Astaurum

River, Grass and Open Sea

Reaching Astaurum means a crossing. The city stands far to the east and offshore, on open grassland that a river keeps watered, and it is counted among the greatest cities in the world — a scale out of all proportion to the water separating it from the mainland. It was raised in the fourth wave of expansion. Learning is its chief work, pursued on a footing smaller places cannot match, and the ground supplies the rest: tilled fields, fresh water, and a harvest the city keeps for itself.

Two Peoples, One Allegiance

Astaurum is held as much as it is inhabited. It keeps soldiers of its own, and its position — offshore, watered, approachable only by sea — makes it a strategic holding as surely as it is a seat of scholarship. Both Suvanar and Lohanar are counted among the Astaurans, two peoples living under a single civic order, which at this size is uncommon anywhere. Allegiance is owed to Astraia.