Wati

Wati

(City)

LN

Titles

The Half-City

Nation

Osirion

Region

Sphinx Basin

Size

Small city

Population

7,300

Demographics

6,670 humans, 292 halflings, 73 dwarves, 26 aiuvarins, 239 other

Government

Council

Alignment

Lawful neutral

Ruler

Haty-a Oshep Kahmed

Images of Wati

Source: The Half-Dead City, pg(s). 62ff.

Map coordinates conflict between sources. See Talk:Wati/Conflicts.

Wati, also called the Half-City, is located in southern Osirion at the confluence of the Asp and Crook rivers and the birth of the River Sphinx. It is best-known for its enormous necropolis, or city of the dead, a relic of a bygone plague.

History

Wati was founded in -1608 AR by Pharaoh Djederet II during the First Age of Osirion. He issued a decree to build a grand city at the source of Osirion's most precious resource, the River Sphinx, which sprung from the confluence of the Asp and the Crook. With the early foundations laid by the mystical rites of the Church of Nethys, the city came to life within a mere year. Wati quickly became a trade powerhouse in southern Osirion, trading in hardwoods and spices from Katapesh and the Mwangi Expanse bound for Sothis, as well as manufactured goods and luxuries from the Inner Sea region en route to Osirion's south. This flourishing trade made the citizens of Wati famous for their wealth. For centuries, Wati withstood political turmoil, the rise and fall of entire dynasties, while asserting its dominance over its sister cities, An and Tephu.

Wati remained the largest of the trio of cities in southern Osirion until its population was ravaged by the Plague of Madness in 2499 AR. The contagion was conjured and spread by the cult of Lamashtu, taking advantage of the religious conflict raging across Garund during this period, and killed approximately 60 percent of its population. In the aftermath of the plague, Wati's surviving population slowly abandoned the city.

In 2953 AR, the priesthood of Pharasma reclaimed their major temple and consecrated the city in the memory of the murdered dead, setting aside the abandoned sections of Wati in their honor as a necropolis. In the past thousand years, the living section of the city has expanded and the necropolis is now less than a fourth of its overall area. The abandoned sections of the town are largely inaccessible due to local stigma, and adventurers with the blessing of Pharasma's clergy sometimes target the area.

Places of interest

The infamous Ravenous Sphinx is located half-buried in the sands just south of Wati.

References

A large poster map of Wati is included in Mummy's Mask Poster Map Folio.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.