Editing Batu (section)

==History==

Batuhan Monkhbat, Batu’s forefather, was one of the warlords who, after the chaos of the War, found opportunity.  He leveraged his not inconsiderable wealth to provide protection for his tribe by hiring weapon smiths and those skilled in battle to train his people.  He bought horses and reinforced his caravans with mounted archers and lancers.  His people came from an area in the centre-north of Minnerwe called Kran Ghul, a vast Steppe split by a mountain range that ran north to south.  The eastern Khurkun Steppe, undulating rock-strewn grassland, stretched over 200 leagues to the into the neighbouring region of Runnug, where ground rose once again into a mountain range.  The western Karuk Steppe similarly flowed out of the mountain range and stretched 250 leagues to the thin, dry-forest and high grounds beyond, that separate Minnerwe from its western neighbour and where the city-castle of Okisuma is found.  The mountains run south to the Kmir Stepp and the desert beyond and to the north to the cruel sea where the river Cron meets the ocean.

Finding a retreat in the Ghul (the mountains or jabal), Batuhan was able to safely house his people whilst his protected caravans were able to trade.  He funded the building of a monastery to look after his people’s moral and physical wellbeing, before erecting a temple to cater for their spiritual needs.  Already a follower of Shang-Ti, Batuhan’s tribe adopted the deity and began following the societal norms that created a hierarchical, ordered but much-loved dictatorship.  Those that came afterwards have continued the benevolent dictatorship in which the tribe was led by the descendants of the great Batuhan, and who exercised absolute political power over their citizens but with great regard for benefit of the population as a whole.
 
The city grew and grew, the walls were extended and battlements raised ever higher.  Batuhan Gansukh took up the building challenge from his father; in a time of peace, the clan was grateful for a focus. The city-castle took shape and was named Batuhan in honour of those the led its construction.   The most challenging engineering enterprise was to open up the waterways to the north by joining the lakes and the natural mountain run-off on the east of the high grounds with the mighty River Cron that flowed north, to the sea.  Trade was again established and Batuhan prospered.