Amadath
Amadath is the northernmost barony of Darxes. It includes the sandy northern coast (210 km) and the rocky, anchorage-rich western coast north of the Ath. Most of the inhabitants are fisherfolk, or else earn a lving from the great Transathian forests- harvesting mushrooms, making turpentine from bark, hunting small and large animals for fur and profit. There are about 7000 subjects of the barony on the north coast, in a string of small villages along the seashore, and about 20 000 in villages or smallholdings on the west coast.
The capital, Amadh Hev (4000) is a stoutly built pirate-proof fortress at the mouth of the Bay of Discord; between it and the Ath, on a penninsula known as the King's Head, there is some cultivation inland. Almost all inhabitants are Tixrynish humans; though very many Lomen live in the forest, in a number of hunter-gatherer tribes, they escape taxation and cannot be counted as inhabitants of the barony. There is a colony of 400 Raxa Abashites at Troglodyte Bay, where the sandy coast meets the rocky; they scorn the other folk of Amadath and are known to rob travellers. Pearls, gem corals, fish oil, and enormous quantities of dried fish, seaweed, and squid are gleaned from the sea.
The baron exerts little power over his wide wild realm, where almost all transport is by sea; his occasional paranoid delusions may cause difficulties in Amadh Hev from time to time, but pass unnoticed elsewhere. He is deathly afraid of magic, since a soothsayer once told him it would be his death, and the practice of magic is therefore a capital crime in Amadath. The standard of Amadath is a green dragon turtle on a field of steel grey.
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Makanos
Makanos is the smallest barony in Tixryn; it is a steep-sided island near the mouth of the Ath. a mere 4x11 km and 40 km south of Amadh Hev. It is the home of the Imperial Magical Academy, and is covered with fortifications and fields. It is honeycombed with passages underneath. Makanos can only be accessed non-magically by small boat and a precipitous 30 m rope ladder. The island has a population of 4200, about a sixth of which are students and staff. Magical laboratories, collections of odd and magical things, libraries, smithies, and a zoological collection adorn the island, and it is the source of most of the Empire's magical paraphenalia.
The servants are drawn mostly from the Agdarxes region, with a few locals, and the magical types come from throughout the Empire and its Protectorates. The standard of Makanos is the sun, moon, and stars, in gold and silver on a black background.
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Leach
Leach is the Barony occupying the lower 150 km of the Ath valley. It has a rural population of 35 000, including about 10% settled Lomen. Like Amadath, its economy is based on the products of the forest. Timber, turpentine, mushrooms, furs, songbirds, moonstones and amber are found in the woods around Leach. The capital is Lishanik, a sturdy and humourless fortress town- it has 4000 inhabitants, 1000 of which are an oppressed underclass of Lomen. Fields of golden grain and nut orchards extend about 20 km E and W of Lishanik along the Ath; otherwise there is only scattered cultivation in the barony.
The port of the Barony is Gilyaxath, 95 km W of Lishanik; it has 3000 inhabitants and is famed for the valour of its whaling and serpenting fleet. It is economically dependent on Makanos, a mere 18 km W. Shields of sea-serpent hide are made in Gilyaxath for the imperial legions. Gilyanik (500), a short distance down the coast, is the silted-up former port. Almost every building in Leach is wooden. There is little herding due to competition from Lomen and Bemmel. The Baron of Leach is a wicked and heartless man with a soft spot in his heart for flowers, butterflies, and small furry animals. He has been known to garotte small boys for trampling his faldinum bushes. His fondness for natural things makes him popular among the Lomen. The standard of Leach is a black lamprey entwined around a red and gold sceptre on a sky blue field.
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Murath
Murath controls the next 60 km of the Ath's course. It has a sparse rural population of 12 000, 15% Loman, and produces chiefly turpentine, nuts, and amber. Miraz<, the capital (6500), is a sprawling town of timber on the main road from Lhoshad to Agdarxes that relies entirely on imported food. It has one stone building, an imposing citadel/palace that is the residence of the Three Demibarons. There is a fine bridge over the Ath here. Murath is famed for its monasteries and hermits, both of which scatter the woods to either side of Miraz. Most famous of these is the Monastery of Funam the Memorable, 16 km W of Miraz. An extensive complex of gardens and cool dark passages cut into a verdant hill, it holds great store of learning, with thousands of scrolls and tomes within. It is the seat of the Archimandrite of Ath, responsible for Akeath, Murath, Leach, and Amadath. Tanning, sawmilling, and smithing are the main occupations of the Miraz, which is in an ideal location to process goods from upstream. The three demibarons, one male, one female, and one eunuch, govern justly and well, providing many fine houses for the accomadation of pilgrims. There are many Lomen and Bemmel in the woods of Murath, a lot of them brigands and scoundrels. To guard against their depradations, there are fortified stopping places for travellers at Dashkal's Ridge, 45km NE of Miraz, and Sloon, 35 km S. The standard of Murath is a red hog on a green field.
