Kantashi

Kantashi is one of several dozen city states along the Jagged Sea, and sits northwest of Hisarlik. No cities in the world match its sinister reputation, and the City of Blood more than earns its moniker; wizards hold political power here, and their magical traditions are the bloodiest and darkest in the world. The sacrifice of sentients is frowned upon in most regions, but this city makes it a habit, along with cannibalism and the use of undead. Undead are often used to capture the living from nearby settlements, whose blood is used in obscene magical rituals that often create more undead, and so the cycle goes. The city sits on an incredibly powerful font of magical energies that have been warped and tainted by centuries of dark rituals to fortify these magics, and the potency of the undead and their wizard masters is the only thing that prevents a coalition of other cities from tearing Kantashi down brick by brick. 
The preferred undead in Kantashi are mrog, corpses animated by Marks (whether implanted or naturally occuring). This might mean that undead were fairly rare given the scarcity of Marks but the city has been slowly growing its undead population for hundreds of years, resulting in thousands of undead in that time. Enough have been lost to battle or wear and tear for the standing undead amount to number around two thousand, but this is still a tremendous deterrent to invasion as well as a supplemental force in farming and menial labor. Rather than risk their undead being tied to one nexus of power, the city has several geodes to which the undead are slaved, lest any of them be compromised. 
Life for the average living citizen in the city is brutish and often short. Wizards are the only citizens with any real power, and roughly half of the non-wizards are slaves, afforded no political power or status (nor protection from being a sacrifice when necessary). Citizens run shops and own property, but are still beholden to wizards; wizards may kill non-wizards with impunity, appropriate resources within reason, and generally do as they please.

Demographics

Roughly two hundred and fifty wizards live in the city at any given time (the Mark appears in 1 out of 100 people). Those with internal Marks often discover them early, as the city tests for this.
A little over ten thousand citizens live here, and another ten thousand slaves. Two thousand undead also inhabit the city.

Government

The government is a council of wizards, most of whom are aged long past their natural lifespans. Twelve wizards sit on the council as is custom, with each designating a successor lest they die, but little in the way of formal houses or families governs this. Instead, the politics and favor of the Twelve is highly sought after, in an extremely individualistic way. Ties in the council are broken by the Supreme General, the only non-wizard with any power in the city (though this power is limited to breaking said ties and managing the military). The Supreme General is traditionally gifted with a Mark to enable them to pilot a warmachine.

Defences

Kantashi hides behind thick enchanted walls, atop which are mounted ballistae and magical cannons powered by the city's abundant geodes. Surrounding the city and its farmlands are massive bogs, in which undead soldiers hide to ambush and drag down approaching armies. Few generals ever make it to the walls of Kantashi, and none have breached them. Unlike many of the cities around the Jagged Sea, Kantashi doesn't sit on the ocean itself, sending ship traffic down its river which must pass through a massive iron gate.

Industry & Trade

With its reputation as dark as it is, few cities trade with Kantashi, but the black markets in cities around the world import exotic liquors and magics from the city. Kantashi has capitalized on its reputation by becoming the premier seller of anti-undead weaponry and charms, though these goods most often pop up well away from the city itself. Bloodwine is a fortified wine made from grapes grown in blood-drenched soil, and is one of the hottest commodities for the rebellious or wealthy.

Infrastructure

An artificial hill with well appointed houses, theaters, restaurants, and laboratories dominates the city center and houses the wizards along with their families and attendants. The rest of the city is a bit of a sprawl, built along spiraling roads built to channel prana to the city center but otherwise left unguided by the government. Citizens often live in cramped quarters with little in the way of sanitation; