Hming-Xia (meeng-SHAH)

Hming-Xia is Fahr Ryasc first mortal city in Fahr Ryasc. It was founded by the Elder Serpent Zekteth of a Thousand Faces as a temple to shelter the Hsaahn, mortal children of his sister Naakha'a the Soul Sculptor. Following the Sanction of the First Born, Hming-Xia was governed by the Hsaahn by themsleves, for themselves.

Hming-Xia grew into one of the first Empires on Fahr Ryasc, a contemporary of Doomed Vakra. Hming-Xia served as capital to this realm which spread from the Auborobua Mountains onto the Szalaqar tablelands. At it's height, the Hming-Xia Empire dominated Western Fahr Ryasc. When the Empire declined, it gave rise to the largest modern realm in Fahr Ryasc's long history, the Xjinn Empire.

When the Xjinn Empire began to eclipse Hming-Xia, the elder city withdrew, falling back into the shelter of the Naakha'a Valley and closing itself off. Of the once mighty, sprawling empire, only the cities of Hming-Xia and Isskahr remain.

Today, Hming-Xia is a closed city. Visitors are prohibited from entering, and residents are prohibited from leaving, save for a very few who have permission to travel back and forth to Isskahr to engage in the exotic trade in artifacts from Hming-Xia and foreign goods that can be found in the markets of Isskahr. Hming-Xia has become a secluded, silent city, basting in it's ancient memories of empire.

Demographics

- 90% Hsaahn
• 9% Ra'akhen
• 1% other peoples of Fahr Ryasc

Government

Hming-Xia is governed by a High Priesthood of the Elder Serpents known as the Khazaaviy and the head of the Priesthood is "Speaker for the Serpents", the A'athivhathi. The Khazaaviy seldom concern themselves with the governance of the population, but instead enforce the laws of the state religion, the church of the Elder Serpents. Primary among those laws is the seclusion of Hming-Xia.

All property in Hming-Xia is owned by the church itself, and use of that property is a blessing bestowed on the residents of the City. This includes personal items like clothes, homes, tools, even food and water. It all belongs to the Elder Serpents through the priesthood and the mortals who make use of them. In return for the blessings of the priests, the residents of Hming-Xia serve the church in all ways the church commands. For even the people of Hming-Xia are property of the church.

Defences

The first line of defense for Hming-Xia is her last remnant of Empire, the city of Isskahr. The open city controls the mouth of the Naakha'a Valley and in order to threaten Hming-Xia, Isskahr must fall. The valley itself is a second line of defense, travelling from Isskahr to Hming-Xia crosses three days' worth of desert flanked on either side by steep, stark ridges, creating a perfect environment to destroy any invaders.

The walls of Hming-Xia herself are imposing, rising one hundred fifty feet from the valley floor. Resembling a mighty, coiled serpent, the city walls are constructed of what legend claims are the scales of Magnificent Auborobua himself. Whether or not the legend is true, the fact remains that the scaled walls of Hming-Xia are nearly impenitrable by any siege-craft currently known in Fahr Ryasc.

Industry & Trade

There is little trade and less industry in Hming-Xia. What trade goods are found in the markets of Isskahr are exotic to say the least. Hming-Xia is ancient and it's artifacts and relics are multitudinous, those that the priesthood permits to pass out of the city are unique in their rarity. These artifacts and relics take the form of sculpture and jewlrey, much of it enchanted.

Infrastructure

Hming-Xia's most prominent feature are it's city walls. Shaped like a coiled serpent around the city itself, with scaled flesh and rising to a height of 150 Feet. The head of this serpent contains the front gate of the city in it's open mouth that is 30 feet tall at it's widest point. The topmost coil is hollow and pierced by open windows all along it's circumference. The winding streets of Hming-Xia appear to be paved with scales, and all the temples and shrines to the Elder Serpents are made of the same scaled material.

The tallest structures within the city are the great spires dedicated to each of the Great Serpents, Yg the Mother, M'nbolo the First Born, Naakha'a the Soul Sculpter, Resplendent TzalQTzal, Zekteth of a Thousand Faces, and Magnificent Auborobua. These spires are a combination of temple to each Demigod and enormous idol bearing their likenesses.

The Naakha'a Valley is a desert chasm resting between two tall ridges at the base of the Auborobua Mountains. Yet, the city does not lack for water due to cisterns and aqueducts scattered throughout the city. The network connects to a colossal aquifer within the mountains themselves that supplies the water to the people and gardens in Hming-Xia

Points of interest

The center of Hming-Xia is the Temple of Xia (for which the religion is named). It is from this sprawling palace that the Kaazhah rule the city from. It is both a center of worship and necropolis. Deep within the temple are extensive tombs where thousands of years of priests have been interred. The tombs dig down and back into the mountain, winding through miles of passages filled with the recent and ancient dead, and the ritual chambers the oldest of which date from the age when Zekteth and Naakha'a took the forms of mortals and governed the city directly.

Tourism

There is, as one would expect from an isolated, secluded city, little or no "Tourism". However, for the faithful of the Temple of Xia, if they have Hsaahn ancestry, there is the privilige granted for pilgrimige.

Architecture

The building materials of Hming-Xia are mostly taken from the Naakha'a Valley. The same plated shale stone that builds the Auborobua mountains. This gives all the buildings in Hming-Xia the same scaled appearance as it's coiled outer walls.

Geography

The Naakha'a Valley is a barren and rocky chasm that stretches from the base of the Auborobua mountains northeast for over 40 Leagues where it opens into where the Valley of the Grey meets the Szalaqar Tablelands. The ridges that channel the valley climb a thousand feet on either side like knife-edges sloping down in parallel until they end at the peaks called the Fangs of Haaska'a and Mnahnka'a.

The curious feature of the Naakha'a Valley is that the floor is not sand nor dust. It is the flake eroded from the mountain ridges themselves which are comprised of flinty scales that resemble shale. The deeper one travels into the valley, the larger the scales grow until when they reach the slopes of the mountain range, they are gargantuan plates which lay atop one another.

Climate

Hming-Xia is dry and hot. It shares it's climate with the Valley of the Grey to the north. Rain seldom falls onto the Naakha'a Valley as the ridges shield it from most weather patterns. However, Hming-Xia is not as relentlessly hot as the Valley since it only receives direct sunlight in appreciable amounts during the Summer months.

Founders

• Naakha'a
• Zekteth

Alternative Name(s)

The Temple City, The Tomb City, City of Scaled Walls

Type

Large city

Population

50,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Phoh (the Blessed), Hming

Ruling/Owning Rank

Kaazhah