Tanz

The Tanz is a major river in western Aquitayne, flowing southward from the Aesir Mountains to enter the sea in ViZion. It is

Course

A gorge along the upper Tanz

It flows.

Cultural significance

Main article: Tanz River Valley

Much of the Tanz River Valley is a designated ARCHO Heritage Site, both as a significant natural landscape and as the birthplace for two major cultures. It is the namesake of the Aqvatanzian civilisations, including the modern Aquitaynians, Fhiongairians and Trellinese, and Aqvatanzian languages. The largest river in Trellin, the Serëtanz, is also named for this river. Aqavatanza was itself an Aqvatanzian word meaning "from around the Tanz", and it is retained in the name of the modern Aquitaynian state. Aqvatanzian languages are also the source of the common name and word "Duder".

In the first millennium BC, the Tanz valley was a territory of the Merovian Empire. The people living in the valley worshipped Tanas, a topographical deity associated with the river. During the empire's collapse, much of the area's population migrated en masse southwest across Astyria, settling eastern Nikolia, western Trellin and other parts of the region. Those who reached the Hyseran Empire were dubbed Ethlorekoz, meaning "those from Lorecia", and the term was subsequently applied to the entire people. Because of the wide propagation of the migrations, the Tanz valley has sometimes been called "the birthplace of Astyria".