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Akeath
Akeath is the Barony governing the final 130 km of the Ath, as far as the Salgur Hills. It has a population of 40 000, 10% Thuduni and 15% enslaved, which are almost all involved in mining. There are large mines of lead. silver, and gold in the Salgur Hills, and tin in the woods south of the Ath. The capital is Ni Creabth (3600), a wooden town of smelters and armed guards that is prey to fire and bandit. Here the ingots are sent downriver on enormous rafts bristling with Kalemen mercenaries. The usual lumbering, mushroom gathering, and preparation of medicinal bark goes on in the woodlands, which are shunned by the Lomen.
The baron of Akeath is a vain man of immoderate wealth. He is out of favour with the emperor and fears for his position, and has been squirreling away vast amounts of money in an underground fortress in a rugged region of the Salgur hills, 40 km SE of Ni Creabth. He owns several mines himself, and is always on the lookout for slaves to operate them. The standard is of three rods, gold, silver, and lead, against a red field.
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Usimala
Usimala is an ancient barony that governs the mouth of the Pon, from the dense woods to its north to the Thalesian moor to the south. It has a rural population of 25 000, most of whom live in extensive grainfields and orchards on the south bank. The capital is Usham Hev (6400), a fine port city built out of Thalesian chalk 25 km SW of Ponsmouth. The north bank of the Pon is an impassable marsh, making administration of Usimala's northern march difficult; most of the forest products (timbers, furs, mushrooms) escape taxation, and the fisheries nearby are poor. Besides acting as a port for the Pon valley, Usham Hev is the base of a substantial serpenting fleet and Tixryn's greatest centre for carpentry and the trading of rare woods - many of the amandelwood traders in Hasaba and zarjassi hunters of Colaba are natives of Usimala. Strangely, few other Usimalans ever leave their small barony. In Usimala both the Thalesian moor and its herding inhabitants are distrusted and held in superstitious awe; the biannual markets for hides, wool, and horn are held in a ritually secure glade surrounded by high chalk walls on the edge of the moor, the Market of Feskil, 20 km S of Usham Hev. The quarries that built Usham Hev are hewn out of the seaside cliffs at Orn Bay, 30 km SW of the city. Usimala was one of the first regions in Darxes to declare allegiance to the Empire and has always been a quiet unpretentious area. The current Baron is an easygoing elderly man who lives quietly in a small hilltop mansion surrounded by maps and bizarre curios from many lands (he has never himself been even as far as Ag-Darxes). His daughter and heir became strongly religious after the death of her husband, and much of the day to day power in Usimala is wielded by the powerful High Priest, Archimandrite Joktan - heretics beware! The standard of the barony is white, with a pine green octopusin one corner.
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Transponian Feyesh
Transponian Feyesh (45 000 rural, 120 km of north bank Pon). The capital is Xar Delmon (3000), a mazelike wooden fortress on the Lhoshad road 25 km north of the Pon. Like the other baronies governing the forests north of the Pon, it is heavily dependent upon forest products - honey, amber, turpentine, mushrooms, timber, falcons - but it is forest Lomen and Bemmel that collect most of this produce. Transponian Feyesh has a wise and hardy old woman for a baron, who sports magical silver teeth made by an Loman wizard. Under her rule the Barony has become famed for the stability of its race relations - Thudun, Lomen, Bemmel, and Kalamen coexist happily with humans in the labyrinths of Xar Delmon. In recognition of this feat, a 20' obelisk of marble and gold stands in the centre of Xar Delmon, a gift from the last emperor but one. The herald of the barony proudly displays this golden obelisk against a star spangled black background. Note: slave holding is actually prohibited by law in Transponian Feyesh, and is punishable by imprisonment or death. Also, the Baron refuses to believe in the existence of T'sai Lho, so any that appear recieve a cursory execution for being demonic phantasms. It will already be apparent to most readers that the Pon valley is an astonishingly parochial district.
