Atlas Elyden #23 - Mharokk

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here 

I was able to get another map done (3 in a month - certainly a record!). Again, most of this map was already finished thanks to me having already worked on surrounding regions earlier on in the year, so I just had to update the parts I haven't touched on before.

A key to the map and others in the series can be found here

Atlas Elyden #23 - Mharokk

Like its neighbour Vaalk, Mharokk is descended from an ancient Fourth Age nation known as Sallon. Late in the Fourth Age the region was beset by a barbaric people known as the aati, who terrorised Sallon’s southern territories. Sallon, already beleaguered by a waning government and a corrupt decadent people, could not weather the attacks and fragmented. Its major cities were looted and the remained splintered into scion-nations, one of which would later become Mharokk.

    Mharokk is a waning nation. Abused of its resources by the Korachani empire, its is now a waning state, its borders slowly shrunk even as its parent state - the Low-empire of Sarastro - did little to aid it. Its people, much like its lands, have been exploited over their millennia of vassalage to both Korachan and later Sarastro, though have managed to maintain their culture through all this.

Mharokk is land known for its great oral traditions and its mythographers, whose memories are considered to be amongst the most prodigious across the Inner Sea. Its cities are characterised by sandstone walls and large vaulted semi-subterranean markets, which are designed to keep them cool. Its people have, since before the coming of the Korachani empire, been breeders of animals and are known for their ‘tame’ hippopotmoi and their soldier-caste who ride them and Mharokk is probably most known to outsiders for its mercenaries, the famed Simhaluans, despite their culture having died out centuries ago.

    The sundering of Korachan in 3705 RM left Mharokk an independent place, unwanted by Sarastro, but the emergence of the nation of Harappa in 3754 RM from its north-eastern-most territories, caused Sarastro to take control of its territories to safeguard what resources remained there. The capital of Nuthachan was lost to Harappa, causing the city of Takuh to become capital instead.

Shar Suryah, a saurholm (lizardfolk) became kratocrat of the city of Hitta 3893 RM, becoming a popular leader there. He openly defied the Sarastroan administration in Takuh in 3901 RM, winning many settlements over to his cause. His forces were attacked outside Hitta in 3913 RM, losing the battle, with the city retaken by Sarastro. The remaining forces disappeared alongside Shar, though they later reappeared from the south in 3919 RM, where he crushed many cities in the south of Mharokk, becoming autocrat of Takuh in 3920 RM, expelling the remnants of the Sarastoran administration within 2 decades. Hitta remains a Sarastroan territory to this day.