Luskan

—The Epic of Luska, Chapter 3.

**Luskan** (Euluska: *Loukanos,* Vortais: *Lusqanes,* Fallonese: *Lwschenn*) was a very large city on the southernmost point of the main continent. It was a capital of the subcontinent of the eponymous Luskan Peninsula, and in antiquity, considered the *trade* *centre of the world.* Known by names like **City of Bridges**, **Centre of the Map** and the later **City of Giants**, it was one of the most important cities in world history, as the birthplace of the world's largest empire.

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The same-named Forgotten Realms city was merely what we took inspiration from for this name back in the early 2010s. My Luskan is not based on it.

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## Hunters, Crops, Peoples

The original inhabitants of the area around modern Luskan were hunters who subsisted off the megafauna; these include jumping ibexes, lowland goats, thundertail whales, trident pronghorns, kicking birds, rusty coyotes, roadrunners, honey from bluebell bees, cornucopia sheep, and nectar from nectarwing butterflies. These hunters were known as the early *Euluskana Culture.*

Luskan's modern location was one of the first sites of agriculture on the planet. The main crops of the area were cultivated early as the people settled down, and continued to be grown into modern times. These included cereals, apples, olives, grapes and sweet cabbages. The warm, forgiving coastal climate of the surrounding area, the ample freshwater flowing from the Troodos mountains and the dependable, fertile soils combined with the predictable seasonal weather patterns led to successful agriculture. These crops became staples of the peninsula people, and set the early foundation for a wealthy and abundant trade economy. In the area of Luskan, oxen were also domesticated first here. This contributed to the ease of field-plowing and crop turning.

Several smaller settlements here conglomerated in the second millenium around the banks of the inlet estuary due to access to freshwater, into a sparse community known in the local tongue as *Vonz Zelur Kanos*, which could be translated as *"The bridge over brackish water at the estuary"*.

## Growth of a City

The loose city of Vonz Zelur Kanos (spelt in Fallonese as *Pons Ilursicanos*) grew on both sides of the estuary through the second millennium RTE to the year 0, spanning the banks with bridges and buildings. As the city and others in the peninsula grew, inevitable conflicts and trade links grew. The city was the centre of trade due to its location, so it became highly multicultural and the crossroads of local civilisation.

Squabbles and battles resulted in smaller landowning families becoming powerful; those who had money from trade to pay for militias and warbands. These noble families had deep roots and were heavily intertwined in the politics of each other. There were many that rose and fell, but some of the later important ones included Azoälda, Kalanetzi, Sforza, Kazalanteä, Etitus, Altazar, Deviz, and Dez Zaimus, amongst others.

## Birth of an Empire

In the early centuries before the year 0, the name of *Vonz Zelur Kanos* had morphed to Zelukanos, then **Loukanos**, its modern name in Euluska.

Conflict throughout the first century RTE waxed and waned between neighbouring city states, with Luskan coming out on top now and again, only to lose it all again in the 60s. In the 50s RTE, one duke named Olos Azoälda led an army to conquer the militias of Bristos, who sheltered in the Troodos mountains, uniting Luskan and Bristos by force. The noble families of Luskan raised Olos to **Reku**, or a title somewhere between King to Emperor. By the year 32 RTE, the twin cities of Luskan and Brist formed the Lusken Empire, and began conquering the peninsula.