Sultim

Size: City

Population: 50,000 (Human – Mulan), plus 50,000 slaves (60% Human – Mulan, 40% Other – Various)

Ruler: So-Mumoth Ralket (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Warrior 4)

 

Overview

Sultim is Mulhorand’s gateway to the North, the most heavily fortified city in Mullhorand, and the headquarters of the Legion of Dawn and the Sun Tridents. This massive fortress city occupies a strategic position in the Taranoth that allows it to block Thay’s land and sea access to the rest of Mulhorand.

 

Life and Society

Like most places in Mulhorand, life in Sultim revolves around service to the Laren (the godkings). People wake and give thanks to the Laren of their family, perform their work in service to the Laren, retire giving thanks to the Laren, and perhaps even dream of the Laren.

Sultim is the premier trade settlement of Mulhorand, and sees a constant traffic of ships from Bezantur and Mourktar entering its harbor to deliver and acquire goods. A large number of services and guilds have grown up catering to the merchants and trade from other countries.

Sultim is also home to the headquarters of Mulhorand’s armed forces (both army and navy) and so there are many blacksmiths, armourers, fletchers, wheelwrights, farriers, shipwrights, and other businesses that provide equipment to soldiers and sailors.

Mulhorand has a system of government sponsored guilds that provide the majority of services, and so most of the businesses in Sultim are members of the guild.

 

Politics

Sultim is one of the great cities of Mulhorand, and has remained the responsibility of the Church of Anhur since its founding. It is home to the high temple of Anhur; the Blood Fortress, and so contains much of the senior hierarchy of the church as well as the office of Greater Precept of Sultim. As a result, Sultim is rife with politics within the Church of Anhur as senior members strive to prove themselves and acquire power and position within the city and the church.

Since the disastrous invasion of Mulhorand by Thay in 1280 DR, the Church of Anhur has been shamed because of their failure, they have since seen a dramatic reduction in priests of Anhur holding official government positions such as Precept.

Sultim, the city, is ruled by So-Mumoth Ralket (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Warrior 4), who holds the office of Fenkh-Ab (minor precept) of Sultim. As Fenkh-Ab, So-Mumoth is responsible for commanding the Fenkh Pehtemi (city militia), collecting taxes and trade tariffs, etc.

Who Really Rules: Fakh-Ab Koramon Bretak (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Warrior 5) is the true ruler of Sultim. Since 1280 DR, the office of Fakh-Ab for Sultim has been held by independents (i.e. those not affiliated to any church) as a punishment for the Church of Anhur’s failure to defend Mulhorand from the Thayan invasion, prior to this the office of Fakh-Ab of Sultim had always been held by a senior priest of Anhur.

While Koramon Bretak is an independent warrior of some renown who has served with distinction in the Legion of Dawn, he is also whispered to be in the pocket of the Church of Horus-Re and a zealot when it comes to the ideology of the church. Koramon spends much of his time in Sultim, overseeing So-Mumoth, ensuring that everything in Sultim operates according to his desires. He has already placed many of his friends and kin in positions of authority among the Fenkh Pehtemi of Sultim, and Sultim’s administration is relying more and more upon the Church of Horus-Re (as opposed to traditionally using the Church of Anhur and it’s resources).

 

Defence

Sultim is the greatest fortress ever constructed by Mulhorand, deliberately designed to counter the threat from Thay.

The entire city of Sultim is surrounded by 3 concentric rings, with the Blood Fortress (the high temple of Anhur) at its very centre.

The Wall of Duty: The outermost wall (named the Wall of Duty to mark the city’s near failure to defend the border)  is the most recent wall, constructed following 1280 DR, after the partial sack of the city by the forces of Thay. This wall is made of granite, reaches over 50 ft in height, and is 100 ft wide at its base, it slopes upwards from ground height but has a series of channels dug into it which funnel forces around the city to the sea ward side before allowing them to navigate up the wall and back to the landward side and then up to the top. The wall is completely smooth, with no crenellations and a rounded top to prevent grappling, and the slope itself is slick and polished to stop siege engines and troops walking up the wall (encouraging them to follow the channels).

The Shield Wall: The second wall was begun following the Thayan rebellion in 922 DR, and finished in 970 DR almost 50 years later. It is made from great blocks of hardened stone, reinforced with metal and secret alchemical and magical compounds to resist both fire, ice, and acid (in case of a Thayan invasion). It is 30 ft in height on the inner circle, but a towering 60 ft above the floor of the outer circle, and 10 ft above the height of the outerwall (achieved by building the original city on a slight hill, digging out the outer circle and then building the outer wall around it).

The Soul Wall: The first wall was originally constructed around the tor that forms part of the Blood Fortress, and has been present since before the city was founded (the temple being constructed first by Anhur and his family, with people later settling around the temple). The wall has long been worn smooth with the winds that come from the south and the west, it is now a long stone wall that surrounds the base of the formidable Blood Fortress.

The Legion of Dawn: The Legions of Dawn have their headquarters based in Sultim. All new recruits are trained at the Blood Fortress, and the city has an active complement of 2,000 soldiers in various states of training and readiness. There is always one fully trained Legion of Dawn assigned to the Precept of Sultim, but it is rarely stationed in the city and usually split into groups defending the settlements, roads, and rivers of the Taranoth region.

