Minaria RPG

The Trade Cities of Padilla

Also known as the Padillan Confederacy

Coat of Arms

Last update: Jan 21, 2026 

Capital: Ptanar

Population: approx. 50 000 (95% human, 3% Ercii, 2% Other)

 Most of the original stock of Ptanar and its early colonies were light-skinned Loramir, coming from an Oxyerite society that was centred around the coast of the Shrouded Sea. Over the centuries, there have been considerable Rashi bloodlines intermixed, as well as Tripuri and Cellpallese stock, creating a very cosmopolitan population, albeit overlayed with the Oxyerite cultural norms.

 Government: Republic

 The Trade Cities of Padilla are formally known as the Padillan Confederacy. Prior to the formation of the Confederacy in 1024, the trade cities were considered semi-independent colonies of the island state of Ptanar.

 The home island, as well as its colonies, have an oligarchical democratic system, overseen by an elected Doge. This stems from the ancient Ptanari tradition of “bearing no king”, a maxim that defined their original rebellion against their Rashi overlords in the early 300s.

 Each Trade City has a Council, its members and numbers chosen locally but usually including the wealthiest and most influential local families. Some, like Karsh, allow all property-owning citizens to vote for their Council. Others, like Zuhr Rath, are in practice hereditary.

 Each Council is headed by a Senior Counsellor and two Deputies (three, in the case of the home island, Ptanar). The Senior Counsellors and Deputies (13 in total, called the Grand Council) in turn elect one of their number to act as Doge of the entire Confederacy.

 The relatively large number of families participating in this oligarchic elite keeps Padilla fairly representative, and ensures that any rivalry between families can be kept in check.

 Ruler:

Yagur the Just, Doge of the Padilla Confederacy 

 The current Doge, Yagur of House Korollo, is relatively youthful at 42, but has already been reelected once to the position (there is an rule in the Confederacy Grand Council that the Doge must be elected every ten years), in large part because he is seen as evenhanded and competent.

 Yagur has kept Padilla neutral in the various factional wars inside Afgaar and Yannagyhara over the last ten years and under his stewardship the Confederacy has also profited from increased trade, diverted from those countries’ internal strife.  He is known by the lower classes of Ptanar as “the Just” for his secondary role as civic judge. Yagur studied many classical Lloroi, Bel-beni, and Gazzohlan texts as a young man before taking over his House’s trading coster at age 26. Excelling at the family business, he then went into Confederacy politics. He was elected as Senior Counsellor of Ptanar by the time he was 30, and Doge just a few years after that. His wife, Dogeresa Neta, now handles the day-to-day operations of the family trading coster. Yagur is seen as a master of the churning politics of Girion.

 The only blemish on his political record so far has been an inability, despite several attempts, to pass legislation that would unify the Confederacy navy under a single command. Yagur fears that, in the event of an outbreak of war, it will take considerable time to get each city-state mobilized.

 Regional History

  The Padillan Confederacy is a relatively young entity comprised of the home island and its colonies, now united in a loose city-state confederacy. The term “Padilla” is derived from a fusion of old Parrosian words translating loosely as “the way of the islands”, which is also the Confederacy’s mission statement.

 The origins of the nation date back to the pre Cataclysmic island of Ptanar, where the local Oxyerite culture was overrun by the invading Rashi sea barbarians around – 200 BC. Originally the three islands of the Angry Sea; Ptanar, Iolani, and Erigie shared a common culture. All three of the islands were stepping stones towards future Rashi conquests on the continent in the late Lloroi imperial period and the first few centuries after the Cataclysm.

 Ptanar and Iolani remained part of the Rashi empire for over 500 years, but eventually the Loramir natives of both islands overthrew their masters (325 AC) and proceeded to outdo them in their seafaring skills. Ptanar grew wealthy as the Rashi empire on the continent and the islands gradually withered.