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Cisponian Feyesh
Cisponian Feyesh (80 000 rural, 120 km of south bank Pon). Ruled from Kesipon, at 53 000 inhabitants one of the largest cities in Tixryn. The Barony is mostly cultivated save for the Thalesian moorlands in the SW; at its southern boundary the forest once again closes in. Lush fields of grain and citrus orchards cover the flat countryside; abundant underground water feeds cisterns and fishponds and enables populous villages to clutter the rich black soil of the plain. Houses are built out of timber and reeds except in Kesipon, whose construction required billions of bricks and heroic labours hauling blocks of chalk from the mighty quarries of Xaqlafey (35km SW). Through Kesipon flow the myriad products of inland Husyfra and North Darxes via the Miraz road; fishleather, salted limes, and fruit for the courts of Ag-Darxes join the stream. There are also many skilled metalworkers in Kesipon, and it is the custom to have an annual competition among them in the making of artificial birds, the best of which is sent to the emperor as a gift. The others (instead of being sold, for the smiths could not bear to have their secrets fall into the hands of another city) are set up on trees along the streets of Kesipon, and their incessant twittering and bleating would render life there unbearable but for the fact that they are attractive targets for thieves - there is a whole lane of merchants who buy them from the thieves, break them to bits, and sell the metal back to the metalsmiths. The baron of Cisponian Feyesh is a man of middle age, a capable administrator whose reign has seen Kesipon grow in population and power. He is a keen hunter, and much regrets the fact that his moldy old aunt controls the prey-filled forests across the Pon where his grandfather took him hunting lion. The guards at the gates of Kesipon are unusually stern and honest, and check every parcel going out of the city - they are promoted and recieve a bonus equal to a years wages whenever they find someone smuggling out an artificial bird. And the hapless bird smuggler? Kesipon is famed far and wide for its execution machines, and happy throngs from the countryside will take advantage of the holiday to pour into the city with rotten portyguls and dead fish to pelt the condemned. The emblem of Cisponian Feyesh is a shield divided into seven diagonal stripes, 1 black, 3 red, and 3 green, with a golden bird in the centre.
The Archimandrite of Kesipon dwells at Oer Mashon, 15km S of the city itself. He is dour and humourless.
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Salgur
With a population of 25 000 rural in the uplands of the Pon, Salgur is a forested and sparsely inhabited region with only a few Lomen and Bemmel. The timber of the area is mostly worthless, and even edible mushrooms are rare. There are some few gold deposits in the far east and tin in the N and W, worked by Thudun, who transport their finds to Kesipon. Most villages cluster by the shores of the river, built of wood around a fish weir with scrappy orchards attached. The lame baron of Salgur rules from Ishinais (2000), a neatly built wooden town 15 km from the Feyesh border; only in the lands west of it is the soil good. Upper Salgur is esteemed elsewhere only for the excellence of its bitter limes; they are carefully packed in down for the imperial court, where they are the only variety served.
Salgur's baron lost his feet as a lad, when his father was slow in ransoming him from some mountain brigands; he is as bitter as his barony's limes and is supported wherever he goes by two masked women of Colaba, both his wives. Brigandage is punished by removal of the feet, using dishonest weights by removal of the hands, and failure to pay the fish-tax by summary expulsion from the barony penniless and naked.
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Thalesia
An expansive barony incorporating the Great Thalesian moor (about 180 km E-W and 120 km N-S at its widest points) and its adjoining inlets and coastlands. The capital is Enthalis (4000), 90km NW of Agdarxes, one of three colonies established by the Empire about 250 years ago - before which the precipitous coasts of Thalesia were ignored and its inlands left to the slow and subservient herdsmen that dwell there yet. These people no doubt form the bulk of the population, but have never been counted; they graze their strange blue sheep with red eyes and long, curling horns throughout the windswept, ruin-spattered moor (before the great cataclysm, Thalesia had an entirely different climate and was heavily populated). Enthalis is a port made useful only by heroic magical efforts to blow away obstructing reefs; it huddles along a 1km length of shoreline below a low cliff through which tunnels give access to the interior, a town of excavated caves and tall square towers. Its streets are awash at high tide. Enthalis and the other two towns are the only possibly useful anchorages of Thalesia, most of whose coast is cliffs as high as 200m. Thick woodland clots ravines whose ends plunge off many metres above the sea, but the rest is bare grazing land cleared long ago after savage human-centaur wars. A few Bemmel hang on in the extreme west, at uneasy peace with the cannibal pirates that go forth in small boats from the treacherous fjord of Lachesh (the isle of Lachesh, 20 km along, is a narrow knife of chalk off the N coast of Thalesia).
Kotla Hev (1500), only 50 km NW of Ag-Darxes, is a poor harbour with most dwellings carved into the cliff face; Xu-Gallinhul (2000), 30 km W of Enthalis, has a terrifying approach by sea between jagged cliffs and is famed for its rock shellfish; it rises on a steep and poorly stabilised slope of scree towards the top of the moor. Each of the towns has a small area of farmland adjoining it, where fruit and vegetables are raised for local consumption - about 7000 people live in these.
