Scalding Sands - Silk City
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Look, that boat has a roof on it. Gotta capture that hotness for posterity! |
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How curious, its roof is triangular. It doesn't appear to be a fishing boat, either. |
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That's a traditional Scalding Sands ferry.
People travel up and down the canals on them.
Locals use them, of course, but they're also popular for sightseeing.
The water vapor from these canals helps to keep things from getting too dry.
Desert regions like this with no rivers get extremely hot during the day, while at night temperatures can drop to 0 degrees Celsius. |
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Yikes. Deserts are no joke. |
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I was expecting the weather here in Silk City to be scorching hot like out in the desert, but it's relatively pleasant. |
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All thanks to the canals! |
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...... |
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Something wrong, Malleus? |
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No, just... Things are very different from what I learned about the Scalding Sands.
This area is mostly desert and gets very little rainfall.
I was taught in Briar Valley that this meant people here struggled to get enough water to survive. |
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That was ages ago. |
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There was a time when that was true, but the Scalding Sands has advanced a lot over the years. |
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How did that come about? |
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Scalding Sands spices and furnishings are extremely popular abroad. Our exports go for a premium. |
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That's true. Saffron, cumin, pepper, and lots of other spices from here are thought to be the best.
I use them a lot in my own cooking. They're the perfect seasonings to bring any dish together. |
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The colorful folk art from here is pretty famous too. I've seen a lot of those pieces in museums. |
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It was my own ancestors who saw the potential in all those things! |
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House Asim is said to be the first family in the Scalding Sands to trade overseas. They did so by ship.
They didn't have the nautical charts mapped out back then. It must've been quite dangerous. |
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But it was also wildly successful! Neat, huh? |
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The Asims went on to develop the rivers running through the country into a network of man-made canals. |
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Ah, like the one Grim fell into. |
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I don't need the reminder, TREY! |
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The canals then made it easier to set up land routes, which expanded our commerce.
The Asims benefitted greatly from all this as well, and have become one of the most prominent families in the Scalding Sands. |
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So Kalim's ancestors had great foresight. |
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A number of merchant families, including the Asims, went to great lengths to establish Silk City as a center of commerce.
They adopted cutting-edge technologies to ensure everyone had access to water.
With better access to water, the population grew.
And so commerce expanded, wealth increased, the city became prosperous, and our tourism industry developed from there. |
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Now it's THE resort spot! People come here from all over the world! |
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Nonetheless, the majority of the country remains an inhospitable desert.
We all need water to live, of course.
So wealthy families and commoners alike came to the city by the canals, and eventually it grew into this large metropolis.
Its name, Silk City, comes from the fact that silk was an essential item in trade back then. |
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It's definitely one of the biggest cities in the Scalding Sands! |
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That's right. It's not the capital, but it's a major political and economic hub. |
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Ah, I see. How interesting.
My grandmother told me tales of the Scalding Sands, but we haven't heard much about the country since things became peaceful here.
Sometimes human enterprises develop far faster than I imagine. Truly fascinating. |
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