Raziya

Raziya is the easternmost of the Sirdabi Caliphate's Idiri provinces, situated in the northeast corner of the continent. It is home to the cosmopolitan port city of Omrazir, one of the great cities of the caliphate, and is a major center of commerce as well as learning and faith.

Raziya Province, Sirdabi Caliphate

Geography

Raziya is an extremely rugged land, with much of the province consisting of tall steep-sided massifs carved through with deep canyons and ravines. The interior plateau receives little rain and sees strong extremes of temperature, besides being largely unfavorable for agriculture. As a result most of the population is confined to the more hospitable coastal regions, particularly along the Adelantean shore that forms the province's northern border. Although this part of Raziya is plagued by storms and fog during the winter months, this season brings welcome precipitation which, along with the milder climate overall, sustains farming and arboriculture upon the north coast. In contrast, the land along the Gulf of Adwa to the east drops so sharply into the sea that little terrain is available for cultivation, and most of the rain in this area falls further south and on the far side of the Gulf, watering the province of Marzum instead and leaving the Raziyan city of El Gedz reliant on grain and produce imported from elsewhere in the caliphate.

However harsh the landscape of the interior is, it does still support a scattered population as well as trade routes that link the two coasts to one another and to the province of Zalawi to the south. Although far less traveled in modern times than in the days of the Marzum Despotate that restricted travel through the Gulf, the Sharizaar Road and the Oyster Road are still important routes for the transport of regional goods such as dates, shellfish, semiprecious stones, and aromatics like frankincense and ishmarila sap. The River Tamrasset, while running largely below ground for much of its course through the center of the province, still lies close enough to the surface to provide water for sophisticated Razmani irrigation agriculture. Having cut through the heart of the great Sharizaar Massif in ancient times, the river is also responsible for forming the canyons into which numerous small Razmani settlements are carved, along with much of the southern city of Alheri.

People

The Razmani are the native people of Raziya and can be found throughout the province. Despite their ancestors being the original founders of Omrazir, the largest center of Razmani population is now the city of Alheri in the south. Sirdabi and Tessouare are also widespread in Raziya, along with numerous Salawi residing along the coasts. Omrazir itself has a populace that represents not just the peoples of the entire Sirdabi Caliphate, but much of the known world.

Economy

The economy of Raziya largely depends on its role in channeling goods from across the continent of Idiri to the Ruleskan portions of the caliphate, and vice versa. Nearly all of these goods pass through the coastal metropolis of Omrazir, which is one of the great port cities not just of the caliphate but of the entire Adelantean basin. Countless merchants of both vast and modest means headquarter their diverse business operations in Omrazir, from there sponsoring ships that ply the Adelantean and the Sea of Salaah, and caravans that travel across the Idiri continent. The province is especially important as a conduit for trade with the Izendi Highlands, and both ports and local markets are filled with the Milombo people's fine wooden sculptures and masks, as well as musical instruments, bows, and raw tropical wood.

The province also exports a number of important domestic products. These include black pearls and indigo dye from al-Sakhna, oysters and kholabin from El Gedz, ishmarila sap from the coastal cliffs, and turquoise, razmanite, and copper from the interior. Good linen cloth, both dyed and plain, and high quality papyrus and paper are local craft industries that have a widespread market. Having only limited arable available for growing foodstuffs, Raziya imports most of its grain and produce, predominantly from the neighboring province of Amunat. It does however have a thriving olive and date industry, with Sidi Mircasset dates being prized for their unique, almost peppery tang that accentuates their sweetness.

Points of Interest

• Cliffs of Paradise
• Cormorant Isles
• Foundering Sands
• Great Thirsty Mountains
• Hall of the Wind
• Kindly Isles
• Plain of Storms
• Rassi Plateau
• Sharizaar Massif
• Sundab Hills
• Treachery Bay