Mentiris

Capitol of the Kingdom of Toz, the city of Mentiris is one of the oldest of the Orbis, with Gazafi foundations that predate modern humans, Elves and Gnomes. Over the long millennia, the city has seen enormous changes, the rise and fall of empires, and the changing of world dominance from one culture to another, though it has not itself ever truly been the seat of this dominance. Founded when the land was a lush jungle, its undercrofts and subterranean vaults reveal an architecture at great variance with the above-ground buildings in a river oasis of a desert stretching hundreds of miles across the land's surface just a few thousand yards from the river.
From a very early date, the city was associated with "The First", one of the primary deities of the Tozzite faith. Mentu is described as the first self-aware spirit consciousness that arose even before time.  Mentiris is sometimes called Mentuis or even Mentuopolis owing to the variety of languages of the Orbis, and the changes in ethnic makeup of its people after various invasions and conquests which changed bloodlines dramatically over the years. Mentiris is the 'modern' name, Mentuopolis is associated with the time period when Khazig and Toz were much closer, with shared royal bloodlines for hundreds of years - the Autarch Arsinoe III was a half-sister to the Jahangir (King) of Toz, and many of the Shapurs (Dukes) and Mirzas (Barons) were of mixed racial heritage in those days. Conversely, the city at war with Khazig was called Mentuis; after a begrudging peace and acceptance crept in just a few hundred years ago, the city shifted the name slightly to Mentiris to reflect better, but still chilly, relations. The common component in the name is obviously the name of the deity, Mentu.
Nestled in a broad section of the Nesos river as it flattens out into the delta beyond the city limits, Mentiris has famously fertile croplands thanks to the regular flooding of the rivers, and astonishing artwork even in antiquity for the same reason, the planting cycle being dictated by an annual flood during which time crops couldn't be tended but heavy stone was easily floated on reed barges over the swollen riverbanks. Toz is a nation of monumental architecture, including the Dashet temple and necropolis further upriver with individual stones each larger than an entire house in most other cities of the world; and the monolithic constructions of Mentiris remain just as astonishing now, thousands of years after the people have lost all notion of how they were constructed in the first place. Temples, triumphal architecture and funerary monuments abound in the city, and its walls ring the capital like a chain of man-made mountains of impenetrability over a hundred feet thick. That no enemy could ever breach them is beside the point; they exist as a show of effort to Jaleth, the builder-god of the Tozzites, where going far beyond what necessity would specify is seen as a great virtue.
The perpetual dryness of the city as well as its impenetrable outer walls allow the average buildings, paradoxically, to be made of mud brick and adobo frame, some of the most flimsy construction imaginable. Mud bricks are simply sun-dried mud, sand and straw in a sort of low-tech concrete, tipped out of simple square molds and mortared with a mix of water, clay and gravel. Adobo frames are made with rushes and reeds bundled around tubes of mud and then shaped while still wet to fit together without gaps. The merciless sun evaporates the water from the mix, leaving behind stone-hard walls that can be sanded, painted, and even carved with temple scenes as desired. These buildings are often cleverly made with airflow gaps to catch the breezes and cool the interiors, and building exteriors are usually painted white to further help cool the insides. 
While stone and mud are plentiful in the city, wood is very rare and must be imported in any quantity, leading to interesting variations on normal building techniques, and the common use of reed bundles rather than wood planks for boats as well as for docks, bedframes and most furniture. A cottage industry has sprung up over the years to grow small zurkwood fungus 'trees' in cool underground enclosures, with limited success due to the fact that Zurkwood is a relatively slow grower and its moisture requirements are not a good match with the very low humidity in the city.

Demographics

70% Human 15% Dragonborn 5% Sea Elven 5% Other elven 3% Halfling 1% Gnomish 1% everything else

Government

Hereditary Caliphate

Infrastructure

Monumental architecture Including the Temple of the Sand Giants and the Great Spire

Natural Resources

Industrial and precious ores and gems

Alternative Name(s)

Mentuis, Mantuopolis, Mentuphon

Type

Capital

Population

890000

Inhabitant Demonym

Mentuapolitan