Okina

Okina was a city on the boarder between the Lowland Hills and the Lowland Plains region. It flourished during the First Chaotic Period and remained populated into the Dynastic era. It was abandoned when the course of the Biswon River shifted, and remains as a large ruin or tel. The city is famous for it's well-preserved temples and necropolus, and for what survives of the unique culture preserved there. The city is located some distance from Boarder Watch, which is the primary means of access to it.

Culture

The inhabitants of Okina worshiped dragons, specifically the High Mountain Flight who's territory they sat on the edge of. While the denizens had some interaction with the flight, it was minimal, and they were not slaves of the dragons. They did, however, build a vibrant and flourishing religion around their gods, and constructed a series of megalithic temples to them.

History

The city was first settled sometime in the Age of Darkness and visited by dragons, who warned the human settlers that the region of the Lowland Hills was sacred, and that they could not trespass upon it. This was the start of dragon worship in the region, who took the commandment to heart. Throughout it's history, Okina not only refused to settle the region, but actively opposed attempts by other groups.

Okina rose to prominence in the early Dynastic Period. Situated atop a rich opal mine, the residents traded with neighboring communities and rapidly became quite wealthy. Okina never had a king or monarch, and was instead rules by a priest caste who worked tirelessly to appease the dragons whom they worshiped as gods.

The earliest temples in Okina were large earthen mounts, which the residents believed the dragons would prefer to land on. Wood and later stone steps were built into the sides, and an altar placed at the top for offerings. Later temples took the form of stepped pyramids, and by the mid Chaotic Period, large stone structures became the standard. Around about the time the first fully-stone pyramids were complete, a dramatic shift in the religion came about.

While legitimate historical records are scarce, Ikelani Nosval stated that dragon visits to the region were infrequent. He stated that High Mountain had 'a good relationship with the priests', but lacking gold in significant quantities, the residents of Okina did not have much to offer. Sometime around B.G.A. 3400, the religion shifted away from building temples to offer tributes to the dragons and do constructing the temples themselves as tributes.

This began the tradition of megalithic structures, built of enormous stones and often enclosing large areas. The interiors were richly decorated and painted. Here, the residents would hold elaborate festivals where they would sing and preform dances for the enormous frescoes and statues that adorned the walls. Feasts were quite common, and mostly celebrated by the populous, who lived a sort of largely communal life. While there was a caste system, the bulk of the city's wealth went to enriching the temples and holding the rituals to honor their dragon gods.

Decline

Sometime after the Intermediate Period, Okina went into decline. The river had shifted, and the demand for opal had all but dried up. No longer able to hold the elaborate festivals, the temples fell into disrepair, the priests were left without an income from tributes. Much of the population left, but the city held on as an agrarian region for another few centuries.

Eventually, as the war between High Mountain and Ozork Flight worsened, Okina was abandoned fully, as the region it was in was heavily disputed. The nearest human settlements in Rowen were hundreds of miles away