Caracess

[Jubal]

Caracess is a city-state south of the Shaigel and north-east of Tullactara, primarily inhabited by dwarfs. It is built out of sheer sea-edge cliffs, and is very reliant on fishing and whaling for the locals' diets, though a small valley above the cliffs is also intensively farmed for rice. Inland, the eastern edge of the Kharuf mountains rise yet higher, cutting Caracess off on both sides except for exit by sea or, perhaps, by tunnels deep enough beneath the stone that only the dwarfs know the ways of.

Caracess is especially famed for the creation of lanterns and other light devices, and for glass-making more generally: it is a city of wind-chimes and stone carving, elegant in its construction and public in its use of space. Their religious practices are their own, though closer to those of the Shaigel than Tullactara. Its most key import is wood, from the rugged east coasts of Tullactara or from the Shaigel, needed not for building but for boat-making: large Caracessian barges buy and transport timber in exchange for gems, glassware, oil, smoked and salted fish, and whalebone products.

The rulers of Caracess are an oligarchy, with the various noble houses often competing over the beauty of their city districts, the success of their fleets, and the skill of their glass-makers, musicians, and weavers.