History & Cultures · Important Locations
Wayat'ujan
- Nation
- Vas'tek, of which it is the capital
- Also Called
- The Oasis City, and the Unwalled City
- Position
- An oasis in the Thundering Sands. No road leads to it
- Defence
- The desert. No army large enough to take the city could cross the dunes to reach it
- The Wall
- A lattice under purple-leafed vines that drink congruence and sunlight
- Ruler
- King Zaem, whose dining courtyard is open like any other
- Population
- About 120,000
Wayat'ujan is the capital of Vas'tek and the single place every Vas'n tribe counts as home, whichever of the Thundering Sands they actually live in. Desert gives way to hard streets, coloured stone houses, deep gardens and fountains that run.
It is where the hardness the Vas'n show to outsiders stops. Visitors describe the change as abrupt.
The Unwalled City
The name is both right and wrong.
It is right because the desert is the wall. No road leads to the oasis — you must already know the way — and no force large enough to take the city could expect to make the crossing to reach it.
It is wrong because there is a wall, of lattice, carrying a blanket of purple-leafed vines that absorb congruence along with sunlight. The vines screen the city from the worst of the winds, which is the obvious purpose. The less obvious one is that the congruence they take in is put to work moving water through the city.
The city itself
Markets are scattered throughout rather than gathered in one place. The streets carry a constant noise of whistles and business. Open-air tearooms are ordinary, and most of them keep board games of strategy and of chance for anyone who sits down. Street vendors are everywhere — one sells a bright orange congruence-cooled drink, tangy and sweet, that at least one visiting chronicler never quite got over.
Being fed
What outsiders remember about Wayat'ujan is not the architecture. It is that you are welcome at effectively any table, and not as a guest — as family. Asking for directions is a good way to end up in a stranger's dining courtyard, and travellers have reported giving up on asking for that reason.
The custom runs all the way up. King Zaem's palace courtyard is as open as the smallest house in the city.
Congruence
A school of some kind exists here, and young citizens who show an aptitude for congruence are brought to it for training. Beyond that very little is known: the Surgers of Vas'tek are as guarded about their teaching as about everything else. See the academies.