Kul Lerek

Kul Lerek, The Soaring

City Size: Small City (50,000-100,000 people)

Population: Mix of Xen’drik peoples, especially cloud goliaths, drow, and winged beastfolk.

Government: Farseer Evek i Senran leads the distant Scriveners of the Sky, with Skymatron Rais i Jalmar handling civic affairs on their behalf in the city. Otherwise, the Zephyr Guard, noble families and Winged League work together to keep the peace.

Age: Roughly 40,000 years Purpose: Preservation and research of Xen'drik history, keeping watch over rising threats.

Organizations: The Scriveners of the Sky form the elite of the city, as giant librarians, scholars, and arcanists in service to the dragons. Around them, multiple guilds, institutes and the Winged League of merchants hold power in the city. Below them, the Skylarks rule subtly over the undercity, controlling smuggling and illicit activities. The noble skyknights of the Zephyr Guard protect and keep watch over all.

A sprawling castle in the sky occupied by a thriving multicultural population. The city is a bastion for commerce, and floats over the continent on trade winds. Its position high in the clouds protects it from curses laid on Xen'drik below; as such, the city has remained a stable refuge for thousands of years. The Scriveners of the Sky nominally rule the city, which they use as their stronghold. Supporting their work are a multitude of other peoples, who operate the mistfarms on the city’s edge, secure resources and goods from the land below, or go about their lives without ever touching the ground.

As part of their precautions, the Scriveners forbid Kul Lerek from descending too close to the land, and many people below only see glimpses of the vast citadel in the sky. Draconic Watch. In truth, the city exists by the deigning of Argonnessen. In the Age of Giants, the grand size of Kul Lerek was for the dragons themselves, for the castle acted as a gathering spot for the the giants' honored guests. During the Shattering, its halls were used by the heads of the flights to organize their destruction. A hundred years after, a group of cloud giants discovered the empty city, and settled within its spacious halls.

When the Watchers first arrived, they found the scared and powerless giants, and granted them clemency in exchange for an accord; the giants would keep a wandering watch over Xen'drik - and in return, they would receive both the city, and their lives. Now, the Scriveners act as both guardians and archivists, collecting information of use to the dragons, and serving their occasional whims. What was once a small operation has grown into a metropolis; the guilds, merchants, warriors and artisans of the city help to serve a grand - and secret - purpose.

City Structure The structure of the city has evolved over thousands of years into a thriving vertical metropolis. Kul Lerek is formed by a ring of solid clouds on which the buildings rest. In the center lies the Vault of Zephyrs, holding the accumulated lore and artifacts of the Scriveners.

The Vault is unconnected to the rest of the city, requiring the power of flight to enter. The ancient giant stonework of the city itself is built to an enormous scale; the rooms were created with dragons in mind, and thus are huge even for the Scriveners themselves. As such, entire buildings have been constructed within single rooms, which can house several families with space to spare. Much of the city is covered in plants touched by Syrania. These special crops take root within the cloudstuff, growing food for the residents of the city. Undercity. As the population has grown, the city has also expanded deeper into its own foundations. Successive generations have dug downwards into the cloudstuff, creating warrens and rooms ‘underground’. Some of these structures even extend downwards and below the city, with perilous views of the land below.

This is the Downside, with rickety bridges and vast skeins of netting connecting newer buildings. Much of Kul Lerek’s crime operates out of the Downside, with smuggling and illicit trade the main squeeze. The largest group in the Downside are the Skylarks - an unofficial mafia who keep the peace while raking in money from deals on the down-low. Old and New Over thousands of years, traders and artificers from the city’s Planewright’s Guild have brought magic relics back to the city. These have been integrated and patched into the infrastructure, providing water, light, and other benefits. As a result, the ancient stonework often clashes with a riot of artifice. Levitating cloud lifts might carry visitors into a plaza lit by elementally-bound lights, where automated constructs made of ice patrol for thieves.

The Guild researches and recovers lost tech from across Xen’drik. Within their headquarters, the arcanists reverse-engineer and study giant magic with the aim of enhancing Kul Lerek further. City Limits. The greatest project of the Guild is one that affects the future of the city. The solid Syranian cloud that forms it is created by Skyhooks* - powerful magic relics of the cloud giants of the Gallimaufry. Hundreds of linked Skyhooks form the foundations of the city, control its movements, and surround it in a bubble of clear skies. However, the secret to creating them died with the Gallimaufry. As a result, the size of Kul Lerek is dangerously limited.

The Downside is a symptom of this - a gradual excavation of the cloudstuff to make room, and a constant source of conflict. Many, especially in the wealthier districts of the city, believe that doing so is a danger to everyone. The more the Downsiders dig, the greater the chance of massive collapse. To the Downsiders, there’s no choice; the size of Kul Lerek is dangerously bound, and its population increases day by day.