Khudaldaa ((Coo-daal-dah))
Spire of Transmutation
"It's like a whole other planet out there, the Alimaltan Spire that is. Among the black sands blanketing the land stands a monolith taller than the tallest structure man could ever build, with landmasses which bend and move around one another in a way that only the gods could sculpt. At its peak sits a city so precarious and yet so fortified that it defies all logic, and what's even crazier? This is the trade capital of Ezlekh! Talking about this makes me feel like I've had two too many drinks..."~A Grizzled Mercenary
Demographics
Khudaldaa has a large concentration of Genasi of all elements (primarily Earth and Fire) whom are believed to be the distant descendants of Grand Khan Dai' Ehk, and firebreathing/poisonous Dragonborn whom descend from lizardous ancestors from the Gaineamór Desert. These two natives to the region also hold more power in its unique technocratic government due to their
Government
The government of Khudaldaa functions as a Constitutional Monarchy, with Khan Gabiyé III at its helm, and the Khudaldaan Parliament as its lawmakers/enforcers. These members of Parliament come from all different walks of life, as they are representative of the population of the territory, with some being elected blue-collar reconstruction factory workers/bosses, some being Institute professors/alumni, etc. At least one elected member, or PM, being from each village/town throughout Khudaldaa, and nearly 25 members being from Ustgelt alone. In Fort Shidiin-Barikha, Upper Ustgelt's tucked-away castle, the Khudaldaan Parliament meet on a weekly basis to discuss the strict trading agreements they have made with the other Ezlekhian territories for resource conversion, as well as the allocation of its master alchemists in the towns/villages around the territory, and those training military alchemists within the city itself.
Khudaldaa itself is governed by very basic laws, with the only notably unique laws barring the unregulated use of human transmutation by its citizens for their safety, as well as laws which specifically outline Homunculi as property and not people (despite their ability of free-thinking). Therefore, much of Ustgelt's population refuse to recognize the encampment of homunculi in Upper Ustgelt known as The Heap as a real village, with the town sometimes forcably taking some of its tiny residents for themselves. Those who go against the city's unique laws, or recognize The Heap as its own sovereign village, are typically tried and convicted in Ustgelt and sentenced to long stays in Bambai's brutal Tam Junction.
Defences
Most of the towns and their outlands throughout Khudaldaa are defended by a mix of Bambaiian troops (who are typically armed with a few magically enchanted pieces of gear), Promatican hired arms, or the Khudaldaan military's hired alchemists, who are armed to the teeth with Arcsthetics and tricks they can perform using transmutation magicks to outsmart and overpower their enemies. Khudaldaa is primarily defended by its inaccessibility to these towns and cities, thanks to the precense of the brutal desertous Jivekh Outlands throughout the territory. This desert confuses and disorients all who travel throughout its expanse thanks to the randomly-strewn landmarks from days long past which appear, disappear, and reappear across the domain in methods still not completely understood by Khudaldaans. The desert also contains plenty of fake monuments which act as trap-filled ambushing bases for the aforementioned Khudaldaan troops, though the forts for these troops are otherwise few and far between.
The capital of Ustgelt is protected by the Alimaltan Spire's untravesability, with the city floating thousands of feet in the air on crystalline landmasses. The city has an amazing vantage point on all those who climb its height, who have to endure the rapidly moving belt of the Fantasma Solir, the predator-filled maze (designed by Khudaldaan alchemists) of a jungle known as the Alimaltan Shroud, or the violent streams of the Alimaltan Falls. In-case of the approach of unwanted guests on Ustgelt, the Khudaldaan military also have hidden outposts carved into Ustgelt's Plate's underside which can wield launchers to effectively neutralize any threats, as well as a stockpile of bomb-filled wartime aircraft known as Agaarvuult in-case of a large-scale invasion.
Industry & Trade
Khudaldaa's strength lies in its reliance on transmutation magicks, with nearly every town and village being able to receive whatever they please through simply taking advantage of their surroundings. The desert villages regularly deliver caravans of plentiful raw materials such as sands, clays, and rocks, and in-return receive shipments of converted materials through dropped supply crates from the gliding Agaarvuult above. The conversion of materials also benefits other Ezlekhian territories, as excess higher-quality raw materials (such as wood, stones, and food from Id Duudakh, metals from Khuurmag, grasses and crops from Tagnuul, and even spare manufactured parts from Bambai) from other parts of Ezlekh are brought through the city's Gazar Gate and processed by the city's reconstruction factories into needed materials like precious metals, gems, and even higher-quality versions of the aforementioned bulk goods.
