This fictional city-state located in the northern African region of our altered World of HOOD means very different things to different people. For Hycathae, it is a refuge from the persecution they still face long after the Second Hycath War (more on that in our next Wiki Wed series!). For the people of East Mercia, it’s the location of the most devastating loss their military has ever faced. And for Ewan Qadir, it’s the most beautiful place on earth.
Today, it is a melting pot of cultures. Hycathae from all over the world make pilgrimages to the site of the Phoenix Stones, and many decide never to leave again. There’s a variety of languages spoken, but primarily residents are bilingual Arabic and English speakers.
Find out more about Al-Murooj
In its original desert form, the land was home to the settlement of Ouadane (Arabic: Wādān), a trading post on gold and salt trading routes, as described by Arabic geographer Abu Abdullah al-Bakri in his mid-11th Century Book of Roads and Kingdoms.
Sometime before the 1130s, a Temple of Hycath was established in Ouadane by Tanoute of Damanhur, a Nyridia originally from Egypt who had travelled west in search of a new place of worship. In 1139, Tanoute would be visited by Roosmarijn Doolaard and recruited to serve in the army of Matilda Beauclerc, later Empress Matilda of England. Having declined to become a Duchess under the victorious Empress Matilda, Tanoute returned to Ouadane and its Temple.
