Affgroth

Affgroth is a bustling Mountain Dwarf city that produces wares that are sought after across Immelion. Affgroth's government is an oligarchy with public input, almost a constitutional oligarchy. It is currently lead by Chairdwarf Dorath Proudstone NPC, the leader of the Affgrothian Council.
Upon arriving at the gates of the city, visitors will immediately notice the craftmanship and deliberate nature of everything that is done in this city. There are no mistakes in the contruction of the massive looming gate towering out of the mountain. Entering those gates does not disappoint. Through the large corridor to Central-City, the mountain opens up to a truly massive view. Affgroth's buildings are built like towers holding up the mountain. The mountain is hollowed out all the way to the top, tens of thousands of feet up. There is a massive crystal at the very top of the mountain that sheds beautiful blue light everywhere, giving the place a natural day/night cycle. At the base of the mountain, there are rows and rows of waterways flowing with green-blue iridescent water making their way through the heart of the city. Much of the trade exists through these waterways; even shipments out have a hidden tunnel they can exit the city through which flows directly to the docks on Rependcord River to the north. 
There are a criss-crossing network of pathways leading up the sides of the mountain from the inside. The city expands to the north, east, and west-- not hollowed out, but as boroughs upwards and outwards from Central-City. Throughout the city, there are faint clinks and clanks as miners seek ore and gems, carvers shape the rock into habbitable city, smiths craft their wares, and lapidaries shape their stones. The city hums slightly with the tread of leather boots across stone, and the movement of mine carts laden with materials or goat-drawn carts laden with goods.
Beyond the mountain, by the western gate, there are hundreds of farms tended to by thousands of halflings living more or less amicably with the dwarven lords to their north. There is a constant back and forth of halflings and dwarves entering and exiting, bartering back and forth for food, tools, goods, goats, sheep, even the occasional horse or donkey. A few dwarves choose to live out in the farmlands, but generally Half-town is like a little piece of Ashmort brought to Affgroth.

Demographics

Affgroth is almost entirely made up of Dwarves with a moderately sized, and growing, contingent of Halflings.

Government

There are five major families or "clans" that control almost everything that goes on in Affgroth. The council is made up of the leaders of each of these houses. Once every two years the Kinsfire Festival happens, and the winning family of these games leads the council for the next two years.
The council is not just these five people though. They may be the ones who vote, but there is an alderman from each of the major boroughs, and one from each of the major unions.

Industry & Trade

The major trades are mining, blacksmithing, lapidary, silversmithing, and warriors. Primarily the city of Affgroth trades its outstanding jewelery and excellent armors and weapons, some of which are magically infused. Affgrothians are known in the area around to be excellent mercanaries, though there is quite the process in obtaining them.

Infrastructure

The main level of Affgroth has streets and walkways, but the major routes are waterways (think Venice) which have this green-ish heavily mineralized water (maybe even slightly radioactive). The whole infrastructure is built from the hollowed out stone of the mountain. It snakes and spirals its way upwards, only hollow all the way up in a few spaces.
The main central area of the city is lit by a massive gem hanging thousands of feet up at the top of the largest and most central mountain in this small chain. The top of the mountain allows light into this gem that is carved specifically to evenly disperse this light down onto the central-city. The rest of the city has high ceilings for dwarves, but rather low ceilings for most other races. Few have to duck and they may bang their head occasionally. This area is lit by specialized, enchanted gems that glow a bright, yet deep red-orange color.

Districts

There are five main boroughs in the city of Affgroth.

