Touzor

Touzor (TOU-ZOR) is a city in the Seitdout Region of Beikabrou. It is the capital of the Tütouzor Republic, which bears its name, and it is currently the largest city in the world with over 1.2 million residents within its outer ring wall. The city is built around all sides of the confluence of the Tui River and the larger Kabrou river. The city possesses one bridge over the Tui River and two long bridges, both nearly a ride long, over the Kabrou. The city was given its current name after the construction of the third bridge in 1323 NE, as the name in the original Derheizh meant 'three bridges.' The city site previously held several minor towns and possessed a fortress, the Kachats Fortress, which has been incorporated into the modern city. Touzor continued to be a relatively minor city notable mostly as the junction of several major roads and one of the few crossings of the Kabrou in the region for centuries. The site was selected to be the capital of the Tütobrüz Republic in 2003 NE, and was largely demolished and rebuilt as a much larger, double walled city over the following decade. The Tütobrüz government moved to Touzor in 2009 NE and the republic was renamed the Tütouzor Republic at this time. The city grew rapidly and became a major industrial center in addition to housing the central government of a state that was and remains the most populous on Opelyx. The city has a thriving fabric industry with both silk and linen cloths being woven in the Teichatua district and dyed in the Voeseich District, both located south of the Kabrou River. The city also has a large metalworking industry centered in the Vilarvoeb district and a thriving lumber and flour mill industry in the Zakbüzet District. The central government of the Tütouzor Republic is located in Teivabob Circle at the top of Reigeish Hill. The Kachats fortress and its garrison continue to occupy their historical location at the junction of the Tui and Kabrou Rivers, and the city's river ports and markets continue to occupy the site of the older market city of Dwikratradz across the Tui from the main city.

## Etymology

The original Sikshouph Derheizh name of the city was Doozar, from *doo* (three) and *zar* (bridge(s)). The city built to the north of the river was given this name after the construction of the Tazei Garrads Bridge in 1323 NE. The Gashoos Derheizh version of the name (Touzair), which had the same meaning, was transliterated into Drusich as Touzor, which became the city's name after its capture by Tütobrüz in 1966 NE. The name has no meaning in the Tütouzor language.

## History

The confluence of the Tui and Kabrou Rivers was home to a number of settlements dating back to pre-history. Various bridges were built over time across the Tui and there was a market city on one side of the bridge or the other throughout most of history. Several such bridges and market towns were destroyed during conflicts in the region, however, and few of the settlements were either large or notable historically.

In the early years of the Sikshouph Empire, the bridge over the Tui was rebuilt in 780 NE and incorporated into a major improved road to Rerubros, still known today as Rerubros Road. The bridge was simply known as the Dwi Bridge, after the name of the river in Derheizh. A settlement known as Dwikratradz (lit. Dwi Junction) was built at the southern end of the bridge and built a river port along the Kabrou. The empire also constructed a fortress across the Tui river from Dwikratradz, known as the Kratradz Fortress, which had a diamond shaped central tower that overlooked the river junction, in 822 NE.

During the construction of the Tirtukog Road from the Seitdout to western Konockau, Dwikratradz was selected as the site for the bridge across the Kabrou that would form the eastern terminus of the Tirukog Road. The bridge was named the Dirab Garrads Bridge, after emperor Dirab Garrads, upon its completion in 1280 NE. This considerably increased overland traffic through the region and the settlement expanded.

The Tasetvou Road was completed in 1290 NE, providing a route from the western Roboureis city of Tasetvou along the Kabrou to the western terminus of the Dirab Garrads Bridge. This route proved popular enough that the imperial government decided to build a second bridge to alleviate traffic and provide a shorter route from the west to the northern section of the Rerubros Road. The second bridge, named the Dasii Garrads Bridge after Emperor Dasii Garrads, was completed in 1323 NE. During the construction of the bridge, a new community was built to the north of Kratradz Fortress along the new shortcut road, named Dasii Road, near the Tachavs Pond, to house the workers. After the completion of the bridge, the new community was chartered as a separate community named Doozar.

The region suffered economically during the Divided Kingdom's Period that followed the collapse of the Sikshouph Empire in the 15th century, and several battles were fought over Kratradz Fortress during the following three centuries. The community of Dwikratradz was largely abandoned during this period for the safer location of Doozar, next to the fortress.

The fortress and city were surrendered to Gashoos Dynasty forces without a fight in 1809 NE, shortly after the Gashoos capture of the nearby major city of Bebitreik. The fortress was improved and the river port facilites of Dwikratradz were reconstructed at this time. Gashoos Derheizh was installed as the region's dialect, causing the name of Doozar to be changed to Touzair and Dwikratradz to be changed to Tweecratraitz. A wall along roughly the modern boundary of Touzor's inner wall was built to surround the city of Touzair in 1824 NE.

