Dahaka

Dahaka is one of the three main launching points for ships going between continental Samvara and the Khilaian Isles. It is also a key port on the trade route connecting Samvara and Garadel. It is called the Great Sea Gate by some, a city of hospitality famous to Selkie sailors for its fluid religion, bountiful alcohol, and dependable supplies.
Dahaka is a sprawling city, more of a collection of towns across the penninsula bound together by trade and politics than a single unified urban core. You can find many things here: a good drink, new food, odd religion, and even prize-fighting. Indeed, Dahaka is practically a holy city for warlocks of Apex, as it is the place to go to prove one's strength in potentially-lethal cage fights. Pacifists can find fun too, though; there is good surfing, some unque para-skiing traditions, and nice opera. The city has it all!

Demographics

Around 50,000 live in Dahaka permanently; 30,000 live at the Bay, 15,000 at Westport, and 5,000 live in the North and South port suburbs. This number is not counting the numerous rural people who live between these areas, whose work drifts seamlessly between urban and rural. The majority of the population is Selkie, though numerous humans, dryads, and hybrids live here as well. A small but steady Prism lives here as well.

Government

Dahaka is ruled by a Lord Mayor, who is nominated by the Exarch (monarch) of Arashoka's court and is confirmed by the regional government of Riwem. Riwem's regional government also meets here regularly, in the Riwem Assembly - a legislature structured after the Motosui Assembly, with representatives chosen from various designated townships across the region. The Riwem Assembly is significantly influenced by a major local landholder as well: Clan Manuhel, one of the Great Clans of the Khilaia known as religiously archaic libertarians. This can put the Assembly at odds with the Mayor, whose candidates are nominated by one of Manuhel's rivals, Clan Woshalui. 
There are two de-facto powerholders in the city: Mayor Kilamio and Clan Matron Kimalai Maunhel. 
Mayor Kilamio is a pawn of Clan Woshalui and is fairly loyal (though is absolutely corrupt and bribable on matters they don't think the clan will mind). He is a corrupt businessman with ties to criminal enterprises (and the local semi-organized crime newcomers, the Ailamai). As a politician, he is actually competent despite his corruption, and keeps the place running well enough (even if just to escape the attacks of his rivals). He is particularly good at matters of education and magic, which he values as a mage himself. He is less skilled at peacemaking, and he has a way of burning bridges less with words and more with who he screws over with his corruption.
Clan Matron Kimalai is a staunch defender of Clan Manuhel with significant influence over the Assembly. She has priorities other than politics that often keep her distracted, but her immense properties and investment across the penninsula makes her and her staff basically omnipresent. The assembly is loyal to her (or rather, the family she represents), but she struggles to keep the faction stable - the assemblymen can be hard to keep in line, and her own cousins sometimes stir the pot seeking their own short-term boons when they visit town - particularly her well-meaning cousin Mipala, head of the trading house. Kimalai is also prone to ignoring politics at times to hunt, surf, or play kickball, all of which is her true calling in life. Nonetheless, her charisma and sheer local power enables her and her staff to wield power as the de-facto co-ruler of the penninsula.

Industry & Trade

Dahaka is primarily a trade-based economy, but it has a notable manufacturing sector. Trade is everything here; this is a partner port to Halamahi, where selkies from all over the world converge with their goods and wares. Many fleets rely on Port Dahaka for citrus - this is the traditional center for citrus processing and sale. From lemon juice and salted lemon to pickled limes and grapefruit, Port Dahaka funnels in much of the region's citrus into the Khilaia here. The other big thing that it funnels into the fleets is alcohol. The local brewing scene is huge, producing a wide variety of alcohols for sale. Obviously, most of the citrus and much of the alcohol sold here to fleets isn't actually made in-city, but rather purchased in bulk from the Riwem countryside. However, Riwem does do a lot of the bottling, pickling, glassblowing, and container-making for the various goods and supplies. The textile industry is also huge here, both to cater to local clothing demands and to sell new sails, clothes, and cloth to weary sailors. Really, any naval supply that can be imagined is produced here: carpentry is big, fish-salting is big, rope-making is big. 
Of course, it isn't just material catering to fleets that occurs here: Dahaka also has a bustling service and finance industry. Clan Woshalui has a bank here, and all the big clans have trading houses. Taverns, restaurants, cafes, and shops of all kinds cater to the passing fleets. While there isn't an active tourism industry like at Korathem, Dahaka knows how to entertain sailors for a few weeks and has the service industry to provide port revelry en masse.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure of the outer city is, frankly, under-developed. Sewage is handled by chamber pots and privatized hauling services, with some crews preferring to just pay off fines rather than actually not just dump garbage and sewage in unused spaces. Water is also manually hauled to these places by elaborate systems of water-porting, and can be quite expensive at high quantities. For permanent residents, special guild-coordinated deals are everything. Local farms largely rely on well-water, of course, which is more bountiful further inland. The Vineyard is the notable exception, as it is on firmer soil with better non-contaminated aquifer access, but even the Vineyard relies on privatized services for things like garbage and sewage removal - the local guild elites will just brutalize and fine those who don't voluntarily contract these services. 
The Cove City is much more functional, with abundant freshwater and a functioning underground sewer system. The infrastructure in the Southern suburbs is a little rough, but not terrible.
Two main hospitals are in the city, one in Westport and one in the elite district of the cove city. Both are run by the Children of Glass. Westport even has a special ship-inspector caravan that goes along the port with a magic item that detects epidemic disease, allowing for rapid assessment of potential outbreaks - they may have terrible infrastructure, but they are extremely vigilant about disease.

