Šalmaram

**Šalmaram** is a general name applied to the region of Manewala over the Zabirath Mountains by the inhabitants of Hadašham. Etimological origins are unclear, it either comes from a minor langue, or it is based on a misspronounciation as many other things, distorted in many centuries to the current form.

As the hills dividing it from the Subcontinent are both high-rising and arid, inhospitable, few contacts were made between the people beyond lucrative trade. Two trails offer year-round connection, one of them is treacherous, far from densely populated areas, leading into a montane plateau. The other isn't without dangers either, but significantly easier to master.

Hadašham first reached the central Zabiraths at the end of the second century AGV, when the Freelands were completely incorporated. Due to the desire for natural borders, expansion stopped there remaining in place for over five centuries. Contrary to Hulaya, Šalmaram wasn't frequented by explorers. Most knowledge before the Socotca invasion stemmed from merchants telltales. According to them the immediate vincinity of the Zabirath mountains is semi-arid to arid with large, sinous canyons covered in red dust. Foothills are covered by meagre, drought-tolerant vegetation, mostly shrubs. Inhabitants there subside by herding goats.

More to the north plants become greener and more common at the same time in better-watered regions. Uncounted wild beasts live here, with camels, bovine, gazelles, shorter and taller giraffes all common, alongside rhinoceros, a thick-skinned animal resembling hornless rhinos, hippopotamuses of at least three breeds and different types of tusked elephants, from which four subtypes are separately named.

Šalmaram is dominated by a strong monsoonical circulation. Four month bring precipation in the summer while the other eight are dry in the middle, savanna region. The more north and west one goes the more rain it finds. Most common foodstuffs are common wheat and rice with a large variety of vegetables, fruits, spices. Šalmaram has always been famous for its spicy cuisine that uses many kinds of meat, but pork. Instead of sheep for wool, cotton, linen, silk and a wide variety of other furs are used as cloths that are heavily coloured. Humble commoners don't wear anything but a single loincloth, while women cover themselves from the shoulders to the ankle. Nobles wear long robes reaching the ground is the case of ladies, ending at the things for the lords. Males of high birth also take trousers.

No Hadašhim ever lived to confirm it, but to the outmost north a tropical region lies, that is called Nekara in the literature. Border between Šalmaram and Nekara is not exactly denoted but runs along the rainforest-savanna border with a broad unpopulated area in between.

The region was traditionally divided, while Hadašham has shown no interest in their internal affairs. Beginning in the late 4th century a unification process started with the spread of the common creed, called Aminad in the native tongue of the founding prophet. By the 5th century serious centralisation took place around the city of Shir Madakhs, what led to the official establishment of a state religion, alongside a sweeping conquest of every region between the Zabiraths, the Stillborn sea and the Western Ocean. Only the people of plateau near the Ore Mountains remained independent, alongside the Socotca who fled over the Red Tower Pass and founded the Aharganite Kingdom after beating the former rulers of Ahargan.

During some time in the 9th century a devastating civil war has torn apart the Madakhsi State, fragmenting it into many smaller polities. By the mid-eleventh century these small units consolidated into larger, more capable empires who were able to withstand the encroaching of Ahargan.