Adari is a frontier town between Shadows Dance and Prax. It was first settled in the Dawn Age and is also the birthplace of Pavis, but since has been razed and rebuilt often. There trolls, elves, humans, and other lesser races of the area meet as equals. Issaries has a fine temple there.
The Bison Plains are a flat, arid region where herds of wild animals often graze. It is drained by the Adari River, a generally dry riverbed. Praxian riders frequent this pasture. At its northern edge is Adari, an ancient city. Hunters from the Great Caves frequent the region.
It is about 92 kilometres from Adari to Torkan’s Last Fort, and about 120 km from Adari to New Pavis. It takes a caravan about a week to get from Adari to Torkan’s Last Fort, and about 9 days to go from Adari to New Pavis. The Great Caves are only about 25 km away, and the dread Castle of Lead is only about 50 km away!
Adari is such a stinking town that even the Lunars don’t want it. I always envision the ruler being whichever Player Character-type has most recently killed the last one. lts only lasting value is as a traditional trading spot with the trolls. its merchants trust the ancient Marketplace spell. and the current warlord gets a fat tax. Many trolls frequent Adari, especially ones who are not traditional Kyger Litor types, and it is often ruled by them. They have the unpleasant habit of roasting elves publicly and then fighting for the right to eat them. Despite this description the city has about 300 permanent residents, and extorts taxes from nomads on the range near them.
Adari (small city): Adari is a small and unruly city with about 300 permanent residents and another 1500 local farmers. It is in the foothills of the Indigo Mountains and surrounded by troll strong lands. It is ancient, dating back to First Age (nobody really knows how old it is as it has been sacked and refounded many times). It is a place where trolls, elves, humans, and lesser races (such as baboons) meet as equals. The locals speak Tradetalk with outsiders and use Old Pavic in religious ceremonies.
The area around Adari is inhabited by trolls and nomads. Adari lacks great walls, a navigable river, or much else that would normally support a city. It does have arable lands in its immediate vicinity and is a place where peaceable contact with the trolls can take place (but not all contact is peaceful). The Bison Plains are frequented by herds of wild animals and Praxian riders. Troll hunters from the Great Caves frequent the area.
Issaries is the patron god of the city, and the major temple to that god is the public center of the city. The Issaries Temple provides a place where three different species can communicate and bargain in peace. There are minor temples to Orlanth, Ernalda, and Daka Fal, and shrines to both Waha and Argan Argar.
The rulers of Adari are whatever bandit gang is able to keep the other bandits away. They are often foreigners—trolls, Praxians, elves, and even Sartarites. They take their tenth from the market (which the Issaries high priest permits as long as the “tax” is within traditional boundaries) and shakedown the local farmers, until they either get ambitious and leave for Pavis (or return home) or end up being replaced by the next bandit group.
Some History
Once set off, Waha did not rest. He sent his armies against foes on every border, plundering and destroying. In 809 his army stormed Adari, the trading town between Prax and Dagori Inkarth. Many residents were killed or enslaved, but some escaped and made their way through troll country to the safety of Dragon Pass. For the next decade Waha’s peoples made trouble for everyone adjacent to Prax. As a young man, Pavis escaped the sack of Adari and reached Dragon Pass.
In 870, Thog the giant appeared with an army of trolls and trollkin raised in Shadows Dance. They laid siege to Adari and marched south to Pavis.
The natives of the city metamorphosed from cultured urbanites into desperate savages. The greatest single slaughter followed the initial break-in by Jaldon Goldentooth in 940 when half of the city’s 25,000 inhabitants were killed or enslaved. The succeeding bloodbath among the helpless outlying farmers was even worse. Some straggled into Adari. Some found survival in serfdom to the nomads, by dedicating the best of the crops and lands to the upkeep of the nomad animals, subsisting on the leavings. This was virtually the same as slavery, but had the nebulous virtue of allowing them some claim to their lands.
After the destruction of Pavis as a political force in 1237 the Praxians found themselves isolated once again. The fear of dragons caused everyone to ignore any routes leading to Dragon Pass, and the closing of the oceans caused Feroda to wither away. Many peoples fled eastward into Vulture’s Country and beyond. During this time, many goods deteriorated, wore out, or were lost, and the level of material culture declined significantly. All metal in the area came either from Gonn Orta, the trolls via Adari, or through the Monkey Ruins.
In 1376 Tarsh sent envoys to the nomads to hire mercenaries. The nomads were glad to comply, and they quickly arranged for trade once again. Moonbroth was again the forward trading post, and remains so. Adari grew from the contact.
About 1490 there was a new settlement started outside of the walls of Pavis. It was called the City of Thieves (now called Badside), and it was permitted both as a favour to Sartar and because it offered a trade outlet between the nomad peoples and Adari in the far north. This place was supported by the riverboat people, who had long before spread their influence all along the river, and also was a convenient neutral ground for the tribes.
Adari
These are notes. Of course the precise scientific term would be semi-arid, but as someone who lives in a semiarid nobody calls themselves “semi-arid”. In normal parlance, I think most people would call places like the Nebraska Panhandle or Eastern Colorado “arid” even if it is technically “semi-arid”.
Why would elves go to Adari if they get eaten by trolls frequently? So why elves? Well the Redwood Forest is only about 40 km away from Adari. That’s not a long way, and I can imagine that when the elves do show up to trade, they show up with enough force that the local trolls just accept it and let Issaries do his thing. But any stragglers are going to be in trouble.
Now the key reason for Adari’s survival is that it is a place where humans can trade peacefully with the trolls of Dagori Inkarth (and to a lesser extent the elves of the Redwood Forest). It has easy access to the Great Caves, Castle of Lead, Gore and Gash Land, etc. It is safer and easier for the trolls than Alone, in large part because the humans in Adari are comparatively weaker than the humans of Alone.
And there are always folk who are willing to make money at the edge of civilization. Adari is filled with them – traders, workers, saloons, prostitutes, gambling dens, and the like. It is probably a little better than Badside, but much worse than New Pavis.