Kolomin (Koh-loh-min)

At the delta of the Deveresh river, the sun shines off the water, black with rich silt. The city sprawl seems to fall into the river, with parts of the city sitting on earthen platforms in the river itself - damp wooden neighborhoods of rickety houses and shops (some stilted, some not) where the ground turns to water only a few shovels down. The river is a dividing line between rich and poor, with palaces and manors on the North bank and urban sprawls and workshops on the South bank, but the city seems to have crawled into that dividing line to mix everything together in the mud. Lanterns full of [Suntail oil light the parks at night, where the poorest residents gather berries and fruit from the public orchards and the elders smoke their pipes. Canals gurgle with black muddy water, the air buzzes with mosquitoes, and pilgrims sing their hymns.
Kolomin is the capital city of the Grand Kingdom of Severesh, and largest trade hub of the kingdom. It is the administrative heart of the Dakaviri Halikvar sect and the local Healing Church District. Power, wealth, and population flows here. The city is a tangled knot of factions, all desperate for a piece of the pie. It has gotten so bad that the Empress has had to open special courts to sort through all the infighting, corruption, and crime, and that has only been a small relief for this city.

Demographics

200,000 humanoids live in Kolomin, making it easily the biggest city in the Grand Kingdom of Severesh. The population is 45% dryad, 35% human, and 20% half dryad.

Government

Kolomin is the capital of the Grand Kingdom of Severesh, and it houses Severesh's royal government. The Red Empress (currently Andala Dawara) reigns supreme, along with the Halikvar Archdruid (currently Jamat Karlusa). Around them swirls the Upper Court of Kolomin, which manages kingdom-wide and religion-wide affairs. But the city proper is run mostly by the Lower Court of Kolomin, which is primarily local but still has a lot of shared rules, regulations, and personnel with the lower echelons of the Upper Court.
The Lower Court is run by the Lord-Provost of Kolomin, an appointed bureaucrat often from a Great House. The current Lord-Provost is Oladati Kiadawara, a rising star of the Severeshi bureaucracy that has been brought close into the royal orbit. Oladati is an imperious man, stubborn enough with his peers to get into frequent grudges, but forgiving enough with those beneath him to earn their loyalty. He is still very young, but his time in the Severeshi military has already earned him acclaim. After a number of minor operations against pirates, bandits, and in Sebikahd, he was called in and promoted to Lord-Provost - quite the feather in the cap of someone 26 years old. And, certainly, he is one of the young minds of the Severeshi army, and an excellent leader of soldiers. But the promotion was as much a way to restrain him as it was a way to reward him: his imperious stubbornness was leading him to almost ignite new wars, his men were perhaps a little too loyal to him alone, and he was already pursuing power within the military. A time in politics would keep him busy, humble, and within easy jailing range if need be.
Oladati has been an alright mayor. He has struggled with the ritual and politics of the Lower Court, but he has done an admirable job of learning how the city actually runs, which has helped. He has got along well with the city guard and garrison, and has done his best to hunt down the local Marten crime family (and has even captured the local leader). His popularity among the guard aside, most residents in the city consider him an acceptable mayor but also an arrogant annoyance as a person - he certainly won't be leading a mob of supporters anytime soon.

Defences

Kolomin's fortifications are reasonable for a city of this size, and are mostly focused on deflecting attacks from the North. Extra defenses exist around the Dawaran district (the seat of government) and the Northbank (rich district), but the South is mostly a basic set of old walls and watchtowers. These Southern walls do not contain all of the city (the Westside district is entirely outside of them), and it is unlikely that they will be expanded or renovated. The city has been expanding to an extent that it would be costly to do so, and the wars of the last few centuries led to a shift towards fortresses outside of cities taking on a larger burden of defense than city walls.

