Otherplaces – Otallu, Necropolis-State of (A to Z Challenge, O)

Alternating with orchards and rows of grain are rows of grave stones and tombs, some plain, more ornate.  As you get closer to the city, the fields of graves begin to outnumber those of grain and orchards.  The city is somber, all the building decorated for mourning and bright colors are not seen on the streets.  Symbols of death and mortality are omnipresent and all of the public art is turned to such themes.

Necropolis-State of Otallu

Grave business

Otallu was one a perfectly ordinary city-state, a small one but not poor.  It managed to keep neutral in the struggles between great powers,providing supplies and feigning allegiance to whoever was the major army nearby.  Their fate changed after a major battle was fought on the edge of their territory, the Duke of Otallu offered to see that the dead were properly cared for and set about building an appropriate memorial ground.  The duke hired the best of the city’s artists, and a variety of ones displaced by the wars, to make it truly memorable.