Leng

Leng is an island of forest and jungle deep in the Jade Sea, and it produces spices and gemstones in abundance. Leng Yi rises on its northern coast, Leng Ma sits along the west-central shore, and Turrani lies to the south. Trade in those riches has enriched the empress-goddesses who rule the island.

Settlers of Yi Ti stock are barely distinguishable from subjects of the Golden Empire: they speak a variant of the same tongue, follow the same gods, eat the same food, and honor the god-emperor, though they worship only their own empress-goddess. Leng Ma and Leng Yi, in fact, look more like Tiqui than like Turrani. The true natives are another matter: they rank among the tallest humans alive, some close to three man-heights, long-legged and dark-skinned like polished teak. Their huge golden eyes are said to see as well by night as by day, and their women stand as tall as their men and are famed for a singular beauty.

For most of its history the island stayed shut off from the rest of the world: the Lengii gave outsiders a poor welcome, and those who tried to profit from its resources came to a bad end, so sailors learned to give its shores a wide berth. Even so, merchants from the Golden Empire occasionally managed to prise open some trade. The Jade Compendium records that the Old Ones, who dwelt in ruins beneath the island, ordered the Empress of Leng to kill foreign traders on at least four occasions, and she did.

Jar Har, sixth of the green jade emperors of Yi Ti, finally brought the island to heel. He had the entrances to the underground cities sealed off and made it a capital offense to enter them; the killings stopped after that. Yi Ti colonists took over most of the territory and confined the Lengii to the island's southern third.

The people of Leng eventually threw off Yi Ti's rule, and power returned to the empress-goddesses. It was Khiara who set the custom still followed today: the empress takes two husbands, one native to Leng and one of Yi Ti blood, splitting between them command of the land army and command of the fleet.

That history still shapes the island: the north remains home to the descendants of Yi Ti's settlers, while the south is still Lengii ground.

The year 111 AC yields a single fact about Leng: Daemon Targaryen gave his niece Rhaenyra a jade diadem that, he claimed, had once belonged to the empress-goddess of Leng.

It is the one securely dated year the chronicles preserve for the island: everything else — the Old Ones, Jar Har, the empress-goddesses' return — has come down without dates to anchor it.