River Delimbiyr

This clear, cool river forms the eastern and southern boundaries of the High Forest and the northern border of the High Moor and Misty Forest as it runs over a thousand miles from its headwaters in the Nether Mountains to the Sea of Swords. The River Delimbiyr, also known as the River Shining, is fast-flowing, with mint-sweet drinkable water and is home to many szorp: brown, trout-like fish with tasty white flesh that forms much of the daily diet of many communities along its banks.

The mouth of the Delimbiyr is "the Wash," so named because once-a-month higher tides send seawater up the river and into the Lizard Marsh. This region is the domain of lizardfolk and a handful of aquatic dinosaurs.

The lower part of the Delimbiyr above the highest point upriver the salty water ever reaches (that is, where "the Wash" ends) is the "Clearflow," which stretches east from the depths of the Lizard Marsh past the Forlorn Hills and the Misty Forest. West of the Forlorn Hills, the banks of the Clearflow, which flood every spring, are given over to farming. Despite its name, the Clearflow can be quite muddy for the two tendays after the spring floods, as they carry a large amount of sediment down to the Sea of Swords.

The Athwater (which most locals apply to where westernmost Athalantar once began, on upriver) begins very close to where the Coam Stream, joins the River Shining and continues east past the confluence with the Hark River (also known as Ulbanlur or the Highmoorflow). (The Coam Stream is a tiny stream that meanders down past Secomber, on the west of that settlement, to empty into the River Delimibyr. Its banks are made up of thick clay, once dug locally for the making of pots—and sometimes dug into by thieves and smugglers needing to hide valuables in a hurry.) This stretch of river was of old known as "the River Running," and these days more often just as "the Run."

The Crescentflow is the stretch of river that flows through the heart of the region known as the Delimbiyr Crescent, from the confluence with the Hark River past Dahaurock, a hook-shaped bare rock crag just upriver of present-day Loudwater, to the Shining Falls.

Above the Shining Falls, the River Delimbiyr is sometimes called the Bloodshine, named for the legendary River of Blood that flows through the lower planes and is said to burst forth from bowels of Hellgate Keep to merge with the Heartblood River.

The headwaters of the River Delimbiyr are three small rivers that run down the southern slopes of the Nether Mountains, known collectively as the Talons. From west to east, these fast and icy cold rivers include the River Aulantrar (or Deepingstream), the River Starsilver (or Starsilver Stream), and the Norlnryn.

The River Delimbiyr is navigable from its mouth to Loudwater, and from above the Shining Falls to its headwaters. The Wash and the Clearwater see regular passage by reedmarsh “runners”. The Clearwater, the Athwater, and the Crescentflow are heavily trafficked by river skiffs, barges, ferries, and temporary barges made of fresh-cut logs being floated/poled down to the coast, known as "whaerboats" or "lashlogs.” The Bloodshine has seen little boat traffic since the fall of Eaerlann, but a few daring explorers use wooden canoes made from fallen logs to make their way north to the ruined Eaerlanni port town of Aerendel.