Ophir (pronounced oh-FEAR) is an independent city on the southern coast of the Chaska Sea. The people of Ophir are quite wealthy as a result of their central location in the silphium trade, a plant greatly valued for culinary and medicinal uses. Silphium grows only in the semi-arid regions of the southern Chaska, and particularly well in the lands around Ophir. The city's inhabitants harvest great quantities of the plant to be sold to visiting merchants, who then deliver it to various ports around the sea, and especially to Viridia where it is in especially great demand.
Ophir is a quite well-developed city. Those who arrive by sea first see the city's protected, artificial harbor, protected by a small navy formed by local sailors. Though Ophir's only defensive walls are facing the water, visitors who take land routes will still encounter guards on the roads leading in from the east and west. The city is laid out like a spoked wheel, major thoroughfares radiating outwards from the center of Ophir, where a large plaza with ringed with temples and buildings of state can be found. The architecture of the city is broadly similar to that of other major settlements on the southern coast of the Chaska, blocky sandstone edifices with extensive use of gardens and greenspaces to provide shade in the warm climate.