Central-City:

This is where the market, inns, and most of the non-labor happenings go on. It is hollowed out all the way to the top of the mountain and has the Main Gate. This is the impressive gate that welcomes most of the visitors. The bottom level is entirely made of waterways flooded by what used to be large underground lakes and tributaries, but now form the backbone of transportation for the city itself. Often there are barges passing through laden with coal, iron, silver, and rock-fill. Ships full of boxes containing food, supplies, even precious gems float by as well. Most of the public transportation for Affgrothians happens by way of smaller boats that can weave their way through these waterways with ease. There are a multitude of bridges and walkways, but the easiest and fastest way to get anywhere is to hop a vessel and move through the water. This is the most populous, but least industial borough. This is also where the carvers make their home, planning, constructing, and desiging the expansions. These carvers take great pride in their work, and live in the center of it as prized civil servants.

The Guild-Grounds:

This borough, to the East of Central-City, is where most of the fighting and training happens, and it is home to the fighters of Affrgroth. This is also home to the famous area known simply as The Arena, as well as the army's training camps. There are amorours, weaponsmiths, and training companies everywhere here. The ceilings are about 10 feet tall to allow for mounted dwarves to pass through and the vast majority of the people who live in this borough are fighters themselves or the family there-of. Little about the goings-on inside the buildings here is known to outsiders. But the training is exceptional and Affgrothian warriors are some of the greatest and most disciplined in all of Immelion. There is a temple to Clangeddin Silverbeard here, and many of the greatest fighters worship him. It is many levels high, with criss-crossing passages, but nearly no connection to other boroughs above the main level.

The Mine-Halls:

This is the borough where almost all of the mine-paths sprout. It is constantly humming in carts coming and going, barges down below being filled, and Dwarves heading to and from the mines with orders, ore, papers, gems, and tools. The citizens of this borough are the least wealthy, but the most protected as they are to the north-west across the river. The ceilings here are far lower and allow for many more levels to be packed together; however even with that, due to the vast amounts of industry that go on in this borough, this is the least populous borough, housing fewer than The Guild-Grounds, yet employing nearly a full third of the workforce. The ore that is brought out is shipped just across the way to the massive smelteries on the main floor of Artisan Alley.

Artisan Alley:

This Borough started just as it sounds, as an alley upon which most of the artisans made their wears. It has slowly become a massive artisinal megacenter. The huge smelteries on the main floor of this borough provide the raw materials and heat for the smitheries above. While there are armouries and weaponshops downriver in the Guild-Grounds, the bulk of that armour is produced here in the smitheries on the second floor. Being able to use the excess heat from the smelteries' exhaust to heat their forges, most of the smiths here need very little coal to heat them much hotter. rows upon rows of smiths inhabit the second an third floors of this borough. Their ceilings being about 6 feet tall, large enough to transport large wares, but still relatively comfortable for dwarves. There are many bridges connecting this borough and the borough dirctly to the north across the river. Messages and general traffic are often passing between the two, with requests from smiths, jewelers, or lapidaries making their way to the miners, and messages from miners about the harvestable veins and what to expect heading to smelteries and lapidaries alike. There is much hubbub between these two boroughs, but this one tends to have a slightly more wealthy way to it. Despite nearly every ceiling and the top of the walls being covered in soot, the buildings are decorated more, and inlaid with silver and gold as the jewelers and lapidaries exhibit their wares. The people living here are not poor (not that really any inhabitants of Affgroth are poor) they are sufficiently middle class, but also are the pride and glory of the city, meaning that these inhabitants and workers have a slightly outsized proportion of sway (though few Affgrothians resent that to any large degree).

Half-town:

This is the expanse of fertile lands that exists just outside the walls of Affgroth proper. Under their protection of the city, a small group of Halflings imigrated here a few decades ago. They noticed that the dwarves left them well enough alone so long as the halflings provided food, and for a few decades it was quite the amicable relationship. These fields are home to a few thousand Halflings, and a couple dozen dwarves who prefer the life of farming to the life underground. They are the only borough not to currently have a seat on the Council.

The one other district to Affgroth that is not encapsulated by a borough is the Royal District. This is where the heads of each clan live. There are a couple dozen, perhaps a hundred of each clan living in these houses. There is only one entrance, on the main floor, and it goes up as one massive complex, not like a city but rather a single massive mansion.

