Dasand

Its full name is 'The Walled City of Dasand' or in the most formal of settings 'The Eternal and Impenetrable Walled City of Dasand'. It is, as one might guess from the name, an ancient walled city that claims its origins lay pre-Starfall, back far enough to have seen the Darkness sweep across the land and recede a generation later, and has the confidence that it will last for all time to come. Despite being on the coast, it is not a port city, as it was long ago decided that was a security risk that could not be accommodated. Instead there are port towns south of Dasand which accept the goods entering Kayenta, and then travel up to Dasand overland. Forcing land-only trade allows for greater surveillance of who and what is crossing the city borders, and results in fewer gaps in the ocean-facing wall.

Historically its defenses have successfully broken seiges time and time again. While the city of Koroussa is now far from Dasand, across the desert and on the inland sea, Old Koroussa's ruins can still be seen on the other side of the Skeletal Passage, the pathway through the mountains that lies east of Dasand. Due to pressure from change in climate after the continent split and a desire to claim the easiest to access coastline, Old Koroussa spent decades at war with Dasand, with wave after wave of Koroussan breaking against Dasand's defenses. Finally Dasand pushed back when Koroussa was tired and weakened from so many resources having already been spent on their war effort, and they gave the Koroussan populace a choice. Leave and rebuild elsewhere, or perish. Even 500 years later things can be tense between the two cities. There's no outright hostilities, but it's well known that putting a Koroussan and a Dasand in the same room together, alone, will probably result in a fight.

Dasand is governed by a monarchy accompanied by an elected council. The royal family is a lineage of Ceratians, though occasionally other Saurian species have married in (due to Saurian child practices being adopted has the same status as being blood relation). Following a particularly scandalous kingship (Temas the fourth married a Limukin from east Kayenta), his son Temas the fifth has sat on the throne for five years now and is striving to do better than his father in all ways.