The Empire of New Saharn stretches from the Mithil sea in the south to the dusty plains and mountains of the Dymerian Empire in the north. East are the Khish states and the wasteland ruled by the Kasserim, while westwards lie the sunbaked wastes of the Deserts of Lamentation. Most of the population lives along the margins of the great river Hatras or its tributaries, as Saharn is hot and while it is not desert, it is perilously close to that in many areas.
The Empire of New Saharn is descended from the ancient and powerful Empire of the Sun, which itself arose from the fall of the Atalantëan Empire. It is a theocracy, ruled by the iron fist of the Temple of the Great God, a monotheistic solar religion hostile to all other faiths. The Temple also looks poorly on innovative thought even in non-religious matters, so Saharnian culture is characterized by inflexible rules, tortuous bureaucracy and hostility to new ideas of any kind. Saharnian religion is also very strict on the "place of women" - so it is a very male-dominated society. Saharnian economy is largely agricultural, although the Empire supports a thriving slave trade, drawing mostly on the littoral of the Mithil sea.
Like their neighbors and enemies, the Saharnians are of Sialic race, perhaps most closely related in physical appearance to the people of the Dymerian province of Selucios. They are dark haired, brown skinned and tend to have large expressive dark eyes. Men wear beards and crop their hair at shoulder length, women wear their hair long when unmarried (indeed are forbidden to cut it, by law and custom) and cut it to shoulder length when married.
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