Guilds and Factions

There are the five main families: the Proudstone Clan, the Opalbraid Clan, the Cragcloak Clan, the Smeltbreaker Clan, and the Coalmane Clan.
Each of the major boroughs has agreat pride in itself, even if those who live there do not work in that borough, and has an alderman on the council.
Each of the major trades also has a union and they have representation at the council.

History

Affgroth was supposedly founded many thousands of years ago by Clangeddin Silverbeard, Berranor Truesilver, and Abbathor. The Dwarves were brought to this place, and with the help of these gods, they began to set out into the mountain. Clangeddin Silverbeard trained armies, and built up armouries and weaponsmithes. Berranor Truesilver found viens of silver, and trained lapidaries and jewlers. But Abbathor led a sect of Dwarves astray, and they strayed too deeply and too far in pursuit of gold and riches. This sect left Affgroth centuries ago and have never been heard of since; but his priests and shrines remain promising riches for a brave dwarf to follow in his footsteps.


In the most recent history, Halflings settled the feilds just outside the city in the early 1120s. There were a couple dozen of them at first, but as news of the fertility and viability of the land made its way back home, and the original few families grew, within 20 years there were several thousand of them. Over the 1140's there were murmurings within the halflings that they weren't being treated as equals, and that dwarven Affgrothians always took precedent over halfling Affgrothians. Some said that it was wrong and ought to be changed, some said that it was just because they were new and would become seen as truly Affgrothian shortly; but, in 1151 all excuses were laid bare. There was a poor harvest. It was not poor enough to be a famine, and there were still plenty of food stores due to the vast fertility of the land. Things got expensive, and when things get expensive, the little guy takes the fall. The Dwarves refused to pay more for anygrain than what had been agreed to in years past, and the Affgrothian Council did not take kindly to the Halflings trying to dictate differently. There were words said, and actions taken on both sides, but in the end the army was sent out to enforce the sale of grain at the prices dictated. The Halflings, seeing that they were indeed second-class citizens, did not take too kndly to this, and tensions rose. To appease the halflings and avoid a revolt, the Council gave free rations to the halflings, though the dwarves had no such restrictions on their purchasing. There has been a chill on that relationship ever since, with some dwarves, especially in the Proudstone Clan seeing themselves as worthy of special treatment and better than the halflings, and most halflings seeing the dwarves as oppressors who will take any excuse to treat you with disdane and accuse you of a crime. This came to a head in 1153 with the return of Dara Riswynn Proudstone and her companions Mantis Bugbattler, Eles Raagha, and Merrli.

Points of interest

One of the other major places in the city, besides the central borough, is the Arena. The Arena is the primary venue for all major public things in the city of Affgroth. There are many things that happen here. There will be goat-races, smithing competitions, feats of strength, fights, debates, public punishments, cooking competitions, feasts (a good-many feasts), and even the occasional outside entertainment brought in.

Geography

The city of Affgroth encompasses the inside of a small mountain-range (also with the name of Affgroth to outside folks). The dozen or so mountains have been mostly hollowed up upwards; delving below is where much of the future of Affgroth lies, but how or where this ought to happen is a point of contention in the Council.

Climate

Warm. It is geo-thermally temperature regulated.

Natural Resources

A truly massive amount of ore, primarily of iron, coal, and silver. Gold, other precious gems, and the occasional adamantine viens are discovered.

Founders

• Abbathor
• Berranor Truesilver
• Clangeddin Silverbeard

Type

Capital

Population

120,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Affgrothians

Included Locations

• The Arena

Owner/Ruler

Dorath Proudstone NPC

Ruling/Owning Rank

Chairdwarf

Owning Organization

Affgrothian Council

Related Tradition (Primary)

• Kinsfire Festival

Related Reports (Primary)

• The Gang Goes to Ground Report