Rhydwel River
 | This article is a work-in-progress because it is incomplete and pending further input from an author. Note: The contents of this article are not considered canonical and may be inaccurate. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. |
| Rhydwel River | |
|---|---|
| Etymology | Lifegiver River |
| Location | |
| Country | Faneria |
Literally 'The Artery', and colloquially the 'Lifegiver', the Rhydwel is one of the two most important waterways in Faneria alongside the _ in the Great Northern Plain. Beginning in the northern end of the Great Levantine Range and running down through the length of eastern Fhainnholdt, the river terminates in the Bay of _ along the coast of Ceann a Rhydwel, named for the river itself. The Rhydwel is a wide, slow-flowing river, with banks primarily composed of rock covered in several feet of silt. Its depth allows for small-scale shipping up to the northern portions of Fhainnholdt City, with the waterways upwards of that point becoming rockier and shallow as the river splits off into dozens of tributary rivers and streams in the northwestern Great Range.
The river is approximately _ miles long and averages at _ wide, although the latter figure is subject to intense debate considering the marshy flats at its terminus.
Historically, the Rhydwel provided towns along its length with a consistent year-round supply of fresh water and power for water mills, and a significant amount of farming during the Early and Royal Eras took place in the valley around it. With the advent of coal and other forms of electricity, alongside increasing industrialization, farming moved to the irrigated areas of the Bulge and the Great Northern Plain.
The river was declared a national treasure in 2008, and many of its beaches were merged into the Rhydwel National Park, helping to reduce pollution travelling into the river alongside the introduction of ordinances against industrial waste dumping or littering in the water. This has helped revive the waterway significantly, and assisted in efforts to revive the Bah Lannan; still, parts of the river, especially the upper portions, are still sterile in terms of marine life.
- mythos: created from one of the arteries of the gaelic god as he died, his blood turning to freshwater