Leila

The Greatest Marketplace In The West

The bazaar city. Thickly populated streets are adorned with vendors that chatter and barter. Above the dusty streets, poles festoon a menagerie of silks and linens that cast vivid, pastel shades below. Blankets, stands, tents, and carts display trinkets and bizarreries: caged bush vipers, malachite statues, or fragrant candles. Some merchants strive to uncover an unclaimed nook while others attempt to escape the city through thick throng. Alleyways expand and retract like breath through lungs.

Demographics

The main ethnic group of Leila is the Shelitan people, but as an enormous hub of trade across not only the Empire, but all the continent, Leila is home to a great amount of diversity. It's one of the most tolerant places in the Empire, even welcoming vilified minorities such as the Zan people, the Nashites, and the Zealots. One group that is notably absent from this inclusivity are cervids, which are unwelcomed and outright banned from entering the Inner City. This is due to the long history of tension between the Kree and the Empire, starting with the infamous Switchgrass War.
The Bazaar is the pinnacle of the inclusivity that the city is known for, as it welcomes everyone that has inventory to sell or coin to buy. Even the Kainish races such as the zoltiks are welcome, despite their segregation across the rest of the Empire.
Styrian communities have taken hold in Leila, as it’s the closest major city to the Hathaika Peaks and thus it was a prime target for their mass migration a century ago.
Elves, however, are rare because the only nearby elven community is in the Amber Wood, which elves don’t often leave.

Government

Leila is a city of trade and its governance reflects that. There is a steep fee to enter both the outer city and the inner city. This is to weed out those who are not affluent enough to be of value to the markets and bazaars of the city. Most of Commander Tylek’s army is typically deployed here to protect the riches of the city’s residences. That has changed recently, however, due to the war in the north. Now, the Ti’zava of the city have thinned considerably.
Law in the city is very strict on some things but strangely lax on others. Most of the strict laws involve trade and paying taxes. Cheating people out of their money is strictly forbidden—this law is so seriously enforced that gambling is banned in Leila. Theft is also severely punished. Most of the time stealing will result in an execution. Meanwhile, murder and violence are both downplayed by comparison. Most violence (if it’s not in tandem with theft) is hardly punished. Murder will result in imprisonment for a few years, but nothing more.
This relaxed view on violence is probably because of the nature of the city: it’s a melting pot of many diverse groups of people that have a lot of animosity for each other. Violence is an inevitable result of these groups coming close to one another.
Sales tax is very high in the city. It’s one of the only ways that the Talel family gets money from the city. Though it’s the only tax of the city, it’s very profitable because of all the trading that happens in the bazaars. Avoiding the sales tax and getting caught, much like theft, will result in an instant execution. The hands of those executed are hung on the support beams of the bazaars as a warning to all who enter.

Defences

Leila is divided into three general sections, though only two of them are officially recognized by the city.
The first is the Inner City, an area where the elite of the city dwell, as well as the nobility that rules it and the wealthiest among the Sacks. Even just to enter the Inner City, you must pay quite a lump of coin. It is a one-time fee, which makes it more tolerable to many.
The second is the Outer City, everything within the walls of the city. Though it's called the Outer City, it's most popular name is simply the Ring. This is where all of the marketplaces and bazaars are, as well as many taverns and inns, residences and condominiums, and temples and cathedrals. There is an admittance fee for the Outer City as well, but it's much more modest than the fee for the Inner City. It's also mandatory every time you visit the city, unfortunately. It only takes 5sp to get inside, but that small sum is enough to filter out most of the seedy people who want to live in the city.
The final part of the city is the part that isn't officially recognized. It's called the Sticks and it isn't made of permanent buildings, but rather countless tents and shanties of the sacks or travelers that don't have the coin to enter the Outer City.

Industry & Trade

The sales tax is steep enough--in tandem with the entry fee--to keep the city afloat. Though the tax may be high, the sacks tolerate it because of the free access to water and the convenient location along the Old Salt Road. The business of the Grand Market is trading. It provides a common place where traders and sacks from all over Naer-til can meet each other and find the best deals. To many, that's worth a part of the cut going to the city. Especially because of the generally favorable view of Commander Tylek as a peaceful ruler that supports freedoms and tolerance between different people groups.

