Bulrey

Bulrey is the capital of the Broken Union of Dunica. It is a sprawling metropolis and the most populous city in the country by far, housing an estimated 9'083'000 individuals spread across 1'112.66 square km.

The city is surrounded by deserts and mountains on all sides, historically depending on the Cordona River to sustain its large economy and population.

Bulrey is known for its port, arts scene, university, multiculturalism, crime, culinary scene, old Lyngar and Sylvian architecture, sprawling suburbs, and for its unique metropolitan culture.

Etymology
Bulrey is a portmanteau combining the native Atoya word for "bay" (bulyi) and the Lyngar word for "king" (rey).

History
There is an urban myth associated with the founding of Bulrey — the Siren of Bulrey. Per the legend, Lyngaric explorers sent to settle Dunica were lost at sea, with rations thinning and scurvy tearing through the crew's ranks. In this critical moment, a lonely siren visited the crew and found the listening ear of its leader, Diego [???]. Diego and the siren fell in love, and she led his expedition to shore. She brought them to what Diego described as "a land where fruit grows sweeter, fish grow fatter, and the sun turns rocks to gold".

The first Lyngaric outpost was settled — Bulrey. For months, they built a colony while the siren cared for the crew, talking to them, warning them of dangers, and providing more fish than they could dream to eat. They feasted, partied, drank, and considered their efforts utopian. But the crew grew lazy and complacent, and began to demand more and more of the siren. The siren soon made their clothes, cooked their meals, cleaned their wounds and fulfilled their every desires, all in exchange for closeness. But the longer the siren spent away from the sea, and as the crew's demands began to take their toll, the siren grew weaker, and she slowly began to lose her mind.

One day, the siren disappeared, and conflicts began to erupt. Diego was seized by a supernatural grief, which led him to crack down on his crew like a madman. While most accounts likely exaggerate the facts, stories describe a range of terrors inflicted by Diego onto the settlement of Bulrey, ranging from him keeping a menagerie of starved animals to inflict cruel deaths on mutineers, to Diego amputating his own penis to prevent himself from loving ever again. Diego's journal entries from this time have been studied by psychologists as early examples of paranoid schizophrenic behaviour.

Diego's behavior rendered the colony unsustainable, forcing him to take his expedition west to the rumoured Drakewai Islands. The outpost of Bulrey was left behind, and remained a small but critical trade post for transporting minerals from the rich Attaloccan Mountains from the Cordona River out to sea.

Glasean First Golden Era

Bulrey saw a revival when Glasean colonists of the [Centrumarium] reached Dunica in the [??s]. The Glaseans recognized the strategic importance of Bulrey in governing trade from mainland Dunica.