The Emirates of Ylaruam

A desert nested between the peaks of the Altan Tepee, the lands of the Emirates suffer from the harshest climate of the Known World. The Ust-Urt river, starting somewhere in the mountains of Rockhome, blesses only the Emirate of Makistan with its humidity, disappearing under the sands beyond the town of Parsa. Here and there an oasis large enough to support a village becomes the basis for the little agriculture of the Emirates of Alasiya and Abbashan, while great works, partly of dwarven making, provide water from the deep reserves to the larger towns and cities, Ylaruam, Abbashan, Hedjazi and Sulba. To the north, the Emirate of Nithia sports higher, but only slightly less arid, terrain, rich in minerals and in natural and supernatural hazards as well.
Bandits and pirates plague the coastal area near the Emirate’s capitol town, Surra-Man-Raa. To the south, along the Thyatian border, the Emirates of Dythestenia and Nicostenia sport the best fields of the nation, and Tameronikas, the capitol of the latter Emirate, is not inferior to the Thyatian towns in production of wine and other luxury goods.

The desert of Alasiya is the ancestral home to the fierce desert nomads. For a long time, they have been forced to retreat deeper and deeper within it, away from the more prized coastal territories, which fell in the hands of Thyatian and Alphatian colonists. A century ago a great leader appeared among the nomads, uniting them to fight the invaders. Taking advantage of the light cavalry and mounted archer tactics of the desert warriors, this man, Suleiman al-Kalim, was able to beat the Alphatian armies, and later the Thyatians as well, enlisting even the help of the Makistani tribes and of dwarven mercenaries.
al-Kalim established a new religion, the Eternal Truth, preaching his Dream of Justice and Honour, which spoke of a respect and honour to be showed to the fellow believer, and later the Dream of the Garden in the Desert, asking the Ylari to cooperate to transform their deserted land in a true garden. al-Kalim was named Caliph of the Emirates, and in turn he appointed Amirs to rule over the tribes, and recognised the ancestral rights of the Maliks, Sheiks, and Qadis. He named an adopted heir to rule after his retirement, and this line of adoptive descendants still rules the Emirates today.

The Alasiyans are a honourable, if harsh, people. They value loyalty, piety, respect for the traditions and wisdom above all. They are shrewd merchants, great caravaneers, masters of oratory, but above all courageous warriors and great horsemen. A substantial minority of the Emirates’ people are of Alphatian or Thyatian descent, but are completely integrated in the Ylari society. A much smaller minority in the northern Emirate belongs to the dying Nithian people, a race of short, red-skinned, red-haired savages.
Every Ylari town has a dwarven quarter, and Dwarves are the most common foreigners in the Emirates. They are not considered friends by the Ylaris, but the people of the Emirate do respect many qualities of the Dwarves, which are probably more similar to them than many fellow humans. Other foreigners are uncommon, and Glantrians are attacked on sight, while elves are mistrusted and suspected of practicing dark magics.

The Emirates are ruled by a Caliph, advised by a Council of Preceptors. The local rulers, Amirs and lesser nobles, swear fealty to the Caliph, and receive their power from him. Each ruler keeps a large bureaucracy, supervised by viziers, who act as ministers. The central bureaucracy in a gigantic machine, whose efficiency is surprisingly high, considered the great deal of corruption among the bureaucrats.
Most Ylaris are followers of the Eternal Truth, the faith created by al-Kalim, based upon the traditions of the dervishes of the Alasiyan desert, and the teachings of the foreigner clerics. To these, al-Kalim added his Dreams, which constantly push the followers to part from the worst habits of their ancestors, like banditism and raiding, and to work for the betterment of the nation.
The followers of the Eternal Truth are often intolerant towards non-believers, and the Kin faction, based in the Emirate of Abbashan, openly asks for foreign trade to be interrupted, fighting the ruling Preceptors faction, and supporting the claim to the throne of the blood heirs of al-Kalim against the adopted heirs named by the Council.

