Bast

The land of Bast is a fertile area ruled by the Bast Oligarchy. It lies on the northern tip of Cascia and is a area of mountains and rolling hills. Bast was the first nation officially founded and marks the beginning of the Time of Foundings.

Geography

Bast is bordered by a sea to the west, mountains to the east and rivers to the south. It is about 116,480 km². A main feature is a mountain range with red coloured stone, The Million Sleeping. The mountains are a border from the eastern neighbour of Dost. Many smaller hills and rivers descend from these hills and some stretch down to the southern border with Al Renya.

… The Sugaz and I travelled together, from my home to his. When we saw the famed Thousand Eyes on the horizon I laughed. “These are your thousand? Does the word mean different here? I see less than one hundred peaks, unless they are small and cower behind those few. We may as well call the peaks of my home the million.” The Sugaz looked at me, unfazed by my words. In his broken tongue he said, “Ours and yours are one and the same. We do not have the entire thousand but every mountain you see is a closed eye.” He turned away from me now, gaze set on his homeland.
“These are just the open eyes, they bring the fire of the sun. We call them the thousand eyes because if one thousand ever open, then we all die.”

“The Million Sleeping” by a Bast writer named for this work

Inhabitants

Currently has around 17 million people (2/3 are slaves), of these their military is around 642,200, around 214,000 are Wretches (less after the rebellion). There are four big cities and 30 smaller cities, an average city will have around 11,000 people in it.

Offering

Pop: 43,000 About 2/3 of the population slaves

Let he who brings us metal join our ranks. Let he who is with us, rule above the rest. Let our first city be an offering to the world so we may join it in rule.
-The first proclamation of the Oligarchs of Bast, naming of the first city “Offering”

The capital city of Bast. It is located near where the founders of Bast first found metal in the mountains. The name is based on the First Proclamation made about the area.
Observatory
The Bast Observatory is used for both scholarly pursuits and superstitious ones. The Bastite strive to represent their position of being The First People and try to lead technology. They are also not above twisting celestial signs into ways to control the masses or justify policy. Quite a few bribes have gone to the Observatory to predict an outcome.

Second Helping

Pop: 14,000 with 4/5 being slaves
Second Helping is the second of the great terrace farms after River of Grain. It provides similar amounts of grain as the first. It is more isolated than the other terrace farm and due to this is more often raided by Dost who aim to get food supplies and free slaves.

River of Grain

Pop: 38,000 with 30,400 (4/5) of them being slaves
Southern Terrace Farm. The first of the great farms built. It is over the river and south from Offering. This is where most of the food is grown. It is located primarily on the side of a mountain.

Watcher

Pop: 17,000 with 3/5 being slaves
Watcher stands at the edge of the Bast border, on a clear day the citizens can make out the faces of Renyans in Ald Deyna over the river. Illicit trades will often happen near the river bank between Bast and Al Renya, avoiding any taxation.
Watcher has one of the main staging points for the Armies of Bast. they posture their millitary power over the river. It also has a stone wall running along the length of the town facing Al Renya. The military is the main force of control in this area with the two Observants clashing with the local Oligarch.

Saltensan

Pop: 14,500 with 2/3 being slaves
Located on a huge beach on the coast of Bast. It is one of the main ship building ports for Bast, though as a whole the nation does not travel on the sea often, prefering to stick to their hills. The trading guild is a growing faction in this area but the Oligarch of the city wants to become more involved with other common concerns like the Renyans or Dost.
Some of the unique features of Saltensan is that it doesn't have access to the mountain stone that is common to other cities, meaning their buildings are in a similar style to others but with stone mined from seaside cliffs, usually resulting in different textures. Another feature is have few fresh water sources so there are great boiler rooms for water.

Bast Lighthouse

Defined by a great glass prism on top that catches the light, it sits at 10 stories tall. It's main purpose is to help ships avoid the ridge of rocks at the northern edge of The Million Sleeping but it is purposefully dark most nights to make smuggling to Dost more difficult. It is the most highly guarded ligthhouse in the world in case Dost tried to use it.

Fauna & Flora

The main crops are sweet potatoes and quinoa that are grown in the two cities of River of Grain and Second Helping. Rice is grown by rural farmers in the southern area while bananas are a rare treat found in the northern reaches. Sheep, huarizo, yak and gemsbok are all herded and also run wild in the hilly terrain and often in the lowlands too.

Climate

The winters are dry while the summers are warm and wet - in between these clear seasons the weather is hard to predict.

Natural Resources

It is one of the few places you can still find metal in the deep, mountainous mines. While more common around Lanmet, various types of agate can be found here as well and act as a trade good. The area also acts as a good place to quarry, lending the bright red rocks to architecture.

Maps

• 

  Bast and Dost

Included Organizations

• Bast Oligarchy

Owning Organization

Bast Oligarchy

Related Ethnicities

• Bastite