Malacho

Malacho is a city inhabited by the descendants of former slaves who escaped from the Haraklina colony city of Karichaka in 42 NE. The city is isolated in dense woodlands on the Island of Anatha and is difficult for outsiders to find. The primary economy of the city is timber and its people have tended to and harvested the Ironwood forests of the island since the late 10th century NE. The city's Malagni dialect is the sole surviving example of a Western Rigini language.

Etymology
Malacho derives from Old Western Rigini mahlah (hidden) and chou (town). The city lends its name to the modern language spoken there, Malagni (lit. "hidden language")

History
The founders of Malacho fled from the Haraklina colony of Karichaka following a slave rebellion in 42 NE. The slaves were ethnically Carasalic peoples, mostly from the modern Dersialdara region, and they had adopted the native Dersialdaran dialect of Pheetulangnee, an Old Western Rigini dialect, as their language when talking among themselves. Slave labor was used heavily to build the new colony and at the time of the rebellion over two-thirds of the Karichaka population of 20,000 was enslaved. Roughly 4,000 slaves and 3,000 ethnically Haraklina people were killed during the uprising and the remaining slaves, numbering nearly 10,000, fled the city to the interior of the island.

The slaves selected a hidden and poorly accessible area in the dense and steep woodlands to build a new city, which they named Mahlahchou (lit. "hidden town"). They hunted and gathered for food and traded with the native Anatheen peoples. The town remained poor and small during this period.

Malachoic peoples resented Karachakna incursions into the woods and frequently attacked and sabotaged Karachakna timber collection efforts. The Karachakna peoples attempted to find the source of these attacks but never located Malacho or realized that the attacks were coming from former slaves, blaming native Anatheen peoples instead.

Karachaka was abandoned following a fire and pirate raids in 891 NE, and a new colony was built on the site called Saracfalis by Noulaenic speaking peoples from the Kingdom of Calbaena in 967. The Malacho desired to retain their independence but had no particular antipathy towards these Noulaenic speaking settlers. They reached an agreement to provide timber from the island's Ironwood groves, which the settlers were unfamiliar with, in exchange for being left primarily alone in the interior of the island. This arrangement also included the delivery of young adults for human sacrifice rituals in Malacho, which the Malacho people claimed were necessary for the maintenance of the forests.

Saracfalis was destroyed by pirates in 2024 NE and replaced by the modern city of Elaen in 2154. The Malacho came to a similar arrangment with the government of Elaen as the one they had with Saracfalis. This arrangement persists to this day and Malacho provides a significant amount of timber to Elaen to provide its substantial shipbuilding efforts.