Cities and what they do

[Scott of Hyperborea]

It's been too long since I last wrote down any Raikothlin culture. I'm not going to write any epics or anything, but it might be worth just giving a basic outline of where I am right now. So here are the cities of Raikoth. Someday I'll scan my pictures of them, or map them*, or something. This is very boring, it's something I'm doing because I feel that I have to, and I don't recommend anyone read it. Most of it is based on my notes for Earth, and the Micras stuff is extrapolated from this but not entirely similar; for one thing, the tech level is higher.

KALEN is the southernmost, largest, and richest city. It stands on Raikoth's only river* . The river is more of a stream, but the water is used for irrigation during the very brief growing season. Kalen's about an inrhon (a unit of measurement = one day's walk) from the sea, and stands in the middle of a flat plain. The climate is similar to that of northern Scotland and the Orcades. Winters are mild, and summers are longer than they are elsewhere on the island.

Kalen is the only Raikothlin tiel that supports itself primarily by farming. Staple crops are apples, nuts, berries, and rye. There are also a few crops with no exact non-Raikothlin equivalents, including a citrus fruit similar to a lime, a vine similar to grapes, and the omnipresent niphil flowers. Cattle are not common, though there are enough musk oxen and sheep to provide a strategic source of fibers in the case of a conflict with the other Tairakothin cities. Hot spring farming is less important than in other tielal.

In the Age of Mists, Kalen was ruled by the Kalirion Dynasty, said to be descended from polar bears. It was the unofficial capital of Raikoth until the official capital was founded in Tala, and remains the economic and cultural center. Its rivalry with Midhoth has lasted four thousand years, ever since the two cities vied for control of Tairakoth during the Age of Mists. Think of Kalen as Athens and Midhoth as Sparta, and you won't be far off their respective roles in Raikothin history.

MIDHOTH is two or three inrhonal north of Kalen. The two cities have been at each other's throats since the Age of Mists. Its climate is little different from Kalen's, but its surroundings are rolling and rocky and agriculture is almost impossible except of low-requirement luxury crops like niphil flowers. The Midhothlin are mostly shepherds, although a few fisherman stick near the shore in poorly built boats. They are a poor city with little interest in trade or culture.

Midhoth's harsh environment and limited economic opportunities has given them a decidedly militaristic bent, and the only pan-Raikothlin empire before Kadham was that of the Midhothlin tyrant Narsi Nodorion. During the Age of Mists, their main source of wealth was plundering their luckier neighbors to the north and south. Their culture did not take well to the peace Kadham brought to Raikoth, and many Midhothlin have a sort of desperate arrogance, as if their birthright has been taken away. They tend to cause trouble for the Council, resist integration attempts, and consider themselves superior to the other tielal. Among their few positive contributions are a disproportionate number of vebedhal and excellent dairy products.

ANSHIR is only an inrhon north of Midhoth, on a rocky promontory jutting out into the sea. The Anshirae** are shipbuilders extraordinaire, and live, one might say, in harmony with the sea. No doubt this has something to do with a paucity of arable land and an old tendency of Midhoth's to raid and kill their cattle. In the time of Karusion, when the White Ships began to sail, Anshir was the chief port of Raikoth, and even eclipsed Kalen in terms of international trade.

The Anshirae are the only masters of Rakive, the art of taming and riding dolphins. In the Age of Mists, such troops were important in fending off Midhothlin and Kalenin navies. Nowadays, with advances in shipbuilding, they are a tradition for tradition's sake, and aquatic duels between men mounted on dolphins is the highlight of the Ainaifest celebrations in Anshir.

Peaceful until provoked, Anshir was usually an ally of Kalen in their mutual resistance against Midhoth during the Age of Mists. Now, they are primarily a port for travels to and from Valus, aquaculture a shipbuilding center, a fishermans' harbor, a center for engineering and technological innovation, and a great experiment in aquaculture.

TALISRE*** is about ten inrhonal north of Anshir, and a centrally located tiel. A pilgrimage from any other city to Tala has to pass through Talisre, as does any trip from Tairakoth to the rest of the island. Talisrelin are mostly shepherds and merchants, although there is some small amount of farming.

Talisrelin have a reputation for being friendly and easygoing, perhaps because one of the city's main industries is providing hospitality for travellers. Coriolander, the second most important Raikothlin prophet, was a Talisrelin, and the city proudly identifies with his message of universal brotherhood. As consistently as Midhoth opposes the central government, Talisre consistently supports it.

IRSIL, a few inrhonal northwest of Talisre, is the smallest southern tiel. Located high in the hills, food is the limiting resource here, and what little there is comes from cattle, hunting, trade, and limited geyser farms. Irsil is surrounded by copper mines and some sources of precious gemstones, but despite the stereotype of the surly, brutish miner, Irsilelin are cheerful and philosophical.

TARAS, fifteen inrhonal north of Irsil, is the capital of the far north. Farming is impossible here, and herding tends more towards managing the vast herds of wild caribou and musk oxen than any controlled cattle breeding. Geyser farming, aquaculture, and hunting are also crucial to Taras' existence.

