Domain of the Golden City

A city-state that defies logic. The capital is known as the Golden City, a haven of commerce and luxury the likes of which makes it a global powerhouse. It has a legacy coated in Gold and Blood.

The Golden City is a shimmering beacon of wealth and ambition, rising improbably from the unforgiving sands of the Azmith Desert. A marvel of engineering and ingenuity, it has defied the harsh climate to become a thriving metropolis, famed for its opulence, trade, and the boundless wealth drawn from its gold and jewel mines. Yet, beneath its glittering exterior lies a complex and often brutal system of power, control, and exploitation. It is the only true powerhouse in Azmith, having absorbed smaller towns and villages into it's rule and influence. The Golden City owes its existence to the genius of Azrel Samit, a visionary civil engineer who founded the city centuries ago. Born a child of two worlds, with both Mahavida and Sirelina blood dividing him between the worlds of the Fire and Water Regions, Azrel possessed an unparalleled understanding of architecture and hydrology. A student of philosophy and engineering, his ambitious innovations allowed a settlement to thrive in one of the most hostile environments in the known world.

The Golden City, as a city-state, commands significant influence over its neighboring towns and villages, leveraging their resources, strategic locations, and populations to sustain its opulent lifestyle and bolster its position as a trade powerhouse. This tightly knit network of settlements, combined with the city's exceptional trade relations and its remarkable founding history, has made it an indispensable player in the political and economic landscape of the Azmith Desert and beyond. The Golden City operates as the nucleus of a web of surrounding villages and towns, each playing a vital role in the city's economy and survival. These satellite settlements are primarily agricultural hubs, supplying food, textiles, and basic goods that the desert environment of the city itself cannot produce. The city enforces its dominion through taxation, military oversight, and trade agreements. These outlying settlements benefit from the protection and infrastructure provided by the Golden City, including access to its aqueduct network and trade caravans, but they also bear the burden of heavy levies that fund the city's immense wealth and military. The city’s centralization ensures that all significant decisions affecting the region stem from the Gilded Council, whose oligarchic rule prioritizes the city's prosperity over the well-being of its satellites. Despite this imbalance, many surrounding settlements view the city's dominance as a necessary tradeoff, given its ability to ensure stability and facilitate trade in the otherwise harsh desert environment.