The Gashoos Dynasty was marked by corruption and internal strife and Touzair continued to be a minor and relatively poor town during this period. The Gashoos were driven out of the city by the Tütobrüz Republic in 1966 and out of the Cratraitz fortress the following year. The Tütobrüz repaired the bridges and restored the riverport to the south of the Tui. They renamed Touzair to Touzor, which was simply a transliteration, but named the rebuilt Tweecratraitz as Tuikachats, which was partially a tranlation. Technically, the two communities remained separate and the renamed Kachats fortress was outside of both at the time.

After completing the invasion of the Seitdout in 2001, the Tütobrüz Republic decided to undergo a significant re-organization to reflect the fact that the vast majority of the republic's land and people were in the Seitdout region, making the capital of Tobrüz in the Beizatrou Region poorly located. After some surveying, the city of Touzor was selected as the location for a new capital in 2003. The city was selected due to its central location and access to several major land and river travel routes. The relatively small size of the community, which had a population of 109 thousand at the time, was also seen as attractive as it would make it more practical to considerably rebuild the city and populate it with an ethnically Drusich majority, in order to assure continued Drusich control over the republic.

From 2003-2013 the city was considerably rebuilt. The city's original walls were fortified and restructured as an inner wall and a second, much larger ring wall was constructed to surround the original wall, the former city of Tuikachats, and a considerable amount of land to the south of the Kabrou. All of the land inside this outer wall was incorporated into the city of Touzor. A large section of the central hill within the old walls, Reigeish Hill, was demolished and cleared to make way for governmental buildings for the new central government, including the meeting hall for the republic's central assembly.

The central assembly moved into its new hall in 2010, and the republic was officially renamed the Tütouzor Republic as one of the assembly's first acts in its new home. Additional construction continued on the city until 2013, when the city was formally declared completed.

The redesigned city included a new artificial pond and the construction of several underground aqueducts. Many new residential neighborhoods were built and several planned industrial districts were included in the design as well. These were intended to address what were viewed as strategically critical industrial needs that were viewed as being below the desired capacity by the republic's administrators. The two major industries build up in the city were the silk fabric industry, which is primarily built up in the Teichatua (lit. 'weaver') District and the Voeseich (lit. 'dye') District, and the steelworking industry centered in the Vilarvoeb District. Both silk districts are located to the south of the Kabrou from the old city and the Voeseich District has a dedicated underground aqueduct to provide water for its operations. The Vilarvoeb District is located to the north of the Kabrou, west of the inner city wall.

The fabric districts were originally created for the production of silk fabric for use in military uniforms and equipment. Silk fabrics underlay the steel plating of Tütouzor armor, providing structure, tensile strength, and preventing gaps. Silk fabrics have many other uses in Tütouzor society, however, and excess production was turned to the production of fabric for luxury goods within decades. Shortly afterwards, the workforce, equipment, and expertise of the silk districts were also utilized for the production of other forms of fabric, especially linen fabrics made from cotton grown in the Aiscwepheiph and Loomileich valley regions to the east after the Tütouzor capture of Roocheisha in 2062.

The steel working district was somewhat less vertically integrated than the fabric district in the sense that the city's metal working industry is incapable of working with raw materials. The planning committee for the city decided that metal refining and smithing would produce too much smoke for the central capital so those operations were placed in nearby centers to the east, downwind from Touzor. The metalworks in Touzor focus instead on forming and riveting plates, which are produced elsewhere. The metalworks produce the final plates for Tütouzor armor, which can be joined with silk to make the full, finished armor for the republic's army.

Additional critical industries were built in the Zakbüzet (lit. 'river wheel' i.e. 'mill') District along an underground aqueduct fed by a reservoir diverted from the Tui in the hills to the east. The high-pressure flow of the aqueduct drives mill wheels in the district, which are used to produce flour, lumber, and other goods. The city additionally developed a thriving glassware industry, though this was not planned and is distributed in many areas throughout the city.

The city's wealth and population grew along with the republic and the city's industrial activities grew as well. The city was originally planned as an ethnically Drusich Enclave in order to assure Drusich control over the city's politics, which have outsized influence on the central assembly, but the population was never more than 60% ethnically Drusich. As the demand for labor grew, especially in the fabric district, the city was forced to import a large number of workers from the surrounding Derheizh majority Seitdout Region, and the city became Derheizh majority once more by the early twenty-second century. The modern city is roughly 74% ethnically Derheizh, 20% ethnically Drusich, and 6% other or mixed ethnicity. Despite these population shifts, voting restrictions have assured that the Drusich population remains a substantial majority of the city's voting eligible citizenry.

