Ishum (Town)

Ishum is a town located in northeastern Sikkud, between Wihat and Neduk. It is noteworthy in that it is governed entirely by children.

History
In 81 M.E. the village of Alim-Shalal was raided by human pirates from Cadan. The pirates slaughtered everyone but the children, leaving nine survivors from the ages of one to eleven. Frightened, the children decided to abandon the village and head west to Wildakar, as they were worried that nearby Neduk had been raided as well and that the coast was no longer safe. They walked as far as they could until they became lost in the desert, nearly dying from exhaustion, before happening upon a small spring among the sands. Praising the gods they decided that here was where they should live and together they formed a small camp.

Within a year their camp had become a house where they lived together, with a small farm and livestock. The eldest boy, a twelve year old Ardates, would make trips to Wildakar and govern the property. Often, he would return from Wildakar with destitute orphans to join the growing clan. The children soon operated a small village of three houses, a barn, and a growing farm. Occasionally, travelers would pass through the area and be amazed by what they saw. They would trade access to their water in exchange for knowledge or tools. In this way, they came to learn how to better irrigate their crops. Word soon spread among the cities of Sikkud that there was a strange colony of children living isolated in the desert. More destitute children began to arrive.

By 86 M.E. the village was a proper town, with a store and several in groups acting as families. However, trouble would arise the same year as bandits attacked and ransacked the town. No casualties occurred but several buildings were burned. That year work began on walls which were completed in late 87 and regular drills began to teach the citizens how to fight. That same year a band of slavers was passing the town when the citizens opened fire from the wall, eventually killing the slavers and freeing those in chains. The freed children joined the town the rest moved on, but the chains were melted into crude weapons.

When the first batch of children had grown up, there was great division over what was to be done. Half the town wanted them to stay, the other, to leave. Ardates concluded that he and his kin would leave, but that they would continue to work from Wildakar to benefit the town. They sent livestock, weaponry, and often visited. They also helped to free enslaved children and send them to the town.

Currently, Ishum exists as a strange town in the desert, growing larger by the day, with two sets of walls and a host of wild children living within its vicinity.