Insusa

The emblem of Insusa, a war elephant on a rose field.

Insusa is one of the largest, oldest, and most important cities in all of The South, an important city along the great royal road of Parsanshar.

History

With a long and robust history, Insusa started small but quickly grew to a centerpiece of all of Parsanshar, a place of nobility, worship, and trade, home to great markets as well as temples. The city was first built around a mighty temple to Ormazd, which has now become the grandest of its type. Famous for its gardens full of beautiful pink roses, the color of the city is rose pink like their legendary flowers that are said to be a blessing from Ormazd. Indeed, Insusan roses are very sought after across the entire realm. Later, Insusa's famous war elephants granted them such military power that they adopted the war elephant as their city's emblem.

Reputation

Insusa is a place of wealth, beauty, and wisdom. Regarded all across the mortal realm for these qualities, Insusa is considered a holy city - to Ormazd specifically, but also in general - and essentially impenetrable. In war, the people of Insusa became famous for their mighty war elephants that ruled the battlefield.

Structure

A great, walled city, Insusa lies at an important crossroads and along the primary road running through the Parsanshari Empire. Known for its great wealth, Insusa has not only a massive and grand temple to Ormazd in its center, but this temple also serves as a highly fortified keep. In addition to this, however, there is another keep, a palace where the King of Kings occasionally stays, along with other important Parsanshari nobles and royals. Among the many other vast markets, sea of beautiful buildings and colorful bazaars and intricate stonework, there is also a great park with sprawling gardens where many of Insusa's royal pink roses grow.

Religion

A highly religious city, Insusa is seat of one of the grandest temples to Ormazd in all the realm, where the high priests and priestesses - called the "magi" despite not usually being "mages" as some may think of them - are treated like royalty, their every order obeyed by all but the very highest of stations; even so, their advice is taken into account by the King of Kings, the ruler of Parsanshar himself. In giving glory to Ormazd, Insusa's grand temples reach high toward the heavens, where great mirrors collect the light of sun and moon and reflect it throughout the city. Legends claim that, in times of war, these mirrors are used to focus the summoned light of Ormazd to burn any who would dare attack Insusua.