The History: the local version.
As related by Yussef al Mussa, Scribe and Register to the Shellyh of Kuznetz, in recitation to the sons and daughters of the sheik, so the might be instructed as the Nahmeh directs.
"In the annals and legends, oh my children, there are many stories of bygone men and things, of antique races, departed rulers, vanished cities and mysteries without end - many stories indeed, but this is all that I might tell you, so that my wisdom does not show thin and so that your suppers do not grow cold.
"In the beginning there was the sand and the wind, and into that sand and wind came the nomad - the man of swift steeds, the white tent and the restless herd. From whence he came, none might know but the Eternal. Some say he came from the north, from the grassland-whithout-end that stretches to the top of the world. Some say he came from across the sea, exiled from distant continents and unimagined empires. Same say he has always been here.
"But here the nomad cam, and he found sand and wind, but he also found the winter grazing land, and the spring rains and the summer grottos, the watering holes of the fall, and his herds thrived, and he was happy. And many of the nomad settled in the grazing land, around the oases and spring rivers, and they became the hazar - the house dweller, the cultivator, and the builder of cities.
"For many years, the bold nomad and the diligent hazar viewed one another with scorn, for the hazar saw the nomad as cruel and crude and the nomad saw the hazar as soft and cowardly. And many chiefs and emirs ruled these nomad and hazar tribes and they were each the enemy of the other - nomad against nomad, for they fought for the grazing land, hazar against hazar, for they fought for water, and nomad against hazar for they fought for food and for the hate of one another. And this war lasted forever, or at least so long that only the Eternal might have witnessed it.
"Then into the south cam the Thytian. And into the east cam the Alphatian. They build great cities, and they fought for the land, and pushed aside the nomad and the hazar whom they enslaved and stole the fruit of his labor.
"For bitter centuries the foreigner ruled our land, and though we were proud and mighty in arms, we were not united, and the foreigner crushed our rebellions and scattered us before them. Your forefathers sought sanctuary in the deep desert, where foreigner may not go, and nursed for generations a hatred of these cruel foreign lords, and a yearning for revenge.
"And then came Al-Kalim, the Propet, author of the Nahmeh, and bearer of the Word of the Eternal Truth. And he said, 'Put aside your hatred for one another, take up your love for justice and honor, and none shall stand before your swords.'
"And the chiefs and emirs of all the tribes stood before him, and were ashamed, and they put aside their atreds for one another. Together they riased their voices in a single cry, and they brought our people together, tribe with tribe, nomad with hazar, brigand with merchant, farmer with warrior. They raised their swords as one, and as one they fell upon the foreigner, and where they came, none could stand before them. The land was ours once again, praise the Eternal, whose will is All-Powerful.
"But once the foreigner was vanquished, the chiefs and emirs would have had their tribes fall upon one another again, as it was before, but Al-Kalim spoke to them, saying, 'You have seen what you might do together for the Dream of Justice and Honor. Such dreams are still grate, but I challenge you with a still greater dream - the Dream of the Desert Garden - where the sand shall bring forth ripe grain and lush grass for grazing and where the rock shall spill water in plenty, and free as the air.'
“And Al-Kalim gave us the Nahmeh, which teaches us the Way and the Dream. And the chiefs and emit shared the Nahmeh, and they revered it, seeing that it truly showed them good, and a dream to own together, tribe and tribe, nomad and hazar. And the chiefs and emirs beseeched Al-Kalim that he might set himself as a chief above them, to order their wisdom and direct them in their Dream.
“And he acceded, saying. “to hear is to obey.” And they named him sultan, Chief among Chiefs. And he built a great capital. Mighty Ylaruamof the Glittering Spires, from whih he might order the chiefs and emirs according to their request, and that they too might learn the great wisdom of the Eternal.
“And the prophets and sages of Al-Kalim searched the writings of the philosophy, science, and magic for the means of making the desert bloom as a garden and the rock to flow with clear springs. What they learned they shared with the chiefs and emirs, and they with their tribes, and the people grew in wealth and comfort.
“And in Al-Kalim’s time Ylaruam grwew to be the mighty nation and confederacy of tribes. The people flourished, and the land put forth lush green growth, and the herds grew tall and sleek, and there was much wealth and happiness.
“And even as yet today our leaders are reckoned in the councils of the mighty, an dour armies are the finest in the world. The roads and tracks of the Alasiyan desert are strung with caravans bearing goods from our renowned craftsmenand from distant lands, and many foreign ports swarm with our seaman merchants, laden with exotic wares.
“And Al-Kalim’s successors, the sultans of Ylaruam, have proved to be wise and generous princes, and their scholars and advisers as shrewd and cunning as Farid, Al-Kalim’s clever companion. And even as your mother the honored Shellyh, rules our tribe with wisdom and generosity, so do the other chiefs and emirs rules their tribes, guided by the Word of the Eternal and the counselors of the sultan.
“So that, my children is how is has been and how it is, and by the will of the Eternal, so it shall be. And that ends your lesson for today.
“Now rise up and brush the dust from your skirts, and hurry in to your supper, or surely Jamila will snatch the beard from my chin for keeping you young whelps from your untidy feasting. Go!