The city is called "The White Tiel" for the high quality and lustre of the white stone out of which it is constructed. It is a center of arts rivalled only by Kalen in the south, but because of the huge geographical gulf between the two, the cities usually have completely different styles. Taras is also much influenced by being the gateway to the Cold Waste in the interior, where hermits and outcasts go to build a life away from society. The hunters in the Waste bring goods for trade to Taras, from where they later get transported further south after bringing a profit into the city's coffers.

Kadham Ragum, the most important prophet of Raikoth, was originally from Taras although he spent much of his life in Kalen, and Taralin don't let visitors forget this for a second. The Taralin support the central government out of loyalty to Kadham, and continue his tradition of mathematical and philosophical excellence.

SITHLI, twenty inrhonal north of Taras, is at the very edge of what could be called habitable by any stretch of the imagination. Some would deny it is in the habitable zone at all, and say its people cling to life only out of sheer perversity. It sits in the interior of a big island off the Raikothlin coast, and exists only by grace of the hundreds of hot springs surrounding it. Geyser farming is literally a life-and-death matter here, though fishing, whaling, and aquaculture are also popular.

Sithlelin are ethnically distinct from the rest of the Raikothlin, and consider themselves a race apart. Their origins are unknown, and they were not part of Narsi Nodorion's Raikothlin Empire or the original confederation of cities under Kadham Ragum. They are now assimilated genetically, culturally, and linguistically, but something about them remains subtly Other. The few travellers and traders who reach Sithli don't find it a very inviting place, and usually leave after their business is done.

Some say that the Sithlelin have gotten too close to whatever mysteries exist in the deep north, and that their humanity has suffered. Others say they were never entirely human to begin with, and that unlike the other Raikothlin tribes who came from the south, the Sithlelin came from the deep north and wandered southward into human realms. Nevertheless, the Sithlelin participate in the central government with benign indifference, participate in the central religion with benign formality, and deal patiently with foreigners until they get the message and leave of their own volition.

SHINOMAI, three inrhonal interior of Kalen in the south, is no longer inhabited. It is the legendary ruins of the first Raikothlin city, constructed millennia before Kadham before even the Age of Mists. According to legend, the first tribes to wander onto Raikoth from the south built it around the first potable water they found in the new land.

Shinomai has seven springs within a few hundred meters of each other, and separate communities ("tribes") developed around each of these that diffused together into a unified city without losing their own individual character. When the springs ran dry, each tribe set off on its own to locate a new source of water, founding the six traditional tielal (Kalen, Midhoth, Anshir, Irsil, Talisre, Taras). The seventh tribe, the Komyye****, dispersed among the cities of the other six. The last tielal, Sithli, does not trace its descent from Shinomai.

Nowadays, Shinomai is a set of picturesque ruins in Raikoth's only forest. It is a popular pilgrimage destination for Tairakothlin, who come during the summer to pay their respects to the long-dry ancestral springs. "Shinomai" has also (thanks to the songs of Coriolander) taken on the sense of a future paradise, for which one's soul yearns and which it can perhaps someday reach.

Before the springs in Shinomai ran completely dry, each tribe collected a certain portion of their own spring's sacred water. Bottles of such water are extremely important relics in the tielal with which they are associated (a popular Raikothlin curse is to say one has pissed in the ancestral water of someone else's tribe - the phrase sounds better in Kalasperelin).

TALA*****, six inrhonal inland from Talisre, is the political and religious center of Raikoth, and the capital of the central government instituted by Kadham. The city, which stands on the slopes of the sacred volcano Mt. Yaanek, is built primarily out of ice, which at Tala's elevation never melts. It features some of the most spectacular architecture of all Raikoth, and is a popular pilgrimage destination.

Tala has no source of food. All foodstuffs are bought or taxed off of the other tielal. Tala has no shortage of money: aside from taxation, various social systems promote donating money to the Tala government. Pilgrims usually come laden with coin, and mines in the surrounding mountains are rich sources of silver, opals, and other valuables.

Tala is accessible only in the summer. During the winter, the mountain paths become impassable, and the city stocks up on food and ceremonially shuts its gates until springtime.

*Map them on Micras, that is. The original map based on South Greenland is at http://www.raikoth.net/Wiki/images/f/f0/Raikothmap.png, except the spelling's a bit different and Sithli should be on Disko Island there.
*There are four on the MCS map, but the climate changed and those dried up/froze over after the Yaanek eruption of the Tymarian era.
**Anshirae is the local variant of what would be "Anshirlin" in the standard Raikothlin tongue.
***Talisre, Taras, and Tala are all named after local variants of the word represented in standard Raikothlin as "tiel", or "city"
****Or maybe "Komhe"...Komyyein orthography isn't so good.
*****I used to call Tala "Thulel", but I've changed the concept of it a bit. In the stories, I spoke of Thulel being destroyed by an earthquake and Tala being constructed to replace it, but I don't really believe that.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Er, sorry, this shouldn't have been bumped. Misclicked.