Djartha (JAR-tuh)

Created by Dmitri T. (discord: bugsby)

General

Djartha is a relatively high-tech, high-magic desert nation. Large urban centers are nestled in broad swaths of barren landscape, connected by magical railroads. With Helix (god of order) as its patron god, Djartha strives to be a highly organized and lawful monarchical society with well-defined social classes and rankings, but outlaw groups roam the broad desert dunes and fight for dominance in the wilderness.
If you are creating a character from Djartha, they will likely be familiar with at least one of the large cities or might be from one of them. They may or may not have detailed or firsthand knowledge of organized crime groups within Djartha. A character from Djartha might be an architect, a small-town cattle herder, a priest of Helix (the god of Order), an outlaw associated with a gang, a warrior who seeks to eliminate said gangs, a priest who proselytizes in the desert wastelands, an artificer who sells advanced magical-mechanical items, a magical duduk player on a quest for enlightenment… the possibilities are endless!
Important parts of this article: Barrabar, Technology, Organized Crime, Religion.

Geography

Djartha is a dry, hot nation made up mostly of desert, mesa, and savanna, with a dry tropical forest on its peninsula and flooded savanna close to the eastern border. It shares borders with Adoloto to the east and Moratash to the north.

Landmarks

Djarthans refer to the large bulk of the desert and red-tinged mesa as the Rakshas Desert, the flooded savannas as the Daldal Expanse, the dry forest as the Oneyu Forest, and peninsula as the Sirjana Peninsula, though if you don’t know the names and just use general descriptions, any Djarthan will understand what you’re talking about.

Rakshas Desert

A wide, mostly empty expanse of sand and mesa dotted with towns, forts, encampments, and ruins. Though some routes along this desert are well-traveled (especially the railroad routes!), a lot of areas remain unmapped/unexplored (at least, unexplored by people who know what they’re doing). Monsters, bandits, townspeople, and nomads alike call this desert home.

Daldal Expanse

Flooded savanna landscape that is similarly populated to the Rakshas Desert, with travel routes and railroads well-traveled, but not fully explored or settled.

The Oneyu Forest

A sparsely populated dry forest with towns and logging camps. Some trade routes cut through the forest, but it’s very easy to get turned around and lost within the densely crowded trees.

Presshan Islands

The archipelago at the southern coast is referred to collectively as the Presshan Islands, though sometimes they are known as the Haunted Islands; it is believed that the veil between the living and the dead is thinner there, and that sometimes the dead can be seen wandering the streets. Many necromancers or reborn call this place home.
The river on the Sirjana Peninsula is referred to as the Little River, the river that flows down in the desert (as well as forms the northern border with Moratash) is the Anavasa River, and the river in the flooded savannas is the Tuccha River. The canal that splits the peninsula from the mainland is the Zargoth Canal, named after an archaic pre-Century War wizard who carved the canal himself, though nobody knows exactly why.
Note: Players are free to come up with their own smaller landmarks for character backgrounds and/or quest settings/points of interest.

Cities

Barrabar

The capital. It sits atop a tall plateau in the middle of the mesa. Temples and statues (dedicated to Helix primarily, but also to Eida, Adyn, Akhard, and even Zirco) are carved into the plateau’s sides. Long, winding staircases and magical elevators bring folks from the desert floor trade routes up to the city. A thriving center of trade and magical artifice, but be careful – many dangerous gangs also call it home.

Bandhaka

This port city sits on the tip of the Sirjana Peninsula. It is a thriving port town settled in the dense forest, full of sailors, craftsmen, and laborers. Many of the structures are built out of large stone bricks that fit together seamlessly. This is the main port for trade with Anamore.

Nazta

This city sits southwest of Barrabar. Once called the “Lost City,” it’s built upon the sandstone ruins of an ancient city that didn’t survive the Century War. Hundreds of years after the War, poor and disenfranchised merchants began to settle here again, and it has grown into a thriving trade town led by the lower classes of society.
Note: Players are free to come up with their own towns/smaller settlements for character backgrounds and/or quest settings.

