Saturday, April 11, 2015

Population Center: Pabu:

The western-most city on Adslein is Pabu, a most peculiar city nestled amongst sparse hills, surrounded by fields, brooks, and possessing a broad port with both an ample fishing and tourist industry.  Pabu is odd amongst the other well-known cities of Adslein due to its origin.  Centuries ago the then emperor of The Great Suarn Empire had sent tax collectors and Guards to collect payment from the residents of the Wisttan Fields.  When not only had individuals of both groups failed to return with the payments but had come back with less ornate garb and supplies than they had originally left with, the emperor sent more and more to the same results.  As he could abide such a mockery of his loyal subjects no more, he sent three of his sons with them, and they too returned with fewer possessions than they had left with, one of which even pleaded their father to let the Wisstan Fields' residents be left in peace for they gave the trio far more wealth than they would have collected, even with all they had lost.  Confused and curious, the stern emperor and one of his most trusted soldiers went in disguise to see what his son had meant.  He traveled among them, sampling observing their crafts and daily toils and even staying in a simple inn little more than a hovel without any insight for eight long days, each day with the innkeeper telling him that his neighbors were all simple folk like he, and that he wasn't quite sure why they had so many visitors of late.  He recommended food and drink, offering them tips of who had the best deals on various commodities and other minor such matters that any good innkeeper might know, but nothing in all that time had made the emperor satisfied that his son had reason to ask for the village's pardon.

That eighth night the emperor and his loyal soldier began making plans to return to the capital and send his entire army if need be for collecting the taxes and all that had been lost to the people of Wisttan Fields.  However, on the morn of the ninth day, a great festival arose for no seeming reason, the people chattering about recent events, making jests, gambling, dancing, making performances of every conceivable sport and art, serving great feasts and emptying casks of wine and mead and lager and all sorts of mundane objects were sold with fanciful exaggeration and gleeful self-deprecation that had the emperor's eyes wide as a child the whole day, laughing as if he had never quite known joy before.  With a mischievous grin, the innkeeper asked his emperor what his liege had thought of their modest celebration the next day, when not only his body but spirit felt more energized than it had since his youth.  Humbled by how long the simple innkeeper's ruse had lasted before the village had chosen to show their true colors and still awed by the seemingly natural change in the village that had transpired the night before, he stayed his might and granted them pardon on their past taxes.  He mused that perhaps they might help share their true wealth with the rest of his empire, which desperately needed something to lighten its spirits after the tension of the immigration of the Cubi, and thus the Wisttan Festival became a celebration across all of Adslein each year on the day of the first one he experienced there.

Seeing that the village itself had many great talents whose creative energies were charged in the Wisttan Fields, the emperor set aside many positions in the capital for those who could entertain the empire the most and serve as wise counsel with their varied perspectives, establishing that the village at Wisttan Fields be responsible for both nurturing and honing the skills of the empire's future representatives to those positions.  The village cheered at his declaration and in honor of the emperor, the formerly nameless village took on the pseudonym he had given the innkeeper, Pabu, which means 'little one'.  The irony that their tall emperor had chosen such a pseudonym was not lost on them, and though their village expanded, it became more concentrated in what few structures it had to little more than the port, the new university of the arts, inns, and many studio spaces in the town proper, with efficient residences and shops moving underground as well as a great many storehouses for supplies.  The Wisttan Fields, however, became tended by all those who would flock to learn at Pabu and hope to become a citizen.

In the centuries that passed since, Pabu has changed little, embracing the simple lift despite the large number of individuals wishing to become citizens, keeping a fairly stable footprint and encouraging those with great talent to spread what they had learned across Lenida for a few years after reaching their first level of study.  For the most part, there is little distinguishable differences between the different species that live in Pabu, save that their cultural differences affect how they decorate their own living quarters and affect the art and entertainment that they produce.

No comments:

Post a Comment