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.

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 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 on the far side of the Gulf, watering the province of Marzum instead and leaving the Raziyan city of El Gedz reliant on foodstuffs 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, these are still important routes for the transport of regional goods such as dates, 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 Shahrizar Massif in ancient times before the days of humankind, 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.