Thanks to their ingenuity and resourcefulness, Khudaldaa has cemented itself with being the trading capital of Ezlekh, holding extremely strong relationships with the other territories. Many Ezlekhian officials tout that this trade relationship is so vital that it keeps the whole country afloat, especially due to preventing shortages in materials its major cities entirely. If civil war broke out once more between Ezlekhian forces, who would supply Bambaians and Tagnuuls with weapons and materials for defenses?
Districts
Jivekh Outlands: A portion of the Gaineamór Desert which harbored many of the earliest reported magic-casters, the Jivekh Outlands are noteworthy for creating figurative diamonds out of the rough. Due to the region's unrelenting weather and vast expanse, these black sands are known to have swallowed countless civilizations, including both their people and their structures, only spitting them out a few at a time before they quietly sink back down below. Mystery surrounds these structures for a folley of reasons, as Khudaldaans are still unsure of how these structures seemingly move across large portions of the desert on their lonesome, with the shared belief that it is the work of the gods themselves. Thanks to the pride of Ezlekhians, the alchemists and magicians of Khudaldaa have further obscured the histories laying deep beneath the black sands, creating their own fake monuments which mimic those from lands even outside the Malnovan continent.
Monuments mimicking Zuvaatian seashell castles, Sakiichiban coastal towns, Alkubraan God idols, as well as a folley of specially-crafted giant monster skeletons local to Vinteslæb and even N'scentia, are all carefully formed/shaped by Khudaldaan alchemists to mock other civilizations and act as trap-filled temporary bases for their mobile forces and Bambaian troops to ambush foes from. These monument bases hide among the desert's numerous quicksand patches, sitting side-by-side with actual sandstone/stone relics of the past, making entering these structures a gamble which may just be worth taking for the countless riches that some may hold.
Spire Alimalta: A tower nearly half a mile tall which was formed into its current state after the accidental dislodging of a giant fantasma crystal by Khudaldaan miners, which leaves behind bits of a mining village in the oceanic Hollow depths below. This tower of floating landmasses is stabilized by the repelling forces of the crystals upon one another, creating a family of unique biomes unlike any other in all of Aekko populated by beasts who focus on vertical traversal whether that be through natural means (such as frogs, kangaroos, giant insects and spiders, and winged creatures of all sorts) or through magical means due to the influence of the crystals on the animals' adaptation. The sections of the spire are as follows:
Fantasma Solir: A portion of floating/rotating marble, shale, and sandstone landmasses near the base of the Spire, each of which are being upheld by repulsive forces from fantasma crystals enlodged in them. These landmasses typically are only placed a few feet from one another vertically to allow for the spire's travelers and wildlife to travel it safely, and typically range from more desertous (almost badlandish) landmasses on the spire's borders to swampy marshes formed from the Alimaltan Falls' runoff in the spire's center. The platform lands of the Fantasma Solir are the most plentiful and most dynamic on the entire spire, with hundreds of these platforms moving from 0mph to upwards of 20 mph under the right circumstances. The floating landmasses work their way up ~30% of the tower's height (nearly 1,000 ft) before reaching the gravity-defying Alimaltan Shroud above.
Alimaltan Shroud: A manufactured forest crafted specially by Khudaldaan alchemists, the Alimaltan Shroud is a forest unlike any other due to its trees not being restricted by gravity. The trees of the forest grow from crystalline platforms out in every angle, with jungle canopies sprouting vertically, horizontally, diagonally, constantly butting into one another. The forest came about due to the meddling of Khudaldaan alchemists, and was extremely unkempt as the uncontrolled fantasma crystal magicks combined with the constant water flow from the falls to create a forest maze which was intent on just growing without end.
