Zomaar Yelvaad

Zomaar Yelvaad, the Terrible Raft, was founded in the Horgon Era by groups doing a brisk trade with the northern empire Ashmerthoon, the Zeymah'kein Empire (600 HE - 1600 HE) to the east, and the Mir'piamauza from the southeast. Sited in a great cold marshland, the settlement's early population was mostly Graagvrii and Trolls. The latter either served as enforcers for those who had the money to hire one, or were paid not to attack the barges and other transports navigating a maze of channels, moving the trade of nations across the vastness of the Minulkazar Swamp.

The city is named the Terrible Raft because of the enormous plant mass it floats on. These are colonies of shambog that when millions link together become a single biomass so buoyant that even cities can be built on them. A floating city, when needed, it is pushed along. Sometimes the entire population is ordered out to work the poles and oars.

Zomaar Yelvaad rose during the conflicts between their neighbors, prospering while the empires of the Zeymah'kein and the Mir'piamauza were falling. The fall of Zeymah'kein and the Mir'piamauza created two huge huge power vacuums, and for several centuries the Terrible Raft was the most important settlement of the entire region, prospering while others suffered from internal strife, under the heels of upstarts jockeying for power. The fall of Mir'piamauza was particularly devastating, accounting for nearly 80% of their revenue, handling Mir'piamauza's trade through their toll stations at the Iiz Sostrah river and traffic across the Minulkazar to the lands of the Galirkrad (1301 HE - 1725 HE). With the loss of revenue, they turned to other methods of commerce,slave trafficking became a big thing as refugees scattered across the lands. Attempts to secure parts of these fallen empires were successful for a time, but they eventually lost them, returning to a surface territory the same as what they had when the Zeymah'kein and the Mir'piamauza were beginning to cross swords.

Zomaar Yelvaad controls the cold wetlands of Minulkazar to the north edge of the Iiz Sostrah river; which they toll. They also control tunnels and labyrinths leading into the dark reaches of Adunamar. In this subterranean region, Stalag is one of their larger vassals.

In the Second Epoch, the Church of Kebechet was established. Her temples are a product of the time when Lenassu Dras'ee ruled over the city as its Dragon Lord (1031 - 1123).

Zomaar Yelvaad is a corrupt, evil place. One could be a citizen one day, a slave the next. The city's Drow population are descendants of former slaves of the fomorians. Today, most of the city's drow are free, proving they are more useful as advisers, merchants, and soldiers than chattel. Down below, the city's territory is overseen by Fomorian governors, overseeing villages, towns, and vassal city-states.

In the Smoldering Anvil War (1032 - 1039), Zomaar Yelvaad captured the ancient city-state of Gulud-Turam. Persistant attacks by the icy brutes under the Jarls of Inzurakthol forced them to abandon Gulud-Turam to ruin.