Editing Diners of Amber (section)

==='''Kizabat, Ancona'''===

[[File:Kizabat.jpg]]

This desert oasis is deep in a surrounding land of sand, heat, camels, sweaty barbarians and a wide swath of people coming from all points on this world.

Ancona is on the world of Ulgala.  This world is lodged in a sword age for the most part but has a great deal more trade then most such worlds.  It has vibrant trade because thousands of years before the Rumorzaki Empire built wide thoroughfares using skilled stone workers and powerful magic.  These roads are over 100’ wide and are impervious to most native magics.  They were built to withstand erosion and heavy traffic.  They also glow slightly, providing a dull illumination for travel at night. I’m told this has to do with the type of rock ground to make the mortar for the paving stones.  WayWrens placed at various intervals provide wells, and resting places throughout the system.  Cities grew up at places where these roads crossed major water sources. Rivers, seas, oceans and the like.  

The Kizabat is one of these cities.  It grew around a massive water source in the middle of a vast desert.  The system of roads had to be forged through this anvil of fire or else make unacceptably long expeditions around it.  So five nearly straight roads cross at this location.  There is considerable evidence that Rumorzaki sorcerors drew up the water here and created the system below the ground that feeds the great pools and springs that now exist.  Water is sent off to irrigate huge areas for farming, orchards and livestock. Oh, and for people as well.

This city has almost a million people and they all live off the cross-desert traffic somehow.  Either provisioning the caravans, feeding the merchants, or tending to their own needs.  They have a fine school that teaches many subjects from medicine to art, to mathematics to farming.  It is one of the finest schools for calligraphers and scribes that teaches perfect penmanship.  

But doubt not, it is a Diner of Amber.  

One takes one's meals in different diners in different worlds.   

Take Dar ma Agalat.  This stone building is tucked into the side of a palace and it seems the palace has let the restaurant take much of its first floor.  Probably in exchange for a private entrance.  Stone walls, arched doorways, corridors with booths making it a maze.  Each table has a hookah pipe or three which are surrounded by plush pillows.  Belly dancers, musicians, sword swallowers, and native magicians wander the corridors entertaining the dinners.  Exotic foods are brought by the tray and a menu is never seen.  One pays by the time spent, not the meal eaten.  Iced fruits.  Camel kabobs.  Goat curry. Lamb in mint sauce. Falafel of all kinds. Masgouf fish[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_cuisine#/media/File:Préparation_du_mansaf-Jordanie_(8).jpg]].  Hummus, pita breads. Variotions on themes with differant names.  They will bring you platter after platter to be eaten family style.  Family style?  I assume this does not apply to the family Bariman. Still, its a fine way to spend a day or two.  

Business is conducted in many restaurants, large and small, of this kind.  Ive often been tempted to bring its like to the City of Amber and establish a court of my own there. 
<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">[[File:Kizbatfood.jpg|1000 px]]<div>
<span style=color:darkgreen>Addendums

<span style=color:darkgreen>Kizbat is a interesting place for many reasons.   It is a Saracen place, with all the fashion and none of the religion. Dusky women and alluring men.  Song, scents, spices, sweat, silks, cotton, dance, stories.  Walkways and alleys covered by canvas sheets. A place of high heat and deep shades. It is a pleasant place.

<span style=color:darkgreen>A code of chivalry exists here and it has its knighthoods.    As the crossroads of five major roads it is deep enough in a blisteringly hot desert devoid of breezes that it never been a good idea to try and make war on it.  Still, the kingdoms at the end of the roads, all with a claim as the ''real heirs of the Rumorzaki Empire'' and pissed off if others make the claim, are next to each other elsewhere and they fight it out with gusto.  Consequently, their battles occasionally arrive in Kizbat and the natives get caught up in them. So an order of Knighthood, "The Ars Ak Zaki" [[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Knightly_Orders_in_Jeweled_Amber#Kizabat.2C_Ancona]].  The "Zala Ak Zaki", knights who once served in the Ars ak Zaki, organize tournaments, jousts, hunts, dances, feasts, and other chivalric displays for thos interested in sweaty military displays.