Industry & Trade

Kolomin is a city of manufacturing, though it does have its share of agriculture as well. Weaving, pottery, tobacco curing and packaging, Suntail Grass processing, carpentry, dye processing and application, and herb preparation for the creation of Healing Potions and medicines are all major industries here. Small industry is everywhere throughout the city, while larger workshops tend to concentrate in either the Flowerport or Oldcastle districts. Food is grown throughout the city, as well as imported from the countryside. Large fields in the city are uncommon, but fisheries, small orchards, and Giant Lobster pens are common.
Small markets dot the city, and commerce is a common part of daily life. The Flowerport district is particularly famous for its large bazaars, where most anything can be purchased. As for larger businesses, these have been growing significantly over the last century and have seen heightened investment from the Great Houses of the kingdom. Many of the Great Houses have been using merchants as intermediaries to run their businesses and scout out new investment opportunities, creating a growing division between wealthy elite-orbiting merchants and the rest of them. There is tension between these rising merchants and the local Selkies, who have found more and more doors closed to them in favor of the Great Houses. This tense scene has become even more tumultuous in the last few years with the recent rise of the Royal Stock Companies: Joint Stock Companies that use the Asalay stock exchange, and are supported by the Severeshi government. Traditionalists frown on these "foreign inventions" and call them "temptations of Orchid of Blue", but the increased profitability of the Severeshi Royal Physics Company (SRPC), a medicine, Kilusha, and salve company, has won enough of the Great Houses over to silence the most influential detractors.

Infrastructure

Kolomin is a city that has had a lot of investment in its infrastructure, and a lot of horrible events in the last few centuries to provide an opportunity for renovation. From the start, this city has had quite a few canals and parks; this was always planned as a model Halikvar city, and it needed to reflect a deep connection to nature. The streets are lined with berry bushes and fruit trees, which anyone can gather as free food (and people often do).
Berry parks are mandated near every Halikvar temple in the city, to provide plenty of possible Goodberries (magically empowered fruit). The constant presence of plants also helps with law enforcement, as any crime that attracts enough attention can be reported on by the plants. The Skywrite spell, which places text in the sky, is regularly used for public announcements or declarations.
Public parks, gardens, and irrigation canals provide food, but they also provide public spaces for communities to meet and for people to spend their leisure time. The people must feel connected to nature here, and great effort is made to make the city feel connected to the land.
Suntail Grass lanterns are used for public lighting in the nicer districts, around shops, and near the public parks at night. 

Public Health

The road system in Kolomin is not as easy to navigate as its canal system; the city is sprawling and its roads are a bit of a maze. The city sewers and water system is pretty well managed, in most districts, but the district known as Rivertown has a number of systemic infrastructure problems that the city is nowhere close to solving. Rivertown's sewers basically don't exist, the water table is too high to make anything underground, and the city services basically just let people do whatever they want. The sewer water and the drinking water often mix, making cholera a common sight there - and this periodically spreads into the other districts as well.
The other major health issue here is the mosquito and biting fly problem. During warm months, the mosquito population here booms, and the state is convinced that these bugs actively help the health and morality of its people. For the humans here, this means malaria and yellow fever (which is often blamed on unclean eating, immoral behavior, and the dirty water in Rivertown).