Districts

Dahaka is really more of a collection of tightly-bound towns than a true, cohesive city. There are several distinct parts, the largest being the Bay City, or Dahama. This is a sheltered hillside urban core, with local springs feeding into small creeks that have become canals. It is good for avoiding storms and has better infrastructure for long-term life, but it is also slightly less convenient for momentary stops. That is what Westport is for: the ideal jumping-off point for ships headed to Halamahi. Westport's land is not necessarily ideal for residency, but it thrives anyways from location alone. Several smaller satellites also orbit this, notably Northport and Southport, two receiving-traffic dockyard suburbs that mostly handle emergency repairs or similar situations. There is also Manuhel Vineyard, which has formed the nucleus of its own suburb. 
Here's a map of the city (with admittedly oversized Bay city districts; the city sprawls badly, but not like that):

The Bay 

Government District: Also called the Assembly District, for this is where the actual assembly of Riwem holds legislative session. This is the old town of Dahaka, where the great clans all have their trading houses and many regional nobles have manors. Playplace of Clan Manuhel. The Northern side is full of shrines and temples, particularly on the boundary with Coveport. This is also where the local Hanahai HQ is. So consider it a mixed elite-clerk-clerical district. 
Coveport: The bustling commercial core of the Bay city, a sprawling market-port-residential district. Caters mostly to newcomers or those not here for too long.
Waterfall District: Centered around a small Prism-hold built into the hills here before the city even existed, this is the "better artisan" and guild center of the city. It is also, unsurprisingly, the prism enclave. To clarify, these are not Kima City prisms, but rather prisms with their own "folk Akadism" and small-hold culture, a divergent tradition dating back countless centuries. This district is named after the large waterfall that emerges from a cave in the hillside. The heart of the city's brewing industry and more lucrative specialized trades.
Market District: The second-fiddle port and major artisan-residential hub of the city. Caters more to long-term residents or at least seasonal layovers. Also called the Warehouse district for its enormous strips of commercial warehouses. A big center of citrus storage and processing as well as fish salting and weaving.
Padima District: A suburb between the hills, a poor district for those priced out of the Market District. Known for their local statues and cult of Padimak, the Goddess of Land and Volcanoes, which has inhabited this little hillside path for centuries.
Fisherhome: A suburb - formally named Dimadu - primarily catering to poor fishermen and workers sprawling over from Padima. A small fortified tower and manor is here, only partially maintained - the first and most ancient home of the local Cult of Apex (not that most locals know that is what it is). 

Outer City

Manuhel Vineyard: The oldest sedentary home of Clan Manuhel, now a vineyard estate and satellite suburb of the city. More than just a vineyard, there is now a sizable distillery turning the lower-quality wine into brandy. A bastion of pure Clan Manuhel power, with very overt traditionalist Hamekun decorations and trophies from all around the world displayed prominently. 
Westport: A long, thin district, a launching point to Halamahi. Also a decadent strip of gambling, taverns, brothels, and heavy drinking. Generally, this is an overnight location, not intended as a place for long-term habitation. 
Depot District: The big commercial district of the Westport area, where massive amounts of citrus, alcohol, cloth, wood, and sea rations are sold to passing ships. The last-minute commercial and resupply point. 
Garlands District: Huge garlands of citrus flowers kept perpetually in bloom mark a contained residential and bureaucratic district, housing the many artisans and service workers required to keep Westport functioning. This is the actual lived-in part of Westport. It is also where the Westport Hospital is and where the local ship inspectors are stationed, as well as where the official Cult of Apex/Squid-talkers HQ is.

