human or humanoid races of Skothar who migrated here. A notable site in the Swanamutu region is Lleweryn, a dark stretch of forest northeast of the Tangor Empire. A colony of hivebrood once conducted slavery with the empire, but they have long since moved eastwards, and now they live isolated, in the secluded valleys of Cymru.
Apart from these nations and states, there are green orcs
and dark goblins, and many other humanoid barbarian races.