 After roughly a century of independence and growing confidence. Ptanar proceeded to plant its own colonies along the Shrouded Sea, the first being Karsh (425 AC), followed by Padval (550 AC) and Zuhr Rath (600 AC), creating a thalassocracy. These colonies, however, were always independent of the mother island, and could only be coerced into joint action with military or economic threats. After 600, however, Ptanar colonial expansion stalled, checked by the concurrent imperialism of the Kingdom of Kimwitu (renamed as the Belbeni Empire) which expropriated Zuhr Rath in 787 AC. The last colony founded by Ptanar was Gahbhr (851 AC), established largely to replace the lost trade from Zuhr Rath.

 While the Belbeni Empire collapsed into civil war during the Ninety Years War (900-996) of the Witch King’s rebellion, Ptanar continued to maintain its trading network. The Red Spell (996 AC) , however, shattered the flora, fauna, and economies of Girion, leaving the trading networks in tatters, not to mention political chaos for a quarter of a century. At this time, Ptanar ceded control over Iolani to the Knights of Mitwitu.

 Ptanar seized the opportunity in 1024 AC to recreate itself, forging the Padillan Confederacy out of many of its older colonies, but also eventually Zuhr Rath (1170 AC) which had enjoyed two centuries of independence.

 Society:

 Slavery is acceptable in Padilla, but slaves are usually used as household servants rather than agricultural laborers or galley rowers. This is a reflection of the underlying republican principles of the confederacy, where freeborn landholders have direct democratic influence on government policy. A typical Afgaar complaint is that “Padilla is soft on slavery”.

 Neighboring Afgaar sees the Padillans as hypocritical and self righteous, since they promote free trade and emancipation, but practise neither in reality.

 Padilla complements its naval superiority with an even larger mercantile fleet. Padillan trading galleys are the preeminent sailing ship along the coats of Girion and Rombune, and are supplemented by ocean-going cogs that travel to Reiken, the Westward Isles, and even the distant Rashi archipelago. Consequently, Padillan trading coster fees are amongst the highest in Minara because of their security and variety of goods available. The Trade Cities, in turn, charge high port fees for shipments arriving and departing. This plethora of consumer options does tend to give the average Padillan an air of superiority when it comes to both commerce and cultural appreciation.

 Religions:

 Padilla is one of the most tolerant societies in Minaria when it comes to religion. Only overtly evil religions are not tolerated here. Large temples to Pinboh and Kommiya can be found in all Padillan city states, along with a small shrine building to Nada in Ptanar. Less elaborate places of worship, even if it’s a roadside shrine, for most other deities can be found in all the Padillan cities.

 Military:

 Padilla maintains the largest navy of the nations of Girion, but it is a very decentralized military, with not only individual Padillan cities having their own fleets, but within each city-state, individual Sub-Admirals run their own personal flotillas. Captains of the individual ships are often held to the larger whole by personal ties not patriotism. In many respects, the fleets of Padilla are more akin to the former pirate fleets of Rombune than a true navy.

 There are three types of sailings vessels in the Padillan fleets. Gahbhr, Zuhr Rath, and Karsh maintain a fleet of triremes suitable for coastal action in the Shrouded Sea. These are supplemented by galleys, which are the backbone of the Ptanar fleet. Although historically the vessel which drove Ptanari expansion, it is rare today to see triremes on the home island because of the rough swells of the Angry Sea. Additionally, Ptanar maintains sea-going galleons for the oceanic trade.

 The triremes and galleys of Padilla are generally crewed by freeborn citizens, which tends to make them more effective in battle than slave-crewed vessels.

Major Geographical Features

 Shrouded Sea

 The Padillan Confederacy is centered around this shallow warm inland sea. The eastward current brings warm water into an increasingly narrow and shallow funnel, creating rainstorms from early November to late January on the pebbled beaches of the north coast and seasonal flooding on the east coast. Seasonal typhoons are recurring on the swampy south coast and the Silwane Peninsula. Iolani in particular suffers from periodic outbreaks of “swamp fever”, a recurring Girionese disease.

 Angry Sea

 The Angry Sea drops off quickly from the continental shelf, punctuated only by small granitic islands that peek out of the sea, Ptanar being the largest. Warm winds from the southwest often clash with a cold current coming from the north, creating violent sudden storms along the Silkien Coast and the coast of Gazzohla.

