Patesh

The hot sun is beating down on the market stalls as vendors hawk their wares in a hundred languages and a thousand strange sights and smells assault your senses. Welcome to... Patesh!
It has been called the “World’s Bazaar.” Though some question which came first, the ancient capital of Patak actually predates the lands over which it rules by several thousand years. In fact the word “Patak” is said to be a gnollish mispronunciation of the capital city’s name. In the native language of the gnolls, "patak" is an idiom along the lines of "running the gauntlet."
In Patesh, trade rules all, and the law of the land is "A Deal is a Deal." Here you might find any known race or creature mingling in the markets and fairs. The city thrives on a diversity of trade, and there is little tolerance for xenophobia. A being that might be considered a monster or worse in other ports is merely a citizen in Patesh. The city's population has been pushed into closely packed stone tenements to make way for the wide marble plazas teeming with every kind of stall and marketplace. Ampheres of elven wine from Maljeray, Devarish tattoo parlors, or exotic desert fruits from Arqadin can all be bought here. Patak's lax trade policies allow for even the most unsavory of commerce to take place. Slaves are traded in the open like common wares. The drug known as "spice," banned by many of the nations of Aleria, can be obtained in lurid parlors, often paired with the city's cathouses. And in the Bazaar of the Bizarre, one of the few permanent installations, even the strangest of strange magics might be obtained, for a price. And that price is not always paid in gold and silver.
Patesh is the home of the Trade Lords, the undisputed rulers of Patak's plutarchy. From their strange twisting minarets, the mysterious Trade Lords enforce the laws of commerce through agents and enforcers. Patesh has also become host to the powerful and, some say, dangerous Nex Lords. The Nex Lords (short for "nexus") were established 4,000 years ago by the powerful wizard Quantius, a master of portal magic. He claimed to have proof that Patesh was the original site of the ancient event known as "the Sundering," when four powerful portal mages created doorways to otherworldly realms in order to lead their followers to safety during the Dragon Wars. Quantius was convinced that Patesh itself must be a powerful conduit; a source of cosmic alignment where the walls between the worlds grew weak. Though he made every attempt to reassure the Trade Lords of his benign intentions, even crafting the two massive iron golems which patrol and protect Patesh to this day, the Trade Lords grew increasingly threatened by Quantius's growing power and pool of followers, an arcane society who dubbed the themselves the Nex Lords. They feared that his experiments into portal magic would tear a hole in reality or release unspeakable evils from dark dimensions. Thus, when Quantius mysteriously disappeared, it was rumored to be a conspiracy on the part of the Trade Lords and Ahmakt, the Sand King of Nosirios, to do away with the troublesome wizard. Others simply conjectured that he had finally discovered a portal from which he couldn't return.
Regardless, the Nex Lords continue their arcane studies to this day, committed to both recreating the mysterious portals of the Sundering, and to discovering the fate of their founder.

Defences

Two quantium golems, metal giants created long ago by the wizard Quantius, continually patrol the outskirts of the city.

Guilds and Factions

The Trade Lords; the Nex Lords; the Seekers

Alternative Name(s)

The World's Bazaar

Type

City

Inhabitant Demonym

Pateshites

Location under

Patak

Owning Organization

The Trade Lords of Patesh