Skaldenburg

Skaldenburg is the capital city of Ordayn, and has been the seat of its Kings and Queens since Beorl's Founding. Before the third war of the Northern Conquests, it had supported a flourishing economy with a diverse community of merchants and artisans. However, since the country's devastation at the hands of the Imperial Banner and the installation of King Rordin, it has suffered a dramatic decline. Many of the institutions that had once used the city as their base of operations, such as the Society of Magic and the Order of Cyrus, were destroyed by the Ministry of Enlightenment, their magnificent buildings plundered and abandoned, the home to squatters, vagrants, and other, less savoury denizens. The many traders and craftsmen that had given the city its character were driven out of business by the arrival of the Everwinter Sea Trading Company, which built its regional headquarters in the former Temple of Storhim.

The city that was once called the "Pearl of the North" nowadays has more the feel of a prison camp. Townspeople duck from door to door with their eyes cast to the ground, lest they catch the attention of an Imperial patrol. The barracks that once housed rowdy, mead-swilling warriors and proud housecarls with rings in their beards now hold a garrison of grim-faced legionnaires, who take out their frustrations at being posted so far from home on the people they have been sent to police. Gone are the festival fires of the Winter Solstice, or the pan-pipe players of the Trickster God Tan. In its place are dour, incense-swinging priests of the Church of the Four Gates, who walk the streets droning psalms in Ancient Midaevian or lecturing the people of Skaldenburg to turn away from the lecherous, heretical ways.
History
Law, Government and Politics
Although the city is technically the seat of the ruler of Ordayn, the day-to-day running of Skaldenburg is left to the Burgh Council; a collection of tradesmen and businessmen who form an informally elected committee dedicated to overseeing the city and its welfare. Lead by the Chief Burgher, they receive a budget from the Royal Treasury which is meant to go towards the upkeep of roads, sewers, and other public works. However, since the Imperial occupation, the Council has become rife with corruption, as its members seek to funnel the budget straight into their own pockets. As a result, many parts of the city have become all but uninhabitable, with raw sewage spilling out from undermanned sewers, clogging up canals and coating the streets. In the poorest parts of the city, there have even been reports that were-rats and goblins have started crawling out from the dark places of the world to prowl the streets searching for scraps, leftovers...and untended cribs. Of course, the Burgh Council dismisses such talk as nothing but the plaintive bleating of lazy good-for-nothings looking for a quick handout, while quietly doubling the guard patrols around their own neighbourhoods.
Inhabitants

Population: 80'000

• Humans - 65%
• Gnomes - 11%
• Goliaths - 8.5%
• Dwarves - 6%
• Half-breeds - 5.5%
• Dragonborn - 3.4%
• Misc. - 0.6%

Locations of Interest:

• King's Hall
• ?

Type

Capital