Sharruma

Sharruma
Capital	Sharruma (city)
Ruler	Great Redeemer Iasthum Starseeker
Government	Hereditary monarchy, Starseeker dynasty
Demonym	Sharrumite
Adjective	Sharrumite
Languages	Aserdian, Elven, Common
Religions	Unbounded Sky; Elven pantheon; Aserdian pantheon

Sharruma
Nation	Sharruma
Demonym	Sharrumite
Adjective	Sharrumite
Population	~8,000
Demographics	Various ancestries

Sharruma (pronounced shar-ROO-mah) is a city-state in southern Brightmarch whose mines produce much of the platinum now in circulation around the world. The rulers of this highly authoritarian city-state have used the vast wealth produced in the mines to fund the restoration of a crashed aerolith and the study of the lost art of aerotheurgy, in hopes of one day returning to the skies.

Geography, flora, and fauna

Sharruma lies amongst the rolling grasslands of southern Brightmarch. Aside from the nearby Platinum River and the aerolith, there are few natural landmarks around. Seemingly endless skies blanket the smooth curves of the hills, broken only by the occasional corpse of trees. The region is warm year-round.

The extensive mining operations of Sharruma have left their mark on the landscape. Entire hillsides lie barren, stripped of their foliage and with the soil and rock beneath excavated. While some older, now abandoned mines have begun to resemble their natural appearances once more, the signs of Sharruma's search for wealth are unmistakable.

History

When Eitan influence in Brightmarch came to an end, many ruins were left behind. Outposts, estates, and entire cities were abandoned, and multiple aeroliths came back to earth in the region as their former inhabitants sought to join the exodus to Hinthial. Though across Brightmarch these relics of a past age are broadly left alone, this is not the case in Sharruma.

The grounded aerolith near Sharruma had long been known to the peoples that live nearby. Named Priumne by those that previously called it home, the aerolith was damaged but less so than many others. A great mass of metal and stone rising from the grasslands, Priumne eventually attracted the attention of those that wished to return to the air once more.

In Y8668^*, a particularly zealous group of Redemptionist elves arrived in the region from Hinthial in search of an aerolith to eventually restore. After finding Priumne, they quickly determined they had located exactly what they desired. Sharruma already existed by this point, but only as a small town. Under the leadership of Opara Starseeker, the elves assumed control of the settlement. Many of Sharruma's inhabitants quickly departed, unwilling to allow themselves to live under rule of the newly arrived outsiders, but plenty more remained, enraptured by the Redemptionists' mission.

In the almost millennia and a half since, Sharruma has grown markedly, especially after the discovery of significant amounts of platinum amongst the gold in the hills surrounding the city. The Redemptionists quickly saw their unexpected wealth as a great opportunity, and rapidly set about expanding mining efforts, establishing trade arrangements, and calling for more to join their city, promising a place on the aerolith once it is returned to flight.

Demographics

Sharruma is inhabited largely by half-elves, with significant populations of humans and elves as well. Other ancestries account for much smaller proportions of the city's residents.

Unlike effectively everywhere else in Brightmarch, Sharruma maintains a census, and through it confers citizenship to its inhabitants. Though considered unusual amongst those that live near the city but outside its immediate sphere of influence, under Sharruma's laws only those that have been officially registered are considered Sharrumites.

While most Sharrumites sponsored by the monarchy to work on the aerolith project arrived in the city-state from other locations around the Gulf of Aserdus, some came from considerably farther abroad.

Culture

Religion

See also: Unbounded Sky

Rather than a more conventional religion, the majority of Sharruma's inhabitants follow a secular cult called Unbounded Sky, based on a particularly zealous strain of Redemptionist thought. Led by the city's monarchy, this cult holds that it is better to strive towards a tangible goal in life, specifically the restoration of the aerolith, than to worship some distant deities or hold closely to their abstract areas of concern. To the adherents of this belief, if Priumne flies again in their lifetime, or in their childrens' lifetimes, they will be able to establish a worldly idyll lost all those millennia ago when the age of the aeroliths came to an end. The freedoms they give up temporarily, then, are justified by the autonomy they will one day enjoy in the open skies. The cult is a significant aspect of how the monarchy keeps control in Sharruma while surrounded by peoples in Brightmarch who have very different outlooks on the world.

