Celes, The Weeping City

A cloud hangs over Celes, not literally, unless you believe the rumors. No, melancholy pervades the air. Both those who live there and those who visit note it. Some say it is because the rise of The Storm Giant Empire started there, others say it has to do with the legends surrounding the Cabin of the Hanged One. Me, I think it has something to do with what they just unearthed. Say what you will, but it looks like a prison to me.

— Jasper Cameron, Leader of The Bronze Ravens

Despite what the locals and bards may wish for you to believe, there is little evidence that a city has always occupied the spot where Celes sits. After all, unless you are trying to get away from everything, what purpose could there be in having such a city on the far eastern side of the world, so close to The Edge of the Map. Expeditions, one would guess, but there is more, there must be. Nearly 15,000 souls call Celes home, after all.
No, Celes was founded some 900 years or so, give or take a few decades, by what we are now fairly certain were the survivors of The Ivory Nightingale Expedition. The confusion in the actual founding date comes from the fact that The Expedition left Ironstead sailing west for The Edge of the Map in 3997. Surviving logs from 2 of the 5 ships that ended up upon the shores (treated with the reverence of holy writings by locals) all agree that they sailed past the Salmon River. From there the recounted tales vary widely.
So you have some who say the expedition lasted just over 4 years before drifting to shore, their sails torn by storms and worse, their oars shattered and their rudders torn off. The conflicting account puts them in The Edge for over a decade, but being driven to shore by a storm in a similar state. Five ships washed up in what they thought was a shore so distant as to be a new world. These put their founding in either 4001 or 4009. But the first writings we have come from the whaler Veto Onyxshadow out of Doceancot.

As we rounded the northern point of the island the bastard started heading due east, and we had to cut him free. No amount of ambergris or whale-oil is worth risking The Edge. With storm clouds brewing we made our way to a sheltered Cove, only to find a town where none used to be. The locals had fresh water and other supplies for us and seemed surprised we spoke the same language as them.
If they are to be believed they are the survivors of ships that The Edge spat back out. Marooned here some 3 years they have done rather well for themselves considering the lack of wood on the island...

That entry is dated shortly after midsummer 4049.

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But enough of silly superstitions and the challenges with dates. Celes is a rather sturdy city. The lack of wood on the island, especially on the northern reaches, was no deterrent to the beleaguered survivors of The Ivory Nightingale Expedition. With no small amount of spoils from their time in The Edge, they were more than equipped to set about supplementing what litter lumber they had with the granite in the surrounding hills and cliffs.
The result is an impressive, if depressingly grey, city able to withstand the infrequent but vicious storms that blow in from the east. It has grown from its founding 647 survivors to a large city of 15,287 (at last census). With its growth, the surrounding hills have turned to farm and pasture land to supplement the tidal bounty.
One of the places of note is the city port, now known the world over as the Shattered Port. What used to be a typical port is now a series of smooth rocky outcroppings sticking out into the bay, the surrounding waters deep enough for even the largest ships to pull up to. Created by a spell of some sort in 4418, the effects of the spell can be seen all across the island as deep crevases and upheavels of stone outcroppings... or perhaps the "new" stone just used to occupy the crevaces and was carved out and teleported. No one is quite sure.
Nearby the city are two other locations of note, the Quarry, where recently people say they have unearthed an ancient structure, and a cabin located on a clifftop some 10 miles north of town rumored to be either haunted or cursed.