Worldbuilder Spotlight:

The Capital (and only) city of The Elephantine Sultanate, Guth is, culturally, almost identical to the other cities in the region; travellers will note the intricate temples carved with countless figures, the stained-glass minarets seeming to dance upward and cut into the sky, the dark, exotic beauty of its people, and the happy eclecticism of a prospering, cosmopolitan city.
The marketplace, it is said, is one of the greatest in the world. There, one can buy anything-textiles from the Minotaurs and the Empire of Intli, the odd jewelry of the Rooks of Bufalos, the craftwork of the dwarves, the strange technology of Kaluang Clah, the priceless timepieces of the City of Chronographers, jade, naturally, and copper and gold from the mines of Shetugu and Brath, and even, if one knows where to look, the dark magics of the People of the Night, and of Cursed Tlapili.

This prosperity, though, is a rather recent development. For centuries, Guth languished in disrepair; Although it is nestled firmly on the Jade Road, traders rarely stopped there, preferring to take a route through the Mountains of Kalash which, although much longer, avoided the heat of the jungle and took them into the much more moderately-taxed territory of the Talomihn Empire.

The city gradually gained a reputation as a center of banditry and smuggling, as the inhabitants took to waylaying the few traders who did pass through and either robbing them blind or charging exhorbitant protection fees. The nobility of the city, meanwhile, became little more than a corrupt mafia, arranging the smuggling of dark magics and goods banned in Talomihn territory.

Still, even this was not enough as after a while, even the criminals, smugglers, and drug runners that the people of Guth resorted to preying upon began to find alternate routes, and the nobility took to taxing the people into ever worse levels of squalor. The jungles were clear-cut around the city to make way for farms and the people were drafted into agricultural labor, but the land was soon rendered infertile. Apocalyptic cults sprang up amongst the people, and many fled the city for the moutains, becoming highwaymen and clashing with Talomihn border-patrols.

Around thirty-five years ago, one of these highwaymen, a bandit chief named Dakka, united the various groups which had fled Guth under his banner and led his army against the city, finally ousting the last of the noblemen and the suicidal cult-priests (who were, by this time, living in as much squalor as the peasants, despite the power they nominally held.)

Although Dakka was hailed as a liberator, he soon turned out to be much worse than even the corrupt nobles he had defeated; while they were content to fill their own coffers and leave the people to starve in peace, Dakka was intent on re-forming Guth into a military state. His thugs served as a secret police force and an army, and he rapidly expanded the territory of the starved city into the moutains.

Trading with the enemies of Talomihn, he restored a shadow of wealth to the city, but squandered it on military spending. The young men were drafted into the army, while all others were forced into labor in the iron-mines and great factories to produce weapons and uniforms.
Dakka subjugated some of the other jungle cities, and turned them into vassal-states, the proceeds going, as ever, to feed his ever-growing dreams of conquest; conflict with his ultimate goal, Talomihn, was limited to small border-skirmishes, as he didn't have anywhere near the strength to take on the Jade Legions.

Meanwhile, the remnant of an apocalyptic cult began to spread amongst the oppressed people of Guth; a nacent resistance was formed, but was hesitant to act awaiting the arrival of Jakra-Dhuuli, the Great Bronze Elephant.
Around Twenty years ago, Jakra-Dhuuli arrived in the form of Sultan Jalarawa the First. True, few had expected the prophesy to be so literal, but the great mechanical beast was a potent symbol which the people rallied around. Half of the military and almost all of the civillian populace rose up against Dakka, and he was cast out from the city in less than a month, his statues trampled by Jalarawa himself, his Castle gutted and turned into a stable, and his treasures sold off and re-distributed to the people. Dakka himself fled to the mountains with a few followers and briefly set up a bandit-state, but was defeated and killed by the Talomihn Border Guards within two years.

Under Jalarawa, the city blossomed. Trade was re-established as the Talomihn became more agressive while Guth reformed, and the city's economy began to climb to dizzying heights of prosperity which last to this day.

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