Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay is a small port town in northwest Lindelt. It is famous for its annual Turtle Festival, with a myriad of games, competitions, and turtle-themed activities that attracts even Anian royalty.

After the Godswar, the animals that remained were forced to radically adjust their ways of life. A group of female sea turtles swollen with eggs found themselves washed up on the southern coast of the Northern Peninsula, near a small fishing village known then as Betchel Bay. Near exhaustion, the turtles had no choice but to burrow into the unfamiliar sand, lay their eggs and hope for the best.

As luck would have it, the young turtles thrived in this new environment. Gleeful to see such a wonder of nature, the residents of Betchel Bay took to helping the little turtles on their way to the ocean in any way they could. Children run along the beach waving branches and blowing horns to scare away predatory birds. Adults dig tunnels, pull up fences and move entire grazing herds to make way for them. The mayor dons a wool suit died bright emerald green and carries a tortoise-shell cane.

The mayor owns an old tortoise named Shelly the he places in the middle of the town square on the first morning of Turtlefest, with several piles of local vegetables and herbs gathered around her. It is said that whichever she eats first will be the bumper crop that year.

In addition to many turtle foods, turtle shell trinkets and a variety of turtle dances and parties, there are a series of events over the week-long Turtlefest that include:
 * Turtle Race: Pairs of two people run all the way up and down the town square. Each way, one of the team must carry the other, switching places when they run back to the starting point. This is done as a single race, and contestants are pressed close to each other, which results in much physical jostling.
 * Turtle Wrestling: A wrestling tournament in which the contestants wear huge wooden turtle shells and try and knock each other out of the ring.
 * Turtle Boats: A week-long boat building competition that ends with everyone trying to race from one end of Turtle Bay to the other. Prizes are awarded for speed and  originality of their boat design.
 * Turtle Toss : Its just a pole toss. They just like turtles.
 * Turtle Soup : Contestants have three days to gather ingredients, and then have 1 hour to cook a turtle based dish. The turtle meat is provided from mother turtles who pass on after laying eggs on the beach.