Ovi Talif
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"Sefra's Winds, this article is incomplete! Maybe you can fill the gaps if you have an idea from your travels, Sehm." |
Ovi Talif is a large trading post in the South of Braided Shore. The port is built around a large pier in the sands, and an imposing lighthouse stands in the heart of the town’s bazaar. Because of the climate, people in Ovi Talif do not keep livestock or have a dairy-heavy diet as many others in Braided Shore do. The desert is, however, home to a lot of snakes and lizards and they are common in Ovi Talif cuisine. There’s a certain smell that has become associated with Ovi Talif and people who travel to and from it, which comes from a common grass that grows in the desert. The smell is bitter, yet not unpleasant. [1]
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History
During the Third Age or The Age of Settlement, Ovi Talif was ruled by the Summer Foxes or Fennecs, a group of were-fennec foxes who could change their shape and are enemies of rats. [2] One of the Summer Fox princes was rescued by and later married Princess Sashinja of the Old Dynasty of Kasa. [3]
Some spices such as saffron have made their way into Ovi Talif cuisine, but these customs may have travelled south when Kasan armies beseiged Ovi Talif [4]Whether this claim was based on joined lineage of Kasa and Ovi Talif stemming from the love match between Kasan princess Sashinja to a Ovi Talif prince remains unclear.
Lore
Ovi Talif's renowned products are figs and roses.
A package of grass harvested from the Southern sands. Cinnabar tufts like these are fairly common in the sands and are often brewed into bitter teas. The grass can also be chewed to mask bad breath and a bitter but not unpleasant scent has become associated with merchants traveling to and from Ovi Talif.
A Motif of Rats and Foxes
Many works of art from Ovi Talif use the motif of a fox [5] often fighting a rat or a mouse. [6] Legends of the city's founding and the Summer Fox royal family also reference the werefox princes' enemy, hordes of large rats. Ovi Talif used to hold a Festival of the Summer Fox but discontinued the tradition after an unsolved mass poisoning. [7]
When Ovi Talif was still young, a plague of rats descended upon her streets. Disease soon spread and many thought that the rats would remain the new lords of the city. The people prayed for salvation and what followed was a miracle.
A flock of desert Fennecs charged through the streets, chasing off the critters and gorging themselves on those not fast enough. The sandy blonde coats of the Fennecs made it look as if the desert itself had come alive and risen up to defend Ovi Talif.
When the rats were all gone, the largest of the Fennecs, a creature the size of a lion transformed back into a scruffy young man. His hair was like the desert dunes and his eyes were like the sunset.
Unopposed was he as he claimed the throne of the city for his deeds.
Once upon a time, the princess of Kasa sat isolated by her bedroom hearth. Her name was Sashinja and she was terribly alone. Her older brother, who was heir to the throne of Kasa, had undertaken a journey across the five other Braided Shore kingdoms and had not returned for many seasons.
Interrupting her lonesome contemplations was a beast-like screech coming from the courtyard outside her balcony. She rushed out into the moonlit night and witnessed a pack of giant rats attacking a large wounded fox. The fox was outnumbered and Sashinja hesitated not, she grabbed a burning stick from her hearth and swung it at the rats who scampered away when the flames licked their greasy fur.
Sashinja brought the unconscious fox inside and tended to its wounds. When morning came, the fur of the fox melted away and revealed the visage of a handsome southern prince. Love blossomed and he brought her with him to Ovi Talif where the two were wed. And Sashinja was never alone again.
A piece of pottery from Ovi Talif. A painting of a fox biting its own tail is wrapped around the cup.
A brittle ring made from sand clay. A sculpted image of a proud fox has been cracked in twain on the ring's head.
A leather backpack that has become bleached by southern suns. A faded brand of a large-eared fox hunts mice along the pack's upper covering.
An image has been carefully created with jadestones set into the golden disk. A fox is chasing a rat across the disk. The rat has lost its tail which is now held firmly in the fox's mouth.
There was a time when Ovi Talif held the festival of the Summer Fox, where a giant pot of tea would be brewed for all the city's residents. The ceremony was stopped after the Summer Tragedy a few generations ago when the communal pot was poisoned. No perpetrator of the awful deed was ever caught but rumours have pointed fingers at malicious cults, a prank gone wrong, and even at the city head themselves.
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Ovi Talif
