Arkaya

The city of Arkaya is a spectacular sight. The city is famous for its cliff-side waterfalls, the hanging gardens, the colorfully tiled and its decorated and shining pyramid-temples. The city is a sprawling metropolis, perfectly positioned in a defensible locale along the Kardain river. It occupied the full breadth of the Ardine valley, with hills securing the Northern side and a massive cliff-face, a sheer wall of stone protecting the South. The cliff face is well decorated: hanging gardens that double as cat-roads cover much of it, and what sheer stone remains is painted with lively colors. Cave openings occasionally open up from the sheer rock, often pouring out waterfalls that feed into the great Kardain river below.
The Kardain river is the great lifeline of Arkaya. It teems with fish and Giant Lobsters, and there is a great riverboat trade that moves in and out of the West Docks. Islands dot the river, which curves back and forth from the great cliffs to the South, creating a very splotchy city layout that is crisscrossed with bridges and ferries. Many of these little islands contain fishing and lobster-herding communities, others are dominated by great raised stone platforms supporting green-and-blue dyed pyramids that jut out of the river like spines.
Wandering this great labyrinth of bridges and islands, it does not take long before any visitor realizes that this is not a city for humans: this is a city for cats. Great cat-sizes apartment complexes watch over the river from the North, cats working together to herd lobsters via riverboat can be seen from the shore, and everywhere cats are rushing over every surface: the roads, the rooftops, the fences. Most of them wear some kind of costume and Cat is the common language on the street. Statues of the Cat Goddess Corvis-Ashara watch from the rooftops and adorn the great stone bridges. Cat veterans from The Golden Crusade patrol the streets in blue armor, evoking the unique dark-blue of cat priest vestments.
This is the great holy city of Corvis-Ashara, the heart of cat-kind: the cliffside cavern system is home to the Heart of Ashara, the holiest of holies. It is the great conduit to the Cat Heavens, with amazing magical properties. Guarding the Heart is the Star Legion: the elite soldiers of Desmian cat-kind, known for their skill with the garrote. And in the surrounding caverns the priesthood of Ashara has entombed the mummified remains of the greatest heroes of cat-kind, who are prophesized to one day rise up and protect the city from evil.

Demographics

10,000 humanoids live in Arkaya, 95% of which are human. The other 5% are Selkies, Vesper, Haltia, and Kobolds. The majority of the population are cats, which number around 16,000

Government

Arkaya is governed by the Lord Mayor, who theoretically rules with impunity. In reality, the Lord Mayor is stuck eternally compromising and negotiating between the urban elites and the dominant rural elites: they must answer both to their liege, the Duke of Eramden, and to the town council. The town council is itself a body divided between two great local elite forces: The Temple of Corvis-Ashara and the Arkayan Junta. The Temple has traditionally led cat-kind here and operates many of the day-to-day services the city depends on; the Junta coordinates all local guilds and merchant associations. 
Currently, the Lord Mayor Solann is a perfectly canny middleperson: a human merchant that has managed to somehow ingratiate themselves with the Temple of Ashara. They have essentially allowed the local groups to operate independently and focused instead on closing tariff loopholes abused by the Junta - providing the merchants and humans a secure voice in government in exchange for actually paying their taxes. 
Solann's skillful maneuvering has earned them the city's loyalty- something that their liege has so far failed to do entirely. Said Duke of Eramden hasn't had much time to be fair: the duke is a teenager named Valstrom that only recently inherited the title from his wildly unpopular parents. But, until Valstrom properly walks back his parent's unsustainable financial schemes and supporting policies, Arkaya will continue mocking him and disrespecting him.

Defences

The Northern Walls of Arkaya have not seen action in some time and are not entirely state-of-the-art, but the hilly terrain on the Northern fringe of the city give it an edge anyways. They do well enough dissuading small forces and bandits, and their watchtowers provide an excellent view over the surrounding woods. Their flags and fire signals would be very effective summoning aid from Castle Kordon to the East, where the Duke of Eramden holds court. 
While Arkaya's defenses may be mediocre, occupying the city is hellish. Arkaya has a wildly overstaffed city guard and garrison, as it has long invited any and all cat veterans to join the city's ranks. And as the city has hundreds of paths and routes made only for cats, trying to actually capture all of these armed and dangerous felines is a nightmarish experience. Smart invaders know to bribe the priests and treat the city with care and kindness - for to face the wrath of thousands of cats in a guerilla war is to experience true logistical suffering.

