Caliphas City
Sailing from Lake Encarthan, past the Reaping Rocks, a
thousand fog lamps reluctantly emerge from the swirling
haze, and the weirdly echoing din of countless faceless
souls herald one’s arrival in Caliphas, mist-shrouded
capital of Ustalav.
Constructed behind the treacherous shield of a natural
breakwater, Caliphas flourishes as the nation’s wealthiest,
most accessible and cosmopolitan city. These
factors—along with other, more mysterious persuasions—
argued for the royal court’s relocation to within the city’s
walls 30 years ago. Although a new capital, Caliphas is
still an old city, and the grim statuary, soaring buttresses,
sharp gables, and endless intimidating embellishments
common to the nation’s oldest cities adorn its ominous
structures. New industries also belch black clouds into the
sky, mixing with the frequent fog to cloak some parts of
the city in a wretched coat of ash. Yet numerous gardens,
private menageries and fenced parks dot the crowded
cityscape, making Caliphas feel more alive than many
Ustalavic cities—which often seem better suited as tombs
for dead princes. The past decades have brought thousands
of immigrants to the capital. While the noble born find
and create luxurious housing with ease, their attendants
have considerably more trouble. Such has led to not just
overcrowding, increased squalor, and street violence in
parts of the city, but to stranger crimes against which
the overwhelmed constabulary has little defense, such as
kidnapping, hidden slavery, underground fighting bouts,
mysterious murders, and rumors of terrors lurking amid
the city’s labyrinthine sewers.
Demographics
- 14,950 humans
- 350 dwarves
- 220 elves
- 120 other
Government
Since relocating Ustalav's capital from ancient Ardis to Caliphas, the city has been home to the Royal Court of Prince Archibald Ordranti, a nest of power-hungry merchants, treacherous nobles, and corrupt courtiers.
An ancient rivalry has existed, seemingly since the earliest days of Ustalav's refounding, between the Royal House of Ordranti and the rulers of Caliphas, House Caliphvaso and Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso. With the nation's capital moving some three decades ago, the two houses have now become close neighbours, only intensifying each side's subtle scheming to undermine and, perhaps, ultimately, destroy the other.
Industry & Trade
Resting on the shores of Lake Encarthan allows Caliphas to take full advantage of that massive trade route, and Caliphas is consequently a rich—some might even say decadent—city. The city is also very cosmopolitan, a relative rarity in suspicious Ustalav; many travellers visit from foreign parts, and some never leave, their disappearance rarely noticed by the population
History
Caliphas was refounded as the city it is today in the wake of the Shining Crusade (and its victory over the Whispering Tyrant) by Countess Sesasgia Caliphvaso, a distant ancestor of the city's current ruler Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso.
Quite recently, the re-emergence of the Whispering Tyrant on the Isle of Terror and his conquest of the neighbouring nation of Lastwall (now known as the Gravelands) has caused a huge outpouring of refugees into Ustalav, and particularly Caliphas, and the disruptions caused by the newcomers provoked a xenophobic backlash against them.
Points of interest
Castle Stryithe: When word of the royal court’s relocation reached her, Countess Caliphvaso ordered and personally oversaw the construction of Stryithe, a castle of elegant stained glass, daring flourishes, and crimson stone. Now completed, the imposing, spire-crowned citadel rises from the city’s center like a bladed, fiendish heart trapped amid a web of mounting buttresses. Home to the audience hall and black-antlered royal throne of Prince Ordranti, the echoing Hall of Peers with its 16 traditional stations, the portrait hall known as the Gallery of Ancestors, the royal archives, a private wing for visiting dignitaries, and a maze of shadowed alcoves, conference chambers, and salons, Servants also spread rumors of myriad secrets, both predictable—like hidden floors, shifting passages, and escape routes—and sinister, such as shafts to unknown oubliettes, stores of treacherously hidden poison, and construction plans that suggest blasphemous agendas.
Havenguard Lunatic Asylum: A most unusual hospital spreads its batlike wings across the crumbling cliffs overlooking Caliphas. Here doctors seek to see past legends of fiendish possessions and cursed blood to treat unfortunates suffering from ailments of the mind. Under the direction of its founder, the dedicated but locally slandered Dr. Beaurigmand Trice, the asylum’s physicians attempt to protect, understand, and heal without the aid of expensive magical interventions—though many admit incomplete understanding of the maladies they treat, or missteps in their more experimental therapies. Occasionally, the physicians’ treatments reveal unsettling causes of their patients’ unease, which makes Dr. Trice’s standing as a venture-captain of the Pathfinder Society and his hospice’s support of the organization’s members a frequently employed boon.
Lethean Manor: Private gardens of sweetly scented poisons and watchful statuary hide the ancestral town home of Caliphas’s counts. Built upon the Laurelight Hill, the luxurious estate of Carmilla Caliphvaso serves as the most frequently used of the countess’s residences, as well as the abode of her all-male staff and the site of her frequent private fetes. Those who answer the countess’s personal invitations recall decadent accommodations and hedonistic entertainment amid impressions of scandalous innuendoes and constant observation, but little else.
Maiden’s Choir: A gigantic dome of amethyst-veined black marble stares unblinkingly heavenward from Caliphas’s temple of Pharasma like some vast empty socket. At the chapel’s heart stands a silver, mausoleumlike reliquary said to bear such holy treasures as the Sarkorin song skulls, the scroll bones of Father Gesenge, the armored Gown of Tears, and—or so high priestess Mother Verith Thestia claims—one of the steel splinterfeathers of the goddess’s own herald.
The Quarterfaux Archives: Both museum and academy to Caliphas’s young nobles, the curators of the Quarterfaux Archives seek not to explore the world, but to bring its wonders to Ustalav. Whether gathered by traveling professors or purchased from unscrupulous organizations, the artifacts of the museum’s collection range from Ulfen longboats and mysterious northland fossils to living elven root sculptures and strange Mwangi fetishes. Currently of greatest local interest are the Canopic Ethers of Menedes XIV discovered by Osiriontologist Abraun Chalest, and the temporary display of the Moulot Family’s Thassilonian treasure, the Invidian Eye.
Architecture
The Old City: Ustalav’s capital is merely the most modern settlement to control Lady’s Harbor and claim the name “Caliphas.” Through the ages, communities have risen and fallen upon the site, their ruins used as the foundations for new cities. Today, the people of Caliphas have little idea what lies beneath their streets, as new construction and expanding sewer tunnels regularly break into forgotten vaults or sepulchers. Workers, criminals, and constables who dare the sewers frequently don’t return, and those who do speak of dumping grounds for hundreds of corpses, living muck, and the ruby-eyed gentlemen of the sewer.
Geography
Nestled behind protective breakwaters that spare the city from the worst of Lake Encarthan's storms, the entrance to Caliphas is guarded by the Reaping Rock. Caliphas is frequently shrouded in lake mist, its fog lanterns barely cutting into the gloom that all too often engulfs the city. Caliphas is considered by many to embody the soul of Ustalav, which perhaps prompted the Eunuch Prince to move the nation's capital there from Ardis. To the east of the city, the Laurelight Hill (also the name of the district which sits atop it) overlooks Caliphas and serves as home to some of its wealthiest inhabitants.
Type
Large city
Population
15,640
Location under
Characters in Location
