Baghar

"If the Gods are omnipotent, or nearly, it stands to reason they are permitted to make mistakes."

- Proverb attributable to Camus Inakas

This article is the target of major revisions.

Baghar is a city in the Shimmering Shore, currently considered part of the Shimmering Shore, though in times past it was more akin to being part of the Lordless Lands. The Ancient City, as it is known, predates both the former Petrenean Republic and, by some accounts, the Orcish Nation. Currently, its population chiefly mirrors that of the northern extents of the Shimmering Shore - primarily human, with sizable subcultures of half-outsiders, especially Oreads, and, of course, Half Orcs. Though large enough to have once been a metropolis, it is now, at most, populated like a small city.

The city is not the bastion it once was but was well constructed by whichever civilization had founded it and remains in good repair considering the relative poverty and hazard of the region. Betimes, both the Orcish Nation and the Atarlie Empire eye the city as a potential conquest. The city is best known abroad for being the location where the writings of Gul Spell-Speaker, referred to now as the Baghar Testaments, were found. The writings shook the foundation of the orcish conception of magic and elevated Orcish Shamanism to a level of theoretical sophistication akin to Ars Magica.

Geography

Baghar is a city in a plain, leaving it theoretically vulnerable from all sides. The valley in which it runs is a particularly dry part of the Lordless Lands, akin perhaps to Savanha, and this semi-arid climate has only gotten drier since the Great Collapse. The city is ancient, constructed of mined basalt from the nearby Atlas Mountains, which must have been transported here at great expense, or at least great labour.

The city comprises three concentric wards, well laid out, studded with towers which offer commanding views for miles around. With the collapse of the Petrenean Republic the roads to and from Baghar in every direction are in disrepair, but those with studied cartographical knowledge and a sharp eye can pick out milestones along the ancient roads to Xia Leng Ji, High Toor, and Xarthekei, though as with all adventures in the Shimmering Shore the local feeling is that such trips are largely ill-advised unless you have good reliable guides and a retinue of expert travelers in your company to protect your cargo.

The centermost ward of the city is given over to governmental and religious buildings, and the parks and gardens that separate them. Chief of these is the temple to Anghara, who is the patron diety of the city and the focus of the faithful Bagharans. These complexes include an impressive library known as the Archives of Baghar, second only to the fabled Library of Akasha for its completeness and lore - there are volumes in this library written in languages no living mortal can read.

Economy

Baghar is isolated by distance and hazard from the port cities along the Shimmering Shore proper, and so has none of the associated prosperity. Baghar gets by on what it can farm from the land around itself or salvage from the outermost ward of the city. Rarely, merchants of Baghar get it into their heads to travel the road to the ruins of High Toor, and thence to Petrenea, to trade for what can't be locally obtained. The same is true in the direction of the north. Orc caravans occasionally come to call at the city to trade produce-for-produce, sell furs, and other such bartering. The settlement outside the city walls is a waystation along the unpopular overland route for refugees attempting to flee the Shimmering Shore into the comparatively safer lands north of Baghar.

There is a limited industry for hospitality for these traders, along with religious pilgrims coming up from the south on their way to Xia Leng Ji.

The road to Xarthekei is considered too dangerous for trade, and therefore is run only by the foolhardy.

Politics

The most recent government of Baghar has been in power for centuries, and forms a theocratic Sultanate whose leader is both secular monarch and head of the Church of Anghara. Unsurprisingly this leads to a mixing of politics and religion. Baghar is skeptical of the ability of Petrenea to reunite the old republic, but will not actively act against it.