Karsh

This island city is a jewel of wanton cruelty to rival Rome of the Caesars, or the slave-markets of Zanzibar.

The laws of Karsh forbid any citizen of that city to steal foreigners for slaves. Instead, the law-abiding Karshian will pay one country for prisoners taken from another. By this policy they have set all their neighbours at one another's throats, and rendered Karsh safe from well-deserved vengeance. Indeed all are dependent on the slave-made weapons that Karsh sells, and the manacles sold through the widespread Karshian franchise McDonald's Family Restraints.

This policy has a subtler virtue (if one may call it that). It convinces the Karshians that they bear no responsibility for the slave trade. After all, they argue, they merely buy those who already slaves - and who knows if they may not have faced a worse fate in the pens of their barbaric captors? That their neighbours are barbaric is obvious. Every town lives in fear of its neighbour. Indeed every village bully and strongman wants scant excuse to sentence some poor fellow to slavery, and profit thereby. Some will sell even their own family, so that the bonds of familial love are like to be replaced by leaden chains. And thus Karsh is satisfied in its own superiority, like one who carries a plague, infecting all around, yet spared the worst of the sickness themselves.

Among the shameful practices of the city is that of raising 'spiders'. As babies some boy slaves have their torsos bound and restricted, so that they do not grow normally. The victim will end up with normal-sized limbs and head, but a grotesequly small body, twisted and wrinkled so that it resembles an Egyptian mummy, or a Japanese bonsai tree. They are trained in singing and poetry, and used as a kind of pet by the noble ladies of Karsh and near places. The fact that the poor wretches are castrated no doubt spares them from yet further indignities.

Karsh is known as Karsh the Wicked, or Karsh of the Red Sands, the latter for its gladiatorial arena.

Lover's Leap

A certain hill in Teleleli has a pit, which leads no one knows where. It is said that if lovers cannot otherwise be together, and jump into the pit at the same time, they will be taken to a place where they can be together. It is also said that if one whose love is truly hopeless jumps into the pit, they will "become like a bird, and their sorrow will be forgotten." In both cases folklore emphasises that the pit will show no mercy to any who jump into it when they have any hope in Teleleli.

The atmosphere of the place is somewhat like that of the Road of the Second Chance, though Lovers' Leap is less frequently used, owing to its assocation with love in particular, and to some vague but sinister tales of the fate of those who use it.

The Road of the Second Chance

This place is also known as the River of the Second Chance - but in fact it is neither road nor river.

It is a strip of unknown material, about ten feet wide, which has the strange property that it is usually in motion, carrying any who stand on it at such speed that they seem to disappear. It seems the road is in motion about two-thirds of the time. Very careful examination might reveal whether it is moving or still, but determining its direction has proven to be impossible. Likewise it is unknown whether it moves in both directions or only one. It stops and starts apparently according to nothing more than its own whim. It happened once that the Road stayed still for a whole year - or at least that no one caught it moving.

It runs through an overgrown area of wasteland at the edge of Teleleli, terminating at both ends in caves. Those who have followed the Road into the caves have reported that there came a point where it was impossible to explore further without stepping on the Road.

Riding the Road is by no means easy. Putting one foot on it while it is in motion, and the other on the ground, will merely result in the unwary traveller being hurled away at great force, probably leading to broken bones or even death. The traveller must instead run up and jump, landing on both feet at the same time. Of course there is no way of knowing if this is safe, or merely causes a person to be injured or killed wherever they end up.

The place is full of priests, trying to recruit the desperate souls who come here. Merchants try to get a good deal from those who sell their worldly goods before setting forth, while others sell equipment suitable for journeys into the unknown. Beggars come to take advantage of those who believe they will need no wealth in their new home. Some come to plead with their loved ones not to go, others come to find thieves and debtors before they disappear. Kind-hearted souls mend the wounds of those who have tried to ride the Road and failed, or bury the dead. The park also attracts those with more sinister motives, who reason that those who come to travel the Road will not be missed.