Districts

The Dawaran District: The Dawaran District sits on the Northern side of the Devesha river, and is the religious and administrative center of the city. This is where the palace is, the court is, and the bureaucracy is. A small port sits to the East, open only to state vessels. The district is walled, and a large fort to the North protects it from attack. But there is more here than government: there is also a massive number of pilgrim's hostels, and associated entertainment. Many people come here to visit the sacred relics of Halikvar, or to seek relief or blessings from the druids. 
Northbank: The wealthy part of town along the Northern bank of the river. While the Dawaran District is supposed to be the only part of the city on the northern side of the river (to keep it independent from the urban masses), the Great Houses have used their power over the years to build here anyways. The result is a suburban district of wealthy estates, ritzy houses, and nice shops and parks. 
The Chain: A series of islands/hills across the delta (once full islands year-round, but the water level has gone down over centuries and now they are only islands during the wet season). The islands of the chain all have their local town traditions, and all have privileges for fishing and Giant Lobster herding. They tend to be agricultural hubs that house fishermen, oyster-mongers, and lobster-herders. They also have a lot of carpenters and boat-makers. Lower-class, but self-organized and a lot nicer for it. 
Rivertown: The unorganized sprawl of development across the delta, Rivertown is a broad term for all of the pockets of settlement in the delta's swamps. Through canals, walls, and raised buildings, Rivertown does its best to avoid flooding, with mixed results. This is the cheap land, the place where people stay when they want to work at one of the big workshops in Flowerport or Oldcastle but can't afford to live there. Land speculators keep selling people land here, and people just keep moving in, despite semi-regular disasters. It is basically unregulated, but it is also underserved by the city's services - a free place for some, a dangerous slum for others.
Flowerport: The main port of Kolomin, which boasts grand workshops, lively markets, and a great harbor for ships across Samvara and Izekra. A Selkie district exists here, along with a large area controlled entirely by the Shekotan Healing Church and the Guild of Apothecaries and Physics. Increasingly wealthy, and increasingly hard to buy land here. 
Oldcastle: The original city of Kolomin on the South bank of the city. A hub of artisanal work. This district has increasingly been a place where large workshops have set up shop, thriving on cheap Rivertown labor and easy access to water and the port. This has priced out many of the lower-class residents, and made this more of a mixed middle-class and business district. Most guilds have their headquarters here. 
Westside: Westside is the natural expansion of Oldcastle to the West, a mix between villages that were absorbed into the city and new settlements along the city's fringe. It is semi-agricultural, has some artisan work, and is generally the less-wealthy mirror of Oldcastle. It has reached an end to its expansion, though: the city has its limits before entering the duchy of Narbasra (as negotiated and set into law centuries ago) and Westside has technically crossed that line. The villages on the ducal side of the boundary are not part of the city, and have been pushing back against outsiders building on their lands. The district is divided between the old villages and the new settlements, with the villagers destroying buildings they feel are too close to their grazing and farming lands. This standoff has lasted for decades, and is much of the reason that Rivertown has expanded over the latter half of the 1900s. It casts a long shadow over the culture of the district, and the rivalry between "villagers" and "townies" is a hot issue to this day.

Guilds and Factions

The Royal Court: The royal court of Severesh and the Halikvar archdruidic leadership are all here - and the elite politics overflows into the city, shaping investment and local politics. Within the court, nobles fall in three general factions: traditionalists (focused on agriculture and stability), capitalists (focused on expanding trade and manufacturing), and militarists (focused on expanding Severeshi direct control as well as Halikvar military power). These factions are not entirely mutually exclusive, but it would be nearly impossible for someone to be in all three at once without being labeled a turncoat. The Halikvar archdruidship is generally divided into Absolutists (who want to focus on tightening control of divergent sects, such as the Asavari sect), Evangelists (who want to unite the faith by pivoting abroad), and Moderates (who just want to maintain a reasonable status quo). Recently, the Red Empress has opened a number of Royal Tribunals intended to help solve some of the systemic problems within the city and to combat the rising white-collar crime - and these factions are fighting for control of the tribunals (reducing their effectiveness).
The Healing Church: The Shekotan Healing Church has their Eastern District based out of this city - quite the economic boon! The Eastern District is very Halikvar, and favors local co-religionists over foreign heathens. They offer good work for residents, community support, and strict regulatory control over local Dhampirism. The current Superior Master of the Eastern District is known for their wild public parties, which have become quite the seasonal event for residents (and have attracted some ire from the priests).
The Royal Stock Companies: Newfangled stock companies, or "corporations", which are still finding their footing. Partially based in the city of Asalay, these stock companies leave a bad taste in the mouths of many locals - but they make great money and employ more and more people, so attitudes are shifting. Most royal stock companies are small and unstable, but one has actually been successful: the Severeshi Royal Physics Company or SRPC. The SRPC sells Kilusha (largely mined in Sebikahd), salves, herbal first aid kits, and any kind of medicine that isn't a healing potion. They share a lot of their staff with the Eastern District Healing Church, and the two organizations are deep in each other's pockets. It is said that those who mess with company affairs are liable to be haunted by dhampires, though these rumors have not been confirmed or denied by the royal guard. When people think companies, they think SRPC.
The Guilds: Guilds in Severesh are reasonably powerful, but they don't have the kind of district-defining sway they used to, nor do they have rock-solid legal authority like in some other lands. Many guilds are loose and unorganized. There are several notable guilds worth mentioning though:

• The Apothecary and Physics Guild, which regulates all herbalists, apothecaries, and physicians, is known to be tightly regulated and well-organized. Currently, they are in a bitter feud with the SRPC, which they are losing. As the legal and financial fights have dragged, the guild has armed and mobilized their street supporters, known as the Barber Boys (apprentice surgeons and nurses), to defend sympathetic shops and neighborhoods. The current Guildmaster is an old military veteran who still likes to walk around in full plate armor, pontificating on how medicine is a war on disease.
• The Textile's Guild, which coordinates cotton processing, weaving, textile dyeing, and tailoring. The Textile's Guild is a big-tent group, the largest guild in the city by a large margin. The Textile's Guild is big into old traditions and festivals, and is extremely popular among the common residents here. The current Guildmaster has embraced this role as master of festivals absolutely, and has decentralized the guild even further to subsidize at-home weavers over bigger workshops.
• The Smokings Guilds, which coordinates tobacco and incense processing, packaging, and trade. The most buttoned-up of the major guilds, a mixture of small shops and big workshops managed by a no-nonsense merchant.

The Duke's Fellows: The Duke of Narbasra controls the surrounding countryside, and the city depends on their food imports. The Duke's fellows have always been an agricultural guild of sorts, a big tent group that protects farmers and helps manage irrigation. The Duke's Fellows have traditionally been divided into factions; there were the in-city farmers, the visiting irrigation workers, and the villages of Westside, all with their own group. The current Duke, Duke Birasa Minasawara, is very involved in the Fellows and has united them into one camp. As the current Duke has a deep hatred for the current Lord-Provost, and he has used the group as a weapon in that rivalry, the Fellows have also become a bit of a nuisance for the city guard and the local clerks. Luckily, he has also made them more of a community support system, and they provide useful social services for neighborhoods aligned with them. The Fellows are a big presence in Westside.
The Martens: The Martens are a criminal network in Eastern Samvara, and they have a presence here. The head Marten here is "Count" Mevet Belwar, a local merchant and bureaucrat with ties to the Healing Church and SRPC that he used to smuggle super-refined opium out of the country. Very recently, Mevet was captured and jailed by the city guard - and is currently being investigated personally by the Lord-Provost. This has sent the Martens tumbling down from their perch.
The Red Ring: A loose circle of smugglers and corrupt officials led by the garrison commander in the neighboring Duchy of Swesena. The current Duke of Swesena, Duke Twedi Shensawara, has had his influence partially hijacked by the criminal conspiracy. Basically an embezzling circle that has moved in where the Martens have collapsed - less organized, less international, but still crime. The Red Ring is more popular in military than civilian circles, and has been trying to get their foot in the door into the city guard. They tend to be more individual-focused than dynastic, and will probably not survive in their current state in the long-term.
The Cat Factions: The cat factions of Kolomin are having a fierce war right now between Ishkibite temple (established by Izekran missionaries), and the cat traditionalists and Jellicles (who are supported by the Halikvar temple). The cat Ishkibites used to be part of a broader cat Ishkibite movement in Samvara that has since been largely defeated; Kolomin's strays kept the faith, but are now an island of Ishkibism that has been radicalized and more cat-centric with every year. 
The Selkie Admiralty: The Selkie Admiralty represents the Selkie population as well as any visiting selkie merchants. Confined to the Flowerport, the Admiralty has been more and more regulated and marginalized in recent years. They are pushing back now, and have started lobbying within the royal court to protect selkie interests. Unfortunately, the Admiralty is currently a hotbed of intrigue, as local zealous Halikvar selkies are fighting with secular selkies (who have more connections to the broader selkie world) for dominance.