Culture

Highly ordered class rankings are a large part of Djarthan culture. Many of these classes are determined by bloodlines, but some few Djarthans will dare to challenge the inflexibility of this system and rise in the ranks, ignoring the ancestral predetermination of their roles. At the top of the hierarchy sits the monarchs and their family. Below them are priests and warriors (oftentimes there is no distinction made between the two), and below them are artists, farmers, and skilled laborers. Below this, at the very bottom of the pyramid, is the merchant class.

Government

Djartha is ruled by a monarchy. Currently, the ruling family is the Lassana family – King Kadawa Lassana and his wife, Queen Yaktoya Lassana, are the current monarchs. Both of them are tieflings with spiraling horns and are regarded within Djartha as some of the most stable monarchs the country has seen, but some country folk are upset with their lack of action against organized crime.

Technology

Out of the main nations of Edari, relatively, Djartha is a nation of high tech and high magic. Magic is often used in technology (as opposed to Myrsin’s lack of magical tech), especially in terms of transportation.
A common mode of transportation for the upper classes are large magical machines called Treadlings. Treadlings are made mostly of metal and wood, typically looking sleek and ornate, and haul people and cargo across Djartha. Walking on four jointed legs like giant mechanized animals, they typically move short distances from train stations to more localized areas. Use of Treadlings are not only limited to the upper classes, however – outlaws are known to steal and modify them, fitting them to look more aggressive with spikes and various weaponry.
The main mode of transportation in Djartha is the Helical Express, a magical train that travels along sleek golden tracks through the country. The train was created by Helix himself and it almost appears to have a mind of its own, acting like an autonomous entity at times. Several renowned artificers over the centuries have attempted to reverse engineer the train, but its mechanisms are so complex and ever-changing that it is an impossible task. On all the tracks that snake through Djartha, there is only one train – it travels so fast that it makes trips that would take days into hours, so it takes less than a day to travel to all stops in the country.

A map of the Helical Express routes. (The tracks run directly over water without the help of a bridge.) This map only shows the tracks it most commonly takes - sometimes, the train will run off the tracks and go elsewhere without the assistance of them.

Organized Crime

Despite many attempts to eliminate chaos and strife, many organized crime groups have taken root in Djartha. Different gangs fight for control of places in the city, but the most control exercised by rogue groups is in a lawless place of its own — the desert. Two outlaw groups compete for dominance in the wilds of Djartha: the Thalmus gang led by the notorious blue dragon Disu-Syuman, and the Zamé gang led by the enigmatic character only known as “Ishtar,” whom nobody has ever seen.
The Thalmus are a flashy, arrogant gang of loud outlaws who work like a classic Wild West gang: they hold up trains, rob passerbys on trade routes, and raid small towns in the desert. Subtley is not their talent, yet the Djarthan police forces can’t seem to get a grip on the Thalmus or their leader, Disu-Syuman, who often takes human form and makes deals with disenfranchised people.
The Zamé have been compared to a cult, though they do not worship any particular god. They wear dark, heavy cloaks and speak almost exclusively in Thieves’ Cant. Working under the cover of darkness, they raid, steal, and kill without any flashiness or candor, leaving hardly a trace that they were there.
Note: Players are free to come up with their own smaller gangs for character backgrounds and/or for quests.

Food and Art

There is a great variety of visual and culinary art that thrives within Djarthan borders. Most of the standard dishes are spicy, hearty, and fragrant. The most popular cultural foods are strange magical foods – specially crafted dishes that turn your skin purple for a week or make everything you eat taste sweet.
Architecture/sculpture and calligraphy are especially appreciated in Djartha. Art is highly regarded and valued – calligraphic pieces and complicated stonework architecture throughout the mesa are most popular. There is no distinction made between an artist and a scribe. Artists are valued relatively highly within Djarthan society, so it is a viable career for many.