Infrastructure

The greatest achievement of Leila is the marketplaces in the Ring, but that's not everything that it's known for. The Pearl Fortress and Tylek's Palace are both renowned landmarks.
Leila also boasts the biggest cathedrals dedicated to Kamataya, the Goddess of Death. Her servants can be found all over the city with their signature dowsing rods, guiding lost spirits to peace beyond Shadow's Veil. Acolytes of Kamataya are a strange mix of altruistic and unsettling because they have a fascination with the dead, but their main goal is to help spirits pass on and to also help the living through food and funds. One cardinal sin against Kamataya's followers is to use revivification magic. To them, it's denying a spirit to pass on when fate has predestined it to move on.
Leila has one of the biggest Community Towers in the Empire because the marketplaces of the Ring are so vast that they are a valuable asset to the Community as they conduct their experiments and research. One can never know for certain what kind of rare scrolls or forgotten tomes can be found in the snaking streets of the bazaar.

Assets

The assets of the Bazaar City are innumerable. Because of all the trade taking place at any given time, no matter when you visit the city, there are going to be dozens of priceless artifacts somewhere in its walls. There are some brave criminals that prowl the city for valuables to steal despite the harsh punishments for theft. They call themselves the Secret Band and they can be identified by the way they dress: they always have three bands parallel to one another integrated somewhere in their outfit.
All three palaces within the city house permanent treasures: Tylek’s Palace, the Pearl Fortress, and ___, but they’re heavily guarded by Ti’zava. Similarly, the Community Tower is full of valuable artifacts and the Cathedral of Kamataya has many religious objects dedicated to her. All this doesn’t even mention the ever-changing repertoire of magic items and thrilling oddities that are on the streets of the Bazaars.
But Leila’s greatest asset is also the lifeblood that allowed it to grow as big as it has: a huge lake of clean, drinkable water. Situated in the center of town, the lake is enough to quench the thirst of the entire city for ages. The Palace of Talel was erected right on top of the lake, which now functions as a moat for the palace. Aqueducts connect the lake to several wells that are free to be used by the public (That is, anyone who pays the entry fee to gain access to the city)

Guilds and Factions

The Sacks

That name isn't what they call themselves. It's just a derogatory term that's stuck. The sacks are just a group of traders, merchants, and vendors that barter and buy between each other. Because of how important commerce is to the city, the sacks have a remarkable amount of power even though they aren't even permanent members of the city. In the current state of the city, because of the war, the sacks are receiving a lot of anger from permanent citizens of Leila that blame them for the rising prices of most goods. What the citizens don't realize is that the high prices are a result of the recent start of the war in the north, not because the sacks are greedy and trying to milk them of their money.

The Talel Dynasty

Commander Tylek and his two sons are the rulers of the city and have the most influence of anyone. Talel Tylek is getting old, which means that one of his sons will soon succeed him. The issue is that the Commander has a pair of twins and it's unclear which one has the birthright to the throne. Tylek wishes to leave it to fate, but that has brewed intense animosity between Rishon

