Khanbulak
Khanbulak, the City of the Khan, was the chief city of the Moto family, the seat of the White Guard, which patroled the official Rokugani border, the beginning of the Sand Road, and the westernmost terminus of Rokugan. [1]
Foundation[]
The city was founded by Moto Qaro Khan [2] in 1010, after his trusted friend Shinjo Khulan Khan ordered him to build a city on the border between the Sand Road and Rokugan. The city would serve to watch and defend the Unicorn's unruly and untameable western border and act as the destination of all the overland trade roads coming in from the lands beyond Rokugan. The most beautiful and desirable lands in the region were enclosed by great square walls, of shining white stone carted in from the nearby mountains. A mighty castle was erected as well, where the Moto headquartered their vaunted White Guard. Ujik and Qamari merchants were settling both the city and the designated outskirts. It became the Unicorn Clan's single largest city. [3]
Tent City[]
Khanbulak hosted a vast and shifting tent city on the lands outside the walls, with banners bearing a thousand different crests and sigils. Half of the city technically lied outside the boundaries of the Empire, so gaijin merchants could trade their goods. The city was the terminus of the Sand Road to the Burning Sands and the Ki-Rin's Road to the Ivory Kingdoms, receiving overland caravans from both. These disparate groups mingled freely with the Moto, who stationed many of their more hot-blooded soldiers there. When the sun set, all foreigners to Rokugan must move outside the walls of Khanbulak, including tribes of the Ujik who had not yet sworn themselves to the Moto family khan. [1]
Appearance[]
The trade to the West made the city the largest and richest in all of the Unicorn lands. [4] Khanbulak was as large as the Shinjo capital, and its prestige and prosperity had facilitated the growth of the Moto's military and political power. The shining white walls of the square city looked out on the empty wastelands that eventually gave way to the Burning Sands, al-Zawira, and the Ivory Kingdoms. [1] The palace of the Moto family in Khanbulak was not a solid structure at all, but a series of magnificent tapestries hung between great columns. [5] Outside Khanbulak there was a Qamarist temple. [4] The outskirts of Khanbulak constantly thronged with an assortment of Ujik ordus, herds of hoofstock, and caravans from afar. Theere, inns such as Al-Bekwari's Caravanserai served travelers to Khanbulak looking to trade. [6]
Court[]
The rare ambassadors to Khanbulak from the other Great Clans considered the city a dead end for their career. [1] In the city of Khanbulak, modern Rokugani poetry became very fashionable among the members of the Unicorn clan who lived there, and many court meetings began with such recitations. [7] The city commonly hosted several Yobanjin ambassadors and traders. [8]
Known Lords[]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 77
- ↑ Rule from Horseback, by Daniel Lovat Clark
- ↑ Adventures in Rokugan, p. 349
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Across the Burning Sands, by Daniel Lovat Clark
- ↑ Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 23
- ↑ Adventures in Rokugan, pp. 349-350
- ↑ Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 51
- ↑ Writ of the Wilds, p. 38
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