Guilds and Factions

Elite

Clan Manuhel and the Riwemans: The regional elites, merchants, and nobles, led by the Libertaine Clan Manuhel. Represent more local landholders and business. Prone to internal bickering, struggle to work together.
Clan Woshalui and the Crown: The top-level kingdom elites, tied in with the Mayor's office. Represents more the larger tax bureaucracy and top-down government. Also tied into local banking apparatus. Prone to corruption.
The Hanahai Bureaucrats: The holy orders of the nearby Khilaian Isles, which extend into the city to handle matters of broader selkie concern. Relatively self-contained, avoid getting involved in politics.
The Guilds: The artisan organizations, which represent the interests of middling and upper-poor classes and established neighborhoods. Each guild represents the masters of a different craft or trade. These include

• The Brewers Guild, which is more elite and wealthy. Tied into the Waterfall District and Vineyard, with more connections to the elite class. Also tied into the local Prism community, which has ancestral water rights that the brewers rely on for their craft
• The Grocer's Guild, which manages the transportation and sale of produce and the pickling of citrus. Tend to have elite leadership, disconnected from their lower ranks, but sprawling cross-district power. Known to host local sports, particularly kickball. On particularly good terms with the Manuhel Matron. 
• The Salters-Fishmongers Guild, which manages fishing and ship ration creation. Known to organize their own bounty and militia system to handle crimes of theft in the rural areas, which can lack coverage by the city guard (a project the Grocers helps fund).
• The Weavers Guild, which handles textile creation and sale. Currently dealing with internal collapse due to feuds between weavers and cloth-merchants; may split into two guilds if this is unresolved.
• The Carpenter's Guild, which handles ship repairs, woodworking, and the like. Known for their unusual connection to the Wardens of The Sacred Isles and their involvement in local ritual para-skiing (water-skiing using a large kite sail to pull you)
• The Scrivener's Guild for clerks and accountants. Known as the most politically active guild, currently torn internally between clan Manuhel and Woshalui factions.

The Clergy: The clergy of Dahaka is extremely diverse and divided, as this is an exceptionally religiously plural city. While Pratasam may be the most common, they are not the majority; contact with a truly global population has disseminated countless religious traditions. And while Pratasam has the most traditional cultural influence here and most people are part Pratasa in belief, the Pratasa clergy is extremely weak here; there is a sense that clergy of most religions are valid in some way for mediating with Halcyon, and most of the foreign religious clergy here are partially Pratasa-syncretic. The Sumoxan local top druid is in charge of all registered clergy, which transcend religious lines. 

Popular

Street Fleets: Small gang alliances of workers. Not as tightly formed and politicized as in other Arashokan towns, but still present.
The Cult of Emesh: The followers of Emesh, Lunar God of Knowledge. The Cult of Emesh here is particularly strong, flourishing in the mixed religious and mixed cultural cauldron of Dahaka. They align themselves with a loose Libertarianism politically, but are more concerned with keeping as many rituals and forms of knowledge alive as possible. The leadership is scholarly, studying the city's chaotic ever-evolving local religion-culture, but the membership is here to have a good time and have mystical experiences with the fluid divines.
The Squidcallers of Apex: The Squidcallers are the organization tasked with mediating between the government and the Underwater community - a federation of vassal reefs and nomadic Squiddle groups under the rule of Squiddle warlord Ten-Lash. The undersea rulers may be constantly changing as new groups displace the old, but they are consistent in their obedience and worship of the Elder Leviathan Apex. It makes sense that only fellow Apex followers can mediate and negotiate with them, and so this brutal and violent cult is tolerated. The Apex Cult on land is one of constant domination and competing strength. They even hold regular tournaments for no-holds-barred prize fighting, which the city bans any word or advertisement of to discourage but which continues regardless. The Squidcaller Overlord is a nasty fellow, ruling over other such nasty fellows - they know they can't be suppressed, and as such have traditionally dabbled in crime just to show their own superiority to the law. This dabbling is oddly some mix of criminal activity and crime-fighting, as they are accidentally a regulating body for local burglars and conmen. Their bases in Westport and Cove City each have tiny thief's guilds, where all criminal loot must be sold and bought with Apex tariffs - the Apex cultists hunt noncompliant criminals for sport. 
The Ailamai: Semi-organized crime pods from Southern Arashoka that are aligned with the Mayor. At war with the Squidcallers to try and get a presence in the city. While they are few in number, they have inspired many of the local criminals to fight back against the blackmail, abuse, and terror of the Apex cultists.