History

Leila had a humble beginning as a makeshift outpost along the way to far greater places. Because of the natural springs in the area, it was the perfect resting place in the seemingly endless Azuvah Prairie. During the height of the Salt Road, Leila saw unstoppable success in business and skyrocketed in both population and popularity. Eventually, it became a mainstay for passersby to stop and spend a few days in the markets of the city, which only served to further popularize the once small outpost.
The further that it went on, the more notoriety Leila gained until it ceased to be a pitstop on the way to places that mattered and evolved to become a place that actually mattered in and of itself. Once that milestone was achieved, Leila's unbridled rise grew to a fever-pitch. This was the city's peak. Unfortunately, it would not continue to rise at no fault of its own.
The Switchgrass Wars was a conflict between the Shelitans of the Shelitan Empire and the Kree Tribes of cervids. It was a bloody and gruesome war that wasn't just about territory or wealth. It was a war between two worldviews intermingled with a great amount of prejudice on the account of both sides. Both the cervids and Shelitans believed that the other was brutish savages. Though the Empire won the war, it was not without loss. Because of the animosity between the two groups, the war lasted far longer than it should have and became a war of attrition more than anything else. This meant that numerous resources were lost by the Empire by the end of the war. And with the war's end came an irreconcilable division between the Kree tribe and the Empire.
Leila was able to bounce back from the conflict, but it wasn't long before another disaster struck their walls. Since trade was the most important aspect of the city's success, the Salt Road was incredibly important to Leila--even being the veins of the city. So when the Groteslang attacked in the Hathaika Peaks and the Salt Road broke apart, it foretold the end of Leila. Luckily, a new path was blazed through Meudan that saved Leila from collapse. Despite the New Salt Road, Leila still took a major decrease in business and population from the disaster. Not to mention, many of the population that the city gained were unwanted refugees of the Styrian Empire that were displaced by the Groteslang.
Now, Leila remains one of the greatest bastions of civilization in a dry prairie, though it doesn't shine nearly as bright as it once did. If anyone has money to spend or items to sell, they will likely visit Leila. Everyone knows that the Bazaar City is the cardinal place for business. Not only in the Empire, but across the continent.

Architecture

The Inner City is the only part of the city that has a lot of permanent buildings. Most of which are tan clay in color and very boxy in their design. Most of the buildings have artificial channels of water that either run parallel to the building or go inside of it. The water from these man-made channels are only used for washing clothes and taking baths. Though some households do boil the water from the channels and use that to cook or as drinking water once it's cooled down.
There are also many cathedrals and churches in the Ring, which are mostly made of gray stone imported from the Hathaika Peaks. Stained-glass windows were very popular, and one of the only instances in which art was permitted in the Empire a long time ago, as the Shelitan Empire has always been a very militaristic society that looked down upon frivolous and unuseful things such as art. Though art with a utilitarian use such as pots were allowed, things that had no particular usage like stained-glass or paintings were considered a waste of material, time, and skill. Now, many centuries later, the Empire's neighbor to the east, the Kingdoms of Janata, has gradually chipped away at that belief.
This antagonism toward art is present in most of the Empire, but it's less severe in Leila because the Great Market is home to so many more people that just Shelitans. Most architectural styles from the continent are present on the streets of the Ring, from the stilted houses of Avona to the wood homes from Janata, and even the straw roofs that the Tor Moor is known for.
As important as the architecture of the permanent buildings are, it's not the majority of the dwellings in the city. Most of the people in the city at a given time are temporary visitors that are just passing through and even though there are plenty of inns, most opt to forgo the price of admission and instead sleep in their tent outside the city. Likewise, the ever-changing streets of the Ring have relatively few permanent buildings. Instead, most of the streets are covered in makeshift stalls with curtains of every color of the rainbow draped over the top to keep the sweltering sun away.

Geography

Like all cities in the Azuvah Prairie, Leila is in the center of a vast sea of nothing but gently swaying grass and invasive dust. Its natural springs are a notable deviation from the endless flats of the prairie, not to mention that as the city has progressed through history, it has slowly built something of a manmade hill which it sits atop of.

Natural Resources

Leila's greatest natural resource is an abundant source of fresh, drinkable water. There is also an abundance of clay in the ground around Leila, which was instrumental in erecting all of the buildings in the city's present day. Beyond that, the area in which Leila is located is entirely barren. Anyone from the tiny outpost that Leila started as would have been extremely surprised to found out that it would one grow into one of the biggest cities in the Empire. Though it may not have many natural resources, Leila is able to make up for it with all the imports that change hands within its walls. Every time that a necklace or a chair is bought within the city, a small percentage of the transaction is given to the city.

Art: Bazar by Olga Ok

Alternative Name(s)

The Bazaar City, The Grand Market

Type

Large city

Population

200,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Citizens of Leila are loyal to Commander Tylek, so they call themselves Talelites.

Location under

Azuvah Prairie

Owner/Ruler

Talel Tylek

Owning Organization

Shelitan Empire