Smyrna
Smyrna has been called many things: the City of Sages, Gadget Town, and Science City. This emirate boasts the highest average level of education in the ESE.
Many small colleges specializing in various aspects of science and engineering can be found along Smyrna’s winding streets. The graduates of these schools find employment with the multitude of small design houses that power the city’s economy. These businesses specialize in designing new and improved gadgets to make life easier or more pleasant. The upper echelons of ESE society form the core market for these devices.
The AST has taken advantage of this well-trained technical labor force and established a large military research center in the city. There are rumors that the AST is studying captured Earth war materials in Smyrna, including a nearly undamaged hovertank. Both the Curia and the research center have refused to comment on the issue.
Despite being a more intellectually oriented city than most in the ESE, Smyrna is still the site of numerous bloodsports. The most popular of these violent games is jousting. Tourneys are held once a week on Saturday in Ayekawa Park, a large green space at the center of Smyrna.
Various forms of jousting occur at each tourney. The four most popular are medieval-style horseback jousting, barnaby jousting, motorcycle jousting, and Gear jousting. Horseback jousting is so popular in Smyrna that fans will often dress up in makeshift medieval garb when they attend the events, even though these clothes are often just the people’s interpretation of the garments of a long bygone age. Barnaby jousting and motorcycle jousting are identical to the horseback form, except that the mount is either a large barnabus lizard or a powerful off-road motorcycle, respectively. Gear jousting has its greatest event in the Autumn when up to 64 star pilots face off in a week-long tournament. The winner takes home 200,000 dinars and the Crimson Lance trophy.