Editing Acrozatarim/Gazetteer (section)

==Mirayek==

A truly young nation in a time of fledgelings rising up from the Empire's ashes, Mirayek is a mere generation old.  The Mira Prefecture has been brutally and efficiently reunited under the stewardship of a Husaara warlord called Erustun Gallus, aided by the priesthood of Kevayek.  Gallus and his warband have systematically gone about conquering an increasingly large area of townships and noble fiefs, hammering them together into a simple hierarchy with himself at the top and buttressed by fear of the Kevayeki, who threaten disease and catastrophe upon those who defy the warlord.  It appears that Gallus promised the priesthood both the elevation of their faith and also the restoration of an old Kevayeki holy site, a series of mineral springs and pools that are now once again in Kevayeki hands and properly venerated.  Equally, however, the new power structure sits uneasily, and Gallus has taken steps to ensure that he is increasingly less reliant on the Kevayek priesthood.

Mirayek lies mostly in a lower basin, one that eventually feeds into the Central Basin, and as such its settlements are mostly steep, terraced towns and villages overlooking wet lowlands and marshes.  It is in those marshes and swamps that several brotherhoods of ascetics dwell, who temper themselves in the hardship of their dismal surroundings; some of them are be dedicates of Lliras.  It appears that Gallus has now sought their support as a counterweight to the Kevayeki priesthood, offering them a chance to hold sway in local affairs and serve as enforcers of justice and law.

Speaking of law, the Mira Prefecture has long been beholden to a particularly strange tradition that emerged in the early centuries after the Dawn War.  It is said that Churaphrat (or possibly Lliras or Kevayek) gave several precious canisters to the people, instructing them in their use as receptacles of life energy.  The original jars are long since lost, but rigorously trained arcanists have made copies over the decades, and these are used in holy rites (usually to all three of the aforementioned gods) whereby truly evil men and women, those who breach society's most fundamental laws, are condemned to have their lives drained into the jars.  These ceramic containers can then be used to provide health and vitality to others, usually those who have been wronged or wounded by the executed criminals or, sometimes, for those who are of most value to the community or who have performed great acts worthy of recognition.

From this has grown out another, less sinister but no less macabre tradition - the inheritance of life.  It is considered that part of the inheritance a mortally wounded or truly aged person gives to their family is the last moments of their life; when someone knows that their death is close, they seek out the priesthood and have their life drained into the jar, to be passed on to family members as a gift from the departed.  A certain (frowned-upon) trade has grown in expended life-canisters, sold as curios to collectors and the wealthy in regions further east - and sometimes unexpended canisters are sold too, inherited life-jars traded on by desperate Mirayeki who need the money more than they need the vitality.  This is considered a taboo action in Mira society and hence is essentially a black market trade.

As well as the marsh-ascetics, there is at least one Umbral tower rising from the mire of the Mirayek lowlands.  Inaccessible due to the depth and treachery of the waters around it, the dark sentinel remains mostly untouched by human hands; bands of would-be looters have yet to puzzle out a way of reaching the ruin.  The only figure to have reached it in recent years is Gallus himself; stories say that he swam naked through the leech-infested waters and back again to prove to the Kevayeki priests that he was worthy of their aid, surviving the subsequent weeks of sickness and fever to return to good health - seen as a sign from the Kevayeki that the Overseer of Disease approved of the warlord's schemes.