Sadd-é Valiasr

Sadd-é Valiasr
Nation:	Suren Confederacy
Population:	123,245
Predominant language:	Babkhan
Main roads:	Lamentation of the Tudeh Avenue, Way of Eternal Victory
Major districts:	The Wall, The Place of Martyrs, Corpse Pits, Reclamation Point
Current mayor:	Yulqoli Beg (Farmândâr)
Map versions:	TBC

Sadd-é Valiasr, a city and provincial capital of the province of Zjand Basseri, founded on the partial remains of section of the late Babkhan era defensive walls that stretch for more than 25 km north-west to south-east, screening what was once a major highway from Kamalshahr (today's Mehrshahr) to the de-facto Babkhan capital of Raspur. Initially built to defend against a hypothetical Alexandrian invasion out of their colony of Luthoria (the hypothetical danger of a two-front war during the Euran Cold War having weighed heavily on the planners of the Imperial Babkhan Armed Forces) the remains of the wall toward help to preserve a habitable zone against the radioactive winds rising from the dead-zones of the Euran interior. Sections of the wall reach 55 metres in height although it should be noted that in a great many places the rampart has crumbled down to the its foundations, the exceptions protruding above the line of the scarp, the retaining inner slope of rammed earth, like a jutting row of broken teeth.

The majority of habitations are to be found sheltering in the shadow of this wall, and also of the ziggurats (stepped pyramid) which formed a series of defensive bastions extending 5 km back from the wall. Those bastions which remain in serviceable condition have become home to the key figures in local government, the satrap, the farmandar, and the sartip; each maintaining their own fortified stronghold as a seat of power and a place of safety for themselves along with their family and their armed retinues. Other habitable ziggurats have been taken over by local clans as well as by those trading houses whose caravans crisscross the interior.

The city is protected to the north by a berm formed of rammed earth and gravel, held in place by four tiers of rubble filled gabion, reaching a height of 6 metres.

Approximately 7% of the population of the province of Zjand Basseri live within Sadd-é Valiasr, the majority living in household residential compounds fortified and organised in such a manner as to be compliant with the Babkhan Harmonious Society Act. The remainder, those without a household or an obligated employer may be found sheltering in the shantytowns that cluster around the edge of the corpse pits, the crater where raised platforms for the exposure of the dead have been built. Because of this association with the polluting influence of death, the poor living in the corpse pits district are considered untouchable by the rest of society, condemned to live their lives in segregation and squalor, qualified only to work in the "unclean" trades.