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{{Worldbuilders}} | {{Worldbuilders}} '''Al'Adeaf''' (founded as '''Denaria''', after [[Waukeen]]) is a an ever-sinking city and trade hub in the central [[Pteris]] area, linking much of the southern and northern parts of the continent together in commerce and culture. It was the second largest of [[The Seven Cities]], a loose federation of cities in central Pteris. | ||
'''Al'Adeaf''' (founded as '''Denaria''', after [[Waukeen]]) is a an ever-sinking city and trade hub in the central [[Pteris]] area, linking much of the southern and northern parts of the continent together in commerce and culture. It was the second largest of [[The Seven Cities]], a loose federation of cities in central Pteris. | |||
Citizens from Al'Adeaf are often called `'''Sinkish''' people. | Citizens from Al'Adeaf are often called `'''Sinkish''' people. | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
Almost a thousand years ago, the “city” of '''Denaria''' was nothing more than several dozen squalid huts perched on a few islands in the fine granular sands of the Delta Serpentine. The city’s most worshiped goddess, [[Waukeen]], soon pushed the mountains aside to provide large, flat, and fertile land for settling. Times have changed: close to 100,000 people dwell here now and the population soars during festivals or major market days. Long since renamed '''Al'Adeaf''' (''<u>Trudgeon</u>'' for "Ever Sinking") the city looks westward onto a the dangerous and mysterious Badlands of Pteris, and still stands by its merchant goddess who promotes trade and profit. Al'Adeaf is the second largest city of [[The Seven Cities]], a trade union formed by several cities on the [[Pteris]] continent and wields unmatched economic power among the seven. | |||
In Al'Adeaf, the ringing of bells occasionally drowns out the din of endless hammering and the cries of merchants hawking their wares. Pennants of golden sandblasted coins (depicting a white Aarakocra) flutter from rooftops and poles. Priests and merchants are everywhere, statues adorn every building in sight, wild animals burrow and crawl on and beneath hundreds of stone or wooden bridges, and brightly painted buildings with breathtaking architecture ignominiously stand half-sunken into the sand. Say what you want about the heat or the smell, it’s a memorable and beautiful city. | In Al'Adeaf, the ringing of bells occasionally drowns out the din of endless hammering and the cries of merchants hawking their wares. Pennants of golden sandblasted coins (depicting a white Aarakocra) flutter from rooftops and poles. Priests and merchants are everywhere, statues adorn every building in sight, wild animals burrow and crawl on and beneath hundreds of stone or wooden bridges, and brightly painted buildings with breathtaking architecture ignominiously stand half-sunken into the sand. Say what you want about the heat or the smell, it’s a memorable and beautiful city. | ||
== About == | == About == | ||
=== The People === | === The People === | ||
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‘Sinkish organizations tend towards a matriarchy, especially in the church; as a rule of thumb in Al’Adeaf, women are in positions of prestige and power as much as or more than men. | ‘Sinkish organizations tend towards a matriarchy, especially in the church; as a rule of thumb in Al’Adeaf, women are in positions of prestige and power as much as or more than men. | ||
=== Societies === | === Societies === | ||
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* '''Ancient [[Snobbite Regality|Snobbite]] Nobility''': Dissolute but infinitely proud, clinging to their social graces and ancestral superiority within their crumbling mansions. | * '''Ancient [[Snobbite Regality|Snobbite]] Nobility''': Dissolute but infinitely proud, clinging to their social graces and ancestral superiority within their crumbling mansions. | ||
* '''Church of [[Waukeen]]''', '''goddess of Commerce''': every exchange of money is a prayer to her sly wisdom and obsession with trade that defines the city itself. Her priests are moneylenders who hunt down Sorcerers and carry out her will. | * '''Church of [[Waukeen]]''', '''goddess of Commerce''': every exchange of money is a prayer to her sly wisdom and obsession with trade that defines the city itself. Her priests are moneylenders who hunt down Sorcerers and carry out her will. | ||
* '''City Watch''': these poor bastards are under-funded, under-respected, and the hardest working employees in Al’Adeaf. They’re responsible for enforcing order, solving murders, and bringing the guilty to the gallows. | * '''City Watch''': these poor bastards are under-funded, under-respected, and the hardest working employees in Al’Adeaf. They’re responsible for enforcing order, solving murders, and bringing the guilty to the gallows. | ||
* '''Commoners''': no one remembers the underclass, but the commoners look out for their own, and there’s a lot more poor in Al’Adeaf than there are nobles. A terrifying force when roused. | * '''Commoners''': no one remembers the underclass, but the commoners look out for their own, and there’s a lot more poor in Al’Adeaf than there are nobles. A terrifying force when roused. | ||
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* '''Mercanti''': The new-money nobility of Al’Adeaf, church-blessed families whose iron grip on specific guilds brings in the trade that powers the city. | * '''Mercanti''': The new-money nobility of Al’Adeaf, church-blessed families whose iron grip on specific guilds brings in the trade that powers the city. | ||
* '''Mercenaries''' (including House Armies): Hard-living professional warriors who stay loyal as long as their pay doesn’t run out, mostly Hobgoblins. | * '''Mercenaries''' (including House Armies): Hard-living professional warriors who stay loyal as long as their pay doesn’t run out, mostly Hobgoblins. | ||
* '''Monstrosities''': Most people have never seen one, but there are rumors that a loose community of serpentine folk live underneath Al’Adeaf. They’re unlikely to have Waukeen’s best interests at heart. | |||
* '''Monstrosities''': Most people have never seen one, but there are rumors that a loose community | |||
