Lûrmsakûn



A realm of river valleys and oases bythe Ode Pezar river in the north and the Rysis river in the south,the easternmost land of the true Haradrim, Lûrmsakun (Har."Basin of Flowing Waters") was blessed by great wealth and cursed by its place in the world, on the borders of the violent realms of the Variags and Chey.Established by the Kibic in 1033 SA it was still considered part of eastern Near Harad.Although it lay next to Lower Khand) the people of Lûrmsakun were mainly Haruze or spoke Haruze, a language shared by their brethren living in cities and farming villages as far west as the Sundering Sea in distant Harondor. The Haruze, as they were fond of reminding their neighbors, were a sophisticated trading race even before the "Poganin" primarily the ´Númenóreans and Variags, came to trouble them in the mid-Second Age. Oft-conquered and ravaged Lûrmsakun still had cities of immense beauty, surrounded by lush, irrigated fields of grain, melons, wine-grapes, and dates.The land was the draining basin for the rivers of Khand and the western Ered Harmal. Three river basins were the center of Lûrmsakun's life and trade: The Rill-basin of the Ode Pezar, the Arysis of the River Rysis, and Siakan, the vale of the Ode Siak. The Ode Pezar ran westward to the Sundering Sea, eventually becoming the River Harnen, the contested frontier between Gondor and Umbar. The Rysis and the Siak flew from the snow-touched peaks of the Ered Harmal southwestward to vanish into the lifeless salt marshes of the Kref Masar, one of the more hellish of the wastelands of the Haradwaith. The river valleys of Lûrmsakun formed a great contrast with the deserts, consisting of lush belts of greenery supporting teeming hordes of peasants and shrewd traders and merchants, otherwise it was very hilly and semi-arid. Arysis lay south of Sturlurtsa, royal seat of Khand, and sat squarely astride the caravan routs connecting western and central Endor. Its largest city, Maresh, was the greatest city of the Endorian interior in any era in which the Khandians were not draining its wealth into their own lands. Siakan, naming itself the Jewel of Mountain and Sun, controlled trade between southern and western Endor.Lûrmsakûns Haruze rulers had been the easternmost lords of Men to swear allegiance to Gondor at the height of its power, though the Dúnedain never had officially claimed Lurmsakun as an integral part of their realm, much in the same way that they exerted their political influence in the upper vales of Anduin. Its lords and kings, however, were oft conquered by the more warlike Variags, Chy, Chey, and Ahar peoples living just beyond its frontiers. For most of the Third Age, these lands were contested mostly by their own kings and those of the Chey and Variags.

Places of Note
Kref Masar