Pflaaopolis and Thetophis
by WingofCootPflaaopolis
Population 10,000 (3,000 inside city walls; 7,000 elsewhere in valley); ~80% Hutaakan
This smallest city-state is unique in many ways.
It is the only city-state to be primarily non-human, and nearly all the Hutaakans of Deshret live here (excluding a few hundred in Protia).
It was a theocracy when the rest of Deshri city-states were still feudal magocracies, and is a pure theocracy - the priesthood of Pflarr rules the city and appoints all lower officials - rather than the mixed system elsewhere in Deshret.
Its culture has been by far the least affected by Imperial rule; while Dathys fiercely defends its Deshri beliefs, the cultural centrality of that religion (and indeed its modern formalized nature as "the Ennead") is itself a response to Imperial cultural influence.
Unlike the mainstream Deshri religion, here Pflarr is held as highest of the Immortals. The Elemasters are seen as Immortals of a lower rank, functionaries who keep the physical universe running. The other four members of the mainstream Deshri religion's Ennead - as well as Kagyar, not otherwise well known in Deshret - are seen as allies and students of Pflarr, not precisely his subjects or servants but not equals to him either. The Ennead symbol is not used in Pflaaopolis except on the building reserved for the city-state's delegation to the Council of Union.
The oasis valley of Pflaaopolis is the smallest and the least isolated - the 18 miles of desert between its bordering cliffs and Thetophis' is the smallest distance between city-states. The valley is only 11 miles across, nearly circular, with a lake about 1 mile wide at its center.
Thetophis
Population 32,000 (6,000 inside city walls; 26,000 elsewhere in valley)
The city-state of Thetophis was founded early, but that early origin also left it with a shallower and less lush oasis-valley than Dathys or Ankhata.
In the early history of Deshret, Thetophis was a major center, but as the drying of Vaniae worsened it suffered more severely than the other city-states; population shifted toward Ankhata and the coast.
The valley of Thetophis is actually quite large, at 30 miles long and 18 miles wide covering slightly more area than Dathys', but it has proved not to be quite deep enough to preserve agricultural conditions as productive as those of the other city-states. The valley includes a lake covering about 2 square miles, and the rich farmland of Thetophis covers about a 6-mile radius from the lake. The remainder of the valley - the majority of its area - is a mixture of scrubby woods, pastureland, and less productive farms producing dryland crops. Thetophis also has a notably cooler climate than the other oases.