Mwisho

City of the End

**Mwisho**, (pronounced /mwɪʃoʊ/) the *"City of the End"*, a deeply devout city to the deity known as The Maw. This city lies on the border between Ukuaji and Fracti Terra, and so is right beside the Terminus Canal. For those passing through the city many would say it is morose, having a lot of *Red Deus* executions on display and with a lot of its public art being dedicated to The Maw a death god. However the people there are not so representative of this moroseness, embodying the teachings that while life may end it does not have to be unenjoyable. The city is lead by the Kuhani, a woman named Usia Faraji, they are also leader of the Cathedral of the Maw.

## Description

### Geography

The city lies on a natural slope away from the edge of the canal. The canal being on the furthest outskirt of the city due to it being built after the establishment of the city. The city gets quite a lot of rain that flows down the streets towards the canal, but is part of what makes the city dreary, especially when the blood joins it.

### Architecture

The buildings of the city are all stone, often with depictions of centipedes, crawling across different parts, like over doorways, or wrapped around pillars. All have sloped roofs, with tiles atop them, to allow the rain to slide off. The buildings are all quite old, but the insides have been improved to comfortable standards. Due to this maintaining of old buildings, the city's layout is quite confusing with streets leading in odd directions, but due to the unique facades a lot learn their way after a while. The reason for these strange layout is to maintain a view, from all points in the city you should be able to see the top of the Cathedral of the Maw rising above, where it lies in the center of the city. The city centre has a large square just outside the main entrance to the cathedral, here a permanent execution platform has been constructed from stone. Here is where the *Red Deus* ssmugglers and users will have their sentence carried out, letting their blood run from the square down the streets, earning it the name of the "Scarlet Square".

## Society

### Demographics

Most travellers into Ukuaji will most likely cross into Mwisho if travelling by land, and so the people are quite welcoming to travellers as long as they abide by the local customs. Once newcomers are known to be trustworthy there is little in the way of prejudice. The most respected people in the city are people who serve in the religious practices in the city, especially as a preist to The Maw, as the pilgrimage is much more difficult than others. Many have gotten quite wealthy trading using the Terminus Canal, to trade with Kimbia easier. There have been historic issues with trading with the rest of the continent of Kellner, due to their currency being illegal in Ukuaji often this means that trade is done in bartering rather than currency, though settlements near to Ukuaji or that trade often with the country arrange exchanges into gold currency.

## History

### The Rejection of Red Deus

The politics around the elixir become very complicated as neither party seem to be willing to make official statements on the reasoning of their decisions. When Conamar had finally decided to open negotiations with Ukuaji around *Red Deus* they had officially changed focus within the Sanatio Church from Medeora to worshipping the elxir itself. This was unpopular as it was happening alongside the general movement of Conamar also influencing the rest of the continent of Kellner to abandon their worship of the pantheon and worship *Red Deus* instead. With Ukuaji still maintaining their association with these deities, as it is present in the foundation of their major cities. The details of the negotiations are unclear but it appears that they were unsuccessful as soon after the Kifalme-Kuwinda declared *Red Deus* and criminalised it. Some theorise that this movement to calling it an abomination was because Conamar had rejected their offers for a supply of the elixir and in embarassment of this political failure wanted to sway public opinion in their favor instead. However others theorise because of Conamar's silence on many examples of large scale *Red Deus* smuggling into Ukuaji beleive that they want to "infect" the country with the elixir but were rejected because of the religious views of the Kifalme-Kuwinda and have since decided to move the elixir into the country in shadier ways. Alongside this some beleive that this illegal activity would occur naturally and Conamar is happy for that to run its course.

This rejection put particular strain on Mwisho as they are often the first point of contact and thus have to deal with the most cases of smuggling than any other city in Ukuaji. Thus they appointed a subsection to their police force, known as the Inquisitors of the Gods. They are appointed for matters around the investigation of *Red Deus* and are highly efficient at this. They are found all across Ukuaji now.

### The Construction of the Terminus Canal

The canals construction has massively affected Mwisho, and was a product of negotiations between Ukuaji and Conamar. Shortly after a decided end to negotiations on the subject of *Red Deus*, new negotiations on the subject of the canal were opened. Apparently Conamar was interested in creating easier access to their exclave on Ash Island and approached the Kifalme-Kuwinda about constructing the canal. Kifalme-Kuwinda were interested as this would allow easier trade between Kimbia and Mwisho and Dari. The negotiation discussed the different contributions of each country to the project. Eventually deciding both would contribute to the construction of the canal, and that Ukuaji would construct the bridge across the canal, but that Conamar would arragnge the rail system across it with Fracti Terra. While this creation has been extremely beneficial to both countries many doubt it's intentions. Some argue that it was just to assuade the idea that the two countries may both go to war with eachother over the failed negotiations over the elixir. Many are quick to point out the use the canal would have for Ukuaji from defending against Conamar's ally Fracti Terra.

### The Beast Scourge

The presence of these creatures have an interesting interpretation by the people of Ukuaji and Mwisho. Obviously there is no Hunters of Conamar present within Ukuaji due to their heavy reliance on *Red Deus*. Due to this the people of Ukuaji deal with the creatures and the mortality rate of these hunts of Beasts is much higher. In Mwisho, they would usually request people from Subiri or Kimbia to carry out the hunt on the Beast, however the city have been accused of coralling Beasts across the border in order to force the people of Fracti Terra to deal with the creature. This apparently has included ferrying known Lycanthrope prisoners into the other country and leaving them there. However none of these accusations have ever born fruit.