Cedres Lyria, Capital of the Queen's Realm

On approach to the capital from the water, the first things of note are the towering white cliffs that flank a protected harbour seemingly made for settlement. The central focus of the city is the large cove referred to as Oathsworn Bay, a protected harbour large enough to allow for great numbers of piers and dockyards on all sides of the city’s waterfront. The entrance to the Bay is wide enough for two great Lyrian Temple Ships to enter and leave simultaneously. The great fortresses on either side of the entrance are built both atop and into the cliffside, and they use a system of flags and lights to control the shipping traffic and have been known to raise a great chain between them to close the harbour off from seaborne threat.

Oathsworn Bay has one small rocky island in its center, roughly shaped like a shallow bowl, this was the traditional site of the ritual oath taken by the refugee wood elves who first came to the site over a thousand years ago. Today, the site is an open air shrine with a great cedar tree standing over two hundred feet tall in the center of the island. Planted at the time of the Oath of the Sea, the tree gently glimmers in the night sky and outright glows under moonlight. There are no permanent residents of the island, but it is constantly attended to by various clergy of the Old Faith throughout the day and the night.

Demographics

390,000 Inhabitants (Approximate)

1. 170,000 Half-Elves (Wood Elven)
2. 140,000 Wood Elves
3. 60,000 Humans
4. 10,000 Gnomes
5. 10,000 Others

Government

The Queen's Capital is governed by a Council representing the districts and several other power centers. Totaling 13 members, they are all appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Royal Steward with the number of seats for each district set according to population save for the last two, which are always single seats.

• 2 Representatives for Northside
• 3 Representatives for Southside
• 2 Representatives for Central
• 4 Representatives for the Interior
• 1 Representatives for the Oath Temple
• 1 Representative for Piers and Docks

The Members of Council hold a yearly vote to confirm a Royal Mayor, who holds executive power over the city according to the Royal Charter for the Capital. 
The Oath Temple is the central Old Faith organization that guides the hearts and minds of many within the Queen's Realm, the clergy of the various temples throughout the city come together to select one of their number to represent their interests at the Council level. 
The Representative for Piers and Docks is a relatively new addition to the Council, nominated by any foreign ship's quartermaster or captain currently docked or waiting to be docked at the Queen's Capital. Every time there is a sitting of the Council, the Queen's prime minister holds a nomination on the ritual dockyard in the Central district. From the number who successfully become nominees, the prime minister selects one to sit on the Council for that session. Sometimes, there is only one nominee; sometimes, there are dozens. The result is mixed, and it seems as though that chaos is injected into the normally staid proceedings of the group on purpose.

Defences

The city has fortifications inland, there is a moderately-sized wall surrounding the oldest of the interior city. There is a large greenspace between the outer walls and the beginning of the inland districts. In times of war, this demarcates the common outer range of siege engines and magical evocations; in times of peace, they are the grounds of the second-largest martial tournament in the west: the Tournament of Thorns. Jousting, dueling, archery, horse archery, and the grand melee are mainstays, though the Lyrian tourney is also known for its magical events as well.

Districts

The city is sectioned into four main areas: northside, southside, central and interior. The areas are oriented based on the seaborne entrance to the city, and the interior portion is up a gentle hill and over some greenspace before forming the inland entranceway to the city-proper. The interior city is somewhat sprawling and the interior has its own distinct districts, but they are demarcated clearly by roadways flanked by greenspaces, each is its own smaller community with its own idiosyncrasies. The central city is the heart of the city from an administrative and governmental perspective with the Queen’s Palace, the Prime Minister’s Hall and the Citadel of Justice dominating the skyline. The northside is the heart of social and economic life of the city and plays host to an ornate Merchant’s Exchange, the open air Choral Amphitheater and the Grand Opera Hall. The southside is the home of resource industries like timber and lumber, finished goods, and the fisheries, but also plays home to the famed Great Hippodrome and many of the more rough and tumble dancehalls, taverns and fighting rings.
The mouth of the Whiterun has been dredged and widened, and its riverbanks were shored up by great blocks of the white stone taken from the cliffs themselves. More a canal than a river now, the Whiterun plays host to smaller vessels plying the water both up and down its flow. The riverbanks along the interior are dotted with smaller docks that serve as places for warehouses to store goods for transit into the interior of the realm from barges, keelboats and narrow longships. They are flanked primarily by well-spaced townhouses and shops connected by walking paths along the waterfront and more robust roadways further inland.

Founding Date

6006 ABF

Alternative Name(s)

The New City, The Queen's Capital

Type

Capital

Population

390,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Cedria

Owner/Ruler

Queen Amnestra the Second

Owning Organization

Realm of Lyria

Characters in Location

• Queen Amnestra the Second
• Siria Hellenthil, Prime Minister of Lyria

Vehicles Present

• Lyrian Temple Ship

Related Plots

• 01 - Inauspicious Signs
• 02 - Dawning Consequence
• 03 - Underground Refuge