Petar is home to about 110,000 people and was once the seat of Xorian military power. The main contingent of Xoria’s army was stationed in Petar during peace time to prevent incursions from Eastern Cimmeria. The city is walled and has a large keep at the center if the outer fortifications are breached during an attack. In the case of a siege non-perishable food is stockpiled in the basement of the keep and a large staff of clerics and mages are kept in reserve to act as an infirmary and food creating service for the army and the civilians of the city.
The economy of Petar was heavily focused on supplying the army. The army’s dissolution after the Second Alliance War wrought havoc on Petar. The large population of blacksmiths in the city no longer had the army as their main customer. The war mage teaching outpost lost their main client as well. The death of these and other industries that supported the Xorian military forced many starving people into banditry to survive.
Into this chaos the druids of Petar stepped up to help. Under the Xorian Empire druids were coerced into using magic to enhance crop growth. The druids used their new freedom and their control over the food supply to pacify the growing bandit population. Unfortunately, while the druids had experience in growing and distributing food, they had little knowledge of governance. They turned to their long-time ally, now Queen Tarigananata. They ceded control of the city to her and Petar rejoined the Xorian Kingdom. Sadly, a year later Tarigananata was slain by Divine Amalius. The unholy power within her body remained and was safeguarded in the vault at Mars’ Oasis. Nox, Petar, and Cecilia all set out on their own paths with the Amazon wolves hounding them in the chaos after the Second Alliance War.
Almost all of the farms of Petar grow wheat and other staple crops. With food shortages, the druids want all arable land to be used as best it can. A few fruits and vegetables are cultivated to provide a balanced diet for strong troops, but the populace is always complaining that there isn’t enough. Cattle and sheep are raised on the exhausted land to get wool, dairy, leather, and meat. The manure from all the animals refertilizes the tired land and every few years the grazing land will be switched with the farm land.
Petar is strategically located atop a hill in the middle of a wide plain. It is gossiped that this is the spot where Hades’ head hit the roof of Erebus when Zeus told him the conditions of his marriage to Persephone. Four months of companionship out of every year would seem ridiculous to any man, let alone an Olympian. The hill allows Petar’s defenders to see any approaching army for miles and gives them a defensible position once that attacking army is within bow range.
One of the most amazing things in Petar that has most likely led to the rumor of Hades’ head bump is the extraordinarily large gold deposit beneath the hill. The gold vein was discovered many years ago by one of the kings of Xoria himself. While surveying the digging of one of Petar’s many wells King Cristonton’s sharp eyes picked out the glint of gold at the bottom of the well. That well has since turned into a mine shaft where most of the money of Xoria is minted.
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