The City of Lyonesse

The city of Lyonesse is the central feature of the shard by the same name, and has a reputation as the greatest of the mage-cities. It's an ancient center of learning and magical education and draws mages from all across Genesis.
This article focuses on the city of Lyonesse itself; for the shard as a whole, see Lyonesse Shard.

Location

Located on the coastline of Lyonesse Shard, the city of Lyonesse itself encircles a wide deepwater bay that breaks up the rocky coastline to form a harbor. In the Old World this land is all covered by shallow water punctuated by the Seven Stones Reef, but it's firmly abovewater and habitable in its Genesis counterpart.
Lyonesse is seated at the only real intersection of sea and land on the shard's forbidding shores, and serves as the heart of the communities that radiate outwards from its central hub. It's perfectly situated to direct all traffic through the shard, receiving both outside visitors arriving on ships as well as the supporting bounty of inland agriculture.

Layout and Features

Lyonesse itself is built in a wide crescent that wraps around its great harbor, which serves as the entry point for most visitors coming to the city. Guarded from the open ocean by a long jetty that holds the Seven Stones Lights, the harbor is wide enough and deep enough to accommodate even large ships and sees a constant flow of comings and goings. The dockfronts are a thriving, vibrant area that's always bustling with the traffic of travelers and cargo being loaded and unloaded; its streets are lined with taverns, lodginghouses, and merchant storefronts. Even in the dead of night there's usually activity to be found here, meaning that most who live here are either travelers or students who care less about peace and quiet than they do about convenience and cheap housing.
Heading away from the waterfront, the buildings rapidly change into a mix of warehouses along the outer edges of the city mingled with workshops of the craftsmen who use the goods arriving from elsewhere in Genesis. Circles who work closely with the city's artisans, such as Cignas, Arceth, and Norisk circles, are found either among or bordering on these areas. Streets here are wide and well-paved with the same broad flagstones used elsewhere in Lyonesse. While there's some poorer areas along the city's outer edges to the east, few places in Lyonesse proper are truly run-down or dangerous.
Along a broad avenue running the length of the city from east to west are the two central gathering places of Lyonesse. The Forum Arcana is the largest open space in Lyonesse proper; it's a broad square that serves as a central hub and also houses the Forum itself, a large building housing would-be mages waiting to apprentice with a circle. On a day to day basis the square is filled with a reagents and crafts market of stalls assembled in the morning and taken down at night, while the local circles have a sort of mage faire on a bi-weekly basis to assess potential apprentices. The City Guard also has its headquarters on the edge of the Forum Arcana, and uses the early mornings for weapons and martial practice.
Further to the west, Sundown Square is slightly smaller and hosts similar, smaller daily markets that are more focused on necessities and foodstuffs. This is also the location of the Great Temple of Siarus, the sole religious building within the city proper.
The inland regions of the city are encircled by the city wall to the west and low mountains to the east, providing relative shelter from the elements and a measure of security; it's in these more protected areas that most of the city's residents make their homes alongside the compounds owned by the majority of the mage circles. These quieter neighborhoods are older and more traditional when compared to the more piecemeal approach to the docksides, but have a sense of elegance to them that speaks to the city's long prosperity and peace. The royal palace and its grounds are also located in this area, nestled in a small pocket valley in the northeastern corner of Lyonesse.
Another valley on the western side of the city is known as the Valley of the Gods, and is the location of most shrines and temples within the city. While some might consider the seeming segregation of the temples from Lyonesse proper a statement on the population's devotion, it's actually quite the opposite; the Valley is one of the oldest sites in the city and is considered one of its most beautiful features, featuring a carefully maintained 'wild' forest interspersed with ancient shrines built against and into the valley walls. Lit with magic and filled with the calls and song of wild birds, the Valley has a feeling of indescribable age and tradition that's in stark contrast to the flamboyant nature of the city it borders on. Though there's one great temple to Siarus in Lyonesse proper, many prefer to visit the god's shrine in the Valley instead if given the opportunity.
Outside the city limits, the land is mostly governed by fields and agriculture. Before the Shattering the population lived strictly inside the protection of Lyonesse's walls, but in the centuries since there's a small spattering of houses belonging to farmers and fieldhands that live in the shadow of the city itself.

Population

Lyonesse has a population that's constantly in flux, in large part due to being a center of education and trade. While there's many who call the city their fulltime home, there are others who are simply passing through in one way or another; apprentices often return to their home shards after completing their training, and there are plenty more who never even make it to the point of acceptance in one of the city's circles. It's a vibrant community with a great deal of diversity, and those who call Lyonesse home are the assembled collective of a million different homelands.
The city itself is everything that might be expected from a place with a large mage population; descriptions range from a polite 'colorful' to other terms that are far more frank and somewhat less flattering. It's a place where flamboyance, extravagance, and unrestrained personal expression are pushed through their limit via the possibilities of magic, resulting in streets brimming with a kaleidoscope of sights to be seen. While the Circles enforce a certain level of respectable dress, with both fully fledged members and apprentices often sharing an easily-identifiable set of garments, it's practically tradition for apprentices to buck the rules in whatever ways they can. The unaffiliated mages of the city see no need to limit themselves and dress with wild individuality. For visitors to the city, walking the streets can be almost overwhelming... but for those used to the eccentric and free-spirited nature of Lyonesse, it's something not even worth mentioning.
Not everyone in the city is a mage, and there's whole districts dedicated to merchants, artisans, and the people who oversee the day to day running of the city's infrastructure. While they generally act in a more down to earth way than their magically inclined neighbors, anyone who calls Lyonesse home in the longterm is used to dealing with the excitement and unpredictability that entails. While they might be 'normal' by the city's standards, they're generally inclined to a level of spontaneity and adventurousness that would make them stand out anywhere else.