The final populated area of Thalesia is Vaxinath (3000), where the road from Kesipon (85 km NNE) to Ag-Darxes (100 km SSW) nicks through the edge of the moor. This is an ornately decorated little town of brick and chalk, stoutly defended, where the nobility of Ag-Darxes come to take the miraculous healing waters. A spring at Vaxinath is the source of the little river called the Moorstream; this spring is surrounded by impressive ancient ruins refurbished as bathing houses, which legend says was once the temple of a great healing god. There are two more modern hospitals, run by devotees of Ivro and Rhamun repectively, near the springs, and the town is the residence of the young and idealistic Archimandrite of Vaxinath, a very clever theologian. The baron of Thalesia dwells mostly in Ag-Darxes, preferring to avoid the windy coasts of his barony. As a consequence, all kinds of evildoing are common and go generally unpunished. From time to time, a severe breach of the law will bring the baron, a soft and puffy sybarite, back to Enthalis - then he is usually very cross at having to forego his pleasures and heads bob in the streets for a week or so. The standard of Thalesia is of spring green, with a white "X" connecting the corners.
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Mallinath
Mallinath (4000), 50km SE of Vaxinath on the Moorstream, is the centre for a thriving barony of 30000 farmers and herdsmen, mostly human with about 10% Kalamen. These are mostly slaves and work the great grainfields whose produce is shipped daily to Ag-Darxes during the harvest - Mallinath is a town of hulking granaries that sits where it does because it is the highest the flat-bottomed riverboats can ascend the Moorstream. Its baron is young and callow, apt to be swayed by the advice of anyone older than himself - his chief ambition is to ride alongside the Emperor to the hunt. It hardly matters though, since Mallinath is so close to the centres of Imperial Power - at the hint of trouble, gleaming soldiers of the Emperor's standing legions appear at every granary.
The standard of Mallinath is four green lizards, two pointing up and two pointing down, on a golden field.
Covering 6000 square km to the east of Mallinath is the Forest of Skem, a forest teeming with wild beasts that is specially managed for the Imperial hunt by small armies of Lomen and Bemmel. The entire perimeter of the woods, which reaches as far as the Salgur hills, is marked by boundary stones standing 100m apart. These are inscribed with the imperial crest and warnings not to intrude within - the Bemmel and Lomen are all skilled bowmen and have orders to shoot humans on sight.
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Agdarxes
With a population of 651 000, Agdarxes is by far the most populous city of the empire. It was founded in the early days of the Empire of Tixryn on the ruins of the far older city of Ektarxis, one time capital of the much greater pre-cataclysmic Tixrynian empire that ruled many lands across the seas. Although founded for regions of history and prestige, it has flourished because of its location - to the north, the coast is rocky and uninviting, with only a meager hinterland for many hundred kilometres; to the south, shallow seas wash against dunes nearly as far as the Kalaman episiarchy of Zimbelaine; but Ag-Darxes has a fine anchorage that stood proof against the cataclysm and sits at the mouth of the Aglak, whose valley gives easy access to the rich and populous interior lands of Imland and Asjhad and New Tixryn beyond them. Ag-Darxes is finely built of brick and stone shipped down from the Salgur Hills, sprawling across an area on the north bank of the Aglak and the sea 15km long and 6km wide. Palaces and temples crowd round hills that are the remains of their ancient counterparts, and wide swathes of green parkland full of exotic beasts brush cheek and jowl with crowded flood-prone slums. Soldiers and guardsmen of noble houses stand on every street corner, unsmiling and ever aware that it is they alone who keep the multitudes from hacking down the pillars that support the empire and bringing the whole edifice down on their heads. Though Ag-Darxes is overwhelmingly Tixrynish, it contains huge numbers of people from all over the empire and beyond - Lhomish traders, Thudun from far Hasaba, a myriad Kalamen slaves fresh from the swamps of Zimbelaine, swarthy Asjhadis and Kitabans with their strange gods and flowing robes, shaven headed holy men from Quelia, T'sai Lho from the buried cities of Huruku and dour Halartuan Lomen with golden masks fixed in an eternal scowl; merry wine-filled merchants from far-off Drensneik, sad-eyed Colaban prostitutes, bejewelled northern Kalamen of Flilpansnik, boisterous minotaur seamen from lands even further north, Loman mercenaries with filed teeth and pink eyes from the deserts of southern Zagath...
