Shova (City)
One cannot talk about Shovani without discussing Leviathan. The largest creature in the known world, Leviathan is a hydra twice the size of a skyscraper. Worshiped as a kind of god-king by the citizens, at least two of Leviathan's heads are always sleeping with one lowered so that its priests may consult it on matters of only the greatest importance. Each head has its own distinct name and personality, and it is unclear how matters are resolved when the heads disagree. Leviathan originally had six heads, but after an event sometimes called "the great rebirth," one of those heads died, only to be replaced from its stump by two new heads, making a total of seven. Since
The power of Leviathan's voice, both figuratively and literally, is so great that the creature rarely speaks even to its priests, and almost never to the population at large (though it can). This means that the largely lizardfolk nation is for practical purposes governed by a council representing various strata of Shovani society. The council representatives are the military, the priesthood, the nobility, the scribes/bureaucrats, the builders/artisans and the merchants. Given Leviathan's new, seventh head, there's been talk of establishing a seventh council member. No one has yet been able to persuade the council of this, partly because all Shovani are already classified into one of the six categories and partly because the current arrangement is to the liking of the High General, as the even number of councilors grants him extra power in the form of the right to cast a tiebreaking vote when the council is evenly divided.
Demographics
Shovani is largely a city/nation of lizardfolk of various kinds. Various other types of reptilian or amphibious metahumans reside in Shovani, but it is the lizardfolk (sometimes called dragonkin) that are the vast majority and occupy most positions of social, economic and political importance.
Government
Government in Shovani is by a council of six members, each representing the interests of one category of citizens. In theory, the majority of the council has the authority to do anything, but the fact that the councilor is effectively the executive of the caste's own internal bureaucracy means that in practice it's difficult to get members of a certain group to act contrary to the councilor's desires. Each caste is different, however, and internal politicking influences each councilor differently because all but the High Priest can theoretically be removed through some caste-specific procedure. A majority vote of the council can strip a councilor of their status as well, but that has only happened twice in the country's history.
Defences
Shovani's greatest defense is Leviathan. On the only occasion that an army drew close enough to the capital to genuinely threaten it, the enormous beast opened its maw and let forth an energy blast that carved a canyon that exists outside the settlement to this day (see The Hydra Chasm). Nevertheless, speakers for Leviathan and senior military leaders both insist on keeping the cities defenses in immaculate shape, with large walls in concentric rings around the city well-manned and armed. To see the Shovani military, one would think they were on the brink of invasion or under martial law rather than being protected by one of the most powerful entities known to exist.
Shovani is the inventor of a number of military tools unique to the region. Some can't be crafted without secret knowledge or locally available materials that keep them largely in the hands of the Shovani military, while others are simply so monstrously large that many other species would find them difficult to wield.
The Shovani battle pillar is exactly what it sounds like, a portable battering ram with multiple handholds along its surface wielded by the largest of the lizardfolk. It's often used by berserkers to disrupt enemy infantry formations or target larger beasts of war too tough for conventional weapons.
Most infamous is the Shovani bloodspear, a kind of javelin bearing a head made from a rare ore prepared through a secret chemical process. When it touches warm blood, and only warm blood, it explodes much like pure sodium exposed to water. Creatures pierced by a bloodspear effectively become grenades within their own units, their bones acting as shrapnel as they're blown apart from the inside. It goes without saying that these spears can only be used once, but more than one veteran of a war against the Shovani still tremble at the sight of the terrible weapons. In theory the spears are banned in many of the neighboring nations, but Shovani's military strength and political influence mean that most lizardfolk patrols do little to conceal that they ignore these restrictions.
Infrastructure
Shovani is a city dominated by water. Canals and aqueducts span the city, and most Shovani homes have between an inch and a foot of water in them. The structures of the city are crafted with great care to prevent pooling in areas where it is not desired and to ensure that none of the water sits stagnant for long. Even the poorest areas of the city receive maintenance to avoid stagnant pools that would otherwise serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
A complex system of locks govern passage for small and medium watercraft through the city, and a Shovani merchant lucky enough to have lock permits for even lowly populated areas has a significant leg up on the competition, cutting hours from their travel time as they dodge congested public lanes and take the smaller byways in between the main canals.
Naturally, furniture and goods are made of waterproof materials, though even some one story homes have "dry" sections to store special goods. Some Shovani families cook and eat some of the many fish that range throughout the city in these waters, though many consider it either bad luck or in poor taste, as it seems to imply the family cannot afford to buy food.
Guilds and Factions
Shovani society is more egalitarian than most, at least in the sense that one's individual potential to serve the state accounts for a great deal. Some citizens do maintain a kind of prejudice based upon the location of one's hatchery of origin (See "The Hatcheries of Shovani") but the majority of folk are far more willing to believe their eyes than some imperfect estimate of a child's parentage. Parentage in general is...complicated in Shovani.
Alternative Name(s)
The City of Six (Seven),
Type
Capital
Population
Shovani is home to about four million lizardfolk and 750,000 various other races. That number may be artificially low because many Shovani are in the military and thus deployed around the country.
Inhabitant Demonym
Shova
Location under
Included Locations
Related Tradition (Primary)
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