 Padilla was one of the first human nations to recognize the sway of the Selkies over the Silkien Coast and maintains a friendly attitude towards the Great Brom. They also acknowledge the sea nymphs of the Sunken Citadel and the merfolk of the Coral Palace and have trading relations with the subaquatic kingdoms.

 Padillan deep sea fleets can often be seen plying the waves between Giriion and Reiken. This sea-borne trade remains one of the largest bones of contention between the Trade Confederacy and the Kingdoms of Mivior and Rombune, not to mention Bomgol to the south. Out of sight of land, it is not uncommon for lone ships of any of these nations to be attacked by their opposite number, if no survivors will make it to land to report such piracy.

 The Green Maze

 The green-canopied reaches of the Green Maze truly live up to their name, with few paths through the impenetrable jungle topography. Here and there a few ruins of ancient urban centres of the Kingdom of the Soost emerge from the jungle floor, but most of the region is wild and overrun.

 The region is home to isolated villages of the Murkingos, derided by the Padilllans as “Bush Dwellers”. These are the descendants of the Bel-beni who escaped their persecutors in the aftermath of the Red Spell (996 AC) and made a life for themselves hidden in the deep jungle.

 The Green Maze blends into the Ogbosh Jungle. The largest village of the Murkingos is Kichaka, deep in the jungle. (See the Gazetteer of Gazzohla for more information)

 Today, the Green Maze provides quality timber for export, but the beleaguered woodcutters of Zuhr Rath must constantly fend off attack from the jungle-dwellers. The Maze also acts as a border zone between Gazzohlan, Samman and Padillan claims

 It is also particularly notable for the nearby ruins of Remb-Go (seethe Gazetteer of Gazzohla), where the crumbled stones of the pre-human Serpent-men kingdom are hidden by encroaching fetid swamps on one side and stubby thick vegetation on the other.  Even the Murkingos do not go here,

Whispering Mountains

 The Whispering Mountains are a steep impassable range between the coastal plain of the Shrouded Sea and the harsh dead lands of the Yyng-Go. The snow capped peaks have a great of tree cover on the lower slopes in the north-western-most sections, and dense jungle in the south west, but the eastern ascents are covered in dead forest, an eerie residue of the Red Spell. The northern extremity of the mountains gradually dwindles into broken land and eventually low hills. The fast-moving Unawater flows westward from the mountains to the Shrouded Sea. The “Enchanted City” of Llyra lies nestled in Zerieth (“unclouded skies”) Pass, one of the only breaks in the range.

 Important Sites:

  Ptanar (Large Town 9000)

 Ptanar’s earliest history is shrouded. In the ancient past the island was clearly settled by Loramir natives prior to the Rashi invasion. This non-maritime culture shared many similarities with nearby continental Oxyer, focusing entirely on self sufficiency and living off the bounty of the sea but with no off-shore capacity.

 However the Rashi conquest of the island (c. -200 BC) changed this. The sea barbarians brought deep sea expertise and used Ptanar as one of the early bases for further expansion into northwestern Girion. In the early days, whaling was a key industry, but the Rashi overhunted the population so that few whales are found in Ptanar’s waters today. Most whale pods are farther north, where they enjoy the protection of the Selkies.

 Ptanar is actually composed of four islands in close proximity. All four landmasses, like Iolani and Erigie to the south, are granitic islands, with mountainous cores rising from the sea. Large boulders litter the thin sandy beaches at the base of  sheer cliffs.

 The largest of the chain and namesake of all, is about 50 miles from end to end, but only about 10 miles wide (hence the name, derived from a Parrosian word meaning “thin”). There is a steep 200 ft rise in the centre of the span broadening out into a tableland which dominates the view of not only the island but also the nearby smaller island of Sten.

 Ptanar proper contains the capital city, which spans the entire length of the isle. Both sides of the plateau are replete with tall towers built in the Rashi style of architecture.  The high plain contains the acropolis, which is also where the Senior Council meets. Other government buildings, such as the customs house, and embassies can be found here, as well as a temple to Pinboh.

