SUHNDI FIRM STATES


The map below shows every Zyric capital in the Suhndi lands--which is to say,
every city governed by a Zyr (the rank just below Zyiph; it goes Caliph, Zyiph, Zyr).
Essentially a Zyric is a province within a nation. A Zyric may contain many cities
and towns--but only one capital city, of course. Clicking the map embiggens it.


(At the bottom of the University page, another map shows which of these cities hosts
a University, and displays the borders of each Zyiphate, including the Wild States.)


INTRODUCTION TO THE SUHNDI DIASPORA

In CY 429, the Suhnden first arrive on Landen, and founded the city Hephiontias for the
glory of their deity, Salaman. It was just ten years later that their home continent
sank beneath the ocean, however, leaving the untamed frontier Landen their only home.

So great was the fear following the Cataclysm of 439, that in 442 the Caliph forbade
open travel farther than 200 miles from Hephiontias, allowing only individuals
personally approved by Hadda and Azama (high religious offices). When the earliest
approved explorers returned with maps showing uncivilized land stretching for hundreds
of miles, in 446 the Caliph closed the frontier entirely, to pray upon the matter
for a year. This came to be known as the Year of Closed Eyes (now a Suhndi saying
before any particulary big decision--"Maybe you should spend a Year of Closed Eyes on
it"). In 447, the Caliph lifted the ban on travel, and Landen opened to the worship
of Salaman.

It must be remembered, the Caliph rules all Suhndi lands from the city Hephiontias in
Zymyria. He is both political and religious leader of his people. The "kings" of
the other Suhndi countries are actually church officials too, who must answer to him;
their title is Zyiph. Each Zyiphate is in turn divided into Zyrics, or provinces;
each of these is in turn governed by a Zyr (unless it is the Zyric governed directly
by the Zyiph). There is only one Caliph, and can never be more than one. Currently
there are nine Zyiphates and nine Zyiphs; there are 28 Zyrics, 9 governed directly
by a Zyiph, one by the Caliph, and the remaining 18 governed by Zyr.

It would be a mistake to put too much stock in the relative liberalism of the various
Zyiphs compared to the Caliph; at the end of the day, the Caliph is supreme everywhere,
and he takes seriously his responsibility to protect the purity of his people.

As every Suhndi country answers to the Caliph, they were never founded as independent
entities. They began as Zyrics, then grew and prospered until the Caliph felt they
were worthy of Zyiphate status.


And now to describe individually...


THE STATES


Niterra, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Balekesir
Other Zyric Capitals: Basdas, Begum
Majority Alignment: LG/LN
Ruled by Zyiph ...
Shares border with Shialaria, Syabassar, Zymyria.
More to come.


Numyria, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Memsemet
Other Zyric Capitals: Hakaw, Mirbat, Mumshooq
Majority Alignment: LG
Ruled by Zyiph Bulus Al-Majjid
Shares border with Memrah'Assar, Padashah, Syabassar, Zymyria.
As the second-largest, second most populous, second most pious, and second-wealthiest
state among the Suhndi, Numyria is engaged in a subtle and long-term strategy to
become the premier Suhndi state without provoking war with Zymyria. There is a
tradition of crowds occasionally rioting for more purity, burning down the homes
of those they deem a threat to the common good--but unlike Zymyria, the Numyrian
authorities have no tradition of encouraging such riots. Make no mistake--Numyria
is a pious land, and its people ready to kill or die for Salaman--but its clerics
and police are stricter in their interpretation of the law--meaning they will
prosecute but not persecute--smash the contraband beer bottles, but leave the
merchant his legal wine bottles. For this reason, Numyrians quietly believe their
homeland to be a better place in Salaman's eyes than arrogant Zymyria, and they
worry that it is Zymyria's abuses in the name of Salaman that will ultimately bring
His wrath. Thus they have become adept at court politics, to steer the Caliph toward
appointing to Memsemet Zyiphs they know will quietly further this mission of Numyria's
ascendency. Though some notable exceptions have occurred--Numyria has endured its
share of tyrants and hysteria--generally they have exerted very effective management
over their own affairs for centuries, attracting pious merchants and citizens,
building wealth and culture steadily. And the current Zyiph, an able and wise man,
has shown more interest in the Midlands than the Caliph has so far; observers wonder
whether in the Midlands Memsemet may one day finally, quietly supplant Hephiontias.