The Sun Tridents: The Sun Tridents is the name given to the navy of Mulhorand. Officially Mulhorand’s navy is located in Skuld and consists of 20 ancient triremes that have not left the Bay of Shadows in 30 years.

Sultim, however, appears to be a sporadic home to a growing number of ships bearing the symbol of a lion’s head cresting a giant wave. These 2 score ships are said to belong to a mercenary company that operates out of Cimbar. The truth is that these ships have been secretly contracted to the shipwrights guild to build and are being kept in a secret bay near the Thazalhar, manned by priests and slaves loyal to the Church of Anhur, in preparation for some unspecified military action in the coming years.

Fenkh Pehtemi: The city militia of Sultim stands some 900 strong, it is composed of a mix of Mulhorand warriors and of mercenaries from Chessenta (as is the usual practice for Mulhorand’s armed forces). Sultim’s pehtemi are better armed and trained than all other city militias (Skuld has better armed militia but the training is lacking), a typical militiaman wears a leather breast with metal strips inserted into the bleached leather (for extra protection), leather lined bands protect the wrists, ankles, and head, while a steel stabbing sword and steel buckler are used for attack and defence.

 

Trade

 

Magic

 

Religion

 

Important NPCs

Knesha (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Expert 3): A former slave and member of the Guild of Scribes, Knesha was removed from her position for miscalculating taxes and escaped to Outer Sultim to hide from her former masters. In truth Knesha inadvertently discovered the budget for the next few years that includes a number of plans of the Vizier, including the purchasing of slaves.

Verdegond (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Expert 1): A curio merchant located in Outer Sultim with an interest magic tomes. He has recently acquired a tome that seems to translates spells written in Southern Magic, into the Mulhorandi language.

Horeb Inkarna (Neutral, Human – Mulan, Expert 5): This renowned smith works exclusively for the Church of Anhur and resides in the Blood Fortress where he forges the highest quality arms and armaments for the church. He has an interest in infusing items with magic via a process he terms “memory diffusion”, as a result he has crafted talismans that he claims contains the knowledge of the greatest weaponmasters of Mulhorand. There are three such talismans, one each dedicated to Anhur, Thoth, and Osiris, and crafted in a form sacred to each god.

 

Important Sites

Outer Sultim: Originally intended as a no-mans land; to be flooded via channels from the sea when required in defence of the city, instead a slum district has arisen inside the outer circle of the settlement created when the new wall was erected following 1280 DR. This shanty district is home to wood, stone, and mud huts, where the criminal elements of Mulhorandi society (and other nations) hide from the law in plain sight.

Dun Alsanaf: Known as the Circle of a Thousand Selves, this subterranean complex is a well known secret among the citizens of Outer Sultim. A paved slope leads down to a doorway, which when entered opens onto a circular chamber where everyone inside the chamber appears to be a mirror image of yourself. This location is favoured by those wishing to trade or perform shady deals and has become a popular bazaar, although only during the daytime.

During the night, the bazaar of Dun Alsanaf is completely deserted, because it is whispered that in the dark the other images of yourself have been known to sprout fangs and drag victims off through a doorway that appears as if out of nowhere.

Dun Alsamuaf: Known as the Circle of a Thousand Truths, this labyrinthine complex is rumoured to lie hidden beneath Dun Alsanaf (although a century of digging by the inhabitants of Outer Sultim has uncovered nothing), accessible by a hidden doorway and stairwell that descends deep into the depths. The only accounts of its existence come from drunks and lunatics who claim to have been dragged into the darkness by twisted humanoids.

The Dun Alsamuaf is much like Dun Alsanaf, except that the other selves are mostly illusory, with exaggerated physical and personality features of the person in question, they also repeat hidden thoughts and past shameful events back to the person in a constant babble of everything that the person dislikes and is ashamed of about themselves. Some of these illusory other selves hide twisted humanoid monsters that attack the person and subdue them so they can be imprisoned elsewhere in the complex.

The entire complex was created millennia ago around the fall of Imaskar, by an artificer who sought to survive the chaos engulfing the empire and emerge when it was over. Unfortunately Imaskar was permanently destroyed and the Mulan settled atop her former demesne. The artificer now uses the surviving levels of her tower to lure people in, where her magics leach vitality and transfer it to her to prolong her unlife. The tower is filled with the twisted monstrosities that were her former apprentices and more recent visitors to the tower.

Inner Sultim: The original settlement of Sultim is home to a few thousand Mulan and is little bigger than a town in terms of population. The buildings here are solid stone and of good craftsmanship (if a little old), and the streets are regularly patrolled to keep out those from Outer Sultim who try to sneak into the city.

The Bloody Finger: The centre of the city is a small hill with an upthrust of rock some 300 sq ft at its crest. A low stone wall surrounds the hill and is guarded at all times by 200 guards from the Bloody Fortress (usually those in training). The tor is studded with veins of glowing red gemstones that swirl through the bare rock and give the impression of blood trickling down its sides when the sun shines upon it.