Thanks to the grooming of these alchemists, they were able to halt the growth of certain trees after modifying their branches and leaves to grow gold on their ends, which has even resulted in rare cases of golden fruits growing from these branches. Thanks to the alchemical tricks, some specifically-allotted portions are able grow wild while being kept in-check by the golden plants, creating a jungle which Khudaldaans can easily traverse on known-trails while its more-dangerous creature-filled trails innocuously hide among them.
Alimaltan Falls: These natural waterfalls are quite an anomaly in the otherwise dry and barren Gaineamór Desert, as they seem to flow without any sign of stopping. Right below the Ustgelt Plate, the Falls collect in a self-sustaining giant ring of rotating water (created by some magical effect from the Ustgelt Plate's humongous crystal cluster) which rains on its borders whlie it pouring in a massive waterfall straight through the spire's center. The Falls in the spire's center also bend around some floating crystal clusters, creating a floating rapids (with a surprising amount of river fish species) emptying into a few floating ponds. Apparently the waterfall's center even harbors a village (called Manantai) of fishermen and extreme sports enthusiasts who go by Mist Dwellers, with these folks taking advantage of the unique waterway flowing around them to survive and thrive in an unruly area.
Ustgelt: The city is divided into three floating landmasses connected by sturdy but flexible wooden bridge roads. Each landmass serves a different function for the city, they are as follows:
The Plate: The largest portion of the city of Ustgelt, The Plate is named as such due to being a located on a giant circular stone slab floating on the largest chunk of the spire's original fantasma crystal-harboring rock. This portion of the city is mainly populated by large upside-down pyramidal ironwork factories which run day and night, these "reconstruction factories" focusing on transmuting certain bulk resources imported from other Ezlekhian territories (through the city's Gazar Gate) into more-needed ones. The city's population primarily live in this district as well, with disparate neighborhoods of large or small vibrantly-painted houses tightly squeezed in underneath the bulky transmuting plants, creating a tight but surprisingly clean bustling metropolis. The night-life of The Plate is also quite active, offering plenty of nightly entertainment venues (from plays/shows to rowdy board game clubs). The city's bars and restaurants are open all night, while the city streets are used for Buriat Kharvaa, a popular traditional Ezlekhian sport which tasks its participants with shooting targets while racing on horseback.
Lower Ustgelt: To the West and slightly below the massive Plate of Ustgelt lies the portion of Lower Ustgelt, which houses the Küvüagaar Institute, a college dedicated to the arcsthetic arts, engineering feats (like artificer inventions and industrial technologies), and of course Transmutation magicks. This portion of town is still dotted with factories throughout, with its factories being focused on the Khudaldaan military's experimental flying machines (known as Agaarvuult) based on those researched in Tagnuul's Khaiguul Plains, while a few enchanting businesses and some Teknomancer workshops are nestled between these factories. Lower Ustgelt is also home to a clan (older than the city itself) of master transmutationists/alchemists known as The Alchemical Order, whose alumnus lend their services to teaching military trainees, and have been told to teach the few young aspiring alchemists who can beat them at their board game/card game of choice. This portion of town also holds some of the nicer homes in the region, with many of these being the vacation homes of lifelong Plainswalkers or rich factory owners.
Upper Ustgelt: The highest portion of the city on a floating landmass to the East of The Plate, Upper Ustgelt is home to the territory's governing body, the Khudaldaan Parliament. On the underside of the landmass's East edge rests the Parliament's castle, Fort Shidiin-Barikha (named after the joint Khans of Tagnuul and Khudaldaa who built the castle), which operates both as the Khan's home as well as a place of law-making. This portion of the city is also home to a popular business known as Form a Familiar, a shop which creates a unique attunable artifact that allows the holder to create a homunculus with their own blood, whlle selling tons of cutesy accessories to customize them with. Though somewhat considered a more-recent fad, most of the population of Upper Ustgelt, as well as throughout The Plate and Lower Ustgelt to a lesser extent use these homunculi for a variety of different purposes, including as pets, as free labor/servants, or even as bodyguards. Due to the rate at which these homunculi are created and their perceived expendability, the displaced homunculi have even congregated into a mini village of burrows in the slums known as The Heap. Though less factory-ridden than its lower counterparts, Upper Ustgelt is much slummier, and is also home to the territory's primary military base, The Overlook. The structure is named as such due to spanning nearly one-third of Upper Ustgelt's brim, which it uses to launch the folley of Agaarvuult it stores, piloted by the trained alchemists populating the structure's confined halls
Guilds and Factions
The Alchemical Order: A sect of transmutationists whose origins date back to the early 1200s, The Alchemical Order were the creators of many of the modern transmutation magicks seen throughout Khudaldaa today. The Order, as time passed on and on, spread far across the Gaineamór Desert to many of the towns/villages throughout the territory, with many small sects acting as the protectors of these settlements to this day. These alchemist soldiers typically use transmutation spells to modify the makeup or formation of their weapons and gear to create unexpected openings on their opponents, and typically use their arcsthetics in similar, more violent fashions.
