Shar Els (pronounced SHAR ELZ) is a shar, or fortified city, in Abanir. It is the first major settlement those traveling along the western route of the Hundred Days Road encounter after they leave Druzda and enter the steppe proper. Shar Els is one of the oldest continually inhabited communities of the steppe, inhabited since at least the fifth millennium, though it has changed greatly and repeatedly over that time. Built atop a hill formed of its own past rubble, the history of Shar Els is immediately evident through its architecture. Nearly all structures within its walls are built from the remains of prior fortifications, each of which has been torn down - sometimes intentionally, sometimes through warfare - and rebuilt time and time again. The city has survived and fallen to countless sieges, mostly to orcish armies from the west, yet through it all always regrown.