Freewater
Freewater is one of the original Foundation cities, shown above in a stylised painting by Kiara Uthetti called Freewater Soul from 1936 AF. The artwork was one of a pair and the companion piece called Freewater Spirit is shown below.
Freewater was never a particularly powerful city but it did play the most significant role in the ending of the age of the Trade Wars in the early twenty third century.
Freewater Spirit by DMFW with Disco Diffusion 5.2
Government
Freewater was famed for an unorthodox form of government which was based on the Election Games, handing power to those who won most tokens in a four yearly sports competition clearly owing much to the traditions of the Great Burnings. This system didn't always result in the smartest leadership but it did lead to a stable social structure, albeit one which was highly unusual.
Infrastructure
The Holy Well is a deep, high pressure spring at the very centre of Freewater. From here a constant stream of cold water bubbles up into a raised circular pool some thirty meters in diameter, lined with stone walls and circled by a paved path, wide enough for four people to walk abreast. At intervals of sixty degrees, six channels allow the water to escape down sluiceways spanned by stone bridges to feed the city canal system.
The Holy Well is not the only egress from the aquifer under the city but it is the most important.
History
The city came together as a result of a merger of three smaller Rider settlements built around the Midlat Desert Oasis in the year 12 AF.
In the Foundation era, it acted as a way station for travellers passing through the desert to the important mining settlements further south and later began to attract visitors wishing to enjoy the beauty of the spa pools, the luminescent fish swimming in the deep central lake and the lush and richly scented vine flowers which grew in artful cascades over the city canals.
In 1705 AF during the age of the Succession Empires, Freewater was captured by the Low Armies and became part of the military alliance that dominated eastern Trass.
Freewater also controlled some important mineral rights which, still later brought it into conflict with the agents of Allport towards the end of the Trade Wars era. At first this conflict was philosophical, then mercanitile and finally in 2206, it degenerated into a short, out and out war known as the Mating Game.
Freewater was fighting to retain its independence from the greater power of Allport which sought to annex the smaller city. Allport had reckoned without the ingenuity of the defense advisors of Freewater and in 2208 their city was rendered uninhabitable due to Love Bomb residues.
The war was over but the manner of victory caused a great deal of distaste everywhere and Freewater did not particularly benefit from the demise of their antagonist.
Much later in 2512, during the the Long Northern Peace, a deep earthquake struck near the city. This became known as the Dry Slip because it damaged the underground aquifer and led to the city water supply drying up. Within five years Freewater had been abandoned.
Geography
At some long distant time even before the Vow of Earth and long before the Season of Innocence, a massive geoengineering project was conducted which reworked the hydrology and climate on a continental scale. One result of this was the creation of the Midlat Desert Zone south of Anoomenon, where an expanse of sandy dunes stretches for hundreds of miles from sea to sea in a dry and inhospitable belt. Yet as if to compensate, the original engineers or some later ambitious builders had reworked the very foundations of the earth to construct an enormous aquifer in the rock bedding planes, which transported water from the north right into the heart of the sands, welling up to supply a vast oasis of fresh water far from the rain that fed it and in a land where there was no natural rain.
The image below shows the desert watch station on the western edge of Freewater. From here, the badlands run flat and dry over a dusty plane until they reach the sea of dunes.
Freewater : Desert Watch by DMFW with Art Breeder
RUINED SETTLEMENT
2517 AF
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