The Ustgelt branch of the Order have been known to have pioneered the Runic/Geomantic methods/technologies seen throughout the city's "reconstruction factories", allowing for the city to grow as strong as it is today. Nowadays, the Order have been known to lend their services to the Khudaldaan military to train budding alchemist soldiers, earning them quite a pretty penny. Some of these Order members have been even known to take on apprentices that they deem worthy, which requires the wannabe student to prove themselves through either a test of wits or strength.
Mist Dwellers: A subsect of Khudaldaans who call the center of the Alimaltan Spire their home. These "Mist Dwellers", as they've dubbed themselves, have established the small fishing village of Manantai within the space between the Alimaltan Falls and survive almost entirely off of the river's bounties, receiving their building and housing materials from the city above. The Mist Dwellers are a quiet people, unlike the roaring falls surrounding them, but are typically daredevils who effortlessly ride the waves of the Falls like they're at a water park. They enjoy cataloging the various species which live within the Falls' unique ecosystem, as well as the underground lake below the Spire, and typically get in contests with one another to catch the largest/most amount of fish they can find.
Khudaldaan Parliament: A board of nearly 35 lawmakers and politicians from Ustgelt and the villages/towns around Khudaldaa, all of whom meet together weekly at Fort Shidiin-Barikha in the best interests of the people. These parliament members are responsible for much of the luxuries enjoyed every day by Khudaldaans, with them brokering trade agreements to supply the cities and towns with resources from other Ezlekhian territories, lining their city limits with trained alchemists and/or conscripted soldiers to defend them and keep the peace, as well as enforcing laws to keep them safe (such as those barring unregulated human transmutation). These Khudaldaan Parliament members are prime targets for enemy nations, as their control over a majority of Ezlekh's supply chain could easily be twisted to fit the needs of any warring nation to produce weapons (physical, vehicular, and chemical), unbreakable defenses, you name it. Thanks to their important jobs, most of these Parliament members spend long periods of time living with their families inside of the luxurious and stocked-to-the-nines Fort Shidiin-Barikha, receiving plenty of criticism from the poor and begging villagers right outside its heavily-armed gates.
The Night Terrors: A group of small monsters who have upset the nightlife recently in Ustgelt's Plate and Upper Ustgelt regions. The monsters are identifiable by their extremely exaggerated human-like features, and seemingly strike random businesses in large numbers every night, trashing and vandalizing them to extreme lengths. The Parliament has sent out waves of guards to track them down and eliminate the threat, though the few who have encountered these beasts haven't lived to tell the tale. Despite no confirmation on the exact identities of these assaulters, much of Ustgelt are under the belief that the homunculi residents of the sovereign village of The Heap are to blame for these attacks.
History
After the establishment of its borders by Khan Khudaldaa in the early 700's, the territory proved very difficult to maintain settlements throughout the Gaineamór Desert. Khudaldaa was able to maintain a border throughout the desert for quite some time thanks to small manned-cities on its edges, before Fiáinetain forces pushed the borders back to where they are today as of the early 1000's.
The old capital city of Ustgelt started as a desert mining town for rare metals and gemstones, before the dislodging of a monstorously large fantasma crystal cluster created the Alimaltan Spire in the mid 1400s (though Ezlekhians would not discover these crystals for over 50 years after this event). The spire became much more stable throughout the years, eventually leading its climbers to establish the city of Ustgelt at its peak in the late 1400s.
