Kartam

Kartam, also called the city of the river, the hearth city, or the Big Ochre after the royal colour of the Harkanalis dynasty was the Capital city of the Hadašhim Empire between 216 and 1002 AGV. Since 1002 AGV, the de jure capital of Hadašham proper was moved into Tir-Našadar, when the imperial family left the palace, but the de facto claim and presence did not vanish. Imperial offices were vacated, their authority transferred to the city council, but the presence of the šurghans in the hearth of the city still reminds the inhabitants of their long lost, uneasily relationship to the earstwhile rulers.

Although the community suffered greatly in the two-and-a-half century long interregnum, with repeated famines and insecurity, it's religious role, the authority of the orhana kulum, and the strategic location near the confluence of the Šyul, had afforded a large degree of prosperity. The Walls of Tudhan were never breached, trade and former glory being a strong pull factor, Kartam enjoyed a renaissance during the last century, by the tacit approval of both the de facto ruling religious elite, as well as the de jure claiming Harkanalis house.Roughly during the same period, it was also the most popolous and richest city in the Hadašhim Subcontinent, encompassing a mile or two in every direction, boasting a population of in between 800,000 and 1,500,000. Situated on the River Karam, with backs pressed on the north to the Black Šyul, it was parted into north and south Kartam, the former being the more prestigious. Apart from this, the city is protected by twofold walls. The lesser one, or the Walls of Harko the Bald, defend the inner city, mostly the northern side, while the bigger one, the Walls of Tudhan, encompass all the city proper.

Various official buildings, such as the great complex of Kings Mountain are situated there, on the westernmost ridge of the epinomous hill, with the imperial palace, the Supreme Church of the Thousand, the residence of the lord governor of Kartam, the residence of the orhana kulum or high priest, and the lesser villas of the Imperial upper classes. One important exception are the barracks of the Šurghan Host, commonly called the soldier city, which protects the Southern head of the Golden Bridge, the Great Runway, used to host chariot, horse, or camel competitions, and the Great Arena, or Nimirs bane, place of public executions, trials-by-combat, and other feats-of-power.

Due to the prevalent Southwestern winds in most seasons apart from the summer, all industrial, or otherwise foul-smelling buildings were placed in the easternmost part of the city, to protect the noble inhabitants from such displeasure. The only exception are the workshops of the soldier city. Generally, the Capital supported five large markets, two on both sides of the docks, one in the easternmost reaches in the city, one near the Western Backbone Gate, and one half-an-hour walk away from the soldier city, on the Great Raparak. Apart from these, countless smaller shops and marketplaces dotted the built-up cityscape. On the Northside, in the more well-off areas, wandering traders were common, who transported their goods directly from the countryside, fresh and untarnished.

As in all cities of this size, sanitation, squalor, crime and corruption were all major problems. Sanitation was largely managed through the use of public toilets, as their use was mandated. Most houses lacked even the most basic levels of plumbing, so the inhabitants tasked a gonger, or pisstaker, who gathered the night soil, and discarded it in the canals. Water supply was more-or-less, depending on social status, guaranteed by a well-maintained terracotta pipeline from the nearby mountains. Reservoirs in the Southern hills helped to have a Year-round provision in this regard. The upper classes enjoyed several personal taps in their palaces, while the middle classes usually had private fountain(s). However the bulk of the population depended on the publing fountain Network. More well-off persons paid watermen or watermaiden, who themselves carried resfreshment for the home pools, saving the time-consuming waiting at the sources, what occasionally turned into violence.

Nominally the City Guard of Kartam was tasked with upkeeping the order within the walls, as well in some designated areas outside of it. They stood under the nominal command of the lord governor, and they wore pendants and clothes embroided with the stylized superior. The work was dangerous, and widely despised, pay was often embezzled by a local officer. As such, the corps could only count with the lowest quality, or most desperate recruits, what in turn facilated widespread corruption, but inside the unit, as well as outside of it. Despite the circumstances, the guards are never short of recruits, who are either pennyless poor hoping at least bread and salt for themselves, impressed criminals trying to escape the hangman, or rarely younger, idealistic sons of wealthy people, who wish to become Instruments of change. Guards are known to assist every kind of malcontents for an appropiate sum of money, turning a blind eye upon shady businesses as well as assisting in a wide range of crimes from common extortion to kidnapping, rape or murder.

The line between actual criminals and city guards is always thin, and as such most of the population in the lower ends of Kartam counts on self-defense communities in protecting their life and property. These can be as small as a house mutually supervising the common places and getting rid of any strange individuals, to more built up gangs encompassing several blocks in geographically distinct neighbourhoods. Latter can become criminal organisations themselves, extorting money for protection, and battling other gangs and the city guard for control in the area dominated by them. Such petty wars, usually wind up and die down in a matter of hours, leaving maybe a dozen of combatants dead, with occasional revenge and counter-revenge on both sides. However, on some occasions the fight drags on, and flares up in full-fledged insurgencies. At that times the šurghan army is called in, who are several times better equipped, trained, disciplined, and before anything else feared, than any possible opponent in a normal petty war. Šurghans do a short job of any unruly subject in the city, killing hundreds, imprisoning a same order of suspects, a great deal of whom will end on the gallows. They have a separate judical system, specially meant for such cases, independent from the usual dubšar in the city.

Every neigbourhood or two has god a dubšar, a city judge appointed by the high dubšar, the highest judical authority of Kartam. There are also intermediate judges, who filter in between. The ránk and file of the dubšar are corrupt to the core, poor people are unlikely to get justice, especially against more powerful entities. Despite the shortcomings in the lower echelon, the intermediate judges have a surprisingly high quality of jurisprudence, but most person can't pay either the lawyers, or the appellation fee. As such they are trapped in the devils triangle or corrupt and interlocking executives, prosecutorts and judges, who all benefit from a guilty verdict. The cases of higher classes are either tried on an already higher level, or by the northern judges, who themselves are still corrupt, but much better trained.

Kartam serves as a trading hub between north, south, east and west. Most produces pass through there. He, who controls the city, also controls the trade of the interior, and he only, who controls the vast interiors behind the mountains, before the Zabiraths, can rule over the entire subcontinent. Life was never easy in this golden cesspool of wealth and misery. But now, as the political games of entirely new scales are returning to the sleeping giant, the once eternal tought balance of power sublimates with ever increasing speed.