Lake of Fumaya

The land of Fumaya is known for having lots of lakes but the Lake of Fumaya is biggest and most important lake. Commonly called Lake Fumaya for short.   It is the geographic and economic center of Kingdom of Fumaya providing food, drinking water and transportion for many.   The nation of Fumaya's capital city is on the southern shore of Lake Fumaya and is called King's Lake. Beyond the southern shore, the eastern, western, and especially the northern shores of the lake are dotted with small fishing villages.

Geography

Lake Fumaya is approximately geographic center of the Duchy of Linijka and the Linijka Duchy happens to approximately the geographic center of the entire Kingdom of Fumaya.   A river flows into the lake east by southeast from the World Seam Mountains till it pours into Lake Fumaya's western shores. Another river flows in from the north but it little more than a glorified stream not a true stream.   Two rivers flow out of Lake Fumaya. One relatively narrow river flows eastward into the land of Codenya and a much wider river flows south towards the Inner Ocean by way of land of Swynfaredia. The river is wide enough to allow barges to move goods up and down in bulk.

Localized Phenomena

Lake Fumaya is fed by a river and a stream, but it also feeds two more rivers.   The river water flowing out exceeds the river water flowing in, but the Lake makes up a difference by the focal point of multiple fonts of elemental water essence effective getting water directly from the the Elemental Plane.  
There are many tall tales about malevolent or benevolent creatures of various kinds living in the lake ranging from aquatic dragons, to giant spirit fish, to strange watery fae creatures, but most tall tales are just that, tall tales.   Scarterra is a fantasy world and giant lakes that are the focal point of magical energy can and do attract or create unusual creatures, but they are rarely especially powerful or dangerous on Lake Fumaya. Rarely does the lake see anything much more threatening than a Rusalka ghost or two, and they are not likely last very long.
  Any intelligent magical creature swimming in the lake has since learned to not attack fishermen or otherwise cause problems on the surface of the water.   Since Kingdom of Fumaya's capital city of King's Lake is located on Lake Fumaya's southern shore, any unusual supernatural activity on or near the lake will quickly come to the attention of the King of Fumaya, allowing him to throw an adventuring party any problematic creatures that do pop up.

Climate

The area has a temperate climate leaning towards the cold side of temperate.   The lake freezes over every winter allowing for ice fishing and recreational skating. At the peak of winter, the lake can support fairly large reindeer pulled sleighs driving across it.
  The king has arcane and divine theurgists regularly test the thickness of the ice regularly and mark designated areas for ice fishing, skating, and travel.   It is not illegal to travel on the ice on non-marked areas, but anyone doing so does so at their own risk. Several hundred people enter the ice in this fashion every year because it is usually safe, but you only have to be wrong once. On average, three or four people are lost in the icy depths every year.

Natural Resources

Lake Fumaya has calm smooth waters and easily navigable by both large and small boats for much of the year though the lake freezes for parts of the winter.   Lake Fumaya's most valuable resource is its freshwater seafood including fish and shellfish.
free photo from Pexels by Oziel Gómez
  Lake Fumaya provides an abundance of drinkable water. Water taken from the center of the lake can pretty much be drank without treatment, but most water taken from the shores is filtered and boiled or subjected to magical Purification. Drinking the water untreated is unpleasant but rarely dangerous.   Under very specific situations, rare water plants and rare fish can be harvested to produce reagents though this is both a fairly rare event and takes advanced training to recognize and utilize.

History

 
comissioned portrait of Aleesia the Satyr by Zeta Gardner
-Aleesia the Satyr, Vitner and part-time warrior priestess of the Fumayan Rovers
 
"For untold centuries, what is now known 'Lake Fumaya' used to be known as 'Titan Lake', which is a pretty impressive name for a lake when you think about it. Why would you want to change it? Because Lake Fumaya makes a better story and people like their heroes.   The legendary warrior, Fumaya the Half Elf, accomplished many legendary deeds but he was most famous for defeating a small army of skin changer witches and drowning thier leader in the waters of the Lake Titan. This is when people started calling it 'the Lake of Fumaya' in his honor.
  Eventually, they called the region the 'land of Fumaya' and the local humans, the 'people of Fumaya' and this paved the way for Ziven Linijka to establish the Kingdom of Fumaya. It seemed natural to name the whole kingdom after this great lake and great man."

Tourism

by Eron12 with Hero Forge
-Carcelli the Arcane Priestess
 
Scarterra is full of many mysteries and one of those mysteries is what is the bottom of Lake of Fumaya.   It is certainly possible for a Scarterran with lots of access to magic to breath and see underwater and sometimes a cocky adventurer wants to see what is beneath the waters of Lake Fumaya. Usually, said underwater explorers either return after finding nothing or they don't come back.
  There are may or may not be something intelligent living underneath the lake that is peaceful and pragmatic enough not to mess with Scarterrans boating across the top of the lake but is territorital and aggressive enough not to tolerate interlopers in the lower depths.   A less exciting theory posited by some scholars is that the font or fonts of elemental energy creates a great many feral water elementals in the lower depths. The water elementals are not willfully malevolent but their sense of "play" could easily bludgeon a Scarterran to death or accidentally disrupt whatever magic they are using to breathe underwater.   Generally, as long as fisherman or casual boaters are not being attacked on the surface of Lake Fumayans, most Fumayans are content to leave whatever is on the bottom of Lake Fumaya alone. But if you want to try to explore the depths of the water, I'm happy to sell you the magic to do so."

No dumping!

  Long ago, the King of Fumaya issued a proclamation against dumping of chamber pots into the lake or even relieving oneself directly into the lake.   Chamber pots and the like from the city of King's Lake are collected by poop porters and then treated by a team of Purificationists treat the waste products before the treated waste is used for fertilizer, ideally far away from anyone's drinking water.   All that said, the law against dumping excrement in the lake often goes unenforced. Most constables have bigger crimes to worry about, so they don't have times to patrol the shores for "illegal dumpers" and they certainly cannot watch every person on every boat on the lake.
Type
Lake
Location under
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization


Cover image: Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake

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