Founded: Unknown
Government Type: Council
Leader(s): Council of Tribes
Population: Unknown
Area: The Endless Sands
Official Language(s): Kree’ar
Currency: barter system
Overview
Neither bound by stone nor tethered to one place, Rakra’tesh is a city without walls—a living convoy of titanic tents, lumbering sand-barges, and floating wind-lanterns that glow like a mirage across the shifting dunes of Tarisia. Known as The Wandering Throne, Rakra’tesh serves as a spiritual and mercantile nexus for desert tribes, mystics, and distant kingdoms who risk the journey to trade rare goods, hear omens, or barter for secrets in the sand.
Founded during the Age of Echoes by exiled mystics fleeing the volcanic cities of the east, Rakra’tesh coalesced around the belief that truth can only be found in movement. This philosophy shapes their laws, their faith, and their economy. The city is not a single caravan, but a constellation of interconnected convoys—each with its own customs, culture, and familial structures—guided by celestial charts, smoke rituals, and ancestral winds.
Structure and Culture
Rakra’tesh is governed not by edict, but by consensus, through the Convoy Council—a shifting circle of elders, traders, wind-riders, and navigators who speak through a figurehead known as The Guide. Said to be chosen by fate and dream, The Guide wears a deep shroud and speaks only in verse, relaying guidance and judgment through cryptic poem and symbolism.
The people of Rakra’tesh are marked by vibrant garments layered with stitched charms, coin-laced hoods, and veils painted with familial myths. Every person—no matter their role—is a traveler, and every tent is both home and passage.
Their beasts of burden—colossal, slow-moving creatures known as Sarthoks—carry entire marketplaces and shrines on their backs, but also act as war machines in confrontation. These beasts are centuries old, and it’s unknown how they are bred. The largest have been passed down through families like sacred estates.
Economy and Trade
Rakra’tesh’s economy is rooted in mutual need and ceremonial trade. Precious dyes, singing sands, salt-crystals, wind-glass, and oracles-for-hire are among their most valuable exports. In return, they seek rare water, precious stones, obsidian, and information from the cities they encounter.
While largely peaceful, the city is guarded by elite skirmishers known as the Ashwind Riders—highly trained scouts who wield curved weapons and ride small nimble wind-kites. When provoked, Rakra’tesh can become a terrifying sandstorm.
Beliefs and Lore
At the heart of Rakra’tesh is the Doctrine of the Drift—a belief that destiny is not fixed, but discovered only through motion. They do not build temples; they carry shrines on the backs of beasts and within scroll-laden pavilions. The Stars of the Buried Sky, an invisible constellation said to guide the soul after death, plays a central role in both burial rites and navigation.
Legends speak of an end-point to the Wandering Throne—a mythical oasis-city known only as The Stillness, said to appear only once every thousand years, when all the caravans align beneath the Five Pearls.
Rakra’tesh in the World
Other city-states view Rakra’tesh with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and envy. Astarte Ruk has tried and failed to seize their convoy, which largely avoids them now. Belad trades obsidian for rare incense and wind-glass, while trying to decipher their layered oral histories for hints of magical power.
For all its mystery, Rakra’tesh remains one of the few powers in Tarisia with no fixed borders—and yet, whose influence touches every dune, market, and memory.