Vel Drannis

The Ember City

Rising from the golden plains of southern Drania, Vel Drannis is a city of solemn beauty, sacred fire, and enduring ritual. It is the political heart of the Grand Duchy of Vel Dran and the spiritual capital of the Flameborn tradition — a city where every street has a purpose, and every stone whispers of ancient reverence. From a distance, its skyline gleams with brass and obsidian domes, the flame-towers of its great temples exhaling plumes of ritual smoke into the dry southern sky.
At the center of the city lies the Sanctum Pyrae, a monumental temple complex where the Great Flame has burned uninterrupted for over four centuries. This fire, housed beneath a dragonbone vault and tended day and night by silent flamewardens, is said to be drawn from the Ember Spire itself — a divine fragment of the First Flame. Pilgrims flock from across Drania to kneel in its light, leaving offerings, oaths, or ashes from the departed. Around it rise the Colonnades of Trial, where oaths of office, duels of judgment, and rites of passage are held before watching crowds and the ever-present flame.
The Palace of Cinders, residence of House Dravaryx, crowns the city’s highest hill — a fortress-temple of blackstone and red crystal, etched with draconic runes that shimmer faintly at dusk. From its high parapets, Grand Duke Tharion Dravaryx oversees the affairs of court and creed alike, flanked by Ashblade guardians and masked advisors of the Circle of Embers. The palace is both seat of rule and shrine, its council chambers doubling as sacred chambers of interpretation where flame is used to divine portents and resolve disputes.
But Vel Drannis is not merely a place of ritual. Its lower quarters are alive with artisans who craft ceremonial items — prayer-scrolls, dragonbone carvings, flame-tempered steel. Pilgrims lodge in flamehouses, where songs of devotion echo beneath vaulted roofs. The Drakewright Foundry, operated under temple license, breeds and equips sacred war-drakes, their roars a common sound on the city’s outskirts. Yet everything — commerce, travel, conversation — pauses at dusk, when the city's bells toll the Hour of Embers, and flames are lit across every doorway, bridge, and balcony. For one hour, the city stands still, awash in flickering orange, as a living reminder that in Vel Drannis, all things answer to the flame.

Type

Large town

Owner/Ruler

Grand Duke Tharion Dravaryx

Ruling/Owning Rank

Grand Duke / Grand Duchess of Vel Dran

Owning Organization

The Grand Duchy of Vel Dran

Characters in Location

• Grand Duke Tharion Dravaryx