The Emerald Basin

Long before the coming of mankind, the great basin at the heart of western Naplica was a lush and fertile land of dense forests and winding rivers. Later generations would remember it as the Emerald Basin, a region of towering trees and thick jungle canopies that stretched across the lowlands between the western mountains and the eastern plains.

The basin was home to the Zhuyang, the dragon-kin who ruled the forests long before the rise of human civilizations. Their spired cities of obsidian and living wood rose above the jungle canopy, dominating the rivers and valleys of the region.

For ages the basin knew no human presence. Humanity would arrive only with the coming of the Great War of Naplica.

The War of the Gods

During the Great War the gods created mortal armies to aid them in their struggle against the shadow-god Hēiyào and his followers. Among these newly formed peoples were the ancestors of the Irashani, who were placed within the forests of the Emerald Basin to serve as soldiers in the celestial host.

The jungles became one of the central battlefields of the war. Irashani warriors fought alongside the Zhuyang and the hosts of the gods against the forces of Hēiyào, battling through the tangled forests and along the basin’s great rivers.

In the final years of the war the shadow-god himself descended upon the basin in an act remembered in Irashani tradition as The Unmaking. As Hēiyào walked the land, the life of the forest withered beneath his presence. Trees burned where they stood, rivers dried into cracked earth, and the once-green basin was transformed into a land of dust and ash.

By the time Hēiyào was defeated, the Emerald Basin had been utterly destroyed. In its place remained a vast desert of sand and salt that would become known as the Irashani Basin.

The Founding of Irashan

With the end of the Great War the armies of the gods were dismissed, and the newly created peoples of Naplica were left to forge their own destinies. For the survivors of the basin, this meant learning to live in the ruined land left behind by the war.

Their salvation came with the discovery of Lake Sa'id, a vast inland lake fed by deep subterranean springs untouched by the devastation that had consumed the surrounding land. Around its shores the scattered warbands gathered, establishing the first permanent settlements in the new desert.

Over time these settlements grew into towns and cities as the former soldiers of the gods adapted to life in the harsh basin. Wood was replaced with stone, and survival depended upon mastery of the winds, stars, and caravan routes that crossed the desert.

Under the leadership of Al-Mansur I, the city of Bayt al-Kazim was founded on the western shores of Lake Sa'id. From this city the Emirate of Irashan would eventually emerge.

The Emirate of the Basin

In the centuries that followed, Irashan grew into one of the great trading powers of Naplica. Though the basin had become a harsh desert, its position between the western lands, the eastern steppe, and the southern coasts made it a natural crossroads of trade.

Irashani caravans mastered the desert routes that others feared to cross. Goods from the steppe, the coast, and distant kingdoms all passed through the markets of Bayt al-Kazim.

Unlike many of their neighbours, the Irashani welcomed foreign merchants and travellers, and their cities became famous for their wealth and cosmopolitan character. Visitors from distant lands wrote of the splendour of their markets and the prosperity created by the caravan trade.

The Auresian historian Claudius Commodus famously wrote:

"The marble of Bayt al-Kazim is so white it blinds the noon-day eye, and the scent of saffron and sandalwood is so thick in their markets it can be smelled three leagues into the dunes."

Today the Emirate of Irashan stands as the dominant power of the basin, a civilisation born from the ashes of the Great War that transformed a cursed wasteland into one of the most important centers of trade in Naplica.