Cats

The Verminslayer Cat Kingdom: Once, an Overclandom of Cat Traditionalists known as the Stormlords ruled the countryside and suburban fringes. But it is said that they were corrupted by Apex and sought to conquer and slaughter all rival cats in the world. Those tyrants formed a great cat empire, which was brought low by the Verminslayers - pet cats that had formed a federation to hunt rats for treats. The Verminslayer Ancestor, Shasha (selkie for "kittycat"), organized a revolution of strays to overthrow the empire and wage war upon the Cat Heavens. All clans were laid low by the Verminslayers, who created a new faith under Shasha: a great chain of being, a heirarchy of all catkind in the image of the romanticized human-cat ownership relationship, that could earn their place in a new heaven by waging eternal war on "vermin": creatures spiritually unclean. "All cats are pets, all humans are pets, all things are pets to Virtue; Virtue is against vermin". Now, the Verminslayer army has become a ruthless cat kingdom in its own right, seeking to control all catkind on the penninsula. They do keep the area extremely rodent-free and snake-free, and the local humanoids consider them fondly. 
The Warriorsoul Monks: Cat traditionalist revivalists, who have sought to reconnect with the Cat Heavens through ascetecism. They reject foreign traditionalists as spiritually deadened, but rather seek personal relationships with heaven on their own terms. This is the dissenting faction among the Verminslayers, a new cat heresy with immense evangelical tradition if it can reach a more popularly accessible form. Has some overlap with Jellicle beliefs as well, which begun to attract the eye of Cosmic Lord Brambleshanks.

Points of interest

Riwem Assembly Hall: The local hall of government; also next to the Mayor's Palace. In the Government District.
Manuhel Manor: A grand mansion belonging to Clan Manuhel in the Government District. Do also note their Vineyard estate out of town. 
Warcaller Hall: A center of the local Hanahai orders in the Government District. The Warcaller Hall is being particularly highlighted as a place where pirate bounties are collected. A magical item and Lunar aid help the Warcallers discern if a pirate is actually dead. 
Temple of All-Bodied Halcyon: A large multi-religious temple complex, with many shrines and religious texts of nearly every religion. On the border of Government and Waterfall districts. Near the Emesh Temple.
Temple of Emesh: The grand paladin temple of Emesh, God of Knowledge. Holds a great library, which non-cultists must pay to enter.
Dahaka Operahouse: The city's finest operahouse and place of culture; also a place of intrigue and backroom deals. In the Government District.
Hospitals: There are two notable hospital: one in the Garlands District of Westport and one in the Coveport district of the main city.
Apex Arenas: There are several Apex cult hideouts in the city, but two big ones: one in the Garlands District of Westport and one in the Fishershome suburb of the main city. Go here for a possibly-lethal prizefight or to buy some contraband.

Tourism

Places to Stay Include

The Cat's Meow, a well-priced and reasonably safe travelers tavern in Coveport. The innkeep is a bit quiet and keeps the tavern more business-like, though drinking and revelry does occur at times. Known for housing a large cat colony on the third floor, said to help keep the place so secure. In Coveport, main city.
The Owl's Galleon, a curious semi-elite luxurious inn with ties to the Cult of Emesh, God of Knowledge. Known for its extremely diverse drink and food menus. The local innkeep is cheery, but likes to stir gossip with a smile. In the Waterfall District, main city.
The Hardydown: An old institution of the city, a truly ancient tavern though one on harder times. Cheap rooms, but the new innkeep is increasingly willing to allow crime to happen here. In Coveport, main city.
Strong Sal's Saloon: The most openly Apex-culty of the taverns in Westport, also one of the craziest in the city. A place to do drugs, get in fights, and go truly wild in hedonism. In the Westport district, Westport suburb.
The Guzzling Gull: An example of a normal tavern in Westport. 
A humanoid cat can find free lodging as long as they are willing to work with the Verminslayers. A warlock of Apex can find free housing with the local Squidcallers. A paladin of Emesh can find free lodging with their own local cult. An acolyte or priest of any faith can find a place for them in the All-Bodied Temple, as long as they are willing to praise Halcyon.
The city has a few notable celebrations:

• Kanaiho, in May, when the city's guilds and acolytes come together to do a para-skiing show; essentially, waterskiing but pulled by giant kites made of rubber and cloth. Quite the sight to see.
• Sanadwa, in September, is the big citrus festival as well as purification day. celebrated in a big way here in Dahaka.
• New Years, in March, is a big drinking and revelry day celebrated with gusto 

Architecture

The local architecture is a more selkie'd version of that of Korathem.

Type

City

Population

50,000

Location under

Samvara

Owning Organization

March Kingdom of Arashoka