Thanks to the marriage of Khan Shidiin and Khan Barikha in 1512, near the end of the 2nd Ezlekhian Civil War, not only were Khudaldaa and Tagnuul united as one Ezlekhian capital territory for nearly the next 150 years, but the whole of Ezlekh was united under them after the war ended in 1517. The two territories were peacefully split back to their previous borders during the terms of Khans Gabiyé and Nökher in 1595, and have maintained a symbiotic relationship with eachother and the other Ezlekhian territories since the conflict. Ustgelt's floating bastion, Fort Shidiin-Barikha, is dedicated not only in name, but also in function (thanks to representing all types of people throughout Khudaldaa) to this union of Ezlekh.
Points of interest
The Village of Manantai: A remote village located within the Alimaltan Falls of Spire Alimalta, the village thrives off of the precarious situation which they live around. Thanks to the rock faces of the Alimaltan Shroud and The Plate above, Manantai rests in a location of unpredictable gravity, where rivers flows sideways, upside-down, and even in loops around these rock faces. Manantai's Mist Dwellers take advantage of these unique currents in their line-of-work, with compact luxury fish farms on all sides of rock faces, and even unique vertical rapid-riding courses for boats and surfers whose tracks almost look like roller coasters. Being detatched from the city above them and instead surrounded by the raging falls, Manantai enjoys a nice peaceful, almost paradise-like atmosphere to it, with the only visitors to the village being the occasional thrill-seeker or vacationer.
Küvüagaar Institute: This college breathes quite a bit of life to Lower Ustgelt, bringing a much younger crowd of inventors and innovators to the city of Ustgelt. The campus is one of the only portions of the city free from the shade of reconstruction factories, though right on its outskirts sit more of these factories below-which campus housing and businesses are nestled. The Institute features plenty of greenspace, with beautifully-engraved stone schoolhouses separated by their chosen subjects, with a schoolhouse dedicated to Physics/Mechanics, one for robotics, and one for magic research (mainly transmutation). The Institute's campus also boasts a hi-tech sports stadium for the city's trademark sport of Buriat Kharvaa, with automated and randomized obstacles which are perfect for the burgeoning athletes. A few other specialized buildings rest on the campus, which are as follows;
The Öorchlock Workshop is an abandoned clock factory resting on the edges of campus which was bought from a now-defunct business. The workshop contains some of its reconstruction factory elements, such as some of the convert-all reconstruction plates which the students are free to use, along with large stockpiles of low quality tree byproducts, stones, and spare monster parts (such as hides, claws, and eyes) harvested either from the mines in Khuurmag or those created by the conjurers of Id Duudakh. Students who frequent the workshop use the free-space to construct giant industrial machines (such as war weapons/defenses, factory equipment, and Agaarvuult), robots and robotic accessories (such as turrets typically wielded by Artificers, Adventuring Gear such as the Portable Hologram and Tracking Bug, in addition to experimental arcsthetics which are installed onto construct robots), and even test out experimental Mystek spells.
Another notable location on campus is the eye-catching Shoudav Alumni Building, which is dedicated to the campus's rather clingy graduates. These alumni spend their days as if they never left college, tinkering and constructing the days away on massive projects while spending their nights drinking, partying, and letting loose. These alumni have decked out their sleek steam-punk building with humongous animatronic monsters who act as guards/servants/friends, conveniences such as functioning elevators and Mystek viewing screens (for events going on in Khuurmag), and a massive lab in its basement which they typically use to research extremely elaborate ways to prank the professors and the other dorm buildings.
One final location which is quite unusual is the campus's Weather Institute, consisting of 2 large stone structures with a field of geomantically-engraved satellites. This Weather Institute is funded by the Khudaldaan Parliament who intend to harness the powers of the unpredictable weather patterns native to the spire to their advantage, whether in war, or in the defense of their city. One of the buildings acts as an observation deck, with a wall of large barometric readers predicting which meteorlogical events are most-likely to occurr, while the other building acts as a laboratory which attempts to recreate some of the city's most notable weather phenomena using isolated wind tunnels and specialized wild-magic fantasma crystal clusters.