* '''Badlanders''': an unorganized and unpredictable group of barbarians, travelers, tourists, professional adventurers and piratical scoundrels seeking some quick coin, coming mostly from the badlands out west. | * '''Badlanders''': an unorganized and unpredictable group of barbarians, travelers, tourists, professional adventurers and piratical scoundrels seeking some quick coin, coming mostly from the badlands out west. | ||
* '''The Sorcerous Cabal''': Sorcery is considered inhuman, unnatural, and antithetical to the grace of the goddess Waukeen. If one or more sorcerous cabals exist, they’re a threat to everything right-thinking people love. | * '''The Sorcerous Cabal''': Sorcery is considered inhuman, unnatural, and antithetical to the grace of the goddess Waukeen. If one or more sorcerous cabals exist, they’re a threat to everything right-thinking people love. | ||
* '''Thieves’ Guilds''': Avoiding taxes is a mortal sin in the eyes of the goddess Waukeen, but making money is a blessing, so it’s fair to say the dozens of smugglers’ and thieves’ guilds are conflicted at best. | * '''Thieves’ Guilds''': Avoiding taxes is a mortal sin in the eyes of the goddess Waukeen, but making money is a blessing, so it’s fair to say the dozens of smugglers’ and thieves’ guilds are conflicted at best. | ||
* '''[[The Seven Cities]]''': Distant rulers of not just Al’Adeaf, but Ugarat and 5 other cities in central Pteris, the secret police, and the vast government bureaucracy of committees that keeps the city functioning as well as it does. | * '''[[The Seven Cities]]''': Distant rulers of not just Al’Adeaf, but Ugarat and 5 other cities in central Pteris, the secret police, and the vast government bureaucracy of committees that keeps the city functioning as well as it does. | ||
== Architecture | === Architecture === | ||
The city is full of color. It’s a jumbled mess of stone spires, wooden shacks, brightly painted manor houses, grand open plazas, teeming marketplaces, roof gardens, harbors, and soaring bridges over omnipresent canals. The tallest noble towers are decorated with ancient jeweled windows of breathtaking beauty, but that doesn’t necessarily distract from the unevenly sinking hovels of the poorer districts that house many common families in a small amount of space. There are even a few remaining buildings above ground from ages of sorcerous wonders, made from unbreakable crystal or other unspeakably beautiful substances. | The city is full of color. It’s a jumbled mess of stone spires, wooden shacks, brightly painted manor houses, grand open plazas, teeming marketplaces, roof gardens, harbors, and soaring bridges over omnipresent canals. The tallest noble towers are decorated with ancient jeweled windows of breathtaking beauty, but that doesn’t necessarily distract from the unevenly sinking hovels of the poorer districts that house many common families in a small amount of space. There are even a few remaining buildings above ground from ages of sorcerous wonders, made from unbreakable crystal or other unspeakably beautiful substances. | ||
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Public and private gardens are a symbol of wealth and power. Those who can afford it prefer roof gardens of rare and exotic flowers, but you’re likely to come across small hidden (and well-defended) vegetable gardens grown on other people’s roofs by those who need the food most. Hedge animals are currently fashionable on the estates of the rich; hedge mazes are ''so'' last generation. More than one small island is entirely given over to public gardens, with any building within their borders deemed illegal. | Public and private gardens are a symbol of wealth and power. Those who can afford it prefer roof gardens of rare and exotic flowers, but you’re likely to come across small hidden (and well-defended) vegetable gardens grown on other people’s roofs by those who need the food most. Hedge animals are currently fashionable on the estates of the rich; hedge mazes are ''so'' last generation. More than one small island is entirely given over to public gardens, with any building within their borders deemed illegal. | ||
'''Buildings normally lose about 8 cm to the sink each year''', or roughly '''one floor per generation''', but a sudden sink is not an unheard-of phenomenon; if you’re tremendously unlucky, a laundry line a comfortable story up today might lie on the ground tomorrow. Sinking buildings add complications, with sidewalks of varying heights and stairs leading up to (or down to) a building’s current front door. Architects work constantly to repair, modify and reinforce buildings. | '''Buildings normally lose about 8 cm to the sink each year''', or roughly '''one floor per generation''', but a sudden sink is not an unheard-of phenomenon; if you’re tremendously unlucky, a laundry line a comfortable story up today might lie on the ground tomorrow. Sinking buildings add complications, with sidewalks of varying heights and stairs leading up to (or down to) a building’s current front door. Architects work constantly to repair, modify and reinforce buildings. | ||
All but the most recent buildings reach deeper underground than they do vertically above street level. Descending through usually flooded basements brings you back through the building’s history one generation at a time. Many such levels are flooded with quicksand, but sometimes good drainage, airtight construction or ancient pumps keep most of the sand out. Anything might be forgotten down there, and it isn’t unusual to discover that your supposedly secure basements are being used as an underground highway by smugglers. Paranoid homeowners pay architects to seal off their basements and then live in a state of denial, trying to forget that those basements even exist. | All but the most recent buildings reach deeper underground than they do vertically above street level. Descending through usually flooded basements brings you back through the building’s history one generation at a time. Many such levels are flooded with quicksand, but sometimes good drainage, airtight construction or ancient pumps keep most of the sand out. Anything might be forgotten down there, and it isn’t unusual to discover that your supposedly secure basements are being used as an underground highway by smugglers. Paranoid homeowners pay architects to seal off their basements and then live in a state of denial, trying to forget that those basements even exist. | ||
== Behind the Screen == | == Behind the Screen == | ||
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[[Category:Beggar's Bodega]] | [[Category:Beggar's Bodega]] | ||