A distinctive inlet on the southwestern coast, where the Beastlands meet the Gulf of Chimea. From above, the coastline forms a shape resembling an open reptilian jaw—a curved peninsula forming the upper palate, a sandbar the lower jaw, and a narrow channel between them like a throat.
The Ix'Meglyakuk consider Lizard's Maw sacred. Their creation myths hold that the Beastlands themselves are the body of a primordial lizard-god, sleeping beneath the jungle, and the Maw is where the god will speak when it finally wakes. Tribal gatherings happen on the shores during certain astronomical alignments, and outsiders who approach during these ceremonies are killed without warning.
At other times, the Maw serves as the primary point of contact between the Ix'Meglyakuk and Chimea. The channel is navigable for shallow-draft vessels, and a Chimean trading post—Fort Vaylen—has survived on the outer peninsula for over sixty years, protected by treaties negotiated with the nearest tribes and by its location outside the sacred boundaries.
Fort Vaylen: The only permanent non-Ix'Meglyakuk settlement in the Beastlands, Fort Vaylen is a stockaded compound housing perhaps a hundred Chimean traders, factors, and guards. They purchase jungle products from willing tribes and sell them upriver to Chimea proper. The fort's survival depends entirely on maintaining good relations with local Ix'Meglyakuk—when those relations sour, as they did in 3,298 SD, the jungle closes in fast. That incident left forty Chimeans dead and Fort Vaylen abandoned for a decade before new treaties were negotiated.