Gathkun

IMPRESSIONS Gathkun is a great city on the Bone Coast ruled by Sothik nobility with Hathi subjects Great wealth there from mines inland in the jungles - produces gold, gems etc Built on a promontory with a deep harbour - inland are mountainous jungles City has white stone buildings, richly adorned, wide avenues with statuary lining them

•  The primary deity seems to be a winged panther - Stately as Bast with golden eagle wings
•     It's name is BARAHL - the one who Waits in the Darkness and Sees All Unseen
•     The temples of Barahl are money making and customary, the new cult of Radamath is stronger
•  On the main avenue from docks to Palace there are crowds and stalls, there are beggars and thieves
•  The wealthy are carried in chairs on the shoulders of slaves, or accompanied by powerful warriors
•  A public execution is taking place - a man with a broad bladed polearm is beheading thieves -
•     The crowd cheers out of habit but there is fear of them being singled out.

The Tyrant - A ruthless Ming the Merciless

•  Shath-Kas the Most High
•  His court is palatial as you would expect and he does not receive visitors
•  Anyone seeking his wisdom and judgement must attend the PLACE OF WISDOM
•     A vast paved square with fountains and hawkers
•     The Most High will appear at a balcony high above twice a day
•     People who want their petitions to reach him must pay money for their petitions to be carried to him by his Vassals - tall men in red robes.
•     He will read and pronounce arbitrary judgements
•  His Vizier is the gold-masked, red-robed Harra-Tan-Mor

The Court -

• Of course there is an ambitious challenger ready to hire assassins
• Namu-Resh - of a high status family, wealthy but nervous
• Keperin - Namu-Resh's ambitious wife, a real Lady Macbeth, beautiful & vampish
• A young hostage - a handsome Sothik youth named Temra whose father Kovis was a threat to the tyrant

The Cult - Followers of an undying lich priest who guards the gates of the afterlife

•  Radamath the Celestial - a literal old lich incapable of movement but alive and magical
•  His devotees wear ink-black robes and veils over their faces - they are feared by the populace
•  Some of them are undying cadavers - or at least that is the rumour
•  Radamath is said to know the secret thoughts of others and can bring death where he chooses
•  He can deny the afterlife to others. His followers do not fear death. Or bringing it to others.

The Shadows - A guild of thieves and murderers

• Mother Raka - A tough as nails former bawd and ruler of the underworld
• The Unsleeping Locusts - a network of thieves and burglars
• Maburu's Hand - assassins working for hire - Maburu is a Hathi god of death

The Revolutionaries - Violent rebels

•  Juldu - The leader of the rebels - an escaped gladiator/slave - works in secrecy, charming
•  The rebels call themselves Sasu the Unbuilt - they reject city life, laws and customs

The Necropolis - A whole underworld catacomb of tombs and shrines to the dead

• Radamath the Celestial's cult has its most sacred shrine above this

RANDOM STREET SCENES AND ENCOUNTERS

• A group of scholars arguing over some obscure philosophical point. It may become bloody.
• Music and dancers in an open square - a spontaneous flashmob of Hathi exuberance
• Man of the guard being beaten, possibly killed, by Sasu who warn witnesses off
• Guardsmen arresting locals on suspicion of being Sasu
• A funeral procession - leading a corpse on a shoulder-bier toward the Necropolis, led by a hooded priest
• A trancing mystic with snakes wrapped around his neck and limbs
• A young Sothik nobleman in a chariot dashing people aside and laughing as he lashes them
• A hawker offering Smoke of Desirous Dreams
• A large rat with a jewelled chain in its mouth - fleeing a noblewoman's boudoir for a cunning thief
• A procession of celebration in praise of the Tyrant - organised by artisans and merchants
• A noblewoman in a covered palanquin walking a tiger on a leash
• A full on Sasu attack on Sothik merchants in a square - bloody and murderous
• Proclamations of a grand entertainment at the arena scheduled for the next day
• A stall of gilded idols and a craftsman who will shape any idol desired within a few hours