Koumbasat

The great city of Koumbasat is the capital of the Emirate of Koumbasi, which lies at the furthest western extent of Idiri and the Great Hazari Desert. Although part of the Sirdabi Caliphate for the last several centuries, Koumbasat is far enough from the Sirdabi heartland to be considered tremendously remote by most other people of the caliphate, and its name evokes thrilling and romantic associations which tend to be only partially dispelled by an actual visit to the city. But save for traders and curious travelers from neighboring Tessere, few enough individuals from the rest of the caliphate ever make the long journey to the caliphate's most storied western city.

Layout and Appearance

Koumbasat is located about a mile distant from the River Tajeddi, the mighty waterway of western Idiri which sustains the city's trade in gold and connects it to both the Cloud Kingdoms and the Gilded Plain. This short remove from the river, as well as the city's slightly elevated position on a series of low terraced hills, helps preserve it from the floodwaters that come sweeping in every year with the rainy season. Though none of the terraces are very high, the central and tallest one among them is that upon which the city's great library and attached mosque are situated, enjoying their position at the very heart of Koumbasat physically as well as culturally and spiritually. Running around the base of the lowest terrace and surrounding the entire city a moat, dry during much of the year but filled with water from the nearby river during the flood season.

The buildings of Koumbasat are simple in construction but striking and sometimes even fantastic in design. Most are simple adobe structures one to three stories in height, most of them square or rectangular with smoothly rounded corners -- perfectly straight edges are seldom seen in the city. Ramps and stairways are also built from mud, as are stoops, walls, and the many conical towers that project above the lower roofs of other structures. The larger buildings are studded with palm timbers that project a short ways from the side, giving them an oddly prickly look but serving the practical function as a built-in brace for scaffolding whenever each building is in need of its semi-annual replastering and painting.

It is in this exterior decoration that Koumbasat is most dazzling, for all the buildings in the city are painted in a dizzying diversity of colors and patterns. Not only decorative, the paint and underlying whitewash help preserve the structures of the town from the sporadic but often torrential downpours of the rainy season. Every five years -- a "hand," in Koumbasi reckoning -- the mosque and library are fully replastered and painted as part of a great festival in which the entire city participates. Shopkeepers and homeowners repaint as they please, often every three to five years, replacing one set of colors and patterns with another so that on no two visits to Koumbasat does the city ever look the same.

Government

Koumbasat is the seat of Koumbasi government, so the emir makes his home here along with much of the administration of the emirate. Even in pre-caliphal times it had long been customary for the Philosopher-Kings of Koumbasi to reign from this city, having somewhat controversially moved the government from Jalu-Jalo and re-established the palace and administration in what had become the kingdom's most dazzling and renowned center of learning.

People

People of Bissenke heritage predominate in Koumbasat, though this single heritage is represented by a host of different tribes, families, extended lineages, and demi-nations that lend a multicultural air to the city. As in the rest of Koumbasat, those that are native to the city like to refer to themselves specifically as being of Koumbissenke blood, seeing their people as distinct from those of the Cloud Kingdoms or the Gilded Plain. Many Koumbasati also will call themselves Kitabbissenke, a slightly tongue-in-cheek mashup simply meaning "the Book-Bissenke".

Next most common in the city are the Tessouare, many of whom retain strong ties to kin who make their homes in the surrounding desert and mountain country of Koumbasi. Tessouare often act as middlemen in the gold and book trades and as factors for merchants in Tessere or provinces still further east. Typically not as bookish as the Bissenke, the Tessouare nevertheless benefit from the excellent educational system in Koumbasat and sometimes even become administrators in the emirati government.

Notes

Due to the continually changing painted facades of the town, Koumbasat is often referred to as "Ever-Changing Koumbasat," or "Rainbow City." Outside of the emirate, popular legend around the caliphate in fact tells that the foot of the rainbow marks the site of this dazzling far-flung city that few will ever see with their own eyes.