Ktyarak is a floating city, constructed of several thousand small balsa-wood, wicker and canvas structures, joined together by catwalks and rope bridges and suspended beneath large gas-balloons.
The balloons are kept filled with hydrogen by the natural emmissions of the scutroet toads, which are specially-bred animals believed to be descended from the lesser griograk, found today in the northern wastes of Elthorn, which is possessed of the ability to seperate liquid into hydrogen and oxygen using biolectricity, as a method of generating heat, melting ice-tunnels, and providing breathable air in the poorly-ventilated ice-warrens. The scutroet toads are kept motionless in wicker baskets in the bases of the balloons, and are fed by the owner of the balloon.
The penalty for not properly maintaining a balloon's bouyency (i.e. insufficency or an overabundance of lift) ranges from a reprimand or fine to flogging to a severance of ties with the ballloon, resulting in its becoming seperate from Ktyarak and either falling to earth of drifting away.
Due to the mercurial nature of Ktyarak's structure, there is no institutional authority, as there is nothing to stop a ballooner from simply departing, possibly even following on the air currents and rejoining at a later state once any issues have blown-over. There is a small militia (the Aeronauts) to maintain a semblance of order, however, and to ensure the main priorities of fire-avoidance (open flames are prohibited in the city, restricted all cookery to specially-designed oil stoves, and all smoking to hookahs) and balloon-maintenance.
There are no prerequisites for citizenship in Ktyarak, although known bad-apples will often be prevented from joining and balloonless hopefuls are dissuaded. Since weight requirements are often an issue, new balloons will often have to be inflated - a lengthy and often fraught process that consists of bleeding-off gas from other balloons until an equilibrium has been established, then allowing the toads to refill the balloons to capacity. As a result, immigrants are often required to pay a tithe to the Aeronauts, whose responsibility it is to oversee the inflation process. Immigrants may also simply join by arriving in a balloon and tethering to the outskirts of Ktyarak (the most dangerous area of the city), but scutroet toads are extremely difficult to locate in some regions and so this is not always a valid option. This means that immigration and emigration are both minimal, but steady, with the city slowing a small rate of growth.
Ktyarak lacks a state religion, although Huridiphis liberals are in the slight majority (12%). Huridiphians, the founding stock of the city, are members of a pantheist sect that believe a higher power will manifest itself at the end of the world, revealing the various ways in which all current forms of science and religion, and general ideas about reality interlock to create the one perfect being, that is both a part of the universe and an observer. At this point all surviving beings will be admitted into Horeth, the kingdom of heaven (and a metaphorical womb for the ultimate deity), and granted eternal life. There is no life after death, only the promise of immortality for those who have survived to the end of time. Huridiphians do not attach any moral aspects to this deity as an implicit aspect of their doctrine, but numerous sects have suggested that the ultimate deity will in fact only be “unlocked” by the correct flow of actions of earthly events and beings, and as a result have constructed moral codes separate from the (ironically more liberal, if somewhat anarchistic) Huridiphian fundamentalism. Huridiphian liberals hold to a number of beliefs about the “correct” actions of humans that are believed to speed the coming of the end. These mostly focus upon limitations upon recourse to violence and the inherent right to equality across races and genders.
Other religions in Ktyarak are too numerous to include, but few obtain any significant majority, and many people are openly-atheist. As a result, Ktyarak is often sought as an exit point by radical philosophers from repressive regimes, and the city has a small Latin Quarter known as the ”House of the Sfasad” (Thasht-him-Baraad in the local pidgeon), after the Huridiphian cabala, (the “Sfasad” being any complicated formula designed to decrypt the patterns in nature as an attempt to unlock the key to the end – a practice largely dismissed by most theologians as “missing the point”). Ktyarak consequently has something of a reputation as a centre of learning, a reputation aided by the city’s travels allowing access to a wide range of philosophies and world-views, as well as access to news generally not readily available.
The economy of Ktyarak is sustained by trade, as the city’s roving nature and vast size (there are numerous cargo balloons set-aside) allows it to exploit countless markets, although this often has to be restricted to non-perishables due to the slow progress which it makes. There is also limited agriculture practiced in special baskets, and water is collected in a series of depending canvas ballast nets. The Ktyarak are also not averse to descending upon isolated hamlets during unusually-harsh times, and dirigibles will frequently scout for game and pockets of comestible vegetation. When the city is passing over the sea (although this is avoided when practical – see below) it will often deploy nets, or lower reed boats. Famously, the inhabitants will hunt leviathans when possible, by raining-down harpoons from the catwalks, and have been known to successfully harness several of the beasts as emergency measures when trapped in the doldrums (a risky business, where every rope must be manned for cutting if diving proves dangerous – although this is avoided using irritant hooks).
Ktyarak proper floats almost entirely free on the wind, following a number of rough cycles over the decades, but generally at random. Steerage can be attained (with varying success) using either dirigibles – which threaten to strain the connections between balloons – or large depending cloth sails, which are only useful during certain wind conditions and are often dangerous. During extreme predicaments, extensive use of grapnels to tow the city along the ground has occurred, as well as using ground-based bullock teams and even (during one memorable event) having the inhabitants descend and tow by hand. However, the city has been disassembled on a few rare occasions, prompting lengthy treks to more preferable wind conditions (this has twice been due to mountain ranges).
The social structure of Ktyarak is loose, but a number of uniting factors are the lopel, or bread and water stipend designed to avoid civil discord, and the hanging wicker cages where the homeless are allowed to sleep, to avoid cluttering the walkways in case of emergency. This kindness is also somewhat double-edged, however, as homeless cages will often be lowered to the ground and dispensed with during times of trouble, or when there are simply too many homeless to practically support.
The genetic stock of Ktyarak is majority Eurasian in appearance, although this once again represents only a slight majority (23%).
Individual cultural idionsyncracities are too numerous to list, but there are sfour major festivals - the City's Birthday, the Memorial of the Storm of Cape Ulibth, the scutroet maiting season and the scutroet birthing period. There is also an informal inter-city festival held whenever Ktyarak comes across Madyutvir, on the south-west coast of Terras - from which the original founders first departed after succesfully applying engineered scutroets to ballooning.
