Mineral-rich and inhospitable, this enormous impact crater has proven itself difficult to govern under the best of circumstances, and since the world was first colonized, the lucrative and unique natural resources ensured the region was dominated by warlords. Beneath the sweltering dry heat, so unusual for a world defined by its excess of chilly marshes, gangs of kidnapped and stolen slaves extracted basna, rasme, eponoppi lapa, gemstones, and precious metals. If they were fortunate, the strongest of them would sell their wares to merchants in the high castled city on the coast; the rest would perish in the vicious climate, or at the hands of rivals and thieves.

The lawlessness of Kelonra was not exactly accidental. After a brief war of independence during 2201–2230 PO, the coastal city-state of Yevesha (Fígestrímana Roventría, "Tawny Bay") gained normalized diplomatic relations with the Empire, the only state on Wanisin to be recognized through an official and permanent diplomatic mission. The war had proven conclusively that the people who had settled in the desert had a limitless capacity to hide and regroup, so at the treaty table, Empress Gegloko II was happy to grant the city and indeed the entire crater to the leader of the rebels, the self-styled Queen Moudia (Hakradekla Múdía). In the Empress's reckoning, it would be cheaper to play the game of supply-and-demand with a monopoly, and to let Moudia and her successors worry about protecting their city; indeed, if they failed, then the Empire would simply deal with a new regime.

History bore witness to the wisdom of this strategy. The coalition of Viradi schools that had tenuously elected Moudia as their ruler soon disintegrated into squabbling, and for centuries the early Empresses in Sur'daro knew not to be too kind to any given Desert Queen, for another would soon take the throne, and bring a dim view to allies of vanquished rivals.