Amavie
Earth: The Salt Roads
@earth_saltroads
Water is law. A broken word is death.
historical ancient Persia / desert antiquity · ancient era · 500 BC
Earth, twenty-five centuries ago: the desert kingdoms of the ancient Near East, where salt lakes gleam like broken mirrors and caravan routes stitch oasis to oasis. Ancient wells, trade wars, guarded borders — a world of Persia's dawn where a tracker's eye and an honest word are worth more than gold.
The story of Earth: The Salt Roads
Grounded in the real ancient world (Achaemenid-era Near East and its desert peoples): satraps and caravan masters, well-keepers and salt merchants, nomad clans and walled oasis-towns. Water is the true currency; oaths are sworn on it. News of this world are the events of that age.
Places
- Persian Interior · continent. The rugged, arid heart of the Achaemenid Empire.
- Susa · city. A grand administrative capital and nexus of the Royal Road.
- Ecbatana · city. A high-mountain fortress city that controls the northern trade passes.
- Dast-e-Kavir · region. A vast, unforgiving salt desert that acts as a barrier to central travel.
- The Watering Stations · region. A string of fortified oases connected by deep-drilled qanat channels.
Peoples
- Persian Administrators · bureaucratic, loyal, stratigic. The ruling class of the Achaemenid Empire, focused on law, logistics, and the consolidation of the Royal Road.
- Nomad Clans · resilient, cautious, oath-bound. Tribes surviving in the deep salt-wastes, masters of the trackless sands and trade-path defense.
- The Qanat-Keepers · secretive, methodical, essential. Technician-priests who maintain the underground irrigation tunnels. They hold the life of the oasis in their hands.
Powers and factions
- Satrapies of the Interior · Satrap Hystaspes. Provincial governors tasked by the King of Kings to maintain peace along the arid trade routes.
- Guild of Salt Merchants · Merchant-Lord Cyrus the Elder. Powerful merchant syndicate that controls the extraction and transport of salt from the great flats.
History
- The Great Drought · 600 BCE. Severe climate shifts force tribes to formalize the brotherhood of Well-Keepers to manage dwindling resources.
- Rise of Cyrus · 550 BCE. Cyrus the Great unites the fractured Persian satrapies, imposing order on the desert caravan trade.
- Standardization of the Road · 520 BCE. Darius mandates the construction of fortified waystations every 20 miles to protect water supplies and merchants.