Most of the palaces, fine homes, and temples are in the western parts of Ag-Darxes; the Eleven Hills, Hastur's Glade, and Monaxes districts among others. The worst parts of town are along the harbour in the eastern parts of town; three great slums of Vluqnisar, Agbahan and Xa-Balak hold nearly 100 000 people between them, largely Kalamen, and are miasmic warrens with open sewers and criminal masterminds. Most of the growth of Ag-Darxes has been in the last few centuries, since populations elsewhere in the empire have built up and landless peasants left to seek their fortunes in the big city. When chosen as capital of the Empire, Ag-Darxes had a population of about 15 000 in and around what is now the western harbour suburb of Darxu Hev.
The valley of the lower Aglak is a densely populated region where most of the locals, human and kalamen, lead lives of backbreaking poverty groaning under enormous taxes in kind which go to feed Ag-Darxes. There are four baronies on the northern side as far as the Moorstream: Vashtia on the coast, Navenku and Celamtia along the Aglak, and Oruvu between the moorlands and the riverside baronies. The barons of these areas all live in Ag-Darxes.
Ag Darxes itself has a population of 603 000, which can be broken down as follows:
Tixryni - 167 000
Kalamen - 140 000
New Tixryni - 90 000
Quelians - 40 000
Kitabans - 30 000
Asjhadis - 22 000
Argandarr - 11 000
Lhomishmen - 50 000
Imarxans - 20 000
T'sai Lho - 20 000
Thudun - 5 000
Settled Lomen - 8 000
Bemmel - 1 000
Colabans - 1 000
There are three Archimandrites based in the region of Agdarxes, with roughly equal power and responsibility; the Archimandrite of Asqai, the Archimandrite of Maxa, and the Archimandrite of Darxu.
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Vashtia
The coast north to the Penninsula of Vashti, about 30 km, belongs to the barony of Vashtia is densely cluttered with villas, bathing beaches, parks, and small boat anchorages where the nobility holiday. The Isle of Asqai, (10x4km), on the other side of the portygultree covered penninsula, is the main seminary of the Empire and boasts many fine temples of marble, as well as the seat of the Archimandrite oif Asqai (Veala Hev, 1700). Maxa Hev (3000), a few kilometres north of Agdarxes , is also cluttered with villas and is the seat of an Archimandrite. Vashtinais, a small but beautiful haven at the mouth of the Orve, is ringed with gardens of exotic trees. Its main feature is the winter palace of the barons of Vashtia, a soaring edifice of white marble built in the Imarxan style with faery spires. Its population of 2500 includes nearly 500 Imarxans and almost as many Quelians of substance. There are 33 000 inhabitants elsewhere in Vashtia, including 8000 suburban dwellers included in the Ag-Darxes total. The baron of Vashtia is an important woman at court, and her banner shows three golden portyguls on a field of green.
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Navenku
Navenku has a rural population of 20 000, and 40 000 suburbanites. It is a small flat barony, about 20x30 km, largely covered with monotonous plantations. The baronial seat has always been in the suburb of Hastur's Grove.
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Oruvu
This bare and tedious strethc of farmland has 20 000 rural inhabitants, chiefly in the valley of the Orve. The baronial seat, Xoer Oruv (1500), is well placed for trade, and the baron has plans to settle it with thousands of slum-dwellers, building weaving establishments and pleasure gardens.
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Celamtia
Celamtia has 15 000 rural inhabitants; its only location of note is Ceramis (2000), one day's ride from the centre of Ag-Darxes, which boasts many fine inns and a hulking prison where those guilty of crimes against the Emperor are sent to rot.
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Kotai
Extending for 25 km along the Aglak on the south bank, and for about 50 km south, is the barony of Kotai, with a rural population of 70 000. Along the 15 km of coast west of the mouth of the Aglak, there are also many villas and gardens, though with not a few fishing villages mixed in. It is a mixed farming area, with more vegetable fields and orchards than the north bank, and has three substantial cities - Nhaithanik (8000), and Xar Ilm (19 000), 10 km apart on the Aglak, are properly speaking suburbs of Ag-Darxes, but Kotaxath (16000), 20 km to the south of Agdarxes, is another thing entirely, a spacious unwalled city of brick and straight treelined avenues where the baron of Kotai dwells in a ghastly tower topped with a huge gilt dome easily seen from Ag-Darxes. It is a city that lives by the knife, for here are the great slaughteryards of Darxes and Lesser Tixryn, from which meat goes into the mouths of Ag-Darxes and hides to a thousand skilled leatherworkers. There are even greater works at Nhaithanik, and their presence can be deduced from many miles out to sea by the vast rafts of effluvium they send down the Aglak. The seaside resort of Nesshile (2000), 20km SSE of Kotaxath, should also be mentioned; it is an airy and pleasant little town of brick and baroque villas that is swelled in summer by great numbers of the holidaying wealthy from Ag-Darxes.
