Grostinheart

Major port and seat of the Arcane Academy, the only arcane college that can possibly rival the College of Eveasson. Grostinheart is also one of the thoroughfares for convicted criminals that will have to serve their time in the Brinestone Penal Colony, a salt mine located about a week's travel in the Sea of Tillgar.

General layout

Grostinheart is built around its large harbour on the eastern coast of the Kingdom of Karessia, where many shipyards build its ships for the Karessian Navy. Through the city runs the river Pecona, that allows ships from reaching the Great Lake in the middle of the Eastern Realms. Just outside of the city are most of the homes, many of its inhabitants working in the harbour itself. Along the river are also most of the markets, that look more like smaller docks than actual market squares: merchants arrive in Grostinheart usually on ships and set up their stalls on their vessels themselves, or on pontoons that can be rented from the city's trade agency itself. A short distance away from the harbour on the other side of the city is the Arcane Academy located, only a short distance away from the ducal palace.

Society

Grostinheart is inhabited humans, elves, dragonborn, halflings, and to a lesser degree dwarves and gnomes. Its seaside location also ensures the city sees its share of aquatic races, such as Tritons and Sea Elves. As is the case in Eveasson, experiments related to teleportation has weakened the liminal barriers between the planes, resulting in similar effects: the Gith and the Genasi lineages are more common here than elsewhere, but interestingly, those from the Feywild are not. Scholars are disagreeing why this is the case, but have not come up with clear explanations.
Despite the Arcane Academy being a place for education, actually studying at the Arcane Academy is a privilege beholden only to sorcerers, or highly skilled wizards. This distinction has been a cause for the College of Eveasson to look down upon the Arcane Academy. Despite this requirement, the population of Grostinheart is proud of the Arcane Academy, and consider it a beacon of civilisation.

History

While Grostinheart was already founded before the Frosian conquests at the end of the Second Age, it remained little more than a trading port. It was not until E5Y117 that this changed. Internal conflict at the College of Eveasson had started brewing more and more in the years prior, and it had come to a head in that year. Several professors under the leadership of Abo Alzur of the College of Eveasson were sorcerers and preferred practicing their inherent form of magic over that by laborious studying. Furthermore, lectures on the metamagical aspects of sorcery were exclusive for sorcerers, to the anger of those practicing wizardry. Abo Alzur and his compatriots also held the belief that those that held magical blood, those being sorcerers, should be the only ones allowed to study magic.
This eventually led to the Archmage of the College of Eveasson, Maryra Salinas to strip the Department of Metamagics of their funding. The department left the in anger, determined to find a new place where they could study sorcery and its metamagical aspects. With starting funds of several rich Grostinheart traders, they bought some land within the outskirts of the city and laid there the foundations of the Arcane Academy  with Abo Alzur as its Supreme Sorcerer in the summer of E5Y117. The then duke of Grostinheart saw their potential and soon after also gave their support to the Arcane Academy.
The Arcane Academy flourished in the next fourty years and steadily grew in size. Archmage Maryra Salinas was not impressed however, to the fury of Abo Alzur. He challenged Maryra Salinas to a magical duel . During the destructive duel in the courtyard of the Academy in Grostinheart, Abo Alzur caused a massive explosion destroying a large part of the courtyard. Maryra Salinas was mortally wounded in the explosion, and Abo Alzur disappeared into nothingness, leaving only his ring behind. The duel was commemorated with a fountain depicting the battle, and Abo Alzur's Ring has been put up on display as a warning against those not being humble.
The death of Maryra Salinas and disappearance of Abo Alzur partially settled the dispute between the two arcane institutes, mostly with the Arcane Academy proposing less of a hardliner as Supreme Sorcerer, and the College of Eveasson struggling to find a new Archmage from the ranks of the Council of Wizards.

Drugs and Demons

In E6Y286, the first users of the synthetic drug Witch Powder appeared in the city. The suppliers of the drug  managed to remain in hiding for a long time, which allowed for the population to freely use the drug without much repercussion. The magically gifted subpopulation of the city, predominantly its sorcerers of the Arcane Academy, found their spellcasting to be enhanced. The strong cases of paranoia and audiovisual hallucinations that these occasionally were paired with were explained as the mortal mind not able to fully comprehend the Arcane Fabric. Through these audiovisual hallucinations, the Cult of Khalbris eventually implanted their orders to move to a cave system to the south of Grostinheart, where they would be safe from the monsters the Witch Powder made them see. Through this process, they enslaved a large part of the city and made many of them march to their lair. There, they fell into a murderous frenzy, through which the Cult of Khalbris attempted to summon Khalbris' champion Thernemor  . The summoning was nearly complete when the Order of the Watchful Eye interrupted it. The interruption weakened the archdevil sufficiently to allow the order of demon hunters to fight its weakened form back into the Crimson Sea.
With the cult stopped, order returned to Grostinheart. As thanks for their services, Grostinheart gifted an old fortress near the border with the Kingdom of Tessuris to the Order of the Watchful Eye. As for Witch Powder, those found to be in possession of it are to be sent to the Brinestone Penal Colony, and those found to be smuggling it are sentenced to death.

Recent events

Recently, the current Supreme Sorcerer of the Arcane Academy, Supreme Sorcerer Gulvan Oroda, has again be behaving hostile to the wizards of the College of Eveasson. He again spouts his beliefs that sorcerers are superior to wizards, and that those able to modulate magic via metamagics should have the sole monopoly over magic. Not only that, a break-in of the Vault of Arcane Secrets in the College of Eveasson and in the Arcane Academy has taken place. What has been taken from the College of Eveasson is unknown, but from the Arcane Academy, Abo Alzur's Ring has been stolen. Little is known over who has done the crimes and why and the institutes are at a loss of what to do.