Anarea > World > Overworld > Free City of Iklaron
The Free City of Iklaron is the Easternmost of the three great Southern Cities of the Overworld, at the Southern terminus of the great South Road from Valdrea. It is situated in a rare fertile strip on the coast of the Southern Desert, fed by springs where underground streams from hills far to the South East emerge from deep beneath the desert.
Iklaron is ruled by a hereditary Pasha with a selected Council that operates in an advisory capacity passing Laws in his name and subject to his Prerogative. The hereditary succession is subject to periodic usurpation by other family members or coups by rival families, but history is rewritten by the victors to show a continual succession. The Council of Iklaron is composed of representatives of various Factions as in Tehmor and Vavistor, but these are appointed by favour of the Pasha. Often the Pasha rules as a benevolent dictator and successive Pashas have had a penchant for public works and rebuilding the City as a monument to their own splendour (pulling down inconvenient slums). As a result, Iklaron is the most splendid of the Southern Cities, with wide avenues lined with palms, great plazas filled with jacarandas and shaded parks filled with fountains and displaying statues of the current Pasha, his ancestors and favourites.
Iklaron sees itself as the great City of the Desert and trades with the nomadic tribes and Oases of the Southern Desert. As the end point of the great South Road and a major port, it is the centre of trade between the Desert and the rest of the Overworld. It is particularly known for the trade in Spell Point Recovery pills, powders and draughts and is famed for its Lotus Dens, and so sometimes called the "City of Dreamers". Its Guild of Lotus Dealers is particularly influential and the Guild's ruling Cabal is an alternative centre of power in the City.
Iklaron is the largest of the Southern Cities and maintains
the largest Navy. Its Army is smaller than the well-funded Vavistorian Army, but
it has a large elite Camel Corps that mounts extensive patrols into the Desert
to defend its trading interests. Unlike Vavistor, Iklaron has little interest in
meddling in the affairs of the other Cities, but its Secret Service does carry
out counter-espionage operations against the activities of Vavistor in
particular, but also those of Tehmor. Iklaronian agents tend to be Assassins
and/or Dreamwalkers and are well-protected against Poison.
The three Southern Cities co-operate in relations with the rest of the Overworld and in trading matters, and their respective Overlords meet regularly in a High Council, but there is an intense local rivalry between the three of them. Iklaron sees itself as the grandest of the Southern Cities, with Tehmor being weak and degenerate and Vavistor consumed by in-fighjting between Evil Factions. All three Cities are fanatical about horse racing, a sport at which Iklaron excels with its huge racetrack and long investment in stud farms by its rulers, despite the city also being the greatest camel trading centre in the World. Iklaronians will (particularly after a few drinks) speak dismissively about Tehmorians as a bunch of degenerate, in-fighting Cultists and Vavistorians as a bunch of Scorpion Cultists and poison dealers. Tehmorians and Vavistorians, on the other hand, see Iklaronians as no more than a bunch of camel traders and lotus eaters
The official Language of the City is Southern, but many other Languages are also spoken by the various Factions.
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