 The western side of the island rises to its peak, nearly 400 ft above sea level. The mountainside is kept free by ancient edict of houses above the base, with only a small temple to Kommiya at its peak. The path to reach this temple, up the seaward side of the mountain, is hazardous, but the trail is well maintained by the monks. The view of the land and sea from the temple is spectacular. One can see Pisk’s lighthouse in one direction and the lights of the porticos of Anwan in the other.

 The northern portion of the island contains middle class housing as well as merchant coster warehouses and the more desirable industries, such as jewelers and goldsmiths. The southern end of the island has the poorer housing and the less desirable industries, such as slaughterhouses and tanning. The wind blows off the western sea, fortunately.

 The main harbour lies at the base of the acropolis, and is the most densely populated section of Ptanar. This is also where the central market is, where literally anything in the world can be found, for a price. A tertiary harbour, whose docks are home to the Padillan navy, is located below the cliffs here, facing across to the island of Sten.

 Sten, the smallest of the four islands, is a rocky mass that contains Ptanar’s lighthouse and also the capital’s prison facility. The island is usually isolated from the other islands, with only official government ships being allowed to dock.

 Anwan, the flattest of the island chain, is located at the north end of the island cluster. It is home to Ptanar’s wealthiest citizens, their manor houses dominating the low-lying island. Anwan is also the only place on Ptanar where the Dag lizards can be found. These tiny green geckos have been outcompeted by invasive rats and vermin on the other three islands of Ptanar but here on Anwan, the lizards flit between the shrubs, sunning on the large beach boulders.

 Pisk, the fourth island, is at the south end of Ptanar and faces the second-largest harbour. This rocky isle with its wind-whipped stunted trees, is the home of the fishing industry, where fish is unloaded and packed. It is also the most storm-prone, when the seasonal typhoons come across the Angry Sea from the southwest. Pisk contains a secondary lighthouse. There is also a small shrine to Nada.

 Given how much of Ptanar has been urbanized, the island has almost no domestic agricultural production.

Karsh (small city 8000)

 Karsh was the first Ptanari colony, founded in 425 AC when the mother island suffered a series of drought and crop failures over the course of two decades. The Ptanari struck up a colonizing agreement with the Roub family of Soulx, with the latter allowing the Ptanari to settle on unoccupied lands at the fringe of the Roub territory. The colony provided an outlet for surplus population and also an opportunity to provide a reliable off-island food supply. Irrigation and orchard planting of the Karsh peninsula was swiftly undertaken.

 The name of the colony translates from old Rashi as “the place where tortoises are found”, after the tortoise birthing sites on the beaches. Alas, this has largely been destroyed over the centuries with the urbanization of the harbour and surrounding environs. Only occasionally, usually on the coast of the rugged southwestern tip of the peninsula, inaccessible by land, are giant tortoises still found.

 The 50-ft tall jaboticoba tree, with its pink and white flowers, produces a purple berry that is used to make Karshan wine. The tree is drought resistant and sand tolerant and thus thrives on the edges of southern Afgaar.

 Today Karsh is known for its fresh produce production and also its vineyards, although the jaboticoba wine produced does not match the quality of nearby Soulx. Karsh is the leading importer of fine wine from Afgaar and exports it onward via the extensive Padillan trading network.

 Karshan close-shore fishermen, who provide their daily catch to the city, have recently been suffering from attacks from sea scrags, who are believed to lair on or along the shores of the mires to the east of the city-state.

 Zuhr Rath (Small city 12 000)

 Zuhr Rath’s history is a complicated one. In truth there have effectively been four iterations of this strategically placed city-state on the coast of the Shrouded Sea.

 The original Zuhr Rath was a port, Tasa, founded around -525 BC in direct challenge to the decaying Mairaffe kingdom. It was situated farther north than the modern port. After the fall of the Serpent-men, Tasa became part of the pre-Cataclysmic kingdom of Silwantu. Tasa was destroyed overnight by the Cataclysm, being submerged under the waters of the expanded Shrouded Sea when the Cataclysm lowered the eastern plain below sea level. Remnants of this ancient city lie submerged in modern Zuhr Rath Bay, with only trace elements of the original architecture (mostly of the Tripuri culture) found in the northern suburbs of modern Zuhr Rath.

