The city-states in the Tyr Region enjoy an uneasy peace.
Although hostilities simmer and raids provoke retaliation,
these incidents seldom grow into larger conflicts. Open
war between two city-states leaves one or both vulnerable
to neighbors that might take advantage of weakness and
attack. The current arrangement of powers has lasted for
a long time, but the ruins of Yaramuke show that things
can change.
Long ago, Yaramuke was the fourth city-state along the
Road of Kings, Raam’s nearest neighbor and occasional
ally. Yaramuke’s sorcerer-queen Sielba doomed her people
when she reached too far.
Sielba had long coveted the
obsidian of the Smoking Crown, so she sent prospectors into
the mountains to establish new quarries. When Hamanu
of Urik discovered Yaramite miners in his mountains, he
rounded them up and sent their heads back to Yaramuke
as a warning against further encroachments.
Incensed, Sielba sent an army of new slaves to take
the mines by force, but Hamanu’s Imperial Guard
crushed them easily. Since it was clear that Sielba hadn’t
understood his warning, Hamanu chose to strike back. He
led a small army up the Road of Kings, moving slowly as
a sign of his disdain for his opponent. When his army
arrived a month later, he found Yaramuke well defended,
its walls protected by thousands of warriors.
The Urikite legions surrounded the city but did not
attack. Instead, Hamanu climbed to the highest hill
overlooking the city and began a terrible incantation.
So powerful was this ritual, so destructive its force, that
Hamanu drew the life from all the plants and animals
for miles around. His magic shattered the city’s walls,
killed its defenders, and swept through the streets, slaying
thousands in a rain of fiery death. Not even the Urikite
army was spared, and many of Hamanu’s soldiers fell
alongside those of Yaramuke. By the time the magic had
run its course, the city was reduced to rubble, and the
lands around were poisoned, defiled, and ruined for all
time.
Although Yaramuke was destroyed, the city-state was
never sacked, and some believe that it still contains
secrets and riches. The promise of Sielba’s vast wealth is
enough for many adventurers to set aside common sense
and plunge headlong into the devastated city.
