Budulla the fool's trap: a Warhammer Fantasy city based on Albania

Budalla is a city state in the mountains between the Border Princes and Tilea. It's a major trade hub as one of the most stable and safe passed through the mountains. It once ruled significant chunks of the Border Princes but that was many years ago under its founder: "the Little Prince" Bujar Mbret Imire, dwarf-friend, wielder of the magic sword Fat Mire, rider od the clockwork horse, and reunifier of the Budella tribe. Lord Bujar founded the city and ruled a small empire before he died peacefully in his sleep. This marked the end of stable sane rulership of Budella and his empire immediately collapsed into civil war as his sons fought. Civil war continued on for centuries and was not stopped by the collapse of the dwarf hold underneath their town, the fall of the city of Tylos, conquest by Reman, abandonment by Reman, war with the skaven, or the Red Pox

Budella's history in the modern age begins with the self-proclaimed "son of the Sun", who claimed to be the chosen of Solkhan the widower and conquered the city-state and surrounding farmland with his army of fanatics and penitents. Solkan is worshipped locally as "Solkhan the widower", and is one of the major local gods. His reign over the city was marked by both charitable outreach and brutal repression of dissenters. He outlawed slavery, prostitution, extrajudicial killings, cruel and unusual punishments, public execution, gambling, adultery, hard liquor, and any magic besides healing. The Academy of Medicine, Budella's only school where magic is taught, was established under his rule and "join or die" was his official policy towards all spellcasters. Multiple rebellions, usually led by wealthy or well-connected individuals, were brutally put down under his reign. He was eventually assassinated by an imperial agent of the Amethyst order for executing one of their journeymen wizards for the crime of "Non-Solkhan approved sorcery" after he refused to join the Academy of Medicine. He is now worshipped in Budella as a minor subordinate god to Solkhan called "The Son of the Sun" who Solkhanites pray to to intercede on their behalf with Solkhan and convince him not to punish them.

In the ensuing tribal conflicts Alma Envy, a Cathayan-educated noble, seized control of the country by rallying the significant non-Budullan and Budalland sick of this bullshit parts of the country against the Budullan's and their primitive tribal warfare. She and her husband, the rich commoner Altan Envy, ruthlessly seized control of the country, and quickly brought the country to ruin with her Envious Harmony philosophy which nationalized most industries and banned all religions. Fortunately for her and her coterie their reign coincide with a minor chaos invasion, a chaos dwarf slave raid, and several orc waaghs, and so the populace was far too busy fighting off the horrors of chaos and greenskins to fight her.

After her husband's death at the hands of the orc warboss faceflaya she finally totally succumbed to paranoia and had fortresses and bunkers constructed all over the city and surrounding countryside, almost entirely constructed by dissidents she had sentenced to hard labour. This insane expensive indepth defense proved worth it when Budalla crushed off a Chaos Dwarf raiding party. Their daemon engines are still rusting in the woods nearby the city because no one knows how to properly dispose of them.

Altan Envy died peacefully in her sleep, leaving Budalla a significantly poorer country, the country once again descended into civil war as all those Envy had oppressed and driven into exile rose up again. The country wasn't fully stable until it's conquest by

The tomb king Grand Pepi the third and his army of pygmies. His reign is fondly remembered as a golden age which lasted "seven wonderful years" until Settra sent him a one-word message commanding him to return and only a fool defies Settra the Imperishable. During his reign he rebuilt and reconsecrates all the temples, relegalized the study of "all wholesome and sane forms of magic", oversee the sale and restoration of "all properties unjustifiably stolen by my predecessors", and installed a constitutional monarchy based on his extensive readings of political thoughts and history.

The moment he left his government was disbanded and those pygmies who did not flee into the abandoned dwarfen city were put to death by the tyrant and tribal warlod Bell Luush. Bell Luush reign lasted three months until Agron Mamaqi, a clever mercenary captain, overthrew and slew him after building an uneasy alliance between the pygmies, the still-living dwarfs, the Solhkanites, a Shallayan medical order, various merchant and trading concerns, the Myrmadian Order of the Shield, the city watch, the local guilds, and multiple clans. Grand Peppi's reforms were put back into place and Agron now rules the city as "the Placeholder" who rules the city until the return of Bujar Mbret or Grand Peppi the third. ( The Son of the sun is not considered a contender because, as a god, he has his own responsibilities and duties).