 The site was abandoned for centuries thereafter until Ptanar decided to establish a colony on the south eastern side of the shallow bay in 600 AC, seeking to capitalize on the diamond and copper trade of Kimwitu and also to further trade with the mysterious, if somewhat isolated, city of Llyra. Arcane items from the latter were, and remain, in high demand. Much of old Zuhr Rath, including the port facilities and the harbour fortifications, dates from this period 600-787 AC.

 Although the Bel-beni seized control of the city in 787 AC, they did little to change it, simply replacing the government hierarchy with one of their own choosing. Architecturally, the city did continue to grow during the Bel-beni period (787 – 996 AC), albeit slowly, with most of the hinterland agriculture being settled at this time. Because this new settlement was largely one of an occupying power, the hinterlands saw the construction of a series of small keeps, creating a string of fortified centers linked in a chain all around the frontiers of what would become the city-state.

 The Red Spell of 996 AC drastically changed Zuhr Rath again. The city declared its independence from the collapsing Bel beni Empire, and nominated one of its own, an elder statesmen from one of the older Ptanari families, Getig Sterk, as king. Thus was born a line of monarchs who would rule the independent city state for almost 200 years.

 See the History of the Monarchy of Zuhr Rath (997 – 1169 AC) for more details

 The old chain of fortified houses was enhanced under the Sterks and their descendants, creating a well-defended city state, with new walls around the main port and the creation of a central tower above the old keep, which also doubled as a lighthouse.

 Unfortunately the independence of Zuhr Rath came to an end by the late 1160s as it became increasingly clear that the Queen of the day, Dorca of House Lufthan, had succumbed to dark magic. Exposed as a vampire lord, she was driven from the city. The city-state’s elders, instead of nominating a new line, opted instead to join the Padillan Confederacy in 1170.

 One of the great lost treasures of Zuhr Rath is the Royal Tiara of Getig Sterk, with large diamonds inset on a copper band; lost in the fall of the monarchy in 1170.

 Over the last two centuries, Zuhr Rath has become a predominant port on the central Shrouded Sea and home to Padilla’s eastern fleet. The naval yards on the western side of the port were greatly expanded in the 13th century, although these were badly damaged during the coup attempt by Sub-Admiral Llamaya in 1339, when the western end of the city nearly burned down. Rebuilding, funded by Padillan trade surpluses, was swift and today Zuhr Rath boasts some of the most modern and clean harbour facilities in the world.

 Zuhr Rath is a provider of timber for the Padillan maritime industry (both naval and merchant) with the city state claiming sections of the nearby Green Maze inside its boundaries.  It also taps into the newly resurgent diamond trade from the Yyng-Go with small merchant caravans now regularly making the journey to the Hall of the Subterranean King.  A newly constructed road now connects Zuhr Rath to the Wash River, permitting goods to ship via that route. Zuhr Rath has notably placed their trailhead well south of the military outpost of Llyra at the head of the Wash.

 The city is also an agricultural production centre, with vanilla and cinnamon plantations, owned by the families of Notables, located in the northern suburbs

 The demographic makeup of Zuhr Rath is a mix of primarily transplanted Ptanari stock, but also with older Samman culture, and a dash of Bel-beni influence. The current Senior Counsellor is Elder Sint  (male, human, noble Level 10) of the House Kulle, who owns property in the hilly northeastern suburbs.

 Gahbhr (Small city 10 000)

 Located on the highest point of the western lip of an inland depression, if one looks eastward from the walls of Gahbhr, one can seemingly view the flat landscape for hundreds of leagues to the east. This can be problematic in later winter, when the land is prone to flooding from seasonal typhoons.

 Gahbhr was founded by the Ptanari in 851 AC as a means to recreate their  colony of Zuhr Rath, lost after the Bel-beni annexation of the latter. Copper and diamonds from the south, as well as continued access to the Kelgan trade and the Sapphire City drove settlement of a modest harbour on the eastern shores of the Shrouded Sea.

