Afra Kartumal



Name: Afra Kartumal

Race: Human

Location: City of Ada Ruwak, Northern Calishem

When the sun escapes behind the ever-shifting shapes of sand dunes, the desert city of Ada Ruwak located in one of the hottest desert zones in Calishem, springs to life. Life in the city is based of an oasis around which the city spans in concentric circles of mostly clay buildings of simple and rugged design. The daytime in this area is simply too exhausting and because of that the city is mostly still from early noon until the sun sets down being more active at night time when the air cools down a bit and fresh winds sweep away the staying heat of the daylight hours.

One of the city’s luminary figures is the city’s long-time  sulinar  (which translates roughly as “mayor”) Afra Kartumal whose great-great-grandfather founded the city a long time ago. Afra is a famed mystic in whole of Calishem although he rarely leaves Ada Ruwak. His main abilities are foretelling the future and explaining the events of the past. Some of his divinations have been accurate enough to have affected the lives of thousands of people. Some have been able to avoid disastrous and potentially deadly calamities (such as fatal sand storms or rampant monsters on the desert) and some have been able to stay clear from rogue bandit groups while yet others have added extra provisions of water while journeying the desert because Afra had warned them about dried up oases. The stories of survival are thousand-fold and the common denominator is both getting an appointment with Afra and then taking seriously what he has had to say.

Afra is a truly benevolent ruler of Ada Ruwak and has virtually no opposition in the city. He listens carefully to what the citizens have to say and allows public opinion to greatly affect his decision making process. The city is not without it’s fair share of problems, though. One of the biggest issues is the volatile nature of the region which leads to surges of mystical (and often times violent and erratic) creatures raiding the region. It’s not clear where they come from, where they disappear or why they plague the region around this specific oasis. Whatever the case, abnormally cool or warm weather and waiting stillness of air are signs that alert the people of the city to close their doors and shut their windows and sleep warily because odds are great that something peculiar might happen.

Afra can be spotted pretty much anywhere in the city: he might spent his day trying to cure a dying child, help the citizens to repair damaged buildings, assist in removing excess sand from the main roads after a storm or even take part in the miracle of life as an assisting midwife! He doesn’t have a palace or mansion or anything grandiose like that although his family’s set of well-made stone buildings located right at the shore of the oasis itself is finely crafted and the only buildings of the city reaching three floors from the ground with a few simple spires housing lookout points and defensive positions for archers. A visitor can not make a mistake as to where the  sulinar  lives.