New Kom'Bast (Com-Bast)
New Kom'Bast is an industrial, arid and contested colonial-mining town outside of the influence of the Diarchy of Ankh'hera. Otherwise known as the Hollowlight Crater Quarries, the Ruins of Andryza. The large settlement of Kom'Bast is built within the rocky quarries, old extinct Stormite hives & the glassed impact craters within the desert.
Located within the northern territory of the Vast of Andryza within the Vasharan Desert, adjacent to one of the largest and unique deposits of 'Pelorite', at the Hollowlight Crater. The region is a historical blast zone believed to have been one of the clashing points between the god Pelor and the Diabolical Ones, in which his mythical spears of sunlight struck down one of the dark kingdoms of the Vasharan Desert. It is a place of historical & cultural significance to the Tabaxi of Ankh'hera, where it is believed to be one of the locations where the androsphinxes once laired and called their home before the Great Dark Fall (of the Sphinxes), and the birthplace of the Lamias. The surrounding Vast is pocketed and buried with ancient ruins that periodically disappear or reappear due to the shifting sands and seasonal winds.
The region is a hostile and dangerous location, but holds a highly valued and prized resource known as Pelorite - a hard crystalline glass said to contain the potent residual energies of the sun and of sunlight.
Demographics
- 38.5% Mek'rodemzai Tiefling - Indentured Servants/ Slave Labourers
- 36% Kom'Bastan Minotaur - Military Vassals & Labourers
- 12% Kom'Bastan Rock Gnomes - Artisan Labourers
- 9% Other Races (Tortle - Goblin - Kobold - Halfling - Gnoll) - Prisoner Labourers/ Merchants
- 4.5% Ankh'heran Tabaxi - Ruling Elite & Upper Class
Government
New Kom'Basta operates as a separate but subservient entity to the Diarchy of Ankh'hera - but is ruled by an aristocracy of Tabaxi mages, archivists and warriors under the Great Pride of Androleone. The Androleone Pride had been granted autonomous rule of the region outside the laws of Ankh'hera, ruling by permission of the Mystrasi as an independent territory, but still recognised as a colonial territory outside of Ankh'hera.
The large outpost is led by an aristocratic council of three noble Tabaxi Prides (the Androleone, the Kom'toth & Sol'Baast), but this is a figurative council and the settlement is currently under command of Pride Lord Ja'kata Androleone. His ancestor had wrested control from the council and declared himself the patriarch of the settlement, the dominant nobles being from the Androleone Pride. Ja'kata is a powerful chieftain and intelligent military leader who rules with the aid of his Tabaxi family members in a nepotistic fashion, appointing his sons and daughters with executive roles over the labour force in place of the other Prides. He rules as an autocrat amongst aristocrats, whatever he says, goes. The other Prides of Kom'toth & Sol'Baast had been reduced in power and influence to administrative and bureaucratic roles in managing and protecting the trade routes as vassals, rather than as equal rulers. The Androleone Pride also maintains a stronghold over the settlement and control the labouring groups with the aid of the Kom'Bastan Minotaur, aided by a group of three united chieftains known as Astors. Each Astor rules a clan of Minotaur numbering 300-400 strong, and aids in the protection of the settlement and as a heavy-working labour force in the mines. The Kom'Bastan Rock Gnomes have existed as long as the Androleone has held control, overseeing the planning and industrial expansion of the settlement - planning fortifications, excavations and manufacture of the resources into tradeable goods to be transported to Ankh'hera. Operating in an ethnic meritocratic gerontocracy, being led by the eldest and most talented of their groups - the Overseers. Typically, they assist and advise the Androleone Pride in industry, new projects to maximize profit and excavation of the resources within the settlement.
Defences
The natural defences of the settlement is the open and rolling sandy dunes of the Desert - one can see for miles around anyone approaching them from the sandstone and mud-brick towers built into the desert, and the refurbished ruins. Anyone wishing to flee or make an assault on Kom'Basta, would be seen immediately for miles around before reaching the defensive line.
The use of Minotaur ingenuity and Gnomish-engineering by accommodating and restructuring the old Stormite mound near the Hollowlight Crater has allowed a great subterranean and mesa-tower living space for New Kom'Bast. The confusing corridors and pathways entrenched within can only be determined by Minotaur guides with their natural recall of the labyrinthian pathways, but also through particular and complicated gateways constructed by the Gnomes it has made assaults from raiders nearly impossible - however, ambushes from Desert Worms or burrowing monsters are the greatest danger posing the city, as they can come from anywhere at any time.
Industry & Trade
The majority of the industry is dedicated to the mining, procurement and refinement of the mined materials from the Hollowlight Crater, as well as the sale and trade of these items to passing caravaneers and bromal-tradesman. The Hive Market resides within the abandoned Great Termite Mound, a labyrinthine cavernous system that is guarded by the Minotaur and defended with the artificer inventions of the Gnomish-Overseers.
The settlement earns money in five main ways:
- Pelorite - Mined from the Glass Crater and sold as jewels, gems and trinkets to travelling caravans and merchants to Ankh'hera.
