Medaris

Medaris, officially Nea Medaris ('New Medaris'), is a large city-state on the northern Sunscald coast. Founded as an Armaidan colony in the late 3rd century, Medaris is the oldest surviving city in the Sunscald and has remained one of the largest, wealthiest, and most prosperous cities on the continent for most (though certainly not all) of its thousand-year history. Referred to historically as the 'Jewel of the Sunscald' and the 'New Capital of Armaidas', Medaris has regained its position as a significant power in the region, though its relative influence has diminished as other Sunscaldic city-states have risen in prominence.

History

Since antiquity, the climate and soil around Medaris has been known to be ideal for the growth of sugarcane - wild sugarcane grew abundantly in the area before any settlement. Medaris was founded in 285 by settlers from the Armaidan Empire hoping to cultivate the abundant flora for its sugar, a rare and valuable resource within Armaidas proper. The settlement was named in honour of Medari of Kastros, a wealthy Armaidan merchant and former naval captain who personally funded much of the enterprise. Though, after substantial investment, the settlers were successful in extracting a profitable amount of sugar from the surrounds, Medaris's remote location and lack of arcanist amenities made it rather unappealing to Armaidan settlers, and the settlement remained relatively small and irrelevant for the remainder of the Armaidan Empire's lifespan.
Following the arcanist disaster that brought about the end of the Armaidan Empire, the settlement of Medaris was thrust into relevance. The colony's remote location left it far removed from any destruction caused by the disaster, and consequently the area became the locus of Armaidan refugees fleeing the emerging Great Fissure. With the Armaidan Empire utterly destroyed, and with a vast majority of those who escaped the disaster settling in Medaris, the frontier settlement rapidly expanded into a thriving city and a surviving Armaidan cultural hub. With the quantity, wealth, and influence of Armaidan refugees greatly surpassing the 'native-born' settlers, the city was renamed to Nea Armaidas, literally 'New Armaidas', which was eventually shortened to Nearmaidas.
By far the largest settlement in the Sunscald, Nearmaidas had a near-hegemonic role in the region from the fifth to the mid-ninth centuries. Known as the 'Jewel of the Sunscald', the city-state dominated its competitors in both financial gain and naval supremacy. Serving as the locus of the so-called 'New Armaidan' culture, the city was instrumental in spreading Armaidan cultural influence across the northern Sunscald, in part due to intermingling and in part due to expansion. Most Armaidan cities along the Sunscald coast, even Medaris's modern archrival Argyria, were founded by communities originating from Nearmaidas, and Nearmaidas retained a level of influence or outright control over these de jure independent city-states.
Nearmaidas's hegemony was abruptly ended in 867, when the city was sacked by the infamous raider Leth Bloodaxe. Following a surprise assault on the city in the middle of sugarcane-burning season, Leth and his troops ransacked the city, setting it ablaze in the process. Leth absconded with much of Nearmaidas's cultural and mineral riches and left the city a charred husk, with much of its metropolitan population killed either by the raiders or by the resulting fire. Over the course of mere days, Nearmaidas had transformed from the dominant power of the entire Sunscald to a blazing ruin.
While Nearmaidas had been near-totally destroyed, the surrounding farmlands and cane fields were not depopulated, nor had the city lost its strategic position or its historical significance. Over the following decades, the city was gradually rebuilt and resettled, with much of the reconstruction being the prestige projects of the region's rich sugar planters, who effectively supplanted the Old Armaidan noble houses as the city's elites. In 881, on the anniversary of Leth's razing of Nearmaidas, the city was officially refounded, though it had barely recaptured a sliver of its former prestige. As part of the this refounding, a wooden effigy of Leth Bloodaxe was ceremonially burnt as a form of revenge - this ceremonial gesture proved popular with the locals, and the Torching of Leth eventually became a yearly event within the city.
The newly refounded city was renamed Nea Medaris, literally 'New Medaris'. Many potential explanations for this choice have been made by scholars. One suggestion is that the city's new population, mainly from Nearmaidas's surrounding countryside, felt a stronger connection to Sunscald, and hence chose a historical name less intimately connected to the Armaidan Empire. It has also been suggested that the rich planters who bankrolled the reconstruction wanted to include the Nea prefix to demonstrate the city had in fact been essentially refounded thanks to them, and that 'Nea Nearmaidas' or 'New New Armaidas' was simply too unwieldly and graceless. Others still, mainly in rival cities, have theorised that the refounders of the city realised that the partially-repaired township of 881 simply could not compare to Nearmaidas in its prime, and consequently they aimed to avoid this comparison by drawing on the city's older roots. Regardless, the name stuck, and the city is now often simply referred to as 'Medaris' in all but the most official documents.
After centuries of repair and growth, the modern city-state of Medaris has emerged as a resurgent power in the northern Sunscald. It boasts a rich economy fuelled predominantly by sugarcane, and thriving artisanal and mercantile sectors. In recent years, it has managed to regain some of its traditional cultural influence and authority, although it is contested in these fronts by other cities who have risen in power and influence since the Razing of Nemaidas, most prominently Medaris's 'upstart' rival Argyria. Though it is unlikely to ever recapture the 'glory' of Nearmaidas in its prime, the modern Medaris has 'risen from the ashes' to regain much of its former prosperity.

Medaris

Coat of arms of Medaris: argent, a phoenix vert inflamed gules.

Founding Date

285 (initial), 881 (refounded)

Alternative Name(s)

Nea Medaris, Nearmaidas (historical)

Type

City

Inhabitant Demonym

Medarian