Quartz 5

City of Raven

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City of Raven

The City of Raven is a fair-sized city and a prized caravan stop on the road between north and south, set in the disputed lands of the Hub. It takes its name from Raven, the legendary heroine - though it has no clear historical tie to her. Its first mayor, Ernesto Blidword, simply hoped in 1014 to draw settlers and trade by trading on her myth. Centuries on, in the Worldshaper Wars, Raven was the first Swadian city to fall to the Lexalian Republic (1275), the Path of Swords carved south from its gates; the city was re-founded in 1417.

Over the centuries the city fell on hard times. The rise of Teremisis in the south, the growth of the sea-trade routes, and the city’s place within the demilitarized Hub - where, belonging to everyone, it was invested in by no one, lest a rival profit - left Raven a faded waypoint.

Jamran Blidword and the Arena

In 1510 was born Jamran Blidword, a direct descendant of that first mayor. The Blidwords do not rule Raven, but they remain among its most established families, and Jamran grew up fiercely proud of his city. Dreaming since boyhood of adventure, he set out to find some way to restore the home he loved. He was no great adventurer - and knew it - but he was no fool either, and family money, joined to ideas gathered on the road, gave him a plan: to make Raven a living legend, a lasting cultural beacon on the order of Difloa or the Frozen Crown, drawing crowds far beyond the merchants passing through.

On his travels he met a Jaknian scholar named Growla, then finishing her book on the magical relics of the Empire. He promised to help her track down the lost Lyre of Building for free, on one condition: that the Lyre be his once she had used it, and that his part go unmentioned. She agreed. They found the Lyre forgotten in a cellar of the Three Knives, in a lost fortress of Clairnia; Growla used its power to raise anew the Great University, which won her a coveted seat on its board.

Jamran carried the Lyre home but did not yet use it. To make a contest the world would talk of, he meant to obtain the legendary Ring of Raven as its prize - until Growla told him of Najin Delinqa’s research, which tied the Ring to Ismareldor, the dark knight who fought Raven, and held that the relic had been lost to the underworld along with him. Undeterred, Jamran found another way.

With the Ring secured, Jamran spent the family fortune buying the hunting-forests west of the city and the land for his Arena, building it in secret behind cover-stories of construction and monster-clearing. When it was done, he stood before the city council, revealed the Arena, and proposed a grand contest four months hence. Elected mayor by a majority, he set about publicity, hiring, and planning.

The election was no mere formality. Within the demilitarized Hub the cities are meant to be governed by councils alone; for Jamran to win the long-vacant office of mayor - unfilled for over a century - is a colossal thing, with far-reaching consequences for Raven’s standing in the eyes of the ruling nations, who may read it as a faintly warlike act.

The Arena

Admission to watch the Arena is a single silver piece a day.

The arena was built for varied, spectacular combat: 175 ft long and from 100 ft down to 85 ft wide, shaped as two joined circles divided by an artificial stream. Stone structures give cover and the advantage of height - stairs at 12 ft, rock pillars at 7 ft, low rock forms at 5 ft. Its walls are graven with glowing runes; strain your eyes and you can see a faint glow rise into a tall cylinder (180 ft) that nothing may pass through - though very strong or concentrated magic still can. The seats climb to some 150 ft and hold roughly 20,000 spectators.

Wagering runs through a betting network opened by the council member Adendmal Pererokyin, a stout and genial tiefling with a sharp head for business who saw the Arena’s promise at once. Competitors may not bet; a special team from Jaknia hunts fraud, and all wagers are overseen by Raven’s authorities.

The Contest

The Arena’s grand prize is the Ring of Unshackled Desire, and its draw has gathered champions from across the world - lone hopefuls and whole bands alike: the Faithful Companions, the Cursed Conclave, the Messengers, and the Servants of Eldrai, among many others.

The City Under the New Mayor

By night the City of Raven is well-lit and, for its size, surprisingly lovely - its main streets handsomely kept and walked by a guard that, unlike Teremisis, makes its presence felt: courteous, but watchful. In the two years since Jamran Blidword returned to stir the council, and the few months since his election, the city has prospered at a dizzying pace. He has found work for any who can labour and a roof for any who needs one; the homeless are given tents in a camp outside the walls - a stopgap he does not pretend is a lasting answer. Above all he has poured coin into the watch, for, as its members say with pride, to end crime one must first make the guard a body worthy of respect. When local recruits ran short he hired mercenaries from abroad, many brought in to keep order through the festival; rumour holds he paid some from his own purse, or called in old favours from his adventuring days. Taxes have risen a little, but the people, for now, are content - and they are sure Raven will never become another Daggerwatch.

Yet a careful visitor may find the peace unsettling. The streets are too clean - no beggars, no thieves, no homeless - and the city’s criminals and destitute seem simply to have vanished, without a single violent clash, none quite able to say where they went. And though Jamran styles himself a famed adventurer, no one from beyond Raven has truly heard the name.

The Underworld

Raven’s underworld has always been truly under the city, hiding its work from the regime within a complex of tunnels. As Jamran’s rise brought heavier policing, its bosses hired a crew to cut a secret way in and out; new tunnels now surface at scattered points - in the game forest, in the western fields, beside the roadside inn The Sober Horse two days south, and a day’s walk up- and down-river.

The city entrances are hidden and warded by three guardians - one of each kind - who bar passage to any not escorted by a member of the city thieves’ guild, the Tunnelers, or formally approved. Guild ways in include the cellar of the Riverview Tavern (inside a great barrel), a dockside warehouse, the vault beneath the great Greek church on the main square, the Tevaring family mausoleum, the pillar of the eastern bridge, sundry ordinary houses, and the gardens of Magnisimos Torvaldin’s estate. Other tunnels, warded only from within, open from Brown’s Tower and from Aqua Regia.

The underworld answers to a pair of criminals known as the Twins, who run it with ruthless efficiency, hold great sway over the council, and have a hand in all that enters or leaves the city. Their trade is in forbidden goods - drugs, poisons, and smuggling of every kind - and, more quietly, in living cargo: slaves moved from the north to the south. They keep the city’s crime tightly rationed, and grant their blessing to a would-be offender in the strange form of a delivered bouquet of flowers; crimes from outside the city, such as assassinations, must pass through the Twins themselves.

An Ancient Chamber

While digging the new tunnels, the guild broke into an underground room that seems part of some ancient complex. They seek someone willing to explore it and bring back whatever of interest lies within.

Appendix

See Also

Sources & Attribution

  • Primary lore: content/private/_originals/Settlement/Settlement-City of Raven.original.md, author TrueMichato.

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