Senemet

Whitestone Pharaonate

Senemet is a pharaonic polis on the east bank at the mouth of the mighty red Idam river. Its privileged location allows it to command trade for some distance along the southern coast of Nubir east of the Idam, into the Keranos strait. By consequence, this also means that Senemet's navy, and the great Fort Sseth overlooking the Keranos, partially dictate access by sea to Phenike and to Marmora beyond. However, the strait is wide and the pharaonate's resources are finite, and many pirates, independent traders, and vessels flying the colors of rival poleis still manage to slip through without paying the established tolls. On the other side of the Idam, Senemet's bitter rival Akhen once commanded the lucrative primary ocean current giving access to Vandelay and so was even grander and wealthier than Senemet, but has fallen from glory now that this route is forbidden.
Sheltered below white limestone cliffs, with red granite just upriver in the mountain foothills, Senemet is known for its many quarries and mines and their bountiful output of fine stone, gems and gold. The witch-queen Pharess Senkahpshut goes to lengths to ensure that her city cultivates many of the finest sculptors, masons and architects of the age, as well as artisans of many other types besides. Great building projects have erected mighty monuments here the likes of which are scarcely seen elsewhere in the mortal era, with the state typically funding and directing the majority of the work during the flood season when it is dangerous to work in the hills and fields. Channels have been carved into the cliffs with an eye to this, to encourage the Idam to flood further into Senemet's territory and enrich the soil of the lower plain, but this does not come anywhere near to the inundations relied upon in Akhen. Whereas its rival is a major exporter of food to the entire region, Senemet is beginning to grow past the point of self-sufficiency, and to need food imports for more than just desirable novelty and luxury foods.
Senemet and Krypteia are favored trading partners. Each has at times aided the other militarily, such as in periodic attempts to purge the intervening waters of pirates, or to defend the Mesodo during the Kervelos war. Each polis has also occasionally provided monetary investment in major projects undertaken by the other with the potential to turn a profit. These projects are also often aimed at showing up Senemet's primary rival Akhen, and Krypteia's primary rivals Pelekys and Xyria. Currently, they are joined together again in cofunding the establishment of the Tykos colony in northern Makrys, where the campaign begins.
The Senem are renowned for their free spirits and unusual luck. This is said by most to be a grace afforded by the gods for all of the queendom's many temples to every god and countless major spirits, most notable in the famed Street of Ten Thousand Gods, a small temple city in a ravine to the northeast. Magical philosophers from Krypteia and Xyria, on the other hand, attribute this factor to a warping in the weave of magic here caused by the numerous wielders of Wild Magic seen in the queendom, not least the mighty Senkahpshut herself.

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Senem PCs

• Proficiencies: You gain one bonus skill (History, Persuasion, or Religion), and either a bonus language, tool or vehicle proficiency.
• Blessed Luck: When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, ability check, saving throw, or Wild Magic check, you can elect to reroll the die if you wish. You must use the new result, even if it is the same as before.
• Fortunate Circumstance: As an action, you can replicate the effect of any cantrip from any spell list, without having to learn that cantrip. However, this use of that cantrip is not magical and instead represents a quirk of fate or divine blessing in your favor, such a stray sunbeam lensing through the sky and producing an effect like the sacred flame cantrip. Choose Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma to be your "casting" modifier for this ability, and once you use this ability you can't use it again until after a short or long rest. YOU MUST CHOOSE THE SPELL BEFORE IT IS YOUR TURN AT THE TABLE or you have to do something else that turn.

Type

Large city