Padashah, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Al-Mashqi
Other Zyric Capitals: Bastra
Majority Alignment: NG/LG/CG
Ruled by Zyiph Ulaam Atir
Shares border with Memrah'Assar, Numyria, Saraca, Uqbar, Zalazar.
The last-established of the Suhndi Firm States (granted its own Zyiph in CY 802,
its major towns under the jurisdiction of neighboring Zyiphs until then) and the
poorest, there is not a square mile of Padashah that is other than desert. For
this reason, as early as CY 550 it became a haven for wizards who wished to pursue
their arts away from the strong Zyiphates, and their towers are rumored still to
stand here and there in the wasteland, making Padashah a name that often furrows
brows from more traditional lands. The fact is, though, the very concerned Caliph
in 888 declared the isolated, oasis city Bastra a Zyric, and charged its new Zyr
with the mission of routing all subversive elements from the surrounding desert.
Bastra has been a thorn in the side of independent-minded refugees ever since, and
to avoid the patrols of hawk-mounted state-sponsored wizards, many have moved on
to the Midlands. But the fact remains that Padashah is too vast and empty to patrol
with total effectiveness. It draws revenue from salt mines, a few gold mines in
the Syaxat mountains, as well as tolls along the road from Al-Mashqi to Hakaw (the
Al-Mashqi Road), the Emshi Highway, and some on the sly from the Moush Kedah as well.
There is a significant underground community of Halidan worshippers in Padashah--
perhaps a quarter of the population. But that actually represents a decline, as
the Caliphate's inordinate attention to Padashah over the past fifty years has
encouraged these elements to seek safer harbor in the more prosperpous Saraca and
Zalazar.



Saraca, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Hajja
Other Zyric Capitals: Sabir
Majority Alignment: NG/ LG/CG
Ruled by Zyiph Salaam Yusef
Shares border with Padashah, Zyrmyria.
Hajja was founded in 468 by the people who traveled farthest after the Cataclysm,
merchants in search of prosperity to support the Caliphate, and as early as 476 it
rated its own Zyr, quickly becoming a Zyiphate in 525. But as the Firm State
farthest from Hephiontias, it quickly grew resentful of the Caliph's navy turning
foreign ships away from its ports, and it gradually evolved its own religious
sensibility, has been chastened in recent years by the destruction of Ba'Dan and
the execution of a Zyiph deemed by the Caliph too permissive. Still reeling from
these events, in fact, much of its population lives silently simmering with hostility
toward Hephiontias--even some of those otherwise sympathetic to the Caliphate--and
it is the only Firm State where with a minimum of effort, a guest can buy a beer
and overhear anti-religion, anti-state talk. Still, it is a different Caliph than
it was when those atrocities occurred, so there has been an effort to get back to
normal life. Normal life, in Saraca, consisting of making money along what is called
the Green Coast--a rich strip of wineland and port towns along the southern shore
where all ships are welcome and temple dock inspectors notoriously look the other
way as their cargoes are offloaded. Saraca is the birthplace of Halidan worship,
its main sentiments in place by 575, though early on those most dedicated to its
practice often relocated to the blank wilds that later became Padashah. Today in
Saraca, it is likely that a little more than half the population is Halidan, and of
those who still align with Hephiontias, half are sympatheric to the Halidans. But
make no mistake; the quarter of the population that adheres to strict mainstream
religion keep their eyes on the rest.



Shialaria, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Therioptias
Other Zyric Capitals: Shar'Hazzam
Majority Alignment: LG/LN
Ruled by Zyiph ...
Shares border with Niterra, Zymyria.
More to come.



