#a lot of my rithmere/lapis headcanons are based around yemen

[zahroreadsthings]

15. Location, or, Zahro’s headcanons time

I’ve had a long-standing headcanon that Rithmere’s the only major settlement in lapis territory partially because during the pre-Adin invasion years, it was hit particularly hard and to me this = a lot of towns were destroyed and not rebuilt. (Tales of Deltora mentions that the wall around the city was built around this time to keep out greers, too.) So a lot of people moved to Rithmere, and with a wall surrounding the city the only way to build was up. (Side note: looooots of ghost towns round the territory)

So, anyway, (over a lot of time) I like to think that houses and stuff start spilling out of the walls, but the buildings in the city tend to be much taller, and in comes the Yemen-style architecture. (Bla bla bla changes in styles over time I’m focusing on traditional mud brick houses right now.) Point zero real quick: I picture Rithmere as having tall, straight buildings with no balconies crowded together.

The first neat thing about this is the buildings are old as balls and several storeys tall, which is how I imagine Rithmere - an old-timey city with old-timey skyscrapers. Check out Shibam (idk how old this picture is but when we drove through a few years back there were some more houses and shops outside the walls):

Second cool thing is they’re designed to be easy to build up - check out the tops of the buildings. They’re raised to about window height in preparation for the next floor, perfect for a population that’s rapidly expanding and in a walled area. (I tried to find an alternate version where they’re raised higher, with gaps for windows, but no such luck.)

Third cool thing is they can get decorative, and that’s also how I imagine Rithmere. Exhibit A: Wadi Dawan, some very bright and colourful and cool buildings (if you look up ‘wadi dawan/do'an’ you’ll know. You’ll know.)

Exhibit B: In general the patterns on some of the buildings I think are neat to translate into charms in Rithmere (if they wear charms and have all those superstitions you can’t tell me they don’t also work something into their buildings), but in particular this building that’s got a phrase to deflect the eye* near the top:

Fourth cool thing, not necessarily related to Rithmere: They got flat roofs so u can have dinner on them under the stars and it’s very very nice. I dont have any pictures on me but just trust me on this one

*not like, strictly deflect the evil eye, but more of a reminder for people to not accidentally dunk on them. Also that building’s not mudbrick but you get my point