Punth: City of Compartments I

The land of Punth is divided from the lands of the Nirvanite Empire to the north by the Dividing Mountains. This is an ancient land, cultural crux of northern Vertebraea: where bankers and artists bustle in the Novopolis, churchmen and courtiers disport themselves in the Estates Immaculate, cavaliers and farmers hone blades in Kapelleron, and sailors and merchants make plans in Lameravis, sweating on the coast of the Stained Sea. It is is these last two regions that lie next to Punth, and which have provided soldiers and material for crusades against the Sky-Princes.

But getting through the Dividing Mountains is rarely easy: there are many passes, but only a few that would suit an army on the march. The best known - and the pass that the traveller would first choose - is the Arcaded Pass, twenty miles south of the Blue Brimstone Mesa in arid Kapelleron. This is dominated by the city Erukha, the city of aqueducts, the city of compartments, special economic zone of the Hydraulic Dwarves.

The City of Compartments dominates the pass, standing on a rise - now more of a tumulus - in the valley. It was not made by the Hydraulic Dwarves, but found by them. The Cyclopean walls had been erected in another age, and outline a roughly oblong shape, divided by a series of almost-as-large walls set in parallel lines across the width of the city. The Hydraulic Dwarves have repaired or patched or retrofitted these, but the ancient bones and vast proportions of these still show through. Their most obvious contribution - and the source of their name - would be the two great aqueducts reaching out of the mountains to cross the city of compartments at one off-centre angle. 

Thus, three colours make up the city: the umber stones of the old walls, the off-white blocks of the aqueduct and the local reddish brick of the tenements within the compartments. 

The Hydraulic Dwarves sell water, regulate entrance to the city, maintain the walls and preserve overall order. They do not chase thieves, chastise vice, sweep streets or arbitrate disputes. Residents of the City of Compartments know them in the following roles, starting with the most prominent. 

• The Sellers of Water A Hydraulic Dwarf will take up the franchise of a certain downspout or conduit from the aqueduct, and then sell water to the inhabitants of the city - paying the Masters of the Aqueduct a portion of his profits. The Sellers of Water have booths in bunkers above their conduits, with jali screens. As custodians of something very like a spring, they are considered as a sort of low-level priest in the Animist customs of the Dwarves; therefore, they are obliged to maintain a level of practical and ritual purity about the conduit house. When about the streets, the Sellers of Water carry finger cymbals to make their presence known and to mark certain times of day as well as staffs topped with a flexible club, like a cosh. 
• The Aqueduct Soldiers The rule of the Hydraulic Dwarves is enforced by control of the Aqueducts. These allow water supplies to be cut off, and also provide a platform to view the beneath. Dwarves will guard the fortified up-ramps and stairways to the aqueduct and the Dwarven settlements above the Arcaded Pass, and defend Hydraulic interests in the City by missile fire and hurled rocks from bartizans and brattices on the Aqueduct - and if need be, from suspended gondolas.
• The Artisans Plumbers, pipe-fitters, gaugers, inspectors: the Masters of the Aqueduct employ them all, and the residents of the city are glad of them.
• The Farmers Refuse collectors and gong-farmers from the City will often come into contact with the Dwarves that help cultivate the terrace farms above the Arcaded Pass. Flowers are particularly prized by the Hydraulic Dwarves; a bloom pinned to the cloak is a symbol of a festive event, and a floral crown is worn by both partners in a wedding, in by elders at a commemoration and at the initiation of certain prominent priests. The expression "Enough flowers to fill a vase" is commonly used to suggest "More money than sense". 
• Miners, Smiths and Masons The Hydraulic Dwarves do mine ore, smelt metal, forge tools and carve stone. These goods do make their way down to the city, though the artisans behind them may not. Such careers are considered safe, respectable and dull by most Dwarves.
• The Masters of the Aqueduct Are rarely seen about the streets of the city. When they do go forth, they were elaborate head-coverings with jali screens over their faces of lightweight carved stone, or are carried in litters with similar such screens. Perhaps these hearken back to their past as Sellers of Water. The Masters of the Aqueduct are those whose wealth or mastery have grown to such an extent that they hold a place on the self-selecting Quotidian Board. The executive functions this wields are buttressed and cross-checked by Examination Quintets of the Occasional Board (which encompasses almost every Seller of Water, and many other prominent Dwarves in the above roles). Punditry and analysis will often refer to these as 'the Channel' and 'the Reservoir'.  

Next time: The lives of the Non-Dwarves in the City of Compartments.