Akara
Akara is the provincial capital of Smaunia, a city built on an isolated hill rising from the eastern plains of the Zedwe Barony. It is not the largest city in the province, but it is the most visible. The hill lifts the city above the flat plains in every direction, giving it a commanding view that, on clear days, extends from the distant line of the western highlands to the faint shimmer of the eastern lake. Every road into the eastern plains leads eventually toward it. Every traveler approaching from any direction will, at some point, see Akara on its hill and adjust their course accordingly.
Government
Akara's governing role is partly administrative and partly symbolic. The Ealdorman's court hears appeals that exceed the baronies' own jurisdictions, coordinates the provincial levy, manages the tribute schedule, and handles the correspondence with Vellakar that is the daily mechanical work of provincial governance. Ashmore performs these functions competently and without distinction, which by the Smaunian evaluation of Imperial officials is a passing grade.
The city's real function is as neutral ground. Akara belongs to neither barony except by formal designation, and when the barons need to meet to negotiate the grain shipment schedule, or to discuss the buna trade's implications for the tribute assessment, they meet in Akara. Ashmore has learned to prepare buna before these meetings and to say very little during them.
The city's real function is as neutral ground. Akara belongs to neither barony except by formal designation, and when the barons need to meet to negotiate the grain shipment schedule, or to discuss the buna trade's implications for the tribute assessment, they meet in Akara. Ashmore has learned to prepare buna before these meetings and to say very little during them.
Industry & Trade
Akara's economy is administrative services and the market function that a provincial capital provides to the surrounding plains. The weekly market on the hill's lower terrace is the largest regular commercial gathering in the eastern part of the Zedwe Barony, drawing farmers from the surrounding plains with grain, livestock, and the teff that is the province's agricultural staple. The city's artisans supply both the city's residents and the market's visiting customers.
Buna is present but not produced here. The eastern forest groves where the bean grows wild are further east; Akara's buna trade is commercial rather than agricultural, the beans arriving from the east and being sold onward to the west, with Akara's merchants taking a transit margin. The buna houses — the establishments where the ceremony is performed in its full social context — are among the most important social institutions in the city, and the quality of a buna house's ceremony is discussed with the seriousness that other provinces reserve for the evaluation of wine.
Buna is present but not produced here. The eastern forest groves where the bean grows wild are further east; Akara's buna trade is commercial rather than agricultural, the beans arriving from the east and being sold onward to the west, with Akara's merchants taking a transit margin. The buna houses — the establishments where the ceremony is performed in its full social context — are among the most important social institutions in the city, and the quality of a buna house's ceremony is discussed with the seriousness that other provinces reserve for the evaluation of wine.
Geography
The hill on which Akara stands is a single granite upwelling that rises some three hundred feet from the surrounding plain, its sides too steep for agriculture and too regular to be entirely natural - though no scholar has ever produced a satisfying explanation for its formation, and the local tradition holds that Igzat placed it here specifically so that the people of the eastern plains would always have a point to orient themselves by.
The city covers the hill's upper slopes and summit entirely, its streets running in concentric rings that follow the contour lines, connected by stepped passages that cut directly up the gradient between levels. The highest ring is the oldest, densest, and most traditionally Smaunian in character, containing stone buildings with broad flat roofs, the whitewash of the walls catching the sun, and the shade provided by a canopy of mature trees planted generations ago. The lower rings grow progressively more varied as the city expanded over the centuries, incorporating districts of different eras and the modest cosmopolitan influence that a provincial capital accumulates over time.
The Ealdorman's Hall crowns the summit in a building that is the newest major structure on the hill, constructed two Ealdormen ago to replace a smaller predecessor and designed with the conscious intention of projecting Imperial authority without offending Smaunian sensibility. It succeeds moderately. The building is substantial without being ostentatious. Its courtyard faces east toward Tsehay Bahir, visible as a distant glimmer on clear days, which Ashmore has been told is a gesture of respect to the lake's sacred status. He has kept the orientation.
The city covers the hill's upper slopes and summit entirely, its streets running in concentric rings that follow the contour lines, connected by stepped passages that cut directly up the gradient between levels. The highest ring is the oldest, densest, and most traditionally Smaunian in character, containing stone buildings with broad flat roofs, the whitewash of the walls catching the sun, and the shade provided by a canopy of mature trees planted generations ago. The lower rings grow progressively more varied as the city expanded over the centuries, incorporating districts of different eras and the modest cosmopolitan influence that a provincial capital accumulates over time.
The Ealdorman's Hall crowns the summit in a building that is the newest major structure on the hill, constructed two Ealdormen ago to replace a smaller predecessor and designed with the conscious intention of projecting Imperial authority without offending Smaunian sensibility. It succeeds moderately. The building is substantial without being ostentatious. Its courtyard faces east toward Tsehay Bahir, visible as a distant glimmer on clear days, which Ashmore has been told is a gesture of respect to the lake's sacred status. He has kept the orientation.
Type
Capital
Population
21,000
Owner/Ruler
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
Comments