#elga

So...I'll talk about Miirosan - the capital of Khoroshtani Shahdom (or whatever was left of it). This city is in Eight of Stars, and I'll describe its state in the postwar years.

Miirosan is rather desolate. The Shahdom isn't exactly populous and even less so after much of its youths perished in the War, so even though the majority of its population resides in the city, the streets are often empty and the bazaars are the only noisy areas in the whole place.

Upon entering Miirosan, everyone is overcome with an odd sense of nostalgia, like holding in your hands damaged fragments that may vanish anytime of a glorious past long since gone. Indeed, even the architecture reflects this. Slums and rickety towns are nestled among the ruins of castles and fortresses. The frames of old manors often become bazaars or nomad camping places. The dingiest looking cottages have floor tiles with a fleck of gilded gold and bricks with the daintiest patterns. And you might happen on whatever's left of a sacrifice temple smack in the middle of Mahda-e-Zarwal Desert, once a lake popular with pilgrims. Even the Palace, Khoroshtan's seat of power, retains only a fraction of the golden splendour long since vanished.

And yet for all that, like the Sun that it worships daily, Miirosan is rising from the long slumber once again almost nonchalantly. Pockets of daisies in the crannies' cracks. Moss and ferns interlacing with the patterned wallpapers. Birds perching over their younglings on smoke-smeared turrets. During the War, as an act of defiance against the Akazan occupiers who forbid the Native Faith, the people of Khoroshtan often secretly incorporated solar and fire patterns in their clothes and home. Now that the War has ended, people are beginning to paint their homes in the most vibrant shades of red and gold and orange. They're also building new Solar Temples with intricate designs and grand spaces. The children has stopped slinging rocks at strangers and the bards has filled the bazaars and pavements once again.

 redrew Elga! (My avatar) and tried out a new style. I kinda like it! What do you think? Elga is based off of my old phone, a personification of it, per se. I did her in a format that could be used as a sticker, because I’ll be attending my first con ever where I sell stuff and I still haven’t figured out what to sell. If you have any suggestions, I’m glad to hear them!