 The prosperity was short-lived however. Within a half century, the civil strife of the Bel-beni Ninety Years War, followed by the devastation of the Red Spell, left Gahbhr’s trade networks in shambles. The colony, which swiftly joined  the Padillan Confederacy in 1024, has been in a gradual decline ever since, with trade being increasingly diverted north to Market Town or south to Zuhr Rath, or even to Ipzul. The arrival of new trade with Llyra and its environs via the Unawater in the last half century (mostly exporting foreign goods to the landlocked Enchanted City) has been a rare economic bright spot.

 Gahbhr is also a rarity in the Padillan trading confederacy as a producer of raw materials. The city-state’s hinterland is much given over to goat and sheep grazing, with meat and milk from the goats used domestically and wool from the flocks exported to nearby Lerna in Yannagyhara for rug production. The name “Gahbhr” is actually derived from an old Cephallese word for “goat” after the native wild goats that populated the region before the founding of the colony.

 Gahbhr’s ships intermittently suffer attacks from the Harpies of Claw Island, which has led the local Council to consider two alternatives. Firstly: the somewhat outrageous thought that a treaty with these “monsters” might be necessary to secure shipping. A petition for diplomatic assistance, which will require an ambassadorial party complete with armed protectors, has been sent to Doge Yagur. The other option is a military strike. Certain members of the Council have been recruiting locally for a scouting party to ascertain Claw Island’s defenses. 

 East of Gahbhr, at the mouth of the Dahabu River, lie the ruins of Mudomo, a Bel-Beni era mining town destroyed by the Red Spell. Although it was once known for large deposits of panning gold in the river bed, Mudomo is now a shunned location, due to repeated stories of undead and other monstrosities left behind by the arcane backwash. This does not, however, prevent regular expeditions by foolish and greedy explorers.

 Market Town (large town 6 000)

 Neither part of Padilla, Yannaghyra or Kelga, Market Town merits inclusion in these pages because of its origins in 560 AC as the Ptanari colony of Padval. The small harbour at the mouth of the Samtal River has existed since the Cataclysm but was not a trading hub until the arrival of the Ptanari, who sought to access trade from nearby Miwitu (later the Sapphire City).

 The town, which had largely shrugged off its colonial background by the 990s, was augmented by Bel-beni refugees in the quarter century following the Red Spell, and chose not to join the new Padillan Confederacy in 1024, preferring its independence. Padval was sacked in 1115 during the early years of the Yanna invasion of Gyhara, but was rebuilt. The current name, Market Town, dates to that rebuild.

 Market Town is occasionally subject to late winter flooding where the seasonal typhoons off the Shrouded Sea meet with early spring meltwaters coming down the River of Shining Sprites.

  See also the Kingdom of Yannagyhara gazetteer.

 Iolani (fortress, small town 3500)

 Iolani is tied historically to Padilla, but has a distinctly different culture, largely because of more than three hundred years of rule by the namesake warrior-monks. Where Padilla is a mercantile republic, Iolani is more feudal and socially stratified.  

 Originally settled by the same Loramir natives as Ptanar, Iolani fell to the Rashi sea barbarians around -200 BC. The island, which is much closer to the mainland than Ptanar, was always sparsely populated, due to it being easier to attack. It became a backwater outpost of the Rashi empire as the conquerors moved on to larger prey on the continent, namely the Kingdom of Silwantu.

 Liberated only a year after Ptanar achieved its independence, Iolani was never a Ptanari colony, but thought rather of as a younger sibling. It sent representatives to the Ptanar Council until 1002, when the Council voted to cede direct control of the island to the exiled Knights of Kijani. These became the Knights of Iolani thereafter, joining the Padillan Confederacy in 1024.

 Largely self-sufficient by the end of the 1000s, Iolani under the Knights gradually became more detached from the mother island. Iolani formally withdrew from the Padilla Confederacy in 1251, striking out as an independent power, much to the irritation of the Ptanari, who felt the island was still property of the motherland, regardless of the past three centuries of monastic operational control. 