Budalla in its modern state is, to quote Bart Simpson, "Las Vegas if it was run by Ned Flanders". It's a major trading hub lacking the brothels and gambling dens that usually mark such place thanks to Agron needing to appease the Solhkanites. There's a branch of Luigi and Salvatore, the famous department store and secret fencing front. They're mostly interested in dwarfen artifacts and goods from the lost hold beneath the city and anything that falls off the back of a wagon.

The Deserts of Nekhara is a pyramid-shaped inn and tavern built as the palace for Grand Peppi the 3rd during his rule. Peppi,, despite his many virtues, had terrible taste in architecture and interior decorating, seeming to believe "more is more" and covering every possible inch of space with knicknacks and art of the gods. On the plus size this means guests are unlikely to be assaulted by any unholy forces due to the sheer level of saintly and holy kitsch surrounding them. On the downside it's hard to sleep or make love when an icon of the Lady of the Lake, a life-sized statue of Sigmar carved from furniture scraps, clay figurines of the Nekharan pantheon, a wall scroll of The Twin Nipponese moon goddesses, and a snarling mask of Ulric are all watching you.

Agron Mamaqi isn't running a city so much as he is juggling lit torches. The Solkhanites hate everybody except for the charitable and saintly but are also a powerful and influential because of their fanatical defense of the city and their charitable work. "Lunch and a lecture" is common slang among the poor for Solkhanite charity.

Nelson Röövitud is the head of the cult of Solkhan the widower as well as a brutal murderous enemy of chaos and corruption. There are dozens of different stories of how this strangely accented handsome man came to lead the Solkhanites. Some say he was a Bretonnian grail knight who grew sick and tired of the corruption and weakness of Bretonnian society. Others claim he was a ruler in the Border Princes whose kingdom was destroyed by Chaos or an ork waagh or that he was the prince of a Tilean city overthrown in a coup. Whatever his true origins, and he does not speak of them, he wields the Hand of Kuali, a glove sacred to Solkan that gives him access to aqshy and extra strength.

Why is Solkhan so mean?

Solkan is the last survivor of the Chaos Gods of Law, or at least the last of them to be actively involved in the world, a weird set of deities from early edition Warhammer Fantasy. According to certain ancient gold tablets found un the swamps of ruin the Chaos Gods of Law were created by the Old Ones as a failsafe weapon against the Chaos gods. To fight a god you need a god and so they took the raw substance of chaos and shaped it into entities they controlled. This… failed. Miserably. Most of them were killed, insofar as a god can die, with the destruction of the Southernmeost continent under the collapsing Southern Warp gate and endless stream of daemons pouring out of it. The other survivors are more abstract or incomprehensible to mortals and no longer involve themselves with the mortal world. Or they're locked up and hidden where Solkan can't find them. Solkhan, or Solkan to use his more common name, is an angry god and even angrier because he's the last of his pantheon. He's a weapon without the safeguards. The nearest comparison would be if Ares was left standing after the rest of the Olympic pantheon was killed. Imagine the rage of a man who just lost his entire family and not just his nuclear family. Mom, dad, wife, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles all gone. Now make him already angry and emotionally unstable. Everything about the gods is magnified and so his rage is as well. His creators are either dead or have abandoned him, the other remaining gods are soft, weak, and indulgent, he's forbidden from actively interfering and so he can't burn down Naggiroth, Skavenblight, Zharr-Nugrand, the Chaos Wastes, the Ogre Kingdoms, the Maelstrom, the Great Maw, and Grand Cathay like he so desperately wants, the races he actually likes are either extinct or gone wrong, his followers are all weak and pliable humans who go insane, grow a third arm, and start worshipping it as soon as they see a chaos god, and all his friends, including his wife, are dead. Solkan isn't just angry; he's bitter and sad.

Now back to Budella

Budulla is built on the ruins of an ancient lost dwarfen hold. The dwarfs do not speak of what happened there, but there is a grudge fulfilled and already crossed off. The Skaven underempire isn't present here. Something in the depths frightened them off. In battle the Budellans are often accompanied by strange short figures in all-concealing armour.

The lost hold of Karak Fargastong lies below Budalla

A small and sickly population of elderly dwarfs stubbornly cling to Karak Fargastong. They are heavily mutated and so never remove their armour in the site of others. None have taken the slayer oath for to be a slayer means to remove your armour. Their equipment is old but well-maintained. Other dwarfs keep their distance and , if asked, will talk about them as as if they were dead. They only live on because Budalla would collapse completely into blood feuds if they weren't their to mediate grudges. That's right . Budallan's ancient code of honour is so bloodthirsty and ruthless that the dwarfs are the moderating influence.