A worker riot broke out in 2301 NE with workers demanding increased access to the franchise and better conditions and pay. This led to a general worker's strike that lasted for three months and ground the city's economic activity to a halt. The central government, which effectively controls the city, refused to make any concessions on the franchise and violently removed protesters from the city's river port, the steelworking district, and a number of public places. The rioters seized control of both bridges over the Kabrou, however, and forced the government to the negotiating table. The central government eventually agreed to pass provisions improving worker's conditions and pay, but made no concessions with regard to the franchise

The city has continued to grow and become more industrious over its time as capital of the republic, but inequality and division between the city's Derheizh majority and the Drusich minority that control the city has grown along with it. The recent wars with Konockau and Imaria have exacerbated these issues as the city's draft heavily draws on its poorer Derheizh population to fill its two expeditionary legions, while the Drusich citizens are generally able to either afford replacement soldiers or are assigned to serve in the third legion which is permanently station in the city at Kachats Fortress. Among the greatest complaints of the Derheizh majority is the lack of the franchise; though they make up 74% of the population of the city, they account for less than 20% of its voting-eligible citizenry. This is mostly due to property requirements; Tütouzor law requires that voters be male, adult, heads of households who possess personal property, such as land, whose value exceeds some threshold. Because few Derheizh migrant workers own significant property, few can vote. Out of the city's 1.2 million residents, only around forty thousand in total are capable of voting, and because votes are proportional to property value up to a point, the five thousand richest men in Touzor command an effective majority of the vote.

## Government

The city of Touzor is governed directly by the 42 men elected directly to the Tütouzor central assembly. This is in contrast to Tütouzor states, where a state assembly is directly elected to govern the state and appoint assemblymen to the central assembly. The central assembly has 250 members when fully staffed, so the 42 assemblymen from Touzor represent over 16% of the central assembly's membership, despite the city possessing less than 2% of the population of Tütouzor's voting district population. This was done deliberately by the founders of the republic to help ensure that Drusich voters would maintain an effective voting majority over the central assembly. The desire to maintain that unequitable power structure has motivated policies in the city designed to limit the franchise and prevent Derheizh voters from gaining control of the city's seats. The city has the highest property-holding requirement of any Tütouzor voting district and the highest cap on vote strength as well. It's also the only district in the republic that has never granted land within its territory to returning veterans of wars, though the central assembly has often granted land to the Touzor legions men in other, Derheizh majority states.

The city lacks the independent magistracies and judgeships of a typical Tütouzor state and magisterial duties for the city are carried out by the central magistrates appointed by the central assembly to govern the entire republic. The 42 assemblymen from the city have independent power to craft laws for the city but limited legal power to enact and enforce their decrees. In practice, this has little effect because the city's assemblymen have nearly always been part of the ruling majority of the central assembly and have thus had effective control over the appointment of central magistrates.

## Geography

Touzor sits on all sides of the Kabrou-Tui confluence in the central Seitdout Valley. This region is generally quite flat and both rivers are essentially flat and very slow in the area, but Touzor sits in a region with some low hills which reach a height of 50 paces above the river in places. There are two hilltops within the city itself; the Reigeish hill, which is 30 paces above the rivers, and the Zaktübrievs Hill, which is 27 paces above the rivers. The land to the south of the Kabrou River slopes gradually upwards towards a higher plane to the southwest, which is roughly 45 paces above the river.

The Kabrou River is over 1 ride wide in places within the city and averages around 0.9 rides wide. The Tui is roughly 0.3 rides wide within the city. Both rivers are historically prone to flooding and their courses through the city have been significantly deepened and reinforced to minimize the risks. The rivers are both slow within the city and pollution from the sewers, both in Touzor and upriver, has rendered both rivers undrinkable. The Kabrou River above the city has a distinctive reddish-brown coloring that is the result of sewage, agricultural, and industrial runoff. Below the city, effluent from the dye operation of the Voeseich River give the river a considerably more vibrantly red hue that persists to the sea. Drinking water for the city is provided from a combination of aqueducts, springs wells, and rainwater reservoirs.

There are two ponds within the city, each more than 200 paces across, both to the north of the rivers. The Tachavs Pond is a natural pond (though it's boundaries have been modified to be more circular) that lies within the inner city walls to the south of Reigeish Hill. The man-made Raf Pond is located to the west of the inner wall and the north of the Kabrou, in the Vilarvoeb district. There are also several natural springs in the the hills to the south of the river, which provide a critical source of water to the poorer people of the fabric districts.