Lysan

Straddling the provinces of Turelion and Ultaru and protecting the only bridged crossing of the River Cormarron, the town of Lysan’s position has naturally made it one of the key stopping off points in the trading networks that cross the Empire of Turelion.
In addition, as it sits between two hotbeds of agricultural activity, the town has over the years acquired the largest livestock market in the whole of the Empire of Turelion, something which, as good as it is for local commerce rather detracts from the quality of life of those who reside there. It is often joked that Lysan can be smelt long before it is seen.

Demographics

Like many settlements within the Empire of Turelion, Lysan is a Human majority settlement, though representatives of all races can be found in the settlement.
The large number of farm hands and animal handlers needed to corral and control the transitory livestock populace, along with the town’s reputation for being rather smelly means that the vast majority of the population are considered to be ‘lower class’ by the Imperial Bureau. There is a very small percentage of both ‘middle’ and ‘upper’ class individuals and families, with people with both business interests in Lysan and money preferring to live elsewhere and operate through proxies.

Government

Like most towns and cities under the rule of the Empire of Turelion, Lysan is governed by an Alderman. However, unusually, as the western side of the town lies in Ultaru Province and the eastern side in Turelion Province, the Alderman is appointed by joint agreement of both provinces’ Satraps and is theoretically accountable to both. This unique and complicated arrangement means that most holders of the office rarely last more than a few years in post, as the stress of having to coexist within two provincial systems almost always leads to very frayed nerves and high levels of stress.
The Alderman of Lysan has large staff who assist them in the running of the town and its river port and livestock markets. The Alderman and their staff are based in an unusual building, which is itself a bridge over the river and symbolically places the governance of the town at the centre point of both of the provinces it exists in.

Defences

When it was established a curtain wall was built around both sides of the town, with stone imported from the Duchy of Freestall at great expense. However, as the town’s livestock trade grew the town’s western and eastern gates proved to be too small to allow animals to be easily moved through the town in the sheer volume that is needed to keep trade flowing through the auction rings.
This means that gaps have been purposefully punched through the walls on both sides of the River Cormarron, but rather than constructing proper gatehouses in their place, successive Aldermans of the town have simply requisitioned the buildings flanking these openings and turned them into make shift guard houses. Fortunately for Lysan, the town’s position at the centre of the Empire of Turelion's heartland means that it is unlikely to be attacked, but if it were its defences would certainly be found to be lacking.
As it exists in both Turelion Province and Ultaru Province, Lysan has a garrison of provincial troops made up of forces from both provinces. However, this tends to mean that the garrison is always under strength, as both provinces billet the minimum number of troops they feel they can get away with there, hoping that the other will make up the numbers.

Industry & Trade

Whilst transient trading activity brought by passing merchants and traders does bring some money into the town, principally through people staying in the many inns that have established themselves along the town’s main road.
However, the bread and butter of the town’s life is the buying and selling of livestock. The town’s position between Turelion Province and Ultaru Province means that cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and all other manner of animals are brought there to be bought and sold to representatives from far and wide. The town’s famed thoroughbred horse auctions attract potential buyers from well beyond the Empire's borders. Surrounding the town are miles and miles of paddocks and animal pens used for holding livestock until the time comes for them to be auctioned.
It is not just common or garden livestock that is sold in Lysan. The town’s connection to the Centric Sea and its trade routes via the River Cormarron means that all manner of exotic and monstrous creatures can be found for sale there. There are even records of creatures as dangerous as Bulettes and even young Dragons having been sold in the town’s auction rings.
A secondary, and much more unpleasant industry, that has emerged from the town’s livestock auctions is the gathering and selling of the enormous quantities of manure and dung that the livestock leave in their wake, which is baled up and sold to the farmers of Turelion and Ultaru Provinces.

Infrastructure

The town is well served by road connections, as the Great Imperial Road, coming from the east and the Lesser Imperial Road coming from the west terminate in it. It is also well connected by water as well, with the River Cormarron up to that point being easily navigable, allowing coastal and river vessels as well as larger ocean going craft to moor at the town’s extensive waterfronts.
The River Cormarron is also used as the town’s main source of drinking water, with pumping stations drawing water up in the north of the town almost every hour of the day and night, and depositing is into a public water system that feeds a large number of cisterns and fountains scattered across the community.
The town has also been constructed with a sewer network, which runs beneath the town’s streets and disgorges its contents into the river at the southern boundary of the city.

Guilds and Factions

The faction with by far the largest presence in the town is the Lodge of Imperial Hunters. As well as Lysan serving as a good point from which members of the lodge can patrol both the Relialo Plains and the Plains of Gold, the large numbers of exotic creatures that are bought and sold in the town, which not irregularly manage to escape means that the members based in the town are seldom short of work.

Tourism

Whilst Lysan’s position at the junction of the Great Imperial Road and the Lesser Imperial Road makes it a natural stopping off point for merchants and trading caravans traversing the heartland of the Empire of Turelion  a large amount of people travel to the town specifically from all over the Empire and beyond its borders, drawn to Lysan by its impressive and extensive livestock markets.

Geography

The town is spread across both the eastern and western banks of the River Cormarron, with the river roughly bisecting Lysan down the middle. On its western side it is surrounded by the rolling grasslands of the Relialo Plains, whilst on its eastern side it is surrounded by the ever so slightly different grassland of the Plains of Gold.
As the town was established at a relatively wide and uniformly deep section of the River Cormarron, there is ample room on both banks for the mooring of river craft and even larger more sea worthy vessels.

Location Relialo Plains and the Plains of Gold.
Organisatons Contesting Ownership Turelion Province and Ultaru Province

Founding Date

334DP

Type

Town

Inhabitant Demonym

Lysans

Owning Organization

The Empire of Turelion

The Ten Day Races

Every ten days an unofficial, but widely allowed event takes place in the town, which shuts down the main road through Lysan, the Ten Day Races. These are a series of races taking place throughout the whole day and well into the night where the breeders of racing animals take the opportunity to show off the quality of their stock. In a typical Ten Day Race there will be horse racing, dog racing and the racing of more exotic creatures. There is also normally an event late on in the night, when most of the spectators are well into their cups, where a herd of cattle is stampeded down the street, ahead of which particularly foolhardy people race to avoid being trampled.