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| - Araby is a hot, dry place, where water is scarce and few areas are really fertile. Much of the land is desert or shrubland, requiring careful irrigation to produce crops.
- South of Tilea, past the stormy seas of the Black Gulf, lies the kingdom of Araby. Here the decadent Caliphs and Sultans rule cities made of white stone, and their realms are the vast deserts, oases that glitter like jewels, and mountains inhabited by fierce nomad warriors. Several great cities form a loose coalition, though in effect they are all independent states with their own rulers, traditions and customs. The Sultan of All Araby claims to rule the whole peninsula, but has little real power over the independent coastal city-states or over the fierce nomad tribes who wander the Great Desert of Araby.[11a][18a]
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| abstract
| - Araby is a hot, dry place, where water is scarce and few areas are really fertile. Much of the land is desert or shrubland, requiring careful irrigation to produce crops.
- South of Tilea, past the stormy seas of the Black Gulf, lies the kingdom of Araby. Here the decadent Caliphs and Sultans rule cities made of white stone, and their realms are the vast deserts, oases that glitter like jewels, and mountains inhabited by fierce nomad warriors. Several great cities form a loose coalition, though in effect they are all independent states with their own rulers, traditions and customs. The Sultan of All Araby claims to rule the whole peninsula, but has little real power over the independent coastal city-states or over the fierce nomad tribes who wander the Great Desert of Araby.[11a][18a] The Sheikhs, Emirs and Sultans of Gopher, Lashiek and Martek live in unimaginable luxury, served by hundreds of slaves who will fulfil their every whim, their harems are filled with voluptuous beauties from across the world and their treasure chambers with all the splendour and wealth of that distant land. Some of these despots are cruel by their nature, ordering beheadings and mutilation of even the pettiest criminals, while others are great rulers and patrons of art and science.[18a] Arabians have some knowledge of gunpowder weapons, but their religious dogmas prevent them from developing socially and technologically. Arabians worship a single god, who is manifested on the world by his chosen prophets and share a common language - Arabic.[11a][17a] All Arabians speak and understand Arabic, although most of the merchant classes would be able to handle Old Worlder fairly easily. Most Arabians are shortish and swarthy, with hook noses, and dark hair and eyes. Some of the Arabian Kingdoms - or Caliphates - lie upon the northern borders of the Southlands and the people there are negroid, although they share a common culture with other Arabians.[17b] The toughest fighters come from the nomadic tribes of the deserts, who are greatly feared by the more civilised traders who ply their trade along the caravan routes through the great deserts. The most notable warriors of Araby are the Dervishers, fanatic religious warriors all too willing to die for their god. Another famous type are the Eunochs, individuals trained since birth to serve as warriors or guards.[11a] Not much is known about the society of the people of Araby, but from the few merchants and explorers who made their way into the kingdoms and Empire of the Old World it can be assumed that commerce and trade are an extremely important part of their society. The Arabians were able to establish and monopolise the trade routes into the lucrative jade and spice lands of the Far East such as Cathay and Ind, as well as trading with the barbaric Norse tribes establishing the largest slave market in the city of Copher, all this thanks to their unsurpassed mastery in their navigation of the seas. The economic growth of Araby has led their peoples to the pursue of the fine arts in poetry, alchemy, medicine and architecture thus producing some of the world's most notable poets, doctors, sorcerers and architects.[11a] Sorcerers in Araby are said to be able to capture genies in bottles who, upon uncorking, rise to immense size to do the bidding of their master, and these wizards are rumoured to fly upon carpets. Mystery shrouds the study of Necromancy. To learn the Dark Art, an aspirant must either seek a Necromancer and become an apprentice or acquire one of the Forbidden Tomes such as the Book of the Dead, written by the mad Arabian prince Abdul ben Raschid. He travelled to the Land of the Dead in the east of Araby, and driven mad by his experiences, he wrote his blasphemous masterpiece. He did not live to see the widespread public revulsion of his work, or the great pyre where the Caliph of Ka-Sabar burned all the copies he could find. Unfortunately, the Caliph did not find them all.[11a]
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