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Shahjapur

by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary Davies

Shahjapur (culture described in the adventure HWA3, Nightstorm) is a state that is found on the island closest to the western continent of Jomphur. This civilisation derives from the Sind of the V century AC, when the shapechanger had taken the power and threatened to dramatically changing the structure of the Sindhi civilisation, so much so that the Immortals decided to preserve those Sindhi by moving into the Hollow World the half of the population uncorrupted by the shapechanger. Here the Sindhi were dominated by the noble caste, among which the most powerful and richest was nominated first Great Moghul (High King) of the nation of Shahjapur. The Great Moghul ever since has always reigned in absolute solitude, firmly holding the absolute political power and the control of the major riches of the country, and Shahjapur has become a strong and united nation (unlike Sind in the outer world), even if full of extreme contradictions. The Shahjapuri civilisation is rigidly divided into castes, just like that of the Sindhi from which they derive, and at the top is positioned the noble caste, rich individuals who obey to the will of the Moghul and live in luxury, attempting to remain in the sovereign’s grace with renouncing their own lifestyle, to the flaws and to the advantages derived from belonging to the superior caste. Under that of the nobles is the priestly caste, which is divided among the pantheist, philosopher and specialist clerics, whose economic condition derives from the type of philosophy or of the order to which they adhere (even if the richest never attain the opulence of the nobles). The rest of the population (commoner and pariah) is instead gripped by the misery and try to survive despite the hardships and the abuses of power, following the philosophy of the samdu (see Chapter 5: Philosophies and movements). The Shahjapur nevertheless are much more fatalist than the Sindhi of the outer world, given that their conditions of life are worse and don’t induce them to the optimism in the confrontations of the future and present. The pantheon of Shahjapur comprises practically all the existing Immortals in the Multiverse, with the exception of any niche Immortals, therefore they have not been listed within this manual. This civilisation has indeed an extremely polytheistic religion, in which one Immortal can appear in several forms, each one to show a different aspect of its personality.