Ammet Han’sha
A burg in Core Ash
In a relatively nice (which means only near-unbearable) spot in Core Ash, a body can find the well-defended fortress-city of Ammet Han’sha. It’s a particularly odd place, mainly because of the bizarre ash-ships (which look like rather large, thin, wooden wedges seemingly floating through the ash) that grind slowly away from the large, grey walled burg, but also because of its inhabitants, the tem’mati.
See, the tem’mati (the singular is tem’mat) are a splinter group of githzerai who somehow found their way the plane of Ash a very long time ago. They look pretty much like normal githzerai, except for the dull grey skin that all Tem’mati possess, but that’s where any similarity ends.
The city itself is large, housing several thousand tem’mati within its walls. The city was constructed on a huge cinder that is very near to a pocket of Water. It is completely surrounded by walls, about twenty feet in length. The buildings inside are very bland and boring; everything about the city is stark and build for function.
Another obvious thing about Ammet Han’sha is that the tem’mati are as chaotic as the githzerai, if not more so. The population is loosley divided into five different Guilds, each of which completely govern its own members, but have no control whatsoever over members of other Guilds. There is no central government at all. As you could imagine, disputes—and often outright violence, for the tem’mati aren’t as loyal to each other as the githzerai—are common. The city is effectively in a constant state of anarchy, with the Guilds squabbling and even sometimes coming to blows. It’s a wonder that they still co-operate, but all Guilds know they have to, or they will effectively die out in the harsh environment of Ash.
Each Guild has its own areas of expertise and its own duties. The Warriors’ Guild, is the one of the most respected, and is in charge of defending Ammet Han’sha. All its members are trained from birth how to fight, lead troops, defend a structure, and other such things to make them totally dedicated to keeping their city safe. The Hunters’ Guild is in charge of feeding the tem’mati. They go out and kill other things living in the wastes of Ash, and are quite good at it. The Observers’ Guild is in charge of keeping records and distributing food. The Travellers’ Guild is in charge with exploring the rest of the plane of Ash, planewalking, and trading with other peoples. A small group of Travellers, the Ash-Treaders, have managed to guide huge, wooden ships through the ash psionically. Ash-Treader ships are an usual site in the wild places of the plane, but you’ll find many moored here bringing in goods or looking for paying travellers. Nobody really knows how the Ash-Treaders power these ships, but they have become a very great asset to the Tem’mati’s well being. The last Guild (and often thought of as least) is the Caretakers’ Guild. These poor sods have to take care of the buildings and the city itself, and try to keep order. Given the nature of the tem’mati, “keeping order” really means stopping riots.
This city is something of a blessing to travellers in Ash, if you can get past the tem’mati’s natural xenophobia. The city has quite a few portals and other ways out, and they can take you to more hospitable, if still fairly isolated, places. Also, if you can somehow convince an Ash-Treader to let you on his ship, you can go to other places in the plane. Why you would want to, is anyone’s guess, but in case you did, I hear they really like metal (it’s kinda rare out there)…
Source: Chris Murphy
