Sani Bursil

Sani Bursil
City
Sani Bursil 2018
Settled by Morstaybishlians	c.334 (As the Burisaye settlements)
Official City-wide Union	1952
Government
• Lord Provost	Valentine Christie
Elevation	28 m (125 ft)
Population  (2019)
• City	50,864,520
• Rank	1
• Metro	60,697,594
Demonym(s)	Lakesider, Burisayian
Website	sanibursil.gov.mbe

Sani Bursil is the capital and largest city of Staynes and Great Morstaybishlia, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 50.8 million in 2024, making the city the largest populated city in the world. Sani Bursil exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. It is regarded as the Cradle of Aurora.

The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to Staynes, and as many as 1,200 languages are spoken in Sani Bursil, making it Urth's most linguistically diverse city. Sani Bursil is home to more than 11 million residents born outside Great Morstaybishlia and their Overseas Territories, making it Urth's largest foreign-born population of any city. By 2016 estimates, the Sani Bursil metropolitan region remains by a significant margin the most populous in Staynes, as defined by the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), 56.6 million residents. As one of three headquarters of the United Nations of the Auroran Continent (UNAC), Sani Bursil is an important centre for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of Urth.

The Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a massive population boom and migration of people towards the area. Sani Bursil was the largest city on the banks of Morsa Lake and saw the largest population increase among neighbouring cities and towns. In the 19th century, tramways and horse and carriage roads were the main transport infrastructure. In the 1920s it was predicted that automobiles would become an integral part of commuting in the following decades, and the inner city was transformed to accomodate them. The city was extensively bombed in the Auroran Imperial War, and many important buildings did not survive, though notably Kalmington Palace did. Many significant old buildings which weren't totally destroyed were reconstructed. The city was rebuilt in the 1970s, and its roads were widened to accomodate cycling lanes.

Many districts and landmarks in Sani Bursil have become well known, and the city received a record 201 million tourists in 2016. Several sources have ranked Sani Bursil the most photographed city in Urth.

Etymology

The earliest written record of Sani Bursil is from an original manuscript found during renovation of a temple in Arsal in 1649, which among others describing Impelanzan rule over Estenes de la Aurora, describes a battle fought over the pillared fortress Burhsūli. The pillared fortress was sainted under Impelanzan rule, becoming Sanctus Burhsūli. This lasted for two centuries from the 4th to the early 6th, being reclaimed around the fall of Impelanza.

Because the city was described as being pillared, etymologists widely agree that Burhsūli comes from an earlier proto-Ethalrian translation Burgzsūliz, where burgz means "fortress" (similar to how burh is related to burg in Old Staynish), and sūliz means "pillar". When the Staynish reclaimed Sani Bursil in the 10th century, the city was known as Sanu Burhsyl. The t pronounciation had been lost, and sūli had shrank to syl.

The city's first recorded modern spelling was in a letter sent by King Crago IV in 1464 to a Magister residing in Bourbridge. The city was spelt by future King Lambertus III as Sanu Bursul, but future letters suggested that by his reign in the early 16th century, the city was commonly written as Sani Bursil.