 The island is dominated by a single large mountain that rises out of the sea, reaching abruptly to the sky, from which the name of the island, “Sky Hawk” in the archaic form of the Rashi tongue, is derived. The mountain is surrounded by a half-moon of flat coastal agricultural land that stretches towards the continent, tenuously linked by a causeway to the mainland that is underwater at high tide. The citadel headquarters of the Knights, completed around 1250 AC, was built atop the monastery erected in 1010, itself an addition to the older Rashi fortress. This impressive combination of stone edifices dominates the island. 

 The island is also the nesting grounds of thousands of sparrow hawks (kestrels). These foot-long brown and white birds have largely inaccessible nests high up in the cliffside caves that make up the seaward side of the fortress, the boulder-strewn beaches far below.

 The racial background of the Knight order is a mix of Bel-beni, Rashi, and Lormir, but the higher ranks of the order are almost exclusively of Bel-beni stock. Slaves labouring in the fields, port, or on ship are more common than in Padilla and more in line with the customs of Bomgol. Captain Bogoas (Monk 10 / Paladin 8 of Pinboh) is the sea-wise Prior and Knight-Grand Admiral of the Knights of Iolani.

 Given its direct connections to the mainland, it is not surprising that one of Iolani’s exports are the relatively rare Gazzohlan medicinal herbs that help fight Gironese swamp fever. The herbs are grown in the crescent of fertile land that surrounds the citadel.

 Almost all food, however, is imported, either across the causeway from the mainland, or via ship.

 See also the Knights of Malik and the Knights of Iolani.

 Llyra (small city 8000)

 Although Llyra is not part of the Padillan Confederacy, the “Enchanted City” is linked with the trading nation. Home to brown-skinned descendants of ancient Tripuri, Llyra today is a city of unnaturally high spires and a slightly-otherworldly feel, its 500-year-old architecture seeming to have been dropped right out of the height of the Kingdom of Kimwitu. Every noble family has their own palace, each one topped with a minaret, and flanked by gardens of dazzling beauty, maintained,  it is said, by magic. The city is protected by the Guardsmen of Llyra, a well-trained military company specializing in pike tactics that are augmented by a variety of magical items;  each soldier has at least one magic item, a rarity in Minaria. The Guardsmen are devoted to their young Queen.

 Prior to the disappearance of Llyra from the Minarian plane in 781 AC, Ptanar had trade relations with the magic-heavy city state. Consequently, they were one of the first to rebuild diplomatic connections when the city reappeared in 1223 AC. Padilla provides needed raw materials, as well as foodstuffs, to Llyra in exchange for local gemstones and also rare magical items that come from the Enchanted City.

 Llyra is ruled by the reclusive Queen Nariana, a slim brown-skinned soft-spoken young woman. Rarely seen in public, Nariana is under a curse placed by a vengeful magician which will make her fall in love with any suitor, rightly or wrongly, until her one true love (yet to be determined) removes the spell.

 Rather than be seduced by some low-born adventurer, she has retired to her bower, under heavy security, while her agents seek the finest man in the world to remove the curse. In her absence from the court, Nariana delegates power to a group of councillors. These councillors go hooded at all public functions, their faces in shadow. It is believed they are representative of the old families of Llyra. Only one, Councilor Eizan (Human, Sorcerer 6) remains unmasked when conducting the city-state’s business.

 Padilla’s top ambassador, Tessrek the Negotiator, was recently seen in Llyra, on a mission from Doge Yagur. The reasons behind the mission are not known.

 As part of its new commitments to opening relations with Sama and other nations, the City of Llyra has installed a garrison of just under two hundred Guardsmen at Morowa Redoubt, a military outpost at the source of the Wash, where water flows forth from underground aquifers. This forward projection of Llyran arms is designed to ensure cargo carried southwest from the city through the dangerous Hidzamauti Pass will arrive safely to the modest docks on the pond that have been built on an eddy pool at the source of the Wash.

