Traha

Traha is the capital city of the Trahana Empire, a large and rapidly expanding empire in the west of the known world. An ancient city, Traha has never grown very large despite its significance as the heart of one of the world's major powers. This is in large part due to the city's isolated position -- Traha sits in a small valley relatively high in the Kossai. As a result, it has a cooler and more pleasant climate than most of the sweat-drenched heartland of its eponymous empire, but the geography has prevented the sprawl characteristic of most great imperial capitals.
Instead, Traha is a city of refined stonework and luxurious palaces. Untouched by war for centuries despite its empires numerous external conflicts, Traha has no walls to speak of and little in the way of defenses save its isolated location. The wealth not only of the imperial family but of a large and powerful landed nobility remains concentrated in the city, despite the Empire's vast expansion, in no small part due to the city's amenable climate. In addition, the difficulty of supporting a large population in a small valley to which most food is imported has prevented the growth of a significant underclass in the city, which concentrates instead in the larger but more squalid lowland cities such as Ardebal and Marheshi. Temples of Machaianism, the overwhelmingly dominant religion in Trahana, are also extremely common in the city, with their characteristic triple spires leaping into the sky like small peaks themselves. Although monasteries are common in the Trahana countryside, particular in the mountains west of the city, the monastic movement has little presence in Traha.
The port of Mara on the Bay of Morghes, the largest city in the old Trahana heartland, lies only a day's travel from Traha, down in the coastal lowlands, and serves as the primary harbor for travelers bound in and out of the capital city.
Category:Cities
Category:West