History

Early History

The village before Kolomin, named Konbari by the people there, is older than history. Kolomin's prime location along the Devesha river delta has always attracted people to it, and Konbari's history was surely old and full of twists by the time that Halikvar conquerors arrived in the 300s ME. This history is known only in legends now, legends so diluted by centuries of outside settlement and community dissolution that they are nearly impossible to fully reconstruct.
338 ME is where the official histories of Kolomin begin. According to these chronicles, the Dawaran Emperor Sevni Dawara put down a rebellion near Konbari that year and ordered two forts built, one on each side of the river. These two forts became the nuclei for the modern city's Dawaran district and Oldcastle district. The fort and surrounding settlement on the Northern side of the river became known as Heb-Tekeli, the administrative capital of the Eastern riverlands. Heb-Tekeli grew to overshadow Konbari over the 400s, but was destroyed during the chaos of the 500s. Political shifts pulled power and trade Westward and Southward; power became decentralized across the region, and the delta became a soup of independent towns and villages with no clear leadership. Local priests and community chiefs squabbled for a century.

Kolomin United

And then, in the early 700s, the fortress of Heb-Tekeli was renovated by a paladin of Lily of Red, and turned into an administrative base for the Halikvar holy wars. The fortress pulled the many local towns into a coalition, called the Kolomin League, dedicated to cooperation and trade among the faithful. Kolomin became a regional and administrative name for this period, a way to avoid the old rivalries between Konbari, Heb-Tekeli, and all the other townships. And, over the century, the League drew the townships together and enriched them all. 
In 790 ME, the newly formed Kingdom of Severesh temporarily moved their capital to Heb-Tekeli, and built a palace complex there to host the royal family. Even after the capital moved in 810, Heb-Tekeli remained a favorite residence for members of the royal family. There were a few rebellions by local townships against Heb-Tekeli being privileged over the other towns, and in 860 the city was reconstituted as the City of Kolomin. All the other towns and villages in the North were uprooted and moved across the river - the North would remain the royal side, the South would be the commercial and residential side. 

Rise of Kolomin

In 917 ME, the city of Kolomin became the home base of the Crown Princess Okila Dawara. The West and South had an ongoing civil war, and the capital was no longer safe. The ambitious princess had always loved Kolomin as a place away from her more domineering family members, and it was here that she consolidated political power and eventually launched her own bid for power. Princess Okila was eventually the first Red Empress, and in 954 she conquered the Kingdom of Kiami and brought back the entire leadership of the Dawara clan and the most sacred artifacts of Lily of Red. She stored all that she took in Kolomin, and the city instantly became incredibly important as the new de-facto capital of the Halikvar religion. 
While Kolomin had its problems from time to time, it more or less prospered from 954 to 1650. There were fires, plagues, riots, and scandals, of course, but nothing that the concentrated magical power of the archdruidship couldn't handle. The Civil War of 1650 was the first real crisis that money and magic couldn't solve. The war took a terrible toll on the city, and fire and plague swept the settlement. This was only the beginning of Kolomin's troubles. Wars sapped the city of people and money over the 1700s. And the last two wars of Halikvar Unity (1870 - 1890; 1910 - 1945) both saw armies attacking Kolomin from the North. The townships on the North bank (which had appeared illegally over the years) did not survive, and the old laws reserving the North for the royals was re-instated. 
The 1900s also saw a massive boom in organized crime. The Martens flourished in Kolomin, funding bandits, pirates, and smugglers. They were significantly reduced in the 1960s, but rebounded again in the 1990s. At the same time, the city has begun feuding with the surrounding duchies - there was a massive law suit between the Duke of Narbasra and the City Provost of the time in 1991 that was won by the Duke, and led to riots throughout the city. Kolomin has been a magnet for corruption, crime, and dissent even as the city has grown in size and wealth. The new Red Empress, coronated several years ago, has started to try and tackle these problems, but has had to focus more on the kingdom at large.

