Founded: Age of Abundance
Government Type: Despotism
Leader(s): The Eternal Bolas, the Ageless Throne
Population: Unknown
Area: Shores of the Defiled Lakes
Official Language(s): Common
Currency: Officially None, but many merchants still trade in Casshern Marks which often wash up on the shores of the lakes.
Overview
Ak-ta is an ancient city-state perched along the northwestern shores of the Defiled Lakes, opposite the jungle-covered Casshern Peninsula. Founded during the Age of Abundance, the city has survived the disappearance of the great waters upon which it once depended, the collapse of the Old Kingdoms, and the advance of the Creeping Wild. Today it remains a troubled bastion between the Wild and the growing ambitions of Astarte Ruk.
Much of Ak-ta rises above the dark waters of the Defiled Lakes upon ancient granite foundations, piers, and crumbling stoneworks dating to a time when the lakes were part of a far greater body of water. Their acidic waters are utterly undrinkable and appear incapable of supporting ordinary life. Nevertheless, patrols, scavengers, and those who spend too long watching the water tell stories of strange shapes moving beneath the surface and malformed things occasionally washing ashore.
For at least five centuries, the city has been ruled by The Eternal Child Bolas, an ancient and ruthless Throne whose youthful appearance has changed little during his reign. Bolas styles himself Protector of Ak-ta and Defender of the Barren Valley, titles that would be easier to dismiss were there not considerable truth behind them.
Ak-ta survives largely through Bolas’s Sorcery. Through enormous blood rituals, he transforms the poisoned waters of the Defiled Lakes into water fit to drink, filling the city’s cisterns and sustaining a population that could not otherwise survive upon their shores. Prisoners, captives, and supposed volunteers are sacrificed in these rituals, though precisely what their deaths contribute to the Sorcery is known only to Bolas.
The rituals work. They also appear to leave the waters of the Defiled Lakes fouler than before.
Generations of Ak-tans have therefore lived beneath an uncomfortable bargain. Bolas is a tyrant whose rituals demand lives, but those same rituals provide the water upon which the city depends. For most who live beneath his rule, the Eternal Child is not merely their ruler. He is part of the machinery by which Ak-ta survives.
Across the lakes, the Creeping Wild continues to consume the Ruins of Casshern. Ak-ta’s fortifications make extensive use of the hostile waters between them, watching the southern shore for signs that the Wild has begun another advance. Expeditions sent across the lakes rarely return unchanged, when they return at all.
Ak-ta also faces increasing pressure from Queen Mother Astarte, whose expanding Peri Kingdom has brought her ambitions into conflict with Bolas. Their rivalry has drawn Ak-ta into the growing struggle for influence surrounding the Defiled Lakes, even as the Creeping Wild waits upon the opposite shore.
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