Whitstone City

This article contains major spoilers to the Bound Series and Alpha Trilogy. Read with caution.
It is also part of the 2022 February Flash Challenge.

Whitstone City was founded as early as 1102 AD by Syus Nightingale and Ulrick Ravenswood with the help of a few vampires that followed them. The city started off as a small, quaint little village that started to blossom around 1159 AD, when the Native American tribe of humans began to move away out of pure terror. After the Senator of the Vampires, Kěith Cheonsa, visited the region, he blessed it as the capital of the third quadrant.
As of 1827 AD, Syus and Ulrick stepped down from their duties as kings and allowed for Iroh and Emiko Nightingale take over as King and Queen.

Dressed for the typical occasion of eating in the lavish dining room, Oliver tugged at the fabric of his suit. He groaned, hating every bit and piece of it. If only the butlers dressing him listened to a single word he said, he would be wearing his favorite hoodie and sweats with his earbuds in.
There was just one problem with the room as it was...
A stranger sat across from him, cutting an extremely rare steak with ease. Oliver had seen portraits of him throughout the palace, but never once asked who he was. The oddest thing about the man was he appeared like an older version of King Iroh, just with permanent ruby-colored eyes.

— Their Moon, Shadow Series Book 3 Scene

Leadership

by Amelia Nite (Paint)

Roughly three months after boarding the HSWW Starfall, Syus gave birth to a set of twins named Ysabelle and Cyran, both sickly from the start and Ulrick didn't want to risk them dying before finding their new homeland. Syus and Ulrick kept the twins in safe confinement until they reached the planet, Lupuscious, where the HSWW Starfall crashlanded in 2090 EoR and needed repairs.
Unfortunately, those who survived the crash where forced remain on the planet for fifty years, surviving the onslaught of an alien zombie apocalype, before they fixed up their ship and were able to escape. During this time, the twins remained unhealthy and easily got sick. It took everything for the couple to keep them alive, even after getting off the planet.
After arriving to their new home, Earth, Syus and Ulrick were expecting another set of twins, Rosas and Iroh. Rosas was not much for the throne, let alone any royal duties as he prefered the quiet solitude of the Church of Darkness. This left Iroh being eligable for the throne when Syus chose to retire.
Iroh proved himself as a just ruler, taking his father's teachings and putting them into the Five-Point-Guard and amping up the pressure to keep the peace between all five groups in their quadrant of the USA. He eventually met his wife, Emiko, whom he married shortly after meeting. In a few short years, Iroh and his wife produced a baby boy named Irate.

by Birmingham Museums Trust (Unsplash)

A little over 150 years went by before Iroh and Emiko were expecting another child. During this pregnancy, Emiko wasn't feeling well and they called upon Mage Gwydion Egyn for a diagnosis. Gwydion gave them a prognosis that their child was going to born with magick powers unseen before in any vampiric being. Emiko and Iroh made the hardest decision of their lives by having Gwydion cast a spell to turn their child into a mundane and hide the child among the humans. To this day, nobody knows who the second-born child of King Iroh is.
Eventually, Irate left the kingdom when his father refused to abdicate the throne and headed south to Eastormel, where he forcefully took King Yeoal's life and became the new King of Eastormel.
Whitstone City has moderate laws and strict law enforcement, which is quite normal for a kingdom. The people are concerned due to a decreasing population, caused by the need to survive. Whitstone City mainly lives off weaponsmithing, wine brewing, and engineering. This is also reflected in the kingdom's flag, which has a red background with black lines forming the shape of a cross, and a green coiling eastern dragon in the center of the cross. Their coat of arms is exactly the same but with a fancy shield design.

Geography

by Amelia Nite (Worldspinner)

Located to the southeast of Minnesota, the city of Whitstone was built atop a terraformed mountain cliff with peaks jutting up behind it. Its elevation is 1,070 meters above sea level. To the east are castle ruins (19.25 km) built on top of what used to be a functioning cavern base (17.61 km). Besides that, a monument to Vavheia, the Dark was erected some 4.85 kilometers to the northwest in honor of being the new goddess of the moon. A ruined fortress is 21.23 kilometers south of the city, and was once rumored to be a structure for guarding the small village that Whitstone City used to be.
It is mainly covered by the dry plains of its home state and has a windy climate, which has lead to a packed population living in settlements surrounding the Whitstone Palace. The kingdom's landscape is bland; bleak, bare forests, icy lakes, and desolate grasslands are just a sliver of the harshness Whitstone has to offer. The people of the kingdom are welcoming toward foreigners and tend to welcome them with a feast. They feel foreigners could advance the kingdom's well-being.

