Baghdad & Babylon

Baghdad is one of the largest cities in the Abbasid Caliphate. It has served as a seat of learning, the sciences, architecture, and trade for some time now. The Abbasids had their government here until moving it to Syria. It is a rich city, and many different peoples come and go. There is business of all sorts carried out on a daily basis, and it is also heavily defended, with a large standing army. Great wealth is kept here, and rumours of magic being taught here is abound too. In part the latter is as much to do with Babylon being nearby, and both being on the Tigris river. The region it is in is part of the old Persian empire, and the peoples are primarily descended of them. It also passed through the Hittite empire, and the Kassites, the Assyrians, and the Elamites.
Babylon lies close to Baghdad and is in ruins. It was originally controlled by the Akkadians and was one if not the first major city, at least a known city at it's time. It was powerful with standing armies, and extensive trade routes. It was also part of a confederation of city states in the region, that at different times consisted over the years of the Sumerians and Babylonia. It had one of the first writing systems known, called cuneiform (a series of arrow-like marks and dots arranged to make up words & sentences). There is large stonework still present and cuneiform tablets & other items still being found & unearthed. When it was a part of the confederation of city states each had a deity specifically tied in with each city. The people who also control the region now is Persian in descent.
Ishtar seemed to be the goddess who was worshipped in the city, and many rumours seem to surround that the city is now cursed. The curse seems to revolve round the dead do not stay dead in the city, along with blood drinking demons (and a few other demonic types) living in the ruins, and deep underground. Some suggest there is plenty of ancient magical lore still to be found around the city ruins, and sometimes there are mentions that if the time is took, there is an ancient ziggurat in the region around the city, or even in it itself, that contains an even more ancient evil.

Type

Large city