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The Awatute capital, Dekotarate, has always sat adjacent to the great lake Dekogami, which has always played a crucial role in Awatute beliefs and general society. However, Awatute settlements have never ringed the entire lake, instead clinging to its arable southern and western sides. From bear and wolf attacks through freak blizzards and bands of uncivilized raiders to premonitions of doom by the Council of the Thinkers, all sorts of obstacles have deterred most Awatute from trekking or canoeing to the other side of Dekogami over the years. Those few who have taken the risk anyways have never returned alive…before now, that is.

One sunny, yet bitingly cold midwinter day, a young man and woman straggled their way into Dekotarate with mere scraps on their backs, and a tremendous story to tell. As it turns out, the two had made contact with a civilized people, who called themselves the Edegans and lived as hunter-gatherers on the other side of Dekogami. These Edegans reportedly reacted to these visitors merely with a healthy wariness rather than the expected hostility; in fact, the visitors eventually managed to worm their way into the Edegans’ good graces. After a month or two, the group the young couple was part of had to take leave of their hosts in order to hopefully return before winter set in. On the return trek, practically everything that could go wrong did, and what was once a dozen-strong group was reduced to just two, who were barely holding onto life when they returned to civilization. Still, the discovery of a civilized people amenable to diplomacy was enough to shatter the existing Awatute mythology of a hostile landscape filled with unthinking brutes.

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Legends of that first, fateful encounter passed down through the years had gifted Awatute up to and including the Council of the Thinkers with a lasting curiosity about the world around them. Due to this, numerous bands of Awatute set off on various voyages in all directions beyond the outer limits of the Awatute domain over the next 250 or so years, many of them directly at the Thinkers’ behest. These groups never managed to discover any peoples as advanced as the Edegans, yet they immeasurably contributed to Awatute knowledge of the surrounding lands.