So, with that discussion complete, I'm going to
write a story.
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Arana, yes, Arana the Pleasant. This is our city. Not our only city, of course. Cities form where castes gather. Even so, each caste inhabits a separate area, marked by a caste color and other characteristics. Certain castes, such as the water-carriers, are dispersed throughout the whole of the city. But this is rare, and even the water-carriers have gathering places like the others.
Caste is a wall, of sorts. One would think upon visiting the lands of the Shahanar that we are a chaotic land of many peoples. This is truly not so. Since ancient days, we have traded, and married one another. It is clear to us who is Caste and who is Outcaste. We live, work, and rest with our castes. It provides a sense of belonging, and of wholeness. Within caste, everything is determined by arrangement: Your seniority is based on your age, and to a lesser degree, your skill at craft. Each caste has close business relationships with related castes. For example, the potters and the water-carriers are very close indeed. The same is true for stone-workers and builders, and similar relationships such as this exist.
In time, castes merge and split, as I have mentioned before. But never is a member of the Shahanar truly alone. If caste-blood is spilled, that individual becomes Outcaste, and is forced to leave our lands. So the converse is true, you see. One who is alone is not Shahanar.
But, I am becoming distracted! Let us return to Arana. In isolated villages, there might only be one or two castes: Perhaps a farming caste to procure the food, and a smaller caste of tool-makers and repairers. The two castes will be highly interrelated. But Arana formed where, at first, there would be great gatherings of many Shahanar, and even some Tharnites, to trade and celebrate festivals. In time, however, these castes gained more from living close to each other.
Arana is a pleasant city, and a variated one, for each caste maintains their own portion. Each quarter of the city can be noted by a different characteristic denoting the nature of the owner. For example, the warrior caste, small as it is, inhabits an area near the city walls built with red bricks. This denotes the Outcaste blood that they are destined to spill in defense of our home. The food-seller castes, however, have planted lemon trees down the center of the road, and one can find their homes simply by following the smell.
We trader castes set up pavilions of many-colored cloth, a different color representing all the castes of the Shahanar, and even Outcastes from foreign lands, whose wares we have purchased and brought south. Carvings of horn and amber, incenses and spices, silks and woods, all of these can be found in our quarter. We also facilitate the transportation of goods from more distant castes, though sometimes this brings us into conflict with more distant trader castes living in those regions.
Arana, it is not a great place, only inhabited by some few thousands. But it is an elegant city, and perhaps as our numbers grow, the city too shall become something greater than the bazaar which it is today.