Syabassar, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Seidon
Other Zyric Capitals: Empyzias, Hamahu
Majority Alignment: LG
Ruled by Zyiph Talik Hosayin
Shares border with Niterra, Numyria, Zymyria.
Syabassar began as a series of mining communities when gold was discovered in the
Syaxat foothills in 510. At that time, the region was a dangerous, far-flung frontier
suited to only the hardiest of Sundhi, but the Caliph decided the gold was a gift
from Salaman, as Suhndi people lived mostly in poverty. Immediately he established
a Zyr in the infant mining town of Empyzias, to keep a close eye on developments
there, and as the easily navigable Hassaran River ensured easy travel, trade and
communication, within 20 years the footholls were home to three booming Zyric
capitals under Hephiontias. In 540, the Caliph made the rare decision to leave
Hephiontias, to visit Empyzias and Seidon, and satisfied with their orderliness,
in 541 he announced a new Zyiphate headquartered in Seidon. This relieved much of
the administrative burden on Zymyria--a largely bureaucratic decision the Caliph
never would have made had he known the truth, that Dwarves inhabited the Syaxats.
A young Wazif had first met them in 515--the same individual who had since worked
his way up the hierarchy to Zyr of Seidon, and now Zyiph of newly founded Syabassar--
but he had kept their existence a secret from all but his most trusted associates,
knowing that the Caliph would regard them as a threat and possibly close the Zyrics
down. Only once Syabassar existed as an independent Zyiph did he feel the time was
right to introduce the Dwarves to the Caliph, in 544, and at that point he was able
through admirable diplomatic skill make the introduction a smooth one. Of course,
he had been working with the Dwarves for almost 30 years at that point--thus through
Abdul Nabir, first Zyiph of Syabassar, was begun the most profitable partnership ever
between Dwarves and humans anywhere. The Dwarves took to Abdul's elaborate by good-
humored hospitality and respected that he knew some engineering, and Abdul of course
saw in the Dwarves an often Lawful Good people who knew the mountains impossibly well.
The spirit of cooperation between Dwarves and Suhndi continues to this day in
Syabassar--the only place in Suhndi where humans regularly associate with non-humans.
Consequently, Syabassar practices mainstream religion in a slightly different spirit
than the occasionally violent, purging Zymyrians; they are not less pious, but they
do emphasize its peaceable aspects over its purity-obsessed aspects. Rumor has
it a Kahwan monastery or two may be nestled somewhere in the hills, but no hard
evidence exists of any such thing; were it discovered, the Syabassar approach
would likely be to entreat the Kahwans to change their ways, and having learned
something of patience from Dwarves, they might spend years trying--without ever
leaking word to Zymyria. No one keeps a secret like a Syabassaran... but this is
not to suggest they would feel safe from Zymyrian spies.



Zalazar, the Zyiphate of
Capital City: Ma'Beq
Other Zyric Capitals: Al-Sadir
Majority Alignment: NG/ LG/CG
Ruled by Zyiph Farim Ibn-Assaz
Shares border with Numyria, Padashah, Saraca, Zyrmyria.
Zalazar is a small, largely desert, but remarkably wealthy and well-run Zyiphate,
Al-Sadir founded in CY 515, and the Zyiphate established as early as CY 545, when
what was then its isolation allowed to begin traveling a less regimented path than
those cities more closely connected to the Caliphate. Today, Ma'Beq may be a busier
port than Hephiontias at times--and if so, this is because its traditions and distance
from the seat of piety still allow the Zyiph some laxity regarding merchants of
questionable items such as tobacco, alcohol, weaponry, arcane spell ingredients, and
unclean animal flesh. The youngish Zyiph Farim Ibn-Assaz continues a lucky run of
leaders able to clothe in religious language his Zyiphate's need to continue its
less-than-pious prosperity--so the current Caliph Aledd Watid permits it, as most
in the past have. Though it may be that Aledd Watid is not fully aware of its extent,
trusting that their common border means Zalazar is pious enough. In fact, the long
tradition of prosperity since the early days when it really was isolated has
encouraged the growth of the Halidan interpretation of the religion, which took
root perhaps as early as 600. Today, approximately half the population secretly
practices Halidan worship. Eminently practical, Farim Ibn-Assaz is aware of this
and respectful of it--and he keeps the Caliph happily unaware. The last major raid
into Zalazar occurred in 929--though it was particularly brutal, as the Caliph's
troops burnt to the ground much of the port city of Ba'Dan.



Zymyria, the Caliphate of
Capital City: Hephiontias
Other Zyric Capitals: Coroc, Dankharah, Hella, Jizan, Makkah, Peliotias
Majority Alignment: LG
Ruled by Caliph Aledd Watid
Shares border with Niterra, Numyria, Shialaria, Syabassar, Zalazar.
Hephiontias is the center of the Suhndi world, and has been since the Cataclysm.
It is where the first Suhndi came ashore on Landen in CY 429, it is the seat of
the religious and political leader of all their territories, and it is their largest,
most cultured city, home to their greatest temple and university. It is a beautiful
city, clean and safe. But to live there is to live strictly by a regimented code
designed to keep your soul and behavior entirely pure from sin. And this influence
spreads across all of Zymyria. Essentially--at times--a police state, offenders should
expect no leniency from their judges-and no shortage of judges. For not only do the
temple authorities enforce the law unbendingly--so do the neighbors. Zymyria has a
tradition of every generation or so being shaken with a paroxysm of popular violence
in favor of piety. So firm remains the Cataclysm's grip on the people--the vast
majority honestly believes that for any individual to divert even momentarily from
the righteous path risks the doom of the entire civilization. Thus leniency and
mercy risk the merciless rage of the deity Salaman. On the other hand, the Hassaran
River, fertile farmland, port-friendly coastline, and its many beautifully constructed
cities mean Zymyria is an easy place to make a life. Comfort and scholarship are not
against the religion; most of the world's greatest libraries, temples, and universities
of arcana are here, publicly funded.


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