Maqqia: The City of Stars

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History and Overview

Founded in LN 1014, Maqqia is a very recent addition to the Eastern Coast and a small city of 60,000 set near the largest oasis in the Northern Reach, AKA the Whorl. The population of Maqqia’s metropolitan area adds another 40,000 to that total, but these people are spread over an area nearly the size of Côte d'Ivoire on Earth. 
This sets Maqqia apart from most of its equals: whereas the other city-states typically consist of one large city and its surrounding townships, the Reach is home to several dozen notable towns and villages founded over the last seventy years, almost all of which pledge their allegiance to Maqqia. This large number of satellite towns is the reason for Maqqia’s title, ‘City of Stars.’
Maqqia was originally founded by dissenters from post-Collapse Azir who joined forces with the descendants of Ashimachian refugees of the First Shogun’s coup. The latter group was both ethnically and culturally Yunhainese, and bore with them culture and traditions that have been absent from the rest of Qarna for over 900 years. The modern incarnation of their religion is referred to as the Maqqian Sojourn, a denomination of the Dreamswallowers, and is the official state religion of Maqqia.
The Aziran settlers consisted of wealthy merchants and noblemen and their “Pazir” (Piraanese Aziran) servants and workers. In stark contrast to conditions in their homeland, divisions between them have become points of contention in Maqqia even centuries later as the concept of what constitutes a “true Aziran” has been called into question many times, to say nothing of what makes a “true Maqqian.”
Maqqia runs under a parliamentary system of government, with a purely ceremonial Governor serving as head of state and a Prime Minister as head of government. The House of Commons is Pazir-dominated, whereas the House of Lords is an Azir majority, both created as a concession to quell rioting in the streets following a partially successful cultural revolution which saw the wealth and properties of the highest Aziran nobility redistributed among the populace. 
The two houses of government are in constant legislative gridlock and progression since the time of the revolution has been stymied time and time again: on the surface things have been sorted out and reparations were paid, but every single Maqqian citizen has a strong bias for one side or the other; there is almost no neutral ground among the populace.
This includes the ethnic Yunhainese, who still represent a strong portion of Maqqia’s demographics. The Aziran settlers were quick to adopt the Dreamswallowers coda, and sought to emulate the Yunhainese seeing as they were the first to settle in the Sea. Because of this the Yunhainese threw their lot in with the Azirans and most of the city’s advancements have occurred as a result of this mutual acceptance.
The Pazir, on the other hand, took the acceptance of Yunhainese culture and philosophy as an insult: the Yunhainese were treated better and given more rights, despite not speaking a mutual language and sharing no cultural traditions or origins; the Aziran nobility adopted Yunhainese garb but still aggressively marginalized the Pazir, even heckling them when they did the same. 
In modern Maqqia, both the Aziran and Yunhainese demographic have experienced significant intermixing, while the Paziran population remains ethnically and culturally quite similar to Southern Azirans.
The Northern Reach was nicknamed The Whorl because of the massive circulating wind currents that blow through due to its sparse population of trees. Most of these trees have evolved to interweave metals and silicates into their bark; bare wooden trees are a rarity, as numerous plants and animals have developed the ability to consume and digest wood. Maqqian tree farms exist to provide a ready source of fuel and material but must be guarded vigilantly against such pests. 
In Earth terms the climate resembles North Africa, with wide stretches of inhospitable desert, so arable land is at a premium and there is little in the way of game to be hunted. As such the people of Maqqia have adopted a number of unusual supplements to their diet including insects, invertebrates, and reptiles.

Head of State: Prime Minister Jinyu al-Fawaz

Founding Territory: Azir

Language(s): Abn’awaa, Long

State Religion: Dreamswallowers

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