Dundures

Dundures is the second-largest city and capital of Basai. Although relatively modest in size, with around 19,000 permanent inhabitants, it is powerful and important because it is the home of the mighty Academy, which serves both as the seat of government for the country and also the largest, oldest, and most important site for the training of mystics. As a result, it has a large population of non-Basaians at any time, students who have sought out the Academy's expertise. Its architecture is a mixture of the domed and marble architecture typical of the older and more southerly Omban cities, and the rectangular stone architecture of the northern coastal cities.

Dundures is a low-lying city of canals and bridges, located along beautiful Lake Gentai where once lay the richest and most fertile fos marshes in all the Empire. While still flourishing to a modest degree, the Gentai marshes are now much dryer than it once was and their fos crop is far more limited, being essentially only enough to supply Basai itself, whereas during the Imperial period, all the mystics of every province used Basaian fos. More recently, with the discovery of fos in the Sestapor swamp in Ashnabis, the demand for Basaian fos has dwindled considerably. Nevertheless, Basaians themselves are very proud of the bounty of Dundures and the Gentai.

The Academy long predates the Empire, with its founding traditionally dated to 151 BE, making it over 900 years old. The alliance of the Basaian chancellors with the Omban monarchy in 9 BE was a major impetus for the founding of the Empire, stretching from Basai in the north (the conquest of Nulu would follow later) to Choradan in the west. During the Imperial period the chancellors enjoyed enormous privileges and limited taxation so long as the services of the mystics were made available for Imperial purposes. After the fall of the Empire, the Chancellors asserted authority over the former province of Basai, using their wealth and magical power to eliminate any rivals. In the decades that followed, new construction of governmental buildings alongside the older academic buildings greatly expanded the footprint of Dundures along the lakeside. While the fos blight and Hasmalan invasions of the seventh century weakened the city's relevance, it has retained its cultural prestige and its priority as an intellectual and magical center.