Where Saresh sits at the head of the Ukor River, Tsamir lays at the tail. It’s one of the southernmost Ukorates in the May’Kar Dominion. When it was a city-state in the days before the Kingdom of Saresh, it was one of the greatest victims of the large-scale pollution of the river, and pestilence had nearly wiped it out.
Having gone through a brutal period of recovery, Tsamir emerged with a culture of resilience and innovation, one that sought to end the material conditions that made it dependent on the practices of the people living further north. When the Habbatt began to put a stranglehold on the rest of the Ukor, they began to develop technologies and practices to care for their water on their own terms, and their relatively remote location allowed them to hold out against royal forces that sought to punish them for their disobedience.
Today, Tsamir is flourishing. The engineering tools and techniques they developed have become the standard throughout the Ukor and even in certain algar. Their greatest export is expertise, which they have had great success in selling to their neighbors and to the crown, and they’re also known for their advances in alchemy, medicine, and metallurgy.
Tsamir is home to some of the largest educational institutions in Faedrun, collectively called the Kathfunza. The Kathfunza were originally funded by the Prince, and enrollment was free to prospective talented individuals, on the condition that they spend a period after graduation working on behalf of the city, or else tithe a portion of their earnings. Today, people from across the Dominion and beyond buy their way in with great sums of coin, but assessment tests are still issued, and seats are still set aside, to find prospective students that otherwise might not be able to afford to attend.
The province has a special arrangement with the crown, allowing it to operate with less oversight and fewer restrictions than is typical of a Ukorate. The argument was originally made that Tsamir’s southern position minimized the impact of its industry and innovation on the river, and any developments it made would ultimately serve the rest of May’Kar. As a result, Tsamir has no magistrate, and the presence and influence of the Mahsai within it is significantly reduced, though not eliminated. Tsamir is also under no obligation to provide conscripts to the crown, but does bear one of the greatest tax burdens in the Dominion.
The lands and waters near Tsamir are home to an incredible diversity of plant and animal life, created through Ukor distributaries which result in wetlands and even marshes depending on conditions like the movements of the river and changing of the seasons. Careful management of these lands, and the research of the organisms found within them, has led to countless innovations in medicine and alchemy. Some of these lands have even become repurposed as large wet farms, fisheries, and aviaries, supplied by cisterns in the dry seasons so they can continue to produce year-round.