The Ustgelt Loop: A collection of dynamic curved streets in Lower Ustgelt, The Ustgelt Loop is a bustling market district by day, and the city's premiere racetrack by night. This collection of rigorously vertical streets is the center stage for the city's favorite sport, Buriat Kharvaa, where thousands line the street edges to cheer for their favorite marksman equestrians. The businesses who help sponsor the sport often hide difficult targets behind large objects or mechanize them to move in unpredictable patterns, ensuring the sport is both challenging to play and fun to watch. The Ustgelt Loop features over 20 different curvy and vertically-dynamic streets set up concentrically around a common area, with unqiue combinations of streets being chosen for each competition so that there's a different racetrack every time.
The Overlook: The territory's central military base, located on the Ustgelt's Upper landmass. The Overlook consists of 3 major large stone complexes on its surface, including an apartment tower for its military residents, a state-of-the-art magical training facility, and the military's weapon/supply storage. Underneath the surface and carved into the landmass rests the more protected parts of the complex, including an alchemical research center/library, the military's planning center, and most-notably its Agaarvuult hangar. Each of these buildings, having been intricately carved out of darker stones over the span of over 50 years are not only a hallmark of Ezlekhian defenses, but a sculpted work of art with murals depicting Ezlekhian conquests and technological developments on nearly every surface. The Overlook as a whole is protected not only by an anti-magical barb-laidened field surrounded by fences, but also by alchemists in guard posts and those patrolling the complex's walkways and borders by foot, making the place safe from nearly any planned invasion.
Fort Shidiin-Barikha: Constructed around the same time as The Overlook, as well as in the same fashion, that being out of painstakingly-etched obsidian and marbles, this fortress is nestled under the Eastern edge of Upper Ustgelt. The castle is built to be an unbreakable fortress, with multi-foot-thick obsidian walls which protect enough amenities to furnish a village for weeks, with fully-stocked kitchens serving grand eating halls, lounges with fully-stocked bars, multiple master bedrooms, and enough closet space to fit the population of Manantai. The Fort is as decked-out as it is to function as both a temporary home for the territory's Parliament and as an emergency shelter for Ustgelt in-case an assualt or catastrophic weather event threatens their existence. This castle also features lavish amenities like a magically-fueled hot spring, an entire hall filled with old Ezlekhian wartime/religious relics, and a library with books all the way up to its 75ft-tall cielings.
The Heap: A "village" carved inside of a large boulder in Upper Ustgelt whose residents are abandoned homunculi. The burrow leading into the village is one-foot tall, making it nearly impossible for any other humanoids to reach the village, which has left the homunculi to their own devices. The village is said to house hundreds of these homunculi of various ages (some over a few hundreds of years old thanks to their inability to age) who spend their lives as they please, with some homunculi being master tinkerers, alchemists, and even enchanters. The village clashes heads quite a bit with Khudaldaa's government, as they refuse to acknowledge the existance of The Heap due to their opinion of homunculi being considered objects and not people. This has not stopped The Heap's residents from continuing to hone thier crafts, however, instead closing them off socially from the rest of the city and burdening them with great shame.
Architecture
The city of Ustgelt's many districts all take slightly different angles when it comes to how their buildings were built, however one thing that rings true for all of these structures is that they were designed with stability in mind, thanks to the present possibility of being ravaged by the city's unique magical storms. Nearly every structure in the city, even low-income households and small businesses all are supported by thick insulated jointless stone walls, and contain safe-room basements to hold strong against even the mightiest storms. The city's higher-income houses take the strength of these buildings very seriously with their designs, usually including domes or spherical elements stacked on-top of one another and seemlessly blended into one structure, making them look like rounded pueblo villages.
Every district in the city sports at least a few reconstruction factories, and while the production of these factories is wildly different, they all maintain similar design elements. The bottoms of these factories are generally fairly narrow, being roughly 50ft x 50ft square bases which spread-out upwards to be as large as 150ft x 150ft at their top levels three or more stories upwards. The envelopes of these factories basically define where the city's streets are, with a row of vibrantly-painted stone/sandstone pueblo houses and small businesses hiding underneath the overhangs of the monolithic factories. Thanks to these unusually-sized manufacturers, much of the city doesn't receive sunlight, and are brightened instead by gaslights lining the streets for nearly 21 hours a day. These town houses offset this darker atmosphere thanks to the vibrant neon paints coating their outsides. The citizens of Ustgelt are prideful of these highlighter-like colors, almost making their brightness a competition at times, with some of the more creative residents painting their building-sides with vibrant murals.