 Botown (large village, approx. 900)

Botown is situated just up-river of where the River Raksaka empties into Jalavy Bay, at the southern tip of the Pavan peninsula. Botown is not a port, for the river silts up just west of the village. Due to long experience, the wily Boes have established defenses in the delta marshlands in addition to the flanking hills and forests to prevent raids from the sea.

 The Boes are skilled in hunting and tracking -- skills which make them sought-after mercenaries in the armies of Girion. The rangers of Botown are superb scouts.

 Botown was started as a Rashi colony about two centuries after the Cataclysm, harvesting timber from the great forest of Arasana (“Old Stand” in Rashi), which runs the length of the peninsula. The village became known for its carpentry craft. It survived the collapse of the Rashi dominions in the late 300s as the inhabitants built extensive defenses out of the natural topography (swamp, river, forests and hills). Today Botown continues to export wooden pieces of high quality,  in addition to the martial skills of their rangers.

For centuries the Boes made homage to Earth Mother and Souza, and shrines remain for both as the Boes do not worship one deity exclusively. Nada worship, brought by the Rashi, died out about 500 years ago, but there are still occasional old texts or markers which have her symbol.

 Today, a majority of Boes venerate Gushnasp as their patron deity, although this is a relatively recent development. Gushnasp’s direct intervention to save a band of devout travelers in the nearby Valley of Spouts about 35 years ago led to a rapid rise in local adherents to his cult.

 The Boes are wary of the Selkies, who seem utterly foreign to the Rashi culture of Botown. 

 See also the Kingdom of Afgaar gazetteer.

 Ruins of the Sapphire City

The Sapphire City was originally the city-state of Miwitu, a freehold created around the second ford of the River of Sprites in the early 300s AC. The town prospered over the centuries as a trade hub between the Kelgans and the more civilized nations to the south. This made it a tempting target for imperial expansion when the Bel-beni came calling in the late 700s. Annexed Miwitu became the provincial capital of the northwest satrapy created by the Empire and was renamed “the Sapphire City”. A existing temple to Kommiya was expanded and the new imperial shrine dedicated to her.

The next two hundred years were the Miwitu civic high point. The city-state grew into an imperial centre for magical studies, as arcane practitioners from across the Bel-beni Emprie flocked there. An arcane academy, the Sapphire institute, was founded to determine how to find and retrieve the vanished city of Llyra. The fact that they were ultimately unsuccessful did not prevent a large body of knowledge from being accumulated in the Institute and a collection of arcane artifacts from being stored in its underground vaults.

 The Red Spell of the Scarlet Witch King, which destroyed the Jade City so thoroughly, somewhat spared the Sapphire City. The buildings were left partially intact, even as much of the populace were slain or horribly warped.

 In the aftermath, rebellion flared in Miwitu. The royal satrap lost control to rebels and fled. The civilian Bel-beni, too, fled the chaos in fear of their lives, some of them joining the jungle refugees who formed the core of the warrior Mukingo people.

 The rebel factions fell out almost immediately began to fight each other, with one faction destroying the city's entire remaining store of food to flush out their rivals. Governed by gangs, with its infrastructure crumbling, its supply lines to the heartland severed, and its trade routes cut, the Sapphire City was broken.

 Over the next decade bandits and Kelgans nomads started to raid it. Starvation and sickness carried off ninety percent of the population, and the city was soon entirely abandoned. By 1050 it had fallen almost entirely into ruin.

 Legends claimed, however, that great treasures, not only precious metals and gems but magic items also, had been stored in imperial vaults, and that the satrap had hidden the entrances to these vaults before he evacuated. The abandoned Sapphire City, therefore, has been an attractive target of treasure hunters ever since.

 One vault that is known to have been found and plundered over a hundred years ago produced an astonishing inventory. Some say that this cache was from the only true treasure vault within the city; others have read the old documents and declare that it must be one of several.

 In 1260 AC adventurers arrived in Zuhr Rath claiming that they had breached an imperial vault although they warned of dangerous guardians, everything from wild animals in the ruins above ground to arcane sentinels and even the dead in the lower levels. Since then, however, the lost treasures of the Sapphire City have tempted all, from legitimate descendants to greedy looters.