The baron of Kotai is a vegetarian who maintains large tracts of dunes along the sea where cattle and sheep who took her fancy graze happily, tended by slaves. The standard of Kotai is red with a golden disc above and silver hand below. The Archimandrite of Kotaxath dwells at an estate of 900 acres near Nesshile, where he was shunted by the higher echelons for being too competent and tactless.
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Cadrashik
Along the remaining 30km of the combined Aglak, and as far down the S bank of the Green Aglak, is the barony of Cadrashik. It is populous farming land (50 000, 20% kalamen slaves), shading off to grazing land in the south. Xoer Cadra (2500), a dismal fortress town 5km up the Green Aglak, is the traditional residence of the baron; the latest baron, however, having been convicted of treason against the realm, an officer and company of the Imperial legions are stationed at Xoer Cadra. The 14 year old heir is held hostage in Ag-Darxes to discourage her father's supporters from rebellion. The standard of Cadrashik is white with a black snake coiled across it.
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Mishabrasia
At the junction of the two Aglaks stands Abraz (40 000), a drab and swampy city with a large free kalamen population. It is a centre for sedition, papermaking, and the production of portygul and heselfruit liquers. It also boasts the imperial bread factory, where the grains of the Aglak plains are milled into the well-nigh-imperishable bricklike loaves that feed the Imperial navies and legions. Several times destroyed by flood, it has few buildings of historical significance. The Academy of Abraz is an institution of Kalamen learning, founded by a wealthy merchant of that race, which although the butt of many jokes is an important centre for education and thought; many radicals from the slums of Agdarxes have ended up here. Mishabrasia, the barony surrounding Abraz, stretches for 50 km west of Abraz and has a rural population of 50 000 (50% kalamen) devoted to feeding Ag-Darxes. It is scattered with ponds and canals, all part of a complicated system to ensure that it instead of Ag-Darxes bears the brunt of any major flood. The baron of Mishabrasia having recently died and there being a dispute over succession (Imperial Guard are stationed at the entrances to the famous Blue Castle of Abraz), the Archimandrite of Abraz has responsibility for the town. Many of the writers and artists of dubious political allegiance who fled to the town during the reign of the tolerant late Baron have already cleared out for fairer fields. The standard of Mishabrasia is three crocodiles, facing left-right-left, depicted in gold against a black background.
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Serthku
Serthku, on the N side of the Blue Aglak, is the last of the baronies concentrated on feeding Ag-Darxes; it has no major towns and a rural population of only 20 000 in small riverside villages between Mallinath and Mishabrasia. The main source of state income is tolls on the Coronet bridge, where the main road inland from Agdarxes crosses the Moorstream on an impressive double arch of stone hung with banners and bronze shields. At 60 km from Ag-Darxes, the bridge is a fine place for a rider to stop at the end of blurb' second days journey, and there is a rambling inn of empire-wide fame on the Serthku side; "Ye Kalamenn's Armes". Serthku is ruled in absentia by a young and flirtatious baron in Ag-Darxes; her brother has a small property some miles up from the inn with a square where justice is meted. The standard of the barony is all of white, excepting a small green seven-pointed star in the upper centre.
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Sneik
Further up the Blue Aglak, a 60km stretch on both sides is the Barony of Sneik, with a population of 51 000 mostly on the south bank. It is extensively cultivated by humans and Bemmel and exports some pipeweed but little else. The baron, a gruff but kindly old man who smokes incessantly, dwells in the little town of Blueford (1800) on the south bank, while the Paramount Chief of All the Bemmel has a great wooden hall in Bansmeik (2000), a centaurish community directly across the river. Relations between the two are coridal, and they collaborate annually on a licentious spring festival that draws the ire of religious authorities and attracts thousands of revellers from throughout the valley. The standard of Sneik is a white centaur bearing a long pole against a blue background.
