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Khorshemish, known as the Queen of the South, is a major city and the capital of Koth. Founded by Khossus V, it was abandoned for ages before being restored by Akkutho I.
Mighty Koth boasts one of the greatest cities of the west in the form of its capital, Khorshemish. The city was built atop the ruins of an Acheronian city, not long after the Hyborians brought down that dark, sorcerous empire. Though few citizens are now aware, their city has its foundations on the bones of a city three millennia older. Beneath the flagstones and squares of Khorshemish lurks a host of treasures both valuable and deadly.
Accessing these ruins is not easy, for the current sewers hardly connect with the ancient city below. Indeed, even the Scarlet Citadel, which sits in the city center like a malevolent finger, has few passages as old as Acheron, and of those that were, many were sealed ages ago by Khossus V who saw his diggers go mad while excavating parts of the former city. What might be found under Khorshemish is left to the ramblings of mendicants and drunks.
The current city is magnificent. While Strabonus is a miser with his gold in nearly all affairs, he spends it for the benefit of Khorshemish — or at least on projecting power and opulence. The actual populace of the city enjoys only a small fraction of the coin spent to make the city a wonder. Her minarets sparkle like jewels in the night, made of highly polished bronze and even crystal.
A great wall surrounds Khorshemish. The city is built on an escarpment and rises ever upward as one ventures toward the center. There, the royal palace is situated behind yet another wall, and Kothic knights are barracked within the compound.
Khorshemish’s grand bazaar resembles the suks of Shem, but is also an admixture of Hyborian influence. A dozen languages catch the ear, while spices from as far away as Khitai scent the air. On one end of the bazaar is the “Great Block” where slaves are sold. Skins of every hue sweat under the sun as they are put on the block and auctioned to fat merchants whose skins are of just as many hues, but who fortune has treated considerably better. More slaves are bought and sold in Khorshemish than anywhere else in the west. So plentiful are the slaves, even lesser merchants and craftsman can afford to own one or two. The city’s economy runs on the backs of those in bondage.
Khorshemish’s thieves’ quarter is a den of iniquity, but Strabonus keeps it sectioned off from the city proper. Behind a wall as old as Acheron, the poor, the treacherous, and the squalid lurk and do their unpleasant business. This is tolerated by the town guard so long as such degenerates do not pass through the gates, without proper papers, into Khorshemish itself.