The city's governmental buildings are much more subtly designed due to their remote natures, with these stone structures being carved-out within and on the edges of the floating landmasses. The military base "The Overlook" and Fort Shidiin-Barikha were chiseled out for the purpose of more-difficult access from citizens and enemies alike, boasting extremely thick walls as protection from enemy fire and the magical maelstroms right below. These buildings, due to their age and extravagence, also feature intricately-carved obsidian pillars, murals, and amenities which could house and supply an entire village.
Geography
A unique portion of the Northern Gaineamór Desert acts as the bounds for the Khudaldaan territory, with this portion of the desert being notable for its scorchingly hot black sands. Though this initially dissuaded early explorers of these unforgiving lands, the opportunity for establishing colonies on these uncontested lands only proved as an interesting challenge to the early Khudaldaans.
The Khudaldaan city of Ustgelt rests on top of the Spire Alimalta, floating over the oceanic void of The Hollow below thanks to the massive, nearly 1000ft wide fantasma crystal outcropping that the landmass floats on. Through the spire's center column flows a constant wall of water from the Alimaltan Falls, creating a range of drier biomes in the spiral's outskirts to muggier ones nearest to the Falls. Thanks to the Falls, the spire's center is home to ripping rapids whose waters are pulled so hard by the internal fantasma crystals that they have the capability to carry people straight upwards at times, leading to a complex system of naturally-formed rapid caves and pools at the Alimaltan Spire's core.
Climate
Khudaldaa's desertous climate is a direct result of being located near the planet's equator, sporting some of the main continent's most taxing weather, day and night. Summer days in the sun can reach up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, with the hot whipping winds of this unforgiving land making it feel as hot as 125 degrees Fahrenheit, so hot that an unprepared humanoid could experience a level of exhaustion from heat stroke in as little as 10 minutes if not addressed, or even obtain first-degree burns if they have more than a minute's worth of direct contact at a time with the black sands. On the flipside, the bitter nights of the Gaineamór sands can reach as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the Winters, feeling like just below 0 factoring wind chlils. In this frigid weather, exposed body parts that are left uncovered for 30 minutes can experience frostbite, meaning portable shelters are a must when traversing these unforgiving no-man's-lands!
The Alimaltan Spire is an entirely different story, with an extremely moist climate around its center thanks to the wild magic-borne Alimaltan Falls. The seemlessly endless flowing waters supplied by these Falls unfortunately don't make it too far from the city, making this tower a literal oasis in the tepid sands. The city of Ustgelt is also victim to strange magical weather phenomena thanks to the supermassive fantasma crystal keeping the city in the air, with past reported weather events including raining slimes, devastating wild magic tornados, and the descendance of Storm Elementals.
Natural Resources
Thanks to the Gaineamór Desert encapsulating the entire expanse of the territory, the land does not bode fruitful to typical travelers, only providing vultures, muskrats, the occasional desert flower or cactus, and maybe a tumbleweed if one is lucky. However, the master Alchemists of Khudaldaa are not your typical travelers, and utilizing the massive deposits of Fantasma Crystals beneath the desert's surface allowed them to transfigure the black sands they stood on into whatever material they desired.
This has resulted in a richly diverse ecosystem around Spire Alimalta with the ability to support jungle plantlife in the Alimaltan Shroud, a diverse river-fish population in the Falls, birds of all shapes and sizes (from tropical birds like toucans, parrots, and hornbills, to arid-fairing avians like axebeaks, hawks, and even some of the endangered Fiáinetaian giant birds), and of course a saltwater oceanic biome full of algaes, sponges, and larger predatory fish in the Hollow crater below the spire.
Founding Date
703
Alternative Name(s)
The Land of Boundless Opportunity
Type
National Territory
Population
2.5 million
Inhabitant Demonym
Khudaldaan
Included Locations
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
Related Tradition (Primary)
Related Reports (Primary)
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