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Skem
The next 70 km of the Blue Aglak is subject to the Barony of Skem (30 000 rural population, pipeweed, beer, and water-rats main exports). In the western regions there are many fishponds, and the river is slow and wide; eastwards it narrows and runs quickly over a rocky bed. Most people dwell on the south bank, for in the north the Forest of Skem encroaches close by to the river, and beasts from it are liable to devour both stock and smallfarmer. Although the main road runs through this area for more than a hundred km in Sneik and Skem, travellers are generally safe, for the emperors have had build thirteen great stone towers along the way where travellers can rest for a moderate fee. The great citadel of Skem (14 000), a town all hewn of stone with paved streets of river pebbles, sits near the eastern edge of the country, on a great steep-sided hill above the rushing waters of the Blue Aglak. Dwarven caverns honeycomb the lower parts of the hill, where there were formerly great lodes of copper; many dwarven smiths still dwell there and work the metal brought down from the Salgur Hills. Skem is about 220 km from Ag-Darxes by road, and has many fine inns and breweries - here the road crosses the Blue Aglak on an ancient bridge of Thuduni build and heads off through rolling woods and pastures to Ammonais, 140 km on. The baron of Skem is a redoubtable old warrior a bit past his prime, whose castle is decorated with captured Zimbelaini battle standards and Kalamen heads. He is stoutly loyal to the Emperor, and is married to a minor princess. The Archimandrite of Skem is his firm ally, and a great enemy of drunkenness and intemperance. The standard of Skem is green below and black above, with three red stars in the upper left corner.
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Tarkibul
East of Skem, along the last 100km or so of the Blue Aglak's course, the Barony of Tarkibul reaches up into the Salgur hills. It has a scattered population of 25 000, most of whom labour in small copper mines in the hills or herd sheep. There are a number of small smelting settlements in the hills, run by Thudun who send the metal down to Skem, but the only real town is Kaccilak (3000), perched on a height far above the Blue Aglak 50 km ENE of Skem. Weaving is the main occupation of the town, which was like Skem stoutly built by Thudun long ago - it has many empty buildings and streets, as it was once a great smelting city of over 10 000 inhabitants. The baron is young, feckless, and dissolute, embroiled in mad schemes to turn copper into gold with the connivance of a number of shifty miners and alchemists. Magicians travelling to Kaccilak are warned to beware of job offers - those who fail to "pull their weight" on the team - i.e., not produce any gold - are stripped of their belongings and as often as not beaten in the town square. The Ag-Darxes/Ammonais road forms the southern edge of Tarkibul; here, a scant few miles from the edge of Imarxes (35 km S of Kaccilak), are the fabled cisterns of Trolac - above, a natural amphitheater dotted with sparse brush and ancient slag heaps, an inn and tiny village perched on the edge; beneath, a long abandoned Thuduni mine with many kilometres of water-filled passageways and bottomless wells where dread things may lurk. A few centuries ago a luckless princess was entombed somewhere beneath with her bejewelled entourage.
The standard of Tarkibul is pure gold.
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Soreceg
Between the sea and the Green Aglak is the wide barony of Soreceg, home to 65 000. It stretches for 60 km along the Aglak and as far along the coast, and is mostly herding territory with scattered orchards and groves of tall, straight trees good for shipbuilding. Along the Aglak there are extensive low lying lands with vegetable fields where giant hairless water rats are raised for food; there are no large settlements in this area. Along the coast, there are a few settlements of fisherfolk, with a greater concentration of population behind the dunes along the road to Ofala. The soil is poor, and produces little but black radishes and spiny melons - most of the villagers raise cattle. Xar Dalear (7000), 85 km S of Kotaxath by road, is the baronial seat and only large town of Soreceg. It stands on a little stream a ways back from the sea and is a walled town of brick and thatch that continually stinks of cattle; its streets are narrow and winding and even the baronial castle is little better than a crumbling ruin. Most of the inns are situated outside the city (near the sawmills), and the baron lives on her country estate "Green Eagles" 6 km to the NE. She spends a great deal of time currying favour with the Emperor and rather less adminstering the Barony - she has won reknown in battle, and wears gilt dress armour on all public occasions. The Archimandrite of Soreceg,a lecehr whom she detests, dwells on another fine country estate, "The Red Hart", some 12 km E of Xar Dalear. The standard of Soreceg is a horse and rider in black on a field of pale blue speckled with golden stars.
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Green Aglak
On the north shore of the Green Aglak is a barony of the same name, prone to flooding, with grainfields inland and vegetable and water-rat raising along the river. It has a rural population of 27 000 and is centred on the little town of Xarsiq (2000), 75 km ESE of Abraz. The town is surrounded by canals and sits on an artificial hill some 10 km from the river. It is famed for its beer and the eccentricity of its mad baron Tarlifer. He has adopted a water-rat as his heir and is building a complex of ziggurats in a pasture 10 km north of the town that he claims is the centre of the universe. A group of about 100 Quelians dwell outside the town in rubbish heaps and worship Tarlifer as a living anti-God; there are also 10' stone statues of him in heroic poses at the entrances to Green Aglak. The standard of Green Aglak is a grinning silver crescent moon against a green field.
