Noura

Located in the northernmost portion of the Gilded Plain where its golden grasses begin to give way to the desolate expanse of the Great Hazari Desert, the legendary city of Noura is the chief conduit for trade passing through the center of the Idiri continent. Although situated within sight of a great expanse of mountainous sand dunes to the north, the city rests in the midst of a vast shallow valley which was once the floodplain of an ancient river. The soils here are still highly fertile, if not so well-watered as they once were, and the farmland around the city produces an abundance of grain as well as an assortment of vegetables and fruit. Lacking anything in the way of stone or timber in the area, the buildings of the town are almost entirely constructed from adobe, with some public structures in particular making use of brick also made from the local clay.

Government

The city and the area immediately adjoining it are ruled over by a line of reclusive and mysterious kings and queens, who are seldom seen in public. It is said that these rulers come from a line formed by the intermarriage of humans and jinn, and they are rumored to be sorcerers of great power. The rulers themselves claim that the human portion of their line derives from the closest companion of the prophet al-Azad, whom tradition tells retired to a life of wandering solitude in the desert following his abdication as the first caliph of the Sirdabi Caliphate. But given the extremely smooth and harmonious functioning of the city's governance and trade, these are abstruse matters that most people, residents and travelers alike, do not much trouble themselves with.

Religion

Noura is in fact also unusual due to its being the only city south of the Hazari and outside the Sirdabi Caliphate whose governing class follows the Azadi faith. Many of the residents are Azadi as well, and both the city's chief mosque and a number of its religious scholars are renowned even in the caliphate. The city has achieved less positive renown among the Sirdabi for its insistence that it is a separate independent caliphate whose legitimacy equals Sirdab itself.

Folklore

Noura is known as "the City of Light," both for its illustrious nature and for the fact that the entire city is lit up with lamps putting forth a singularly bright and enduring flame.

Travelers sometimes tell of crossing the Hazari Desert and nearing the site of Noura, only to find nothing there but an empty expanse of sand and grassy scrub instead. More level-headed people point out the ease of losing one's way in the desert, particularly when crossing the dune field, but such tales cause superstitious souls to view the city with a certain awed unease.

Current Events

The Augur of Endings, whose coming has swept up the Gilded Plain and the lands around it in conflict and turmoil, has made Noura his base of operations along with his small entourage.