Adari

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_quicksilver.net.nz>
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:44:19 +1200


Dag Staalhandske:

>Could someone please provide me with information about Adari. I am
>especially interested in mundane political, military and economical
>inforamtion about the city, such as population and garrison figures, who
>is controlling the city, their attitude in the Orlanthi-Lunar war and
>what is traded in the city.

         Adari is a frontier town between Shadows Dance and Prax.  It
         was first settled in the Dawn Age and is also the birth place
         of Pavis, but since has been razed and rebuilt often.  There
         trolls, elves and humans, and lesser races of the area meet
         as equals.  Issaries has a fine temple there.
                         Cults of Prax p112.

Tales #3 describes it as a dump that the lunars prefer to leave alone on the grounds that it's not worth garrisoning and too remote to do any harm to their control in Prax.

Description [from Tales #3]

The town consists of two sections, the Stockade and the Troll Area. The stockade contains a few broad streets, with alleys running behind them. Its population fluctuates between 300 and six hundred. The most impressive feature is the Issaries temple with shrines to a few other gods. The humans are mostly Sartarites and settled nomads, with a high proportion of criminals and outlaws.

The trolls live outside the Stockade and number two thousand (70% being trollkin). Troll merchants have a shrine to Argan Argar there and there is also a Thunderbreath restaurant there.

Language:

The locals probably speak Praxian, Darktongue and Sartarite. Old Pavic is used in the religious rites of the Adari (which probably means the Issaries Temple).

Government [from Tales #3]

The ruler of Adari is whatever adventurer type took over it last. Power has changed hands frequently and violently in Adari, with rule by a troll or nomad being quite common. Staying in power requires a "rarely attainable balance of diplomacy, brutality, generosity, and suspicion, and a following at once strong and unambitious". Currently the ruler is Ofnili Bigsword, a Gagarthi.

Politics:

Adari is home to a Priest known as Argrath Dragonspear. Due to his friend, Jarang Bladesong, he is most probably Garrath Sharpsword (an adventurer in Pavis).

History [based on Tales #3]

Adari was originally a stone-walled city three thousand strong, most of them refugees from the EWF. Even then it was a recognized place to trade with the Trolls of Shadows Dance and the God Learners of Robcradle. But because Adari traded with the God Learners, Waha sacked it.

Its 'revival' apparently came after the Dragonkill war, when refugees sought sanctuary on the plains of Prax. Some made into the ruined city of Pavis while others found "the near-deserted Issaries temple and the patch of wall that remained of Old Adari and settled there".

A century later, stragglers from the Troll Army of Gerak Kag that conquered Pavis resettled Adari alongside its human inhabitants. Adari was sacked and rebuilt many times during the nomad raids over the centuries since then, but with the advent of Sartar and the PolJoni, Adari has 'flourished' into a trading town.

Traders found there: Northern Sartar, Lunar Tarsh, Dagori Inkarth and Pavis. Slavers also come here as well as nomads, particularly the PolJoni and the Morocanth.

What the Pavistes think of Adari [from Tales#3]

         "So you're from Adari, huh?  Well, I guess that shows you
         something to your credit."
         "How's that?"
         "Why, that you're smart".
         "How do you make that out?"
         "Because you aren't there any more.  Everybody around here
         knows that one of the smartest things our glorious Founder
         did was to move out of Adari, haw, haw, haw".
         [General amusement on part of locals, followed not infrequently
         by a fight].

--Peter Metcalfe

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