Region · 12 o'clock on the Dial

the Askaran Hegemony

A soldier empire. It stitches every name onto a banner and writes its history in canals.

the Plateau of Banners

Geography

A windswept plateau of red clay north of the Arena. It has stepped stone fortresses, bronze domes and long aqueducts. The Askaran Arm is one of the six rivers born from the Arena. Devran's longest canal network splits this river. On the western border stand the ruins of the old Kurran Dam. The Digger quarters lie in the cliffs beneath the plateau. The capital, Vehr Askaran, is a fortress of seven terraces.

Climate

A dry climate. Days are hot and nights are freezing. In the ash season, red dust storms cover the plateau.

Culture

Every citizen serves a Banner for twelve years. A banner is both a flag and the unit that marches under it. Banners pass down from the ancestors. The Askarans stitch the names of the dead into the cloth. A child's name becomes real on the day it is stitched onto a banner. Honor means discipline. A proverb says: the unstitched are forgotten. Diggers' names go into guild rolls, not onto banners. That is why they count as half-citizens.

Governance

The Hegemon and the Council of Banners rule the land. Today's Hegemon is Ardash Kurran. Canal rights mean political power. Whoever opens and shuts the water has the final word.

Faith

Order. Order turns time, and chaos summons the Stillness. The Stillness is the great standstill that comes when Dem stops flowing. Askaran has no gods. The people revere the First Banner. Legend says it was woven from a Velun cloak. The Velun were an old civilization that lived before the Stillness. Askaran schools teach that the Velun's pride brought the Stillness.

Economy

Bronze, tribute, canal water rights and the Diggers' powder. Dem is time in solid form in Devran, and people use it like money. Askaran pays for the Ember Campaign with Dem borrowed from Tavellin. The treasury's largest cost is interest.

Back to the universe