Not all Sharrumites believe in this cult, and the followers of various deities can be found in the city, mostly those of the Elven and Aserdian pantheons.

Society

Sharruma exists to support the long-term goal of flying the aerolith once again. Life in Sharruma is tightly monitored and controlled by the state, all in the name of efficiency towards their project's completion. Social structures in the city are highly stratified and class-based, extremely unusual by the standards of surrounding Brightmarch. Laborers, mine workers, farmers, and others in the working class are beneath the specialists and scribes that work on the aerolith, and the master builders and magical scholars are above the specialists in turn. In general, most Sharrumites believe this to be the correct direction for their society to take, as it allows work on the aerolith to continue uninterrupted by petty concerns. The scholars and aerolith engineers sponsored by the monarchy are given somewhat more latitude than the average citizen, able to travel more freely without seeking permission from the state.

Even after centuries of work, the project continues. Some aspects have had more success than others. Despite the difficulty of working with ansharite on the scale required, the expert smiths and engineers hired by the monarchy have made significant progress in repairing the structures and internals of the aerolith. The work to rediscover the lost art of aerotheurgy, however, has hit challenge after challenge. Exceptionally few understood the secrets of this form of magic to begin with, and what little was known was effectively forgotten by the generations that abandoned the aeroliths. Through unceasing centuries of study some core fundamentals have been reestablished by Sharrumite scholars, but the great breakthroughs that allowed the aeroliths to fly remain elusive. Nevertheless, the monarchy continues to sponsor a large cabal of mages to conduct such research for as long as is required.

Architecture and urbanization

Priumne is already occupied even as work continues to restore the aerolith and research how to fly it once more. Sections in which work has completed have been turned into homes and halls of power for the elites of Sharruma, mostly the ruling dynasty, their advisors, and the specialists and scholars who are critical to the project. From the top of the aerolith they can look out at the city that surrounds them below. The rest of Sharruma is built primarily using fairly typical Marcher designs.

Languages

Aserdian and Elven are spoken equally widely in Sharruma. Common is understood by many of the city's residents as well, but by and large is only used when conversing with non-Sharrumites.

Government

The city-state is ruled by a hereditary monarchy under the Starseeker dynasty. All members of the dynasty descend from Opara Starseeker, the leader of the Redemptionist movement that took control of Sharruma almost a millennium and a half ago. Each monarch is given the title Great Redeemer, representing the role they play in their attempted culmination of the Redemptionist movement. Assisted by a large class of scribes and guards, the monarchy keeps close eyes on all the goings on of Sharruma. Production from the mines is inventoried and citizens are accounted for, all in order to be aware of the exact state of the aerolith restoration project.

Sharruma maintains something of a vassal relationship with Ammuken, a city located at the mouth of the Platinum River. For centuries, since Y9620^*, Ammuken has been led by a Sharruma-appointed overseer. Originally the two cities were allies and shared in the profits, but after Ammuken's short-lived monarchy was deposed in Y9619^* Sharruma moved in to exert control directly. In the last two hundred years Sharruma has begun hiring mercenaries from outside Brightmarch, largely to keep control of Ammuken as well as ward off renewed attacks from the black dragon Illuyanka.

Economy

Sharruma's economy is almost entirely dependent on its platinum mines. Resources from these mines are processed, refined, then shipped down the Platinum River to Ammuken, where the valuable metal is then sold to merchants from abroad. These mines are critical to Sharruma and are therefore very tightly guarded. Significant amounts of gold are also found in Sharruma's mines, though it is comparatively less valued by the city.

Relations

Perceptions towards Sharruma in the rest of Brightmarch are broadly quite negative. Many see them as foolhardy, tirelessly laboring away at a pointless endeavor and sacrificing too much to do so.