In the deepest parts of the desert, caught equally far from the forested mountains of the west, the lush coast of the north, and the Ukor River itself, a city gleams. This city of Mushalee. Surrounded by cracked earth, sandy soil, and little more than bare patches of shrubs, Mushalee is nonetheless called the City That Knows No Thirst.
Mushalee owes its survival to the large oasis that sits in its heart. The water that bubbles up from it, from seemingly deep within the earth, is fresh and pure, and though it isn’t endless, it replenishes quickly enough that there’s rarely been any need to ration it.
The Mushalee oasis is far enough from other major sources of water that they’ve had little to fear from an attack- any enemy sieging them would perish of thirst long before they broke down the city’s defenses. The Mushalee people have taken great advantage of this. Before becoming a proper part of the Dominion, much of their wealth came from plunder, the spoils of raids conducted on their neighbors, especially the Themakeis to their north. The Mushalee were feared for their hit-and-run tactics, and they were able to exert themselves and their horses much harder than their targets could.
In addition to raiders, the Mushalee people are skilled astronomers, cartographers, herbalists, navigators, traders, and logisticians. Their star charts have fundamentally changed the way that May’Kar travels the desert at night. They have always had complex relationships with the peoples around them that were as often collaborative as they were antagonistic, and in some cases have even been seen as peacekeepers in the area. Integration with the Dominion has changed little about this, it’s just added overhead in the form of taxation and new laws to be followed.
When Mushalee’s first algarad made contact and attempted to establish relations with its people, it went surprisingly well. Mushalee’s successes had made it grow, and it was nearing the limits of what it could provide for itself without senselessly increasing its attacks on its neighbors. Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on the Dominion’s need for an outpost, the city quickly positioned itself as a gateway into the rest of the desert: A place for travelers, traders, diplomats, and soldiers to replenish themselves before moving on. They paid their tithe in salt, harvested from nearby flats, which was abundant enough to be of little value in hoarding to them, but was in high demand along the Ukor.
The Mushalee warriors found themselves a natural fit amongst May’Kar’s Auxiliaries, and the Mushalee Boluk is one of the most well-decorated of its Auxiliary regiments to this day. They’re often hired as desert escorts, bodyguards, and even occasionally as translators. Their cavalry still maintains their martial tradition of hit-and-run tactics, which have continued to prove themselves effective, but also prompted their detractors to accuse them of being deserters-in-waiting.
Mushalee’s reputation today with its neighbors is mixed. Some still bear the scars of repeated raids, others are much happier to have trade partners and have let generations of relative peace smooth things over. The Mushalee people have used their relatively prominent position within the Dominion as a bit of a cudgel, at times, to fend off those seeking to address past grievances. Regardless, the city finds itself with visitors of many different cultures and creeds, and has become something of a small cosmopolitan hub for the surrounding algari.
Beyond the city itself, Mushalee once had farmlands that grew millet and a few other hardy crops to sustain itself. Now, much of its food is imported from the heart of the Dominion, and these farms have become absorbed as the city expanded. This has put them in a tenuously dependent position on May’Kar, which has begun to undermine the leverage they have in the desert.
As with many in May’Kar, there is no singular faith that can be attributed to the Mushalee people, or even one ‘Mushalee people’ in the first place. The Register has catalogued four distinct belief sets, though only one of which has been legitimized by the Mahsai.
That faith is the Malihtaan, which holds that the original settlers of the Mushalee oasis, which they claim descent from, were once seafarers upon a great ocean, until sin caused the waters to be drained away, leaving the world’s oceans where they are now. Their myths say that they have been called to this oasis due to their ancient kinship with water, that regardless of the sin of the world beyond, this water shall be theirs to keep.
One of the faiths that has not gotten similar acceptance is the Behayiid, which was once quite prominent among the Mushalee but has since fallen greatly in favor. Followers of this faith recognize and worship Behayeh, a god of strategy and tactics, who is claimed to be the source of brilliant inspiration both on and off the battlefield. Behayiid warriors nonetheless find themselves in good company in the Auxiliaries, and a few have famously (or infamously) had success in the Army, with more than one nurad dedicating their victories to Behayeh.