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Termaon
Termaon is one of the great baronies of Darxes; it stretches along the north shore of the Green Aglak for 130 km, as far as the Farrid Hills, and north to within 15km of the Blue Aglak in some places. It has a population of 85 000, divided between subsistence agriculturalists in the south and sturdy herders and woodsmen in the north - where there are even a few Lomen and Bemmel. The town of Great Termaon (9 500) is the chief centre of the upper Green Aglak valley, sitting amidst fields of pipeweed and labyrinthine fishponds on a slight rise by the river. It is the upper limit for navigation on the Green Aglak, and is where wool, livestock, and medicinal horn are loaded on barges for Ag-Darxes. It also produces a cheap black beer and fine ceramic goods- there are great claypits stretching inland a little to the east of Great Termaon. The town is poorly built, with walls of wood and daub, but the central square is impressive, with a huge town hall and baronial residence of ancient black stone. The baron has little use for the rest of the empire, shunning court politics and never leaving his barony. He is rival to Green Aglak to such an extent that both send occasional bands of raiders across the border to burn granaries, steal, and kidnap peasants. The Termaoninan captives are set to work building ziggurats, while those from Green Aglak are sent by the baron to settle new villages in the woods and degraded pastures of north Termaon. Ni Ertaan (800), 60 km W in the Farrid Hills, is a rough and tumble centre for the mining of semi-precious stones, surrounded by a hinterland where feuding clans of brutish shepherds murder and rob with impunity. In a lonely forest 90km NE of Great Termaon, on a hill near the Imarxes border, stand the ruins of the former castle of Xar Mimnak, established before Imarxes fell to the empire. Strange tales are told about the fall of the barony of Mimnak, and the castle and its surrounds are today shunned by all. The standard of Termaon depicts a giant roc clutching the sun in its claws.
The Archimandrite of Termaon and Ferrak dwells in Great Termaon, and is another destabilising influence, forever sending out priests on ill-fated missions to broker peace agreements.
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Ferrak Eshain
Ferrak Eshain comprises 35 km of marshy river frontage with 15 000 inhabitants who grow tubers, melons, and water rats and the royal forest of Ferrak covering about 4000 km2 to the south. It is more poorly maintained than the hunting forest of Skem, and the centaur guardians are venial sorts, allowing all kinds of poaching, mushroom gathering, and even grazing. The baron of Ferrak Eshain dwells in the castle of Xar Liim on the river and is a corrupt and greedy woman deeply involved with Ag-Darxan organised crime. Her standard is three sky-blue discs on a field of yellow marked like scales.
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Ferrak Rudain
Ferrak West is a large barony facing Termaon across the Green Aglak. It has a population of 51 000 dwelling mostly in the valley of the Sarl, a little river flanked by rolling pastures and verdant fields. Tixryni is spoken here with accents more like those of Lesser Tixryn than of the lower Aglak. Sarlikess (3000), a neat and well-planned town of brick and wood (it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt 50 years past) sits astride the Sarl; there is one stout bridge still standing and the ruins of two others. A majestic monument (white stone, 50' high) on the edge of town commemerates the battle of Sarlikess, when Galimpoz forced his way across the river, scattered the armies of his brother, and thus established what would later be called the Empire. Pipeweed and tubers are grown along the Sarl, and there is a fair amount of herding, with spinning and weaving being the main industry of Sarlikess. The baron of Ferrak West is an unpleasant man with a disfiguring skin disease, arrogant, contemptuous, and unloveable. The Archimandrite of Sarl, an apolitical devotee of Khud, lives in a whited sepulchral dwelling on the outskirts of the towns burial ground. The barony's standard has some dozens of blue mifflyflowers on a field of white.
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Kove
Kove (23 000) lies on the southern boundary of Darxes, along the river Hezkad. It is centred on the town of the same name, also called Upmostbridge (1800), and its suspicious insular people speak Tixryni with accents near to those of Lesser Tixryn. Agriculture is on a subsistence basis except for a noxious beer, which is made and drunk in vast quantities. There is much herding of both sheep and cattle throughout the land, with some woolworking at Kove. Many prospectors search the rugged parts in the NE of Kove for semi-precious stones, but all that are found somehow end up in the hands of the baron. This creature dwells in a gilt and bejewelled mansion many times too fine for a barony of the size, on a large landscaped garden just north of Kove. He is young and vigourous, with contempt for all vices but his own (greed and cruelty), and discourages public drunkenness by annually drowning a drunkard in the Hezkad. The beery and boisterous peasantry become more friendly to foreigners at the time of the "drinkdeep festival", as it is known, plying them with drinks so that one of their own number will be spared...
The standard of Kove is three blue disks on a field of gold.
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