Imperial Hurur
The people of the Hurur Sultanate have skin tones ranging from light to dark brown, most have dark curly hair and dark-colored eyes.
They tend to be taller and stronger than other human ethnicities, having a median height of 1.90m.
Army
The rampant criminality means that the rich hire mercenaries for protection, this has given rise to many mercenary groups that function as city guards or standing armies depending on what the situation requires.Economy
The economy of Hurur deals primarily in slaves, used to work the fields or as cheap mercenaries called mamaluk, the more pleasing to the eye may find themself as sex slaves in a brothel or as house slaves for the richer. The rise of the dogmatic Church of the White Flame has caused problems in the slave market for one of their rules is that the blessed races (humans, dwarves but not duergars, halflings, gnomes, grey orcs, leonins, and recently goliaths), are not to be enslaved, and so even if there is no law in the Sultanate preventing such races to be enslaved, it is seen as heresy by the members of the church and since the massive poor population receives free education in churches no one with a sound mind would deal in slaves belonging to those races lest they be killed by an angry mob. The more exotic slaves or slaves that are particularly strong may find themself in an arena, there is one in every city, and the events are free to watch, beast and monsters from far away and slaves with exotic and flashy combat styles battle for the entrainment of citizens rich and poor. Gladiatorial schools are a lucrative business, and any slave that wins 100 battles wins its freedom, of course, every battle is more dangerous than the previous to the point they become impossible to win. Battles are always to the death. Other than slaves the Sultanate is the largest exporter of alchemical products in the Empire, from components to semi-prepared ingredients to full ready-to-drink potions and elixirs, if you can't find it in Hurur it doesn't exist.Government
The Sultanate is a plutocracy, what in other countries is called corruption functions as the main political system of this kingdom, the titles are for life, and the more money someone donates to the state the higher the position they are offered, the major titles are Sultan, the leader of the country, and Amir functioning like the mayor of one of the three cities. Minor tiles also exist such as Alp, the equivalent of a knight, or Celebi a title roughly translated to gentleman. These are just the more common titles and Sultans are fond of creating new titles to sell to finance a big public project or a war. The process of obtaining a title is so: a citizen donates money to the Sultanate, once a title becomes available, meaning the predecessor dies, a ten-day period starts when everyone is incentivized to donate to gain the title, after this period, the title is offered first to the citizen who donated the most money if they accept they gain the title but all their donations are now considered spent, if they refuse the title is offered to the second most "generous" citizen and so forth, the reason why someone might refuse a title is that the donated money is still counted towards the next available title, so someone may for example refuse the title of Alp in favor of buying the title of Amir. The power of the Sultan is legally absolute but realistically no one can rule without some form of consensus, the power of an Amir, while ruling only over a city and not the entire Sultanate, is also almost absolute and limited only by the Sultan. Minor titles come with no legal authority but a lot of social status, some finer establishments may only allow patreons with certain titles.Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
The Sultanate may be nominally large but the livable area is small, only the banks of the Hur River are fertile, and the desert presents dangers far worse than the climate with the many species of dangerous fauna living in it, for this reason, most of the population in the Sultanate lives in or around the three cities, ready to run behind the walls at the first sign of a sand devil or a hoard of giant desert locusts.
The living situation in the city is cramped and unpleasant for the majority of the populous, the unlucky live in the old mines dug by the dwarves ages ago under the three cities, officially those are used as cemeteries for the lower class but are so massive that many have built illegal habitations there, usually supervised by local crime group who ask for exorbitant rent.
The class division in the sultanate is massive, giant villas with elaborate fountains occupy the richer quarters while slums fill the lower streets, this class disparity is not technically perpetuated by right of birth like in the rest of the Empire, but one is mistaken if it thinks this helps the social mobility of the poorer, money brings money in the Sultanate and those without any tend to stay at the bottom.
Some lucky individuals might strike it big and rise from the slums to the higher cities, but these are exceptions, of course, they are used as examples to quell the rage of the poor majority making them think that if only they would work harder they too could be rich.
Criminals are abundant in the Sultanate, but they tend to keep themself in check, corruption is the rule so random violence is mostly nonexistent, and a well-developed criminal hierarchy means that anyone who hurts a commoner who pays protection to a crime boss may incur the ire of said crime boss, so people tend to avoid violent crimes against the locals, tourist on the other hand better come armed and ready if they find themselves in the lower quarters.
Funerary and Memorial customs
While the commoners are crudely discarded in the pits and caverns of the ancient dwarven mines below the cities, the rich have very extravagant funerals, there is no consensus on how such a funeral needs to be held but they usually end in the ritual burning of the body. Some may have the body of the deceased be carried on a raft along the length of the river Hur, towed with rope by crying slaves, until once at sea the raft is set alight by a volley of flaming arrows. Others might build gigantic pyramids made of imported wood in the desert that are then lit up with ritual chanting and cheers.
The reason why the body is burned it's because it's believed that burned bodies go to a better richer afterlife than those who are not burned.
Most of the rich population is not religious but very superstitious, while the majority of the commoners believe in the Goddes of the white flame and so do not care what happens to their dead body for it is only a vessel for the soul now empty.
Related Organizations
