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== Rose Red Petra, the Canyon City ==

As the Crimson Road reaches the southern mountains, it stays level, following a straight pass that looks like it might have been carved from the living stone by giants.  If you walk this part of the road, you will find that the walls around you develop impressive worked facades, arches, pillars, and other bas relief engraving.  These are the buildings of Petra, the canyon city.

Petra is a miners city.  They quarry blocks of sandstone, limestone, and marble, dig for veins of iron and coal, and occasionally find veins of jade and gems.  It is also a city of masons and architects.  They build statues, carve the facades, bring water from the high mountain lakes and streams, and dig deep mines.

It is not a safe city.  While they do what they can, cave-ins are a fact of life here.  Orphaned children are often pressed into service in the mines.  Some run away or join one of the child gangs.  Some join the Immaculate Order.

The Immaculate Order has a temple to Paisap here.  The monks have little funding and few Dragon-Blooded, all lost eggs from nameless families.  The satrap, Ragara Mei, cares little for the locals, as long as she gets her cut of the profits.  For her house, of course.

The local gods are mostly spirits of earth and stone and craft who have more in common with the elementals of earth than other gods.  Mostly.  Green-Eyed Seril, She Who Gives Breath in the Dark, and Atet, He of the Bountiful Fields, are notable exceptions.  The Order has not been able to keep all of these gods under strict control.  The Mother of Earthquakes notably chafes at the agreement, wishing to prevent more cave ins and reap the rewards of worship.

Little land here is suitable for the growing of food.  Some have farms on the lowlands outside the pass.  Some have farms on the tops of the canyon walls, the soil laboriously carried up there long ago.  Most food and wood is brought in by merchants, eager to trade for sandstone and gems.