For countless ages, the fresh water flowing from the Seafont Mountains filled the sweetwater seas of northwestern Sfo Sator. The Sea of Ossea and the Deathless Sea drained into the vast, shallow Upper Satorsea. By the time they poured into the Lower Satorsea, the silt of the continent had built up in the flow, creating vast drifting shoals beneath the surface of Sof Sator's most salty sea. Like a cup, the brim of the Lower Satorsea held century upon sentury of silt back from the Larlost Expanse. Then, in the year 920 on the Calendar of Revan, the Seafont Mountains turned sick and the flow stopped. The inland seas of Sof Sator drained rapidly. While the sweetwater seas left behind living land, the Deathless Sea emptying to form the Calderra of Deathless Green and the Upper Satorsea becoming the Centzedor Steppe, hte Lower Satorsea drained to reveal a vast swath of unforgiving, salty earth.
This continent-spanning salt flat became known as the Deadlands. From horizon to horizon and from sea to cliff, there is only an unbroken white plain of salt. There is no root, no leaf, no prowling creature that can live here. Carrion birds pass over, lost and hungry, rarely lucky enough to perch upon an animal that wandered out of the Steppe above.
Despite this, there is a kind of civilization. The Deadlands Cartels rule this place, fighting over blighted territory and the rights to the salt that can be harvested there. Above the deepest part of the Dire Flats turn the interlocking wheels of Idylmir, a city wreathed in conjured clouds, a place where Cartels mingle in temporary peace ruthlessly enforced by the ruling Cartel. The Deadlands is held in the grip of the Saltblood Cartel, which Othrizen Quickspeak reduces to Saw Bektel. They are better known as simply The Saw.
Idylmir: the Ideal Mirror
When the Upper Satorsea drained into the Lower Satorsea, the calamitous tides pulled together multiple fleets of merchants, fishers, and pirates from across the two Satorseas. As the ships were swept toward ruin, a hastly-made plan called together the various captains, commodores, and admirals of the fleets to bind their vessels, gather their anchors, and drop them as one. Successfully holding all of the ships in a giant tangle that defied the rushing tide, the crews of these ships waited until the sea drained out from under them and their vessels settled to the bottom.
The Deadlands did not form immediately. First, for two years, there remained a sea less than half a meter in depth that extended in all directons. This sea was motionless, without current or tide, and its undisturbed surface reflected perfectly the sky of day and night. The surviving crew, unwilling to abandon their vessels and their cargo, converted their ships into homes and buildings, and named the resultant settlement after the sea that stretched in all directions: the Ideal Mirror, or, in Othrizen Quickspeak, Idylmir.
The name stuck after the shallow sea drained, leaving the vast salt flats and the Deadlands behind. Still, at least once a year, an incredible storm sweeps through the Deadlands, flooding the desert and temporarily refilling the mirror. This is Idylmir's only holiday season, a reminder that the city originates from a philosophy of cooperation and community, as well as a time of plentiful water, salt, and saltwater shrimp awakened from hibernation by the rain.
Modern Idylmir is very different from its origins. The city of converted ships remains in the desert, but it is now abandoned. Instead, the wealth of salt rights allowed Idylmir to achieve such wealth that it was able to rebuild its entire infrastructure upon magicked wheels in the sky. The city is invisible from the ground, wreathed in cool clouds that keep its population comfortable.
Cartel Rule
Idylmir may have been founded in cooperation, but wealth changes things. As the Deadlands was mapped and contracted to different crews and organizations, Cartels grew to control these avenues of wealth. Outside of Idylmir, multiple Cartels compete for control of different territories, engaging in lawless terf wars that become blood rivalries and threaten the peace of Idylmir. The people of Idylmir, mostly anthrals and Othrizen, are not fond of pretense or artifice, so the Cartels rules openly. There is no attempt to pretend that any non-criminal governance holds any authority. The rings and wheels of Idylmir are controlled by the Cartel with the most ruthless enforcers and the most loyal members amongthe population.
The ruling Cartel is chared with maintaining a balance of power among the lesser Cartels, which provides Idylmir with the closest thing it will ever achieve to a stable society. The complete elimination of entire Cartels is generally frowned upon, as this may create a power vacuum, and the disruption caused by newly emergent Cartels is likewise frowned upon. For this reason, Idylmir is ruled by three primary Cartels and a small handul of lesser Cartels that serve as vassel organizations to those over them. While the ruling Cartel has changed in the past, the Saltblood Cartel currently has a stranglehold on power that it seems unlikely to let slip.
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