Shirkal

Shirkal
District
Area
• District	47.87 km2 (18.48 sq mi)
• Urban	1,141.4 km2 (440.7 sq mi)
• Metro	4,605.8 km2 (1,778.3 sq mi)
Elevation	137 m (449 ft)
Highest elevation	305 m (1,001 ft)
Lowest elevation	67 m (220 ft)
Population  (2024)
• District	522,224
• Density	11,000/km2 (28,000/sq mi)
• Urban	1,702,771
• Urban density	1,500/km2 (3,900/sq mi)

Shirkal is the capital of Shirazam. With a population of 500,000 people, and 1,7 million people within its Urban area, It is the country's largest city as well. Despite historically being a city (Xer), Shirkal is administratively categorized as its own District (Bax) with special prerogatives. It is one of three such "Urban District" (Xerak Bax) within Shirazam with Skandar and Tabruz as the other two. It is located at the confluent of the Great Rivers: the Sin-Darya and the Bozorg-Darya and controls the entrance to the Sabsagusha, the "Green Delta" which is the economic and demographic heart of Shirazam.

History

Kingdom of Skadia

Bardyia of Chirasmia was the Satrap and ruler of his home-province, corresponding roughly to modern Shirazam when Alcaeus XI the Azagartian Emperor, was overthrown by Mithridates II in 566 BC. during the crisis, Bardyia stopped delivering tributes to the throne and took the title of Skadanshah, King of the Skadians, possibly in the aftermath of a victory against the Sayareses nomads. Bardyia oversaw the construction and completion of the Fifty Fortresses of Shirazam, a network of fortification meant to protect the Green Delta and the fertile shores of the Great Rivers. One of the Fifty Fortresses was Shir-Kala, the "Lion's Fortress". The Skadian Kings did not have a single capital and regularly moved from palace to palace depending on the military or administrative necessities. The Kingdom of Skadia lasted around 60 years until it was reconquered by the Mithridatid Artaxerses II between 505 and 500 BC. Three Kings of the Skadians are known: Bardyia, Chosroes/Khosrow, and Ormisdas. Their relationships and the exact dates of their reigns are unknown although Ormisdas was King during the Mithridatid reconquest and is said to have been a teenager.

Archeological studies of this era are especially difficult in Shirkal to the continuous occupation of the site and the modern high density of inhabitants. Nonetheless, ruins and archeological artefacts are regularly found during construction works, mainly in the form of pottery shards. But the main fortress, the Skadanshah-Kal, still remain to this date albeit heavily altered by two millenium of use, expansion, destruction and reconstruction. A large section of the fortress' outer wall has notably been opened during the 15th century to build gardens, on top of which the House of Deputies now stand.

Only one more Azagartian Satrap, Mithridates, is known in Chirasmia following the reconquest. Shirkal and the other Fortresses would fall into disrepair. Mithridates relied heavily on nomad mercenaries and new settlers for his military strength. His exact residence is unknown and there is no further detail on his administration which is other assumed to have been brutal and repressive over a people, the Skadians, still recovering from the repression. At some point before 470 BC, the Tabarids, a nomadic people part of the Sayar Confederation with an history of military collaboration with imperial authorities, took over the Province and refused to acknowledge the new Emperor-appointed Satrap. The Tabarid Rebellion would lead to another 60 years of warfare. It's only once the Abayrids another Sayar dynasty supported by the Azagartian Empire, managed to topple Tabarid rule that Chirasmia was break the cycle of violence.

Abayrid Renaissance

Shirkal, long left decaying, was rebuilt under the Abayrid Dynasty who made it their permanent capital.