Meiron

Meiron is a major city in the east of the Empire, which has served as the capital of the Empire since the Omé Dynasty. An ancient city and ritual centre, it mostly served simply as a residence for the Tairazun during the period of the Omé and Har. During the Lein Dynasty, however, and with its imposition of centralised rule throughout the Empire, the city was massively expanded to accommodate the bureaucracy, becoming not just the governmental nerve centre but also a major economic centre in the Empire.

Geography
Meiron is situated along the lower stretch of the Meidorién, the largest and most sacred river to the Tarakasane, just to the west of its confluence with the much smaller Imrilién river. The city occupies a plain, sloping gently upwards from the Meidorién towards the north.

The northern flank of the city is guarded by hills and ridges, unusual features in this generally flat region. The eastern end of this series of ridges is where the Palace of the Lein Dynasty is built, abutting the Imrilién; several other palaces and hunting parks dot the rest of the ridges towards the northwest. It was partly to exploit all these natural obstacles, making an unusually defensible spot in the middle of the plains, that the city was first founded.

Origins and Stronghold
With its geography providing an unusually defensible spot in a strategically and economically crucial area, Meiron has always been an important city of the Empire even before it was the capital. According to legend, it was the third city to be founded along the Meidorién, after Tagansaré in the west and Eosuri at the confluence of the Meidorién with the Atgama river, and was already a major fiefdom during the period of the semi-legendary Damu Dynasty.

When the Damu was overthrown by the Guha, Meiron was one of their last strongholds, and was said to have taken three years of a terrible siege before it was reduced and captured. This was the first time the city was used as a capital, albeit only after Tagansaré had fallen; recognising its importance, however, the founders of the Guha gave it as a fiefdom to the third brother of Hamo the Founder, turning it into a major eastern colony and stronghold. Over the five centuries of the Guha, Meiron became the capital of a large feudal state ruling over much of the lower Meidorién.

In the last century or so of the Guha, under increasing pressure from the State of Hashuru to the south, its rulers eventually abandoned Tagansaré as a capital and increasingly relied on Meiron as their administrative centre, the city being sheltered from the south by the Meidorién and, farther away, by the Cloud Mountains. The ruling house of the Omé Dynasty also came from this region; because of this, when they took over power, they decided to retain the capital in Meiron, inaugurating its tenure as the Imperial capital.