Terrain

by kinkate (Pixabay)

Any part of Whitstone City has volcanic rocks as the mountain the city is built upon is really a terraformed volcano that lies dormant. Sedimentary rocks, bedrock, and massive sheets of ice (1 km thick) are helped to create the volcano. Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, with limestone and dolomite are especially prevalent near the surface, is the main type of bedrock to be found. With the use of karst topography, the thin topsoils lying atop limestones have revealed the formations of caverns and sinkholes around the city.
When the last glaciation occured, it did not cover the southeastern part of Minnesota, leaving Whitstone City to be spared. This, unfortunately, has made the area unable to be farmed with crops. Dairy farms are the only way to go at this point. A wide fresh-water river runs through the city with a depth of 28 meters and a width of 2.27 kilometers. It is navigable and the main source of water for the city. Aquatic animals that can be found within the river are clams, bass, and smelt fish.

Climate

Whitstone City endures temperatures connected to a warm temperate mountainous biome; wild cold winters and hot summers, the record high and low span 174 °F (96.6 °C). Rain, snow, hail, blizzards, polar fronts, tornadoes, thunderstorms, and high-velocity straight-line winds threaten the city. During the growing season can last about 160 days with temperatures averaging about 36 °F (2 °C) to 49 °F (9 °C). Droughts occur every 10 to 50 years (the next is set to occur in 2021 AD), and the average annual precipitation ranges from 19 in (48.3 cm) to 35 in (88.9 cm).

Whitstone City

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Table of Contents

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by Pau Sayrol (Unsplash)

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Titles/Nicknames

The City of Ice

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Quick Facts

Founding Date:

1102 AD

Type:

Metropolis

Leader:

Iroh Nightingale

Leader Title:

King

Parent Organization:

Whitstone Kingdom

Neighboring Nations:

Auburnspell
Branch Hook
Claw Pack
Rage Pack
Spire of Eahagan
Vicious Claw Pride

Currency:

Mixed (US dollar / ???)

Total Population:

2,057,888

Residential Buildings:

116,635

Districts:

9

Population Density:

Average
(avg. 3.48 people per residence)

Land Area:

1991.86 km2
(492199.3 acres)

Farmland:

705.14 km2
(174243.9 acres)

Settlement Proper:

3.37 km2
(832.7 acres)

Attitude:

Distrustful
Sophisticated

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Social

Government:

Monarchy

Primary Religion:

Polytheism

Urban Population:

1,549,911

Rural Population:

507,977

Known Criminals:

63,826

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Architecture

Primary Building Style:

Clay lined fiber

Other Building Styles:

Concrete
Marble
Stone

Avg. Aesthetics:

Utilitarian

Avg. Cleanliness:

Disorderly

Avg. Upkeep:

Lived-in

Districts:

Bexdover District
Calley District
Forworth District
Keenla District
Middleport District
Milcaster District
Walltham District
Warelow District
Waterson District

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Infrastructure

Primary Road Type:

Cobblestone Roads

Irrigation:

Surge Irrigation

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Defenses

Walls:

Mortar Wall
Stone

Natural Defenses:

Fortress
Hills
Wide River

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Available only for the author of the Shadows Saga. If you are the author, special notes will appear below.

Government

The king of Whitstone City takes care of the city and the surrounding region. He will comune with his council and make appearances at charities. The council does most of the work around the city, yet the king and royal family are expected to give speeches, hold charities, and make appearances at noble events.
When the king is set to retire, his heir will ascend to the throne.
The current government of the city:

• Iroh Nightingale - King
• Emiko Nightingale - Queen
• Unknown Child - Heir
• Urien Apus - Council Member
• Vasile Caelum - Council Member
• Callidora Alnair - Council Member
• Lucilla Zenith - Council Member
• Chantrea Kale - Council Member

Trivia

• In this alternate history of Earth, the city of Whitstone had a few human visitors in the past. One visitor was a member of J.R.R. Tolkien's family and they, in turn, had stories about the city. This is how the city of Gondor's city structure came to be in the LoTR series.