- Saltstone - The deeper the mines go, the more that was found within natural formations that seeped through the sand and collected pure forms of salt slates. Excavated and refined into solid salt blocks to be transported off-site by travelling merchants and caravans.
- Products - A selection of items are produced on site,
- Sandstone - Expanding the settlement and quarrying the site once reaching the glass bedrock has enabled the specialisation into gathering stone resources as building material in the settlements of Ankh'hera.
Infrastructure
The settlement has made use of the ancient ruins and remnants of the Black Roads (the roadways utilised by the Lamias during their reign of the region) and made them into sustainable highways and trade posts leading through the settlement - but largely rely on the nomadic desert-travellers to ascertain the directions towards Ankh'hera. Being a remote industrial outpost, it has little in the means of modern infrastructure - rather, it is solely organised for the mining, refining and manufacturing of goods and natural resources rather than for supporting their large slave-labour force. The Black Roads connect with surface-level waystations and hold towards bridges and scaffolding that drop down into the Hollowlight crater itself. With Gnomish-engineering it has been possible to make wind-powered & labour-powered elevators to scale the drop into the mining sectors and quarry system.
As for access to water, the settlement does not have a sewage system - rather it deposits waste into the abandoned tunnels of the Stormite Mound and within the residences of the slaves and prisoners within the quarry itself. But the tunnels within the mound lead into the underground Andryze Resevoir underneath the desert, and give plentiful access to freshwater for the labourers - however, are guarded and protected by the Minotaur and controlled by the Tabaxi Prides.
- Underground termite/ ant nest turned into a settlement/ colony
- Flood-tunnels leading to natural water reservoirs + Stalagmite/ Glass refractive Pools
- Protective wind shelters
- Special Gnomish windmills?
Assets
Kom'Bast was the main source of Pelorite for the Diarchy of Ankh'hera.
Guilds and Factions
- Pride Androleone
- Pride Kom'Toth
- Pride Sol'Baast
- The Aster Minotaur Clans
- The Andryze Gnomish Hive
- The Blinded Representive
- The Bromal Highway
History
Originally Kom'Bast was originally a large and powerful city that belonged to the Androsphinxes and was known as a city of warrior Tabaxi - however, after the Great Dark Fall, the city was devastated by the sudden change of lush tropical environment into the arid desert, left abandoned and swallowed by the desert sands and ruined somewhere between 6th-4th centuries BD. Its original inhabitants have been left and forgotten, though their architecture remains - some defaced by the dark remnants of the Lamias that took over at some point during the 8th-7th centuries BD. However, it is not certain of the true fate of these people - but most have accepted that the remnants migrated to the flood plains of the River Ississa and Bijeauine.
The lands were not repopulated until an expedition took place during the 2nd Century PD by Yearning Erudites to recover and reclaim the lost histories, texts and artefacts of the old civilisations of the Desert. In their findings, they found the ruined remnants of Kom'Bast uncovered by the desert - and sought to reclaim the land for themselves and to excavate the profitable and exotic resource of Pelorite.
Prides Androleone, Kom'toth and Sol'Baasta, who claimed to hold ancestral lineages to the territory - sought to reclaim the lands for themselves and for the Mystrasi. However, the region had been claimed already by a nomadic band of Minotaur in a nearby extinct-hive of Stormites. Periodically, skirmishes were made to reclaim the site until a truce was issued and both parties prospered.
The rebuilding of New Kom'Bast came during the early 3rd Century PD - through the difficulties of the desert made it hard to be returned to a civilised state. Thus, it led to the need for a large labour force to rework the ancient ruins and the planned quarries nearby - thus a deal with a migrant group of Gnomes came to be had, using their ingenuity and skill in masonry and engineering to plan an industrial centre based on prisoner & slave labour. Turning the site into a penal colony. The first waves of trade brought great riches to the three Prides, and invested it in hiring greater labour and security to New Kom'Bast.
Architecture
The permanent constructions above the surface and within the quarry - are all made of solid sandstone and baked mud-bricks, stained red and orange that match with the desert environment surrounding them. Meanwhile the subterranean structures and tunnels of the Stormite Mound are carved into the natural stone and expanded upon at times, supported by strong wooden or stone beams under Gnomish-Tabaxi design.
Pre-existing ruin architecture retains the shapes of old civilisations such as the ancient Andryze & even Mek'rozahd monuments.
Geography
The surrounding region of New Kom'Bast is mainly rolling sandy dunes and rocky terrain. The most abundant oddities and features of the region remain the partially buried and partially unearthed ruins of the old civilisation of Kom'Bast before it was abandoned and left as inhospitable ruins. It remains almost 50 miles from the nearest coastline. Thus, water is usually only accessed by sparse oasis - though these are typically guarded by rogue clans of Mek'rodemzai or other creatures. Water can be accessed underground in the old quarries, where the cavernous tunnels have given way to stalagmite pools collected fresh filtered water and the Andryze Resevoir - an underground water reserve accessible by a few tunnels within Kom'Bast.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
6th-4th Century BD
Founding Date
18th Century BD
Alternative Name(s)
The Cutting Stormland, the Glassed Crater Mine
Type
Large town
Population
2000-3200
Inhabitant Demonym
Kom'Bastan - Andryzeni
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
