This letter dates from after his exile but was discovered in the
same archive as the others.
Dearest Felicitus,
Dry and dusty, dusty and dry. That is how I would characterize
Pavis, the so-called centre of culture in Prax. The New City is surrounded by manmade
walls and is nothing special but the Old City is surrounded by enormous walls 30 meters
tall said to have been built by giants. The Old City is mostly bare land scattered with
ruins and the odd clump of buildings inhabited by humans or trolls, if you are lucky. The
Old City was built by a demigod named Pavis who was an offshoot of the Empire of the
Wyrms Friends. The New City was built by a descendant of the Orlanthi god Sartar and
was recently conquered by our forces. The inhabitants are extremely varied for a place of
this size. Worshippers of Yemalio rub shoulders with people descended from the original
inhabitants of the Old City. They in turn rub shoulders with the river folk who are said
to predate the Old City who rub shoulders with Praxian tribesmen who follow some
outlandish god whose name resembles a war cry. You can also meet dwarves and elves and
trolls, sometimes in the same barroom. The place is rife with sedition and Orlanthi rebels
are everywhere. There are temples in the New City to all sorts of gods both from within
and without the Empire. In the Old City are temples to gods unheard of elsewhere. The city
dominates trade with the Empire and points south (not that much comes up river, or goes
down it for that matter). The styles of architecture are as varied as the people
themselves, (though the choice of construction materials ranges from mud brick to...mud
brick, though stone is used for the more important structures). The local Lunars are much
like the lot I described in Elkoi. (Though they do seem to tend to either of the two
extremes I described, being either saints or degenerate madmen. I may be doing them an ill
service describing them like this but I then again I think not). As far as I can tell the
main value of the place is to control the plains of Prax, control the route to the sea and
the only Lunar sea port of Corflu (having heard this place described I am making all
efforts to avoid it), and control the removal of artifacts from the Old City (which the
locals call the Big Rubble). Oh yes, the place also seems to be the hub of the local drug
trade which only seems to have sprung up after the Lunar occupation. (Surprise, surprise).
The governor, Sor-Eel the Short seems to be doing his bumbling best to run the place and
he seems to be fairly successful at it.
From here I travel to a place called Sun County where I expect to
"savour" the joys of the local Yemalian tradition. I can hardly wait.
Yours as always,
Fresser
Late of Glamour
This page last modified August 31, 1998
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