An Overview of Nogaia Settlements and City States
In the Nogaia culture, there are three major kinds of settlements, separated by their status and their usage. They are Cities, Fort Towns, and Kele Villages.
Cities ONLY denotes the capital of a city state and the home of a Monarch. In the past, some tiny villages even are known as cities, but recently, only Yakot, Fula and Patu are full fledged cities. These large cities are known for their thick walls, deep granaries, palaces and citadels. These large cities are places where the Dega are the safest and where their petitions to the Monarch or "votes" for the "elections" are most easily accounted for.
Fort Towns denotes all non-city urban areas where the Dega, or Urban Citizens, are a majority. In such case, the town automatically needs defenses against Kele uprisings and barracks for the local militia or Tahe company to survive. Thus, even the smallest fort town contains a turf rampart, a stone tower and an adjacent barracks. Tiny examples are based slighty less than a day's travel, so that no unfortunate merchant would be caught in the open at night. Larger ones are nearly cities in their own right, with granaries, market squares and such trappings of intense urbanization.
Kele Villages contains the rest, where a majority of Kele labor under the watchful eyes of a landlord Degate, a militia detachment, or even a Tahe unit for frontier or newly broken serf-slaves. Walls are strictly forbidden, and the Kele live in deep pits dug into the ground with spiral stair ramps, the top stairs only lowered from the top by the guards in the morning to let them out. Although they do live a horrible life, most stewards take care of their Kele, at least for their farm's sake. During the rainy season they bring out shaded pavilions to cover the pits and bamboo stalks to line to bottom. The stewards themselves live in tiny fort-towns, highly fortified block houses with a constant watchful contingent inside while the others manage the Kele outside.
Yakot- The Dread City
Fabled capital of the Unspeakable Kingdom and home of the Dread Citadel, Yakot perches on the northern spire of the Fisofi mountains, looking over a beautiful bay. Yakot's main trade is in new Kele, Weapons, and intricate crafts as well as mass-produced items in sweatshops by their large Urban Kele contingent. Yakot's walls are the largest, citadel is the scariest, granaries the deepest, and oppression of the kele the greatest.
Patu- Gaia Central
Patu is the largest city by sheer size, sprawling over three harbors. This is not to say that Patu is the least defended, as they incorporate both walls that cover all three quarters as well as interior walls for each. Their Citadel, the Sugaia Sentinel, is in the northern bay on a ridge juting westward, serving both as a fall-back point as well as a lighthouse. Patu is known for trading between Nogaia and the Suigaia, as well as a place where anything can be bought for the right price. Don't let their cosmopolitanism fool you, for they still crush their Kele as necessary, and maybe a bit more than necessary, just so they won't get any ideas.
Fula-City of Pearls
Fula is certainly the riches and the smallest of the three cities. On the very southern edge of Nogaia, this beautiful city sends pearl divers and harvesters into the southern Kagaia as well as Degate-Kele miners into the Fisofi hills. Their citadel is the Mother of Pearl, a beautiful white tower which glistens in the setting sun and whose roof is inlaid with the said material. Fula is known not only for their pearls, but also for their jewelry and for their coins. However, don't take their beauty for granted, for their miners infringe on Fisofi land to retrieve their valuable metals, and they must maintain their guard for their Dega citizens number the last of all.
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