Narragundi

Malung, the City of Honey, was once a mesa in truth, surrounded by some of the finest veins of gold on the continent. The Narragundi Emperors and their subjects, over a period of ninety-nine years, carved out the interior, creating terraced gardens, neighbourhoods, and a central palace towering up to the original height of the city, from tools of obsidian and natural copper. All this was still surrounded by the mesa walls, painstakingly carved to withstand footholds—with the added benefit of being practically immune to cannon-fire.

The baalukooni—singular bilukooni, from the root boon "to grow up, to be a certain age"—are the heart of the armies of the Narragundi. Serving as legions and work-groups both, bonds are established between members, but each owes its loyalty only to the Emperor in Malung.

Members of a bilukooni are chosen by age group and ethnicity both. There is a mostly unofficial hierarchy between them, depending on who has more of the Emperor's favour.

Garrudi is not the largest lake on the continent, but it is the largest body of water in the Narragundi Empire. At over 12,000 square kilometres in area and 150m deep at its greatest, it waters and moderates the climate over a large part of the desert. Although the rivers flowing to its banks are irregular, they nevertheless provide ample water for plants to grow and animals to drink. Lake Garrudi, sometimes called the Deep, forms one of the three major population centres in the empire—the others being the coastal cities and Malung itself.

Travel through the Red Sea—the great desert stretching across most of the continent—is by no means easy, but thanks to dogs, camels, and carts it has at least become something relatively feasible at some speed. The Royal Roads ensure this travel follows routes with the best links to sources of water, one way or another, and thus that the baalukooni can pass as they need from the coast to the capital to the Deep.

Men are separated into groups called baalukooni, which may roughly be translated as "age cohort". Narragundi boys born within a five-year period—so between the ages of ten and fifteen—are gathered together and turned into a bilukooni, which falls under the direct command of the Emperor. They are sent forth as guards and warriors, not quite as monastics—the Emperor will allow them to marry at some point, and they still often learn the trades of their forebears—but as figures of honour. They serve in this capacity for ten years; some then return to their farms and smithies and river trade, but some stay on as full-time protectors. And any bilukooni can be called upon in times of war.

It is said that a man can have as many wives as he can afford to keep. In practice, this only really applies to the Emperor, whose wives manage his regiments. Instead, what is typical is that many women from different families may be married to a set of brothers, ensuring that regardless of choice of spouse the children will descend from a common paternal line.