Industry & Trade

Rat, rabbit, and cricket farming are the great industries of Arkaya: almost every neighborhood has one of these three kinds of farms in the commons. Rabbit farms are the most common: the meat is universally accepted and the furs can be sold at market. The river area is also home to lobster-farming and some light wheat and maize agriculture that becomes more intensive the further one leaves town. Apple orchards and pumpkin patches are also common, including a number of public orchards and patches that double as community parks. 
While agriculture is a common part of day-to-day Arkayan life, so is manufacturing and crafting: leatherworking and textile production are particularly big industries here ever since the invention of the Cat-Loom and Board. Weaving, dye-production and dyeing (often via mushrooms or from the mines upriver), armoring, cobbling, and even silk production can all be found here. Arkayan cider is also a big industry. 
River trade is the most common kind, and the docks are entirely owned and operated by the Junta: the ultimate trade authority. The Arkayan Junta is led by a council of guildmasters (overwhelming from the tanning, weaving, and brewing guilds) and head merchants, that set the de-facto trade policies of the city and determine who can be licensed to ply their trade. The Arkayan Junta is connected to the Avanan Professionals Junta.

Infrastructure

The five great bridges of Arkaya keep the city together and are the pride and joy of the citizens: every Day of Blood and every Corvinra (The Day of the Cats), the great cat statues on each bridge are decorated with wreathes, paint, and often funny hats. 
The sewer system is rather simplistic and probably in need of renovation, but it works well enough to keep the city sanitary.

Guilds and Factions

The Temple of Corvis-Ashara: The traditional ruling elite of Arkaya, the Temple of the Cat Goddess (known in the far South as Corvis and in the North as Ashara) manages tax collection, cat-urban planning, education, and the city guard. The temple is still the number one authority in the city. The Temple hosts the Ecclesia of Ezenay-Ireth and has significant representation in the Orthodox Perpetual Conclave. Theoretically, the Temple represents all of cat-kind in Desmia, and while it lacks a centralized governing system for other Asharan/Corvik priesthoods its words are taken seriously in most Orthodox cat communities. While predominantly cat, human priests of Corvis-Ashara are common as agricultural and fertility priests. Arkayan human Ashara priests are much less focused on the operations of the city than the countryside. 
The cat leadership of the Temple are the Heart-Keepers: the elite cat clan that lives in the caverns above Arkaya and manages the Heart of Ashara. The human leadership of the Temple are the Star Gardeners, a holy order that documents agricultural methods, bless fields, and dabble in agriculturally useful magic. 
In the past century, the Temple administrators of the city of Arkaya have grown increasingly conservative and pro-military. In 1962, they began attempting to suppress technology that would enable cats to engage in textile production and metallurgy, denouncing such methods and the associated ways of life as "a form of pet ownership by non-cat kind". 
The Star Legion: While the Heart-keepers tend to the Heart of Ashara and theoretically run the Temple on their own, they share the caverns with their protectors:  the Star Legion. The Star Legion is the vital connection between the Arkayan Ashara Temple and the Perpetual Conclave, as they work directly under both organizations. The Star Legion are the elite warriors of Ashara, the best of the best of cat-kind. Known as expert ambushers skilled with the garrote, the Star Legion operates in Desmia's fiercest battlegrounds: the Inquisitions and the Crusades. The Seven Stars lead them: a council of the oldest and wisest champions that commune with the Cat Heavens via the Heart. While the Heart-Keepers claim to be the leaders of all cat-kind, the Seven Stars are the power behind the cat throne. 
The Arkayan Junta: The Arkayan Junta is an alliance of guilds, merchants, and urban wealthy non-aristocrats that work as the town council of Arkaya. In the past, they represented the non-cat interests of the city. They are led by a power bloc of the Tanner's Guild, the Weaver's Guild, the Furring Guild, the Dyer's Guild, and the Merchant's Guild, which have a stranglehold over guild politics and trade policy. Since the rise of inter-Junta cooperation in the years after the last major Kivish war in 1840, the Arkayan Junta has become more and more intertangled in the political battles that cross all of the Avanan Empire. This means more opposition to foreign veterans taking local jobs. With that comes rising anti-foreign and anti-military sentiments. 
The Worker Cats: The Worker Cats Clan/Working Cats Clan, also known as the WCC, is a subgroup of the Arkayan Junta that has taken on a life of its own. Started as an independent association of working cat guilds in the late 1800s, they were welcomed with open arms into the Junta in the 1950s. In the ensuing court cases and riots, the WCC organized cat opposition to guard attacks on protesters. The WCC has only grown more radical since then, and has earned the ire of the Temple. They have repeatedly challenged cat traditions, particularly those relating to the old Chivalric Codes. As a replacement, the WCC drafted the "Worker's Code" in 1961, which refashioned the old chivalric codes to be less militaristic and more oriented to everyday urban workers. This and other controversies have attracted radical cat thinkers to the WCC, who meet frequently in its clubs and salons to dream utopian dreams. These radical ideologues have pressured the WCC to direct confrontation with the Temple, and towards spreading urban cat ideology and technology to other Desmian cities. The WCC lacks a clear ideology at the moment, but is best understood as a mixture between cat bourgeoisie ideology and cat worker egalitarianism.

