List Pages
Araby
The lands of Arabia are only known to explorers, and to a much lesser extent, sailors. Of course you take your chances with anything you pick up from the latter, and so the tales and maps and artifacts from explorers are the most telling and informational of all counts. This is a desert land, mainly. A land where water is currency and life and power. Folk live nomadic life styles and cultures vary wildly from what one expects and experiences in Europa. It is said that the Elves have moved on to Araby, and this belief is propagated by the ease with which you can glimpse these private beings. They are more readily apparently here in the East, but many travelers have joked that this is due to a lack of forests in which to hide in.
Araby is a land of a multitude of kingdoms. Desert tribes each have their leaders, and most congregate into Khalasars (groups of tribes). These khalasars are headed by the Khal, the king of the tribal kings. These khalasars tend to be predatory and warlike, combining their war-like nature with their mobility and lack of roots. Horses are surprisingly plentiful and are amazingly well-bred. The tribes live their lives on horseback and there are highly odd ‘desert-horses’, tremendous horses that carry huge quantities of water on their backs beneath their own skin.
Most of the water in and around Araby is salted, which has given rise to fables involving the wrath of numerous gods. The learned of Europa surmise that the salting of the water is chaos-born in nature, and made what must have been a lush paradise, into the desolate sand dunes of now. Even rivers, lakes and seas in Araby are salted, and only ground-springs and pools remain free of the killing mineral. Plant and nomad life ring these areas, and as such they are easy to spot from a long way off. Reaching and partaking of the precious water is another saga entirely. Northern Araby is rife with towns and small cities, as the influence of southern Ruus is felt. Where Araby touches on the Mediterran Sea, it actually has tremendous Eurpoan and Tilean influence, with the gently sloping tiled roofs and stone houses of the continent. Trade here is very brisk, as the staples of Europa are impossible to find, and yet the fruits of Araby are exotic horseflesh, fabrics, and spices that are not to be found in any other market in the world. Technology has a hold here as well, although it remains completely unknown to western minds, as do their myths and magics. The folk of Araby are selective and quiet about outsiders, deferential but too content to hide between languages and customs to share their knowledge and power freely. Bear in mind that sea travel can only stretch to the west coast, the east coast and the salt seas are all internal and cannot reach the great Mediterran western sea.
The Elves of Araby
These ancient nomads have families that extend back for millennia. Only they know if these families also branched west to become those of the Continent as well. Rumors have that these clans are merely offshoots of the TRULY ancient forest dwellers who are presumed to exist beyond the shadows of distance and time in the impossibly far-off east of Asiacommunista.
The desert elves of Araby are horse-breeders and naturalists. They are also practitioners in the religion of Mathematica, as well as philosophers. They are peaceful and closed, trading as they need, and live content Spartan lives, willing to avoid the more war-like of their short-lived neighbors, more than eager to take arms and fight them. Reputed to be the finest horse-lords in history.
Cities of note
Gazan (western coastal city) a trading hub
Baghdadia, the City of Seven Stones, a city of palaces and opulence
Qom, the Silent City, a city of monks and knowledge where outsiders seldom travel
Jiddah, “the Salt City”, a waystation to the west coast
Bahrain, the Gateway East, Capital of the Silk Road. The strange, eastern shore of Araby, where few Europeans have traveled.