City of Marino

The capital of DeVere is Marino, an ancient and beautiful city, teetering on a steep seaside cliff in the southwestern corner of the kingdom. Marino has broad high plazas, floating islands, tall natural spires, and white stone towers built one atop the other, leading all the way down to the sea.
Marino was a seaside ship-building metropolis and the center of the known world 1500 years ago when (according to legend) a celestial catastrophe knocked the world into chaos. Over the centuries, the far-flung cities of DeVere lost contact with Marino and governed themselves. Now, thanks to the recent explosion of lighter-than-air travel, the Capital City reaches out, grasping to control the city-states of DeVere.
Geography of Marino
The Tawndire mountain range is a line of jagged, sky-high peaks that are responsible for the impossible city of Marino. The Tawndire plunges more than three thousand feet into the sea at this ancient port, and the city climbs the canyon walls as the fog rises below it.
Navies of Marino
Marino has unmatched air power in the form of its Royal and Merchant Navies.
“The Regency” refers to the royal family in Marino. They are led by King Sa, a hereditary monarch who shares power with a council of merchant families.
The Regency controls the Royal Navy, which has two main components: The relatively peaceful Marino Royal Navy, also known as The Regency, under the command of King Sa and his royal family, and the bellicose Hightower Navy, a somewhat unruly splinter group commanded by Wilem Hightower and his daughter Anna.
Several merchant families have their own fleets of nearly equal combined power to the Royal Navy. Collectively these fleets are called the Merchant Navy, though they are in no way united under a common purpose.
The University
Consisting of several Schools, the University at Marino is officially named Holz and Hermon, more commonly, Marino University, or just The University. Its campus is perched on a high, clear plateau in the Gelar District, an ancient enclave high above the Old City. The University has stood here in some form, changing names every few centuries, for more than two thousand years.
There are old and deep-rooted rivalries between the houses and the schools, but they are mostly friendly, and students are well aligned in the search for knowledge. Much of what they teach today has been reclaimed from lost civilizations, through diligent research and exploration in the deep fog.
With its many ancient classrooms and labyrinthine libraries, the University itself a miniature archaeological challenge, a microcosm of the entire Kingdom.
Earls and Gelar: This is the University’s preeminent school of science and natural history, named after its founders Siman Gelar and Gury Earls, who established this school roughly two hundred years ago. Earls and Gelar were part of a secret organization, the Sun Valley Society, whose charter is to placate the world’s fears of a never-ending fog with a subtle campaign of misinformation. Sun Valley holds many of the world’s most powerful people in its thrall, not the least of whom is the paranoid Duches Anna Fiera Hightower.
Terrace Guildhalls: There are fifteen tradesmen’s guildhalls attached to the University and trailing down into the Terrace district. Brewers, Longshoremen, Blacksmiths, Carpenters, Architects, Stonemasons, and so on. Technically all tradesmen within the city limits must be licensed and bound by the appropriate Guildhall, but budgets and politics being what they are, the laws are often ignored unless the constabulary need a reason to make a point.
Corsan Temples
One of many faiths in DeVere, the Corsan Beloved is a powerful sect headquartered at High Corsaine, in Fountain Block, Marino. The Corsan Beloved build expansive temple complexes throughout the Kingdom. They admit only women into the clergy, and are widely criticized for running, essentially, brothels disguised as temples. This is mostly, but not entirely, true.
The Corsan Faith was established by Dominica Corsa in 1303. They are a sect of the Adherents, an ancient faith that believes the Gods were men and women who rose to superhuman status through great works. These gods have dozens of various names and stories, but are collectively called The Few.
Various sects of Adherents believe different truths and stories about The Few. Some preach that the power to ascend to godhood still exists within every living creature. Others believe that an external divine hand was responsible for the elevation of The Few to demigod status, and that God has abandoned this world, along with his favorite children, many centuries ago. Usually this abandonment coincides with the Break, which is their term for the celestial catastrophe that designates Year 1 of the modern calendar.
Some sects, including the Corsans, preach that the Gods will return one day to free the world of fear, and that the rising Fog is part of the Gods’ punishment on the world for its sins. They are a proselytizing faith, fiercely cult-like, and awkwardly mercenary in their ministrations.
In actual fact, most of their temples are brothels, and are usually surrounded with other commercial enterprises including taverns and gambling halls. High Corsaine is located a stone’s throw from Marino’s most exotic and expansive gambling district, The Witchery.
Other Locations of Note:
Shipyards: There are several competing shipyards in Marino, most of whom take contracts from the Royal and Merchant navies. The larger ones include Moremert Stay, Pell Shipworks, The Halwar Yards, the Calard Yards, Frazier Dock, and Drye Mantel.
Palazzo Caprice: The Palazzo Caprice is the home of the Royal Family, including King Sa. It is a vast and magnificent palace at the center of the Terrace district, with a clear view of nearly all of the city.
Verulen Plaza: The city’s largest floating plaza, Verulen Plaza is a gigantic market, meeting place, and cultural center.
The Warden’s Palace: The hub of the Marino police, a powerful and corrupt organization independent of both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Families. The Palace contains living quarters for the Warden Chief and his family, training grounds, a large armory, and even a small low-security prison (hard cases go to the Brewery).
Brickyard Market: Located in the central Dewar District, the Brickyard is a famous farmer’s market and entertainment district, stretching for nearly a mile along the Auber Canal. Less posh and far more dangerous than Verulen Plaza, this is where most of the city comes for their daily shopping. The Brickyard is served by the Lanner docks at Ferry Host.
Crest College: Located on the Pickerel Stack, Crest College is the last vestige of a sailing school called Bien-aimé Sur-Mer. Once a school for seafarers, Crest College is now a military academy, specializing in aerial and naval architecture and construction, sailing and navigation, and techniques of aerial warfare.
Fenton College: One of the lesser universities of Marino, Fenton College is located in the district of Sellersport. This is a trade college, specializing in disciplines like flight, carpentry, butchery, stonework, as well as basic courses like mathematics and letters.
Mito Spire: The highest point on the Pickerel Stack, Mito Spire is a famous 500-foot natural stone pillar jutting out of the fog at the southernmost point in Marino. It has no buildings nearby, but there is a narrow stone staircase leading about three-quarters of the way to the top.
Seward Lee: This is the older, dirtier part of town, with ancient underpinnings that are still inhabited, in parts all the way down to the seashore. It includes Copper Town, the Brewrey Prison, and the deadly Smalfery Lane. Seward Lee takes its name from an ocean shore eight hundred feet below the fog. 
Sellersport: Neither very rich nor very poor, the Sellersport district is exactly as it sounds: a collection of docks, shops, and small factories, and the home of many of Marino’s less ambitious Merchant families. It’s the newest part of the city, though still hundreds of years old, and it provides the first view of the City to anyone arriving from the East, which is pretty much everyone.