Aramala (Aer-ah-mal-ah)

Aramala is the capital of the province of Amala in the country of Chelestra. The province is primarily made up of extensive linseed farms, providing the basis for Aramala's thriving textile industry.

Infrastructure

Aramala's textile industry is fueled by the city's many waterways, thanks to the large delta of the great River Siressea. Where most cities would have designed a channel to constrain the spread of the water, Aramala has instead split them further, creating a network of dozens water mills at the top of the delta, which in turn keep hundreds of spinning wheels running day and night through most of the year, churning out miles upon miles of thread from the linen fibres produced by the surrounding farms, which in turn is used to produce enormous quantities of linen.
Most of these mills can power enough spinning wheels (using a system of varying sized belts and wheels) to operate 2 or 3 looms, and each forms the centerpiece of its own small factory where raw linseed is brought in from one of the city's many warehouses and is processed all the way to a woven fabric. This fabric is then loaded into small riverboats and taken downriver to the dyer's quarter next to the docks to be bleached and dyed as required, before being moved by cart to the docks at the north end of town.
The dyer's quarter also houses the city's papermaking industry, where the shives left over from linen weaving are mixed with water and beaten to separate out the short, coarse fibres to create pulp. Some of the more skilled papermakers also buy line fibres from the weavers, and subject their pulp to the the same bleaching process as is used to produce white linen: alternating lye and acid baths over the course of several months. The line fibres increase the strength of the paper and the bleaching process produces white paper rather than the rather beige product produced using unbleached fibres. The pulp is then blended with a small amount of glue (produced from fish bones) and clay (harvested from the south bank of the Siressea), then filtered, pressed and dried to produce paper. When the paper is dry enough, it is fed through a pair of bronze rollers to ensure it is as thin as possible. The unbleached paper is sold to a wide variety of customers, while the higher quality bleached paper is principally sold for use by Magi, who often require much higher quality paper for their spellbooks.
Most of the city's residential and commercial districts are found north of the river delta, leaving the south open for continued exapansion of the city's industrial centre.

Founding Date

534 AE

Type

City

Inhabitant Demonym

Aramalan