Religion

Helix, the god of Order, is the patron god of Djartha and is believed to reside in his most concentrated state within the plateau that Barrabar is built on. Helix is the god mainly worshipped in Djartha. There is no major distinction between the mundane and the holy, or the secular and the religious. A celebration of the religious is held midweek at noon every week, where the bells of the temples will ring and all Djarthans report for prayer and worship at their local temple - or if there is no local temple, they pray where they stand. Many devoted worshippers will recite prayers and chants in public on the streets outside this dedicated time, and there is a marked emphasis on missionary work to the wildlands of the desert to bring order to those who so adamantly seek to destroy it.
Contrary to what most might think, the second most worshipped god in Djartha is Eida. Many Djarthans believe that to have order, you must also have chaos. The other gods of the pantheon are worshipped as well, but less zealously. The desert is also a haven for cast-out cults who just want to get away and be left alone. (Note: Players are free to come up with small cults and communes for character backgrounds and/or quests.)

Population

Tieflings and aasimars are more common in Djartha than in most other nations, and are typically more revered and respected due to their infernal/divine nature. Many Warforged also reside in Djartha, mostly finding themselves as priests of Helix or as common laborers – and others left deactivated or in stasis, lost in the expansive dunes of the desert. Many humans, drow, elves, orcs, half-orcs, and dwarves also call Djartha home, though any race and any people can be found here.
The population density in Djartha varies wildly depending on where you are; the majority of citizens live in large cities or centers of population, while the wild dunes and savanna plains (as expected) have a much lower population density.

History

Timeline

(Dates are approximations, for simplicity’s sake.)
0 Creation of Garmu

(This is also the suspected date of the creation of the Helical Express. Over the centuries in the notes following, the tracks would change pattern, even at one point (c. 1100) said to just form a massive spiral. It's unclear what logic the changes follow.)

100 First sentient creatures roam Garmu
1100 Establishment of the First Monarchy

The different people groups of Djartha, mostly nomadic desert wanderers, band together to form a system of government to control an increasing population. A sort of social contract deal for protection from the increasing amount of monsters that are roaming the desert and savanna.

1350-1500 First Civil War

A growing Djartha sees more tension between different people groups as the nation struggles to adapt to the needs of more people. Tensions finally snapped with the assassination of the heir to the royal throne. Almost every able-bodied citizen was mobilized against each other, pledging allegiance to different monarchs or common peoples’ labor groups.

1500 Establishment of the Second Monarchy

Eventually, after thousands of casualties, a powerful surviving royal family managed to gain control over the Djarthan population, instating the Second Monarchy.

1870-1950 Second Civil War

This Civil War was less of a war than the First; growing tensions in the upper class over successors, advisors, and insiders eventually led to a series of assassinations and mercenary troop raids on different royal/priestly families in power.

1900-2000 Century War

In the midst of the Second Civil War, the Century War broke out. Some Djarthan monarchical powers fought for land in Adoloto and Moratash, though most were scrambling just to survive in such a time of political chaos.

2000-2005 Third Civil War

And right after this century-long conflict, Djartha is thrown back into another civil war – different groups fought for power during the reconstruction after a century of bloodshed. Luckily, this war only lasts five years. Many Djarthans consider the Century War to have lasted from 1870 to 2005 because of their civil conflicts; some Djarthans holed up in remote places in the desert continued to believe the Century War and Civil Wars were still ongoing even into the 2030’s.

2005 Establishment of the Fourth Monarchy

With the conclusion of the Third Civil War, the Fourth Monarchy is established and the Lassana dynasty takes power. This monarchy survives to the present and is the most stable of the four so far, lasting over a thousand years.

3210 Present Day
Map of modern-day Djartha (click to see larger version):

Map of the modern-day routes of the Helical Express:

Capital: Barrabar

Leaders: King Kadawa Lassana and Queen Yaktoya Lassana

Government System: Monarchy

National Mascot: Desert Horned Lizard

Patron God: Helix

Demonym: Djarthan