History

The Foundational Legends

Arkaya rose from village to town to city quite quickly after the discovery of the Heart of Ashara in 5 ME. News of this discovery spread across Desmia, and the Heart quickly became a place of pilgrimage and worship for Desmian cat faithful. Some ambitious clans sought to hold the Heart for themselves, and intrigue and infighting began to take root. By 280 ME, the violence around the Heart threatened to provoke an all-out cat civil war.
The legend of how it was resolved is in many ways historically accurate, if a little narratively tweaked: So dire were the circumstances that the local Human warlord, Raskana the Wise, intervened with her troops and supported the small peace faction. Raskana promised to lead humans in devotion and beautification of the Heart and the Cat Heavens if the Cats were willing to make peace and share it with all of catkind. While Raskana delayed the kindling great cat war, one of the peace faction was given a vision by the Cat Heavens to rally catkind and acquire outside support. This brave Desmian Blue cat was named Stormstep, and they traveled the lands gathering companions and subverting the grand alliances that had formed to fight for cat dominance. Stormstep eventually realized that cats alone were not enough, and began recruiting human allies: but humans were fickle and often found cat politics confusing. Finally, Stormstep acquired a human ally that could rally the rest: Emperor Kaydren "the Hammer" of Avana, an aging and pious monarch that was moved by Stormstep's pleas. In 285, Stormstep and Kaydren ventured together to Arkaya to settle the matter with a grand entourage of cats and humans. Through force and guile they were able to disband the great cat factions, save Raskana from an assassination attempt, and crown Raskana and Stormstep the dual monarchs of Arkaya. Stormstep devoted themselves to the Cat Heavens and founded the Star Legion to keep the cat peace forever; Raskana founded the human temples of Corvis-Ashara and established lasting peace and unity between Desmian cats and humanity.
An old, now-forbidden part of the legend is that they sacrificed two dryads at the heart in their coronation, and those sacrifices were transfigured into cats- revealing the power of the Heart. This part is forbidden, as it has been declared that Dryads do not have souls and therefore cannot be transfigured by the Heart. According to conspiracy theories popular in Seruvian Heretical circles, the Orthodox elite denies this to cover up the secret transfiguration of demons into cats to use as advisors and magicians by corrupt elites.

Historical History

Regardless of details, by 300 ME Arkaya was united under a cat-human dual theocracy. It was a place of peace and negotiation, and ruled the surrounding villages in a mostly peaceful manner. In 440 ME, Arkaya joined with surrounding settlements into the League of Eramden to defend themselves against the other rising Ezenain states. Ultimately, one state did rise above the others and conquer around Eramden- surrounding the League by 580 ME. Eramden peacefully integrated as an autonomous vassal in 610 ME. From 610 ME to 1080 ME, Arkaya was the center-piece of that autonomous priestly province in the Kingdom of Ezenay. And then, in 1078, civil war broke out in Ezenay. The Empire of Avana invaded from the South after several years of civil war and subjugated the land. Arkaya was treated well and given many of its old Ezenay-Eramden privileges by the Avanan conquerors. And so the city peacefully integrated, becoming an imperial province. In 1530 ME, the city of Arkaya sold the feudal rights to the Duchy of Eramden to an Avanan aristocratic family, switching from rulers to ruled.
Arkaya slumped economically during much of its time as a subject city from 600 ME to 1600. The city of cats was simply not very productive economically: the constant pilgrimages, imperial convoys, and priestly conclaves brought trade movement, but non-humanoid cats simply lacked the tools and incentives to engage in that trade. Humans took over more and more of the governance and political power, with humanoid cats holding virtually all other non-military positions. And then the 1600s hit: technology and trade lines that had been introduced via invasion began to be co-opted by Desmian merchants. United with Ishkibites against a common foe had allowed trade from Samvara and even Suneka to flow in. Samvaran and Kivish invader technology was adapted, and selkies began to ply their trade in Desmian ports. Closer association with Aquatic kingdoms allowed underwater trade and trade routes to form. From 1600 to 1900, this new surge in foreign tastes, technology, and trade allowed Desmian cities to grow in size. And, importantly for Arkaya, many of these new technologies and concepts allowed even more new innovation. Humanoid cats in particular sought to adapt foreign concepts and technologies for their non-handed brethren. The Cat loom-and-board, the cat forge, and other inventions that enabled cats to produce luxury goods changed everything. Once cats were dependent on humans and humanoids for luxury goods and tools, but now they could produce these things for themselves.
The invention of these and their adoption was an extremely slow process, of course: some cats that had good human allies and labor contracts preferred the old ways, and coinage simply didn't get adopted until relatively recently. Some human and humanoid cat elites also tried to slow the adoption of these inventions out of concern for their old power-monopoly. The Guilds in particular worked overtime to slow the spread of these inventions out of concern for cat's preference to work under the Asharan Temple to guild membership- the guilds were losing control of their production monopoly. But by 1900, the change was irreversible. In 1950, the Junta finally stopped trying to shut down non-guild cat work and started focusing entirely on recruiting them away from the Asharan Temple voluntarily. This pivot has been extremely controversial and angered many in the Temples: particularly given the Junta's media campaign pointing out the Temple's preference for military cats over common working cats. The Temple of Ashara took the Junta to court for heresy, and while their charges were ultimately dropped they ignited a burning feud between the Temple and Junta that has defined Arkayan politics for the last 70 years.

Tourism

Cat pilgrims to Arkaya are extremely common. Victims of Gem Plague or other incurable diseases flock to hostels around the base of the temples, desperately applying to the lotteries to be cured. To prevent overcrowding, there are limits to how many lottery applicants can stay in the city at a time and for how long they can stay. While theoretically all-access, in practice poor applicants are herded out of the city and wealthier applicants are encouraged to stay. While they wait, these wealthy victims often spend lavishly in the city, operating as a kind of "Health Tourist".

Architecture

In the ancient days, cats and humans alike built small stone pyramids as joint temples to Corvis-Ashara. This style has influenced the roofing of Arkaya, which is aggressively sloped and often multi-levelled. Hidden roofs, tented roofs, and hip-and-gable roofs are all commonplace here - all with flairs around the edges that act both as gutters and cat roads. Hanging gardens are common additions to buildings, and the city is spaced out in a large sprawl with lots of room for community gardens and common growing areas. Most buildings also have cat bridges: stone archways connected to the sides of the rooftop that enable cats to safely move from roof to roof.

Founding Date

10 ME

Alternative Name(s)

Arkayo, Corvidon, The City of Cats

Type

City

Population

9,000 humanoids, 16,000 cats

Inhabitant Demonym

Arkayan

Location under

Desmia

Included Locations

• Heart of Ashara

Owning Organization

Empire of Avana