They were passing between the Elder Kingdoms now, with Bashti on the west bank and Hathir on the east. Thousands of years before, these two colossi had controlled most of the Central Lands; but Hathir had long since disintegrated, and decaying Bashti was a power now in name only.
– Torisen's narration, Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 12: Night Pieces"
Bashti is an ancient kingdom of the Central Lands,[2] paired with Hathir.[3] Bashti is on the western bank of the River Silver. It is north of the Southern Wastes, and south of the Weald. These days Bashti is divided and ruled by the Seven Kings. The Bashtiri are the second biggest employer of Kencyr tropes after Kothifir.[4]
P. C. Hodgell has said that Bashti's population and culture come mostly from the Western Lands, with elements of the south as well.[5]
At Bashti's height, they held the western bank of the Silver, from the Cataracts to the Riverland.[6] In the Riverland, Bashti built many fortresses up and down the river valley as it competed with Hathir.[7] The modern keeps Restormir, Valantir, Tentir, Shadow Rock, Chantrie, and Kraggen are built on the sites of these fortresses. Holding the north was always difficult and expensive, and after a large earthquake,[8] both kingdoms ceded the Riverland to the Kencyrath.[9]
Bashti borders the Weald, though they were never able to rule it, even in the height of their power. In times of famine, Bashti was attacked by Wolvers from the Deep Weald.[10]
Language[]
Restormir, Valantir, and Tentir were originally Bashtiri, and Miakmir likely was too. This "-ir" ending probably comes from their language.
References[]
↑Seeker's Mask, "Part II: Gothregor", IV — " 'That settles it,' one of them was saying in Bashti. 'She isn't here. Now what?' "
↑Honor's Paradox, "Lexicon" — "Bashti—one of the ancient kingdoms of the Central Lands"
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Glossary" — "Bashti: an ancient kingdom paired with Hathir on either side of the River Silver"
↑Seeker's Mask, "Part I", III — "Collectively, the Bashtiri of the Central Lands hired more Kencyr troops than anyone except Krothen of Kothifir, and were always complaining that the Kencyr code of honor unduly restricted the orders which their mercenaries would obey."
↑Seeker's Mask, "Part III: The Riverland", I — "The Silver was the frontier between those two giants of the Central Lands, Bashti and Hathir. At the height of their power, a thousand years ago, they had built rival fortresses up the length of the river from the Cataracts to Kithorn."
↑To Ride a Rathorn, "Chapter XVII: Into the Wilds", II — "the Riverland fortifications had originally come in pairs, built by the ancient kingdoms of Bashti and Hathir to glare at each other across the Silver."
↑Seeker's Mask, "Part IV: Restormir", VIII — " 'river travel in the north ended a thousand years ago, after a great weirdingstrom changed the Silver's course from one end to the other. Back then, there were lots of trade cities on both banks of the Central Lands. […] Whole populations disappeared—drowned, the survivors thought, although no bodies were ever found.' 'Bashti and Hathir never recovered, […] that was when they gave the Riverland to us, because they couldn't bring garrison supplies upriver by barge anymore,"
↑Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 2: The Hell Hunt" — "the paired keeps that faced each other across the Silver at twenty to twenty-five mile intervals down the length of the Riverland, it had been built nearly a thousand years before to guard the northern frontier between the ancient kingdoms of Bashti and Hathir. Both the Riverland and the keeps had eventually been ceded to the Kencyrath so that it might serve as a buffer state here in the far north."
↑Dark of the Moon, "Chapter 12: Night Pieces" — "the vast forest known as the Weald. Even at the height of its power, Bashti had never succeeded in imposing its rule here, except around the edges. […] In times of famine, the Weald might have been said to rule Bashti, when red-eyed wolves emerged from its tangled shadows to ravage the countryside and even to stalk the streets of Bashti's proudest cities."
