City of Oztar

**Oztar** is the capital city of the Miarck Fields. At the end of the Second Era, the men and women of the fight pits headed east towards the Shalom mountains. They found an expansive land with fields of grain that stretched as far as the eye could see. Jarl Miarck looked out over the Fields and declared them a gift from the gods. On the banks of the Sinernemesis River, he laid the first stone that was the wall that he would build around the city that would bear his name.

## **City Description**

The city of Oztar is known for its well-made longhouses, made of the great boats that were used to travel up the Sinernemesis river when the city was first founded by Jarl Miarck. The woods that are interconnected within the Thaneships are harvested and sent to the lumber houses of Oztar to be refined and shipped across Valen. The city has no boroughs or neighborhoods to speak of as the Gloran people believe in a communal village mentality when it comes to both their social and political ideologies.

Points of interest inside the city include the Jarl's Longhouse which sits in the center of the city. Below the Longhouse are the catacombs that sprawl beneath the city, used by the Black Thane to house his enemies and political dissidents who speak ill of his ways. The strong walls that surround the city are made of solid, tempered obsidian that stands as a testament to the Black Thane's will. The streets of the city are paved with cobblestone, large enough for a four-horse team to pull a carriage through, or the large black bear *Uthor* that the Thane is bonded with to roam the streets unimpeded.

Tough on crime, thieves are swiftly put to the rope in the central plaza of the city and public hangings, beheadings, and executions are not only common but seen as entertainment for the masses.

## **Demographics**

The Capitol of Miarck Fields, and the home of the Black Thane, Oztar is one of the most populous cities in the Thaneships and the dark gem of the Six Gloran Houses. Oztar boasts the most diverse population of the Thaneships, with 92% human population, 3% Dwarf, 2% Half and Full-Blooded Urok, and 3% Other.

## **The Black Thane's Court**

### The Black Thane

The Black Thane was a title given to the first Jarl Oztar due to his Bajocian heritage and darker skin, and his penchant for outsmarting his opponents instead of beating them with pure strength. When the Black Thane who served in the Bajoc Valen war was killed in the fight pits of the West, his son Eumine took up the mantle. It was discovered in 3e738 that Eumine was being controlled by the Red Vizier of Oztar and his mind was released upon the Red Vizier's death. Eumine is mostly known for his giant black bear Aethor who travels with him everywhere and the classic disposition of both a Jarl and the title of the Black Thane.

#### Mind Control by the Red Vizier

Eumine Oztar was a young man when his father was killed by Urok in the Fight Pits of the West. But he held no ill will towards the creatures for it. While under the control of the Red Vizier Eumine was nothing like his ancestor, though his skin is still dark. Instead, he embraced the heritage of the pits to an almost disgusting degree, venerating those who sought combat over diplomatic solutions. He preferred to crush his opponent's heads between his hands using a pair of gauntlets gifted to him by the Red Vizier on his sixteenth birthday. He was cruel, uncaring for the feelings of others, and always spoiling for a fight.

### The White Baroness

Kuah Oztar (nee Man-Killer) married into the Oztar family after her father slaughtered Eumine's father in the Fight Pits. Kuah and Eumine do not love one another, as is evidenced by Kuah's many consorts that relax in her longhouse, far from the center of town. The White Baroness' bears the bone-white pigment of those blessed by the Gods of Glorious Bloodshed, and she delights in attending the public executions in the city, often standing near the spray during beheadings so that her skin becomes dyed with the blood of those accused of crimes in Oztar.

The White Baroness perished at the hands of Kehl Am Rhein who was completing a contract from the Hunter's Take.

### The Red Vizier

Topha Fiirmbala is a Sorcerer of the Shadows, and a close advisor to Eumine, as he was to his father before him. The Fiirmbala clan and the Oztars go back generations, for every Black Thane has his Red Vizier. Topha is an older man, but still dangerous in his own right. It is said that he is fond of torturing political prisoners with a *lving shadow* that is bound to his service.

Topha's death was reported by the Black Thane during the month of Fosisius in the year 3e738. The Red Vizier was revealed to have been holding the Black Thane's *faikin* hostage which allowed him complete control of the Jarl's mind for several years.