Sarvara
# Overview
Sarvara (
Sarvaran: ‘Our Valley City,’ Sarvárą < *ësa-ëlbhu-aazan) was a settlement founded by the
Morellic minikin. It was built on the
Abhmýra river, experiencing seasonal floods.
It was instrumental in the development of sophisticated society, becoming the most populous city at its height, breaking the record set by Naíru before its fall.
# Construction
Taking a page out of their Kaśtaira ancestry, they built their dens out of clay, collecting mud from the riverbed and carrying it up to the canopy in their cheek pouches.
In addition, they also packed clay onto the upper sides of the branches to create walkways, they built staircases and ramps spiraling up the treetrunks for the verticality of the city, and built levitation-charmed stepping stones and clay bridges to connect each tree to one another other.
They left the surface for farms, with crops sowed in circles around tree-trunks enclosed by clay fences. No permanent shelters would be set up on the floor, as to allow the seasonal flood to fertilise and water the crops. This meant that the flood would miss the city, up in the canopy.
# Government
As the city-state developed, the Móra riSéwi monarchical system proved itself unwieldy, especially as Morellic influence spread outside of the city in the valley.
Eventually the city settled into an oligarchical system of government, headed by a matriarch among matriarchs, the traditional office of the queen. Each oligarch must have been a woman, a matriarch, and must have had some level of renown.
These oligarchs descended from nobles, those who would use over semi-autonomous districts or sarvaran satellite villages. Once the oligarchal system was fully in place, these nobles would take the oath, having their heads shaven and the Sarvaran emblem cast into their foreheads. They would be trained proficiently in sorcery as to avoid the chance of magic being used against the city, and to maximise the use of magic against their enemies.
They would collect taxes for the queen, taking a cut for themselves according to the queen’s will, and would each have a great level of influence over the laws of the state. The would often hold councils to decide what to do, weighing the will of the people against the will of their own, and of the deities.
# The Oath
Sarvaran Oligarchs would take an oath by shaving their head perpetually, and casting the city eblem into their forehead. This showed a great level of commitment, that they would forsake their hair for their city. Hair, in Morellic culture, held a great amount of importance. It, like the tail, showed the retention of the ‘divine’ traits they shared with their worshipped ancestors, the squirrels.