This sprawling, convoluted city lies on the bank of the Lerrin River and is surrounded on two sides by bogs and swamp. It was built here over 300 years ago to take advantage of the barges floated down the river carrying rich mineral wealth delved from the GloomRim Mountains. Because of its swampy location, summers in Numer tend to be an unhealthy period as the buildings sweat with humidity and bad air spreads illness and disease amongst the inhabitants. Also, because of the high water table, it is not infrequent for the sewers to flood after a moderate rainfall making the streets a brown wash of human waste and drowned vermin.
Numer is a squalid, crowded city which crawls over the flood plain. Only the city center (the Temple of Thoem, and the Palace of the Arla M'Lethet Dynasty) is surrounded by a low, poorly maintained wall. Five years ago, the population was over 100,000 souls. The best present day estimates reveal that the war, Plague, and crop failures have depopulated the city greatly; it now has around 40,000 inhabitants, but, because of the damage caused by war and internecine fighting, much of the town has been made uninhabitable, so the remaining residents still live in crowded hovels.
The city was occupied for over two years during the Minh invasion and suffered depredations by its troops. Not only was the Temple of Thoem looted and defaced, but the royal palace was occupied, and much of the town was razed to build military barracks, exercise grounds, and prisons.
The present ruler of the M'Lethet Dynasty is J'ngr M'Lethet, who also is the High Priest of Thoem.
Economically, the city is stagnant, with rampant poverty, starvation, and disease. At the harbor, piers rot in the water and the debris of rotted ships clog the bay. The Great Market is a shadow of its former self; where once hundreds of merchants bargained, argued, bickered, and bartered, now only a few score of merchants lackadaisically push wilted vegetables and sad products across the warped tops of market stalls.
As both High Priest of Thoem and Ruler of M'Lethet and Numer, J'ngr M'Lethet uses his secular and religious powers to try and re awaken the spirits of his subjects. In the classic fashion of rulers throughout the ages, he is bringing his people together by ‘revealing’ both external threats to the country from sinister foreign powers, and the internal threats of the unrighteous (women, those not worshipping the true God, and those who walk the crooked way) which have brought the M'Lethet to the brink of ruin. ONLY by strict obedience to the Laws of the Church may the people, country, and the souls of the godly be brought back from the brink of the Crooked Path.
J'ngr's use of orthodox Thoem to strengthen and reestablish his power has caused the southern half of the country to be swept with the fires of religious furor lighting the embers of sectarian violence into a bonfire. Since the oldest archive of the Emirikel temple is situated in Numer, this has caused unpleasant conflicts between the two religious, their adherents, and the government of Numer. At the present time, the Emirikel temple is moving the archives to other temples in heavily armed caravans. Also, the Emirikel Temple has hired a number of litigators from the church of Emer to prosecute damage claims against the Southern Church of Thoem and the royal family of M'Lethet.
