{WASC 2022} Siwakhit
Siwakhit is the only city within Hildun territory that is open to traders and foreigners. It is a very important point of passage for a lot of desert caravans, not only to resupply on food and water, but also because of the extremely valuable trade goods of the Hildun mountains, including spider bloodsilk cloth, Ceb'alrai river pearls, underground spices and Tamilh salt.
It's an incredibly busy city, filled with marketstalls and labyrinthic streets anyone could easily get lost into.
Données Démographiques
Siwakhit does not have a large permanent population. Most of the people living in that city are 62 city council members, some merchants, and a permanent base of guards, who both insure the safety of trade, and that no one passes the gates to the mountains.
The great majority of people living in Siwakit is temporary and ever shifting, as caravans come and go, both from the inside and outside.
Gouvernement
The city affairs are ruled by a city council of 62 people, who represent the thirty-one settlements of the Hildun mountains, including priestesses of the Buried Sun, though they never speak as a cult rule. They can vote, however, with raised hands.
Every city policy is discussed, and everyone has an equal right to vote. That does not mean everything goes well all the time, and it is not all that rare that some actual fights break out in the council chambers, mostly about the level of openness they should have to foreigners, some being less friendly to outsiders than others.
The council of Siwakhit is also the closest thing the Hildun Mountain region has to a central form of governance, and diverse grievances between city-states are often aired out during the meetings.
Industrie
Siwakhit is, above all, a trading outpost. The Hildun mountains have incredibly low biodiversity, and the people there heavily depend on outsider resources to grow their crops or get livestock. Fortunately for them, the Hildun moutains hold many resources the outside world considers luxury.
Gemstones and ore mining
The Hildun mountains possess a very rich underground of natural caves, some of which give access to gemstone and metal veins. Among others, the Hildun mountains have a rather rich supply of gold, silver, copper, sodalite, peridot, opal and petrified wood in the valleys. The gemstones are mined and brought to Siwakhit raw, where they are bought by gemologists and jewellers to be cut and manufactured. Most of the metallic ores are processed near the mining sites, since a lot of it is used by Hilduni (like gold and iron), and the surplus is sent in bars to Siwakhit for trade. One of the most popular exports of the Hildun mountains, however, are the Ceb'alrai river pearls, produced by river shells cultivated by the Hildun (especially Hildun Druids). Those pearls are the only ones on Sictaroth to have a natural black color, which makes them very sought after.Infrastructure
Most of the infrastructure in Siwakhit is built for the objective of keeping the heat to a minimum. Wells are built all around to drag water up from underground, and often make for key points where travelling merchants organise their stalls. Some covered markets are also built with wind towers to help the circulation of air and keep the inside cooler.
The city council is lodged and covenes in the town hall, a building at the edges of town, one of the only ones to span more than two floors high (save for the wind towers).
Gemstone trading being one of the most important trades in Siwakhit, a few semi-permanent residences have been established in the city, including all the necessary equipment for gemstone quality assessment and manufacturing. Gemstone traders and jewellers are often the only ones to have permanent shops in Siwakhit.
Architecture
Siwakhit is a city built in a natural rock enclosure, carved and built around to make it a true citadel at the foot of the mountains. It is a very flat city, most of it being temporary merchant stalls, which also gives the city streets an ever shifting pattern had to navigate even for people used to it.
The few permanent housing - including that of administrative buildings, mess halls and the like, are made of clay bricks, covered in an outer sandy coating. Most of it is kept white to repel sunlight.
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