Points of interest

North-River

The Red Palace: A grand palatial complex in the Dawaran district that houses the Red Empress and the Dawaran royal family. The Red Palace is a garden-fortress, with massive trees, bound elementals, and paladins everywhere. For paladins of Lily of Red in Eastern Samvara, as well as for members of the elite warrior-knights known as the Crimson Cataphracts, a seat at the Hall of Valor here is an honor of the highest level.
The Heavenly Circle: Also in the Dawaran district and connected to the Red Palace is the Heavenly Circle, the administrative center of Dakaviri Halikvar. The building was made by centuries of druidic magic - it was obviously not built by mortal hands. It instead rises from the earth like a natural piece of landscape, its massive walls like polished cliff-faces that just suddenly from the cityscape. Vines cover the walls, vines that whisper quiet prayers in the wind - they are awakened (if sleepy), and guard the walls from any thieves and infiltrators. A massive tree sits at the heart of the Circle, and rises over the rest of the district. Druids, priests, and clerks scutter through the blessed foliage with paperwork and coffee, busying themselves with the work of the Goddess.
Temple of the True Covenant: A massive temple in the Dawaran district, a cathedral to Halcyon that houses the holiest relics of Halikvar religion. A massive tunnel in the cathedral leads into the roots of the Tree of the Heavenly Circle, where pilgrims are shown the Preserved Incarnations - the mummified bodies of Lily of Red, Garlands of Red, and Sarima of Red (the three greatest prophets of Halikvar religion), all preserved in amber sarcophagi. 
The Kolomin Academy: A school for war and druidism in the Dawaran district. While the academies are in the Kingdom of Kiami are more famous, this is easily the finest school in Severesh for magic and knowledge. 

South-River

The East District Healing Cathedral: The largest and most stylish building in Flowerport, this is the headquarters of the Eastern District of the Shekotan Healing Church. It has three towers to mark the three parts of this complex: the Dhampiric training and control compound, the administrative center, and the Alchemical brewing center. 
The Groves of Contemplation: Technically this is both North and South river, as there are two of these: one in the Dawaran District, one in Oldcastle. These are basically large central parks that serve as a place to get free food, gather for public festivities, and spend time with the family. Since people over a certain age get special services here, they often gather here during workdays with other elders. These groves are pleasant and serene, but also horrific and gruesome - these are the great gallows and memorials to the punishment of the wicked. Many trees here were once druids - some are made of human flesh or prism crystal - and they have their names and crimes carved into them. They are adored with the preserved bones of those executed here. Many memorials here describe the crimes of the wicked, and the horrific punishments they received on earth and in Hell. The more gruesome and disturbing stuff tends to be gathered around the gallows themselves, but the entire park is themed around equal parts piety/virtue and punishment. 
The Little Kima: The only large and significant bank in Kolomin, a mostly-underground complex nearby the Old Castle in Oldcastle. Many Prisms live down here, expanding the complex downwards. You can also buy Halpara Mushrooms here.

Tourism

There is a bustling tourism industry here in Kolomin. This is a mixture of pilgrims visiting the city to be blessed by the holy sites, and economic migrants here to work during the agricultural off-season.

Architecture

The architecture of Kolomin is one of texture. Walls are only flat when they have to be; they often have recesses or projections. The alcoves created by this style often contain statues or small art pieces, but also can be used as seating or storage. Similarly, families here work hard to adorn everything they can with some kind of carving, creating a somewhat overwhelming aesthetical quality.  Buildings often include flying buttresses, pillars, and domes when they can be afforded. 
The buildings in Rivertown are different from those in the main part of the city - people there are innovating, building elevated platforms, stilted buildings, and elevated patios.

Founding Date

860 ME

Alternative Name(s)

Konbari, Heb-Tekeli

Type

City

Population

200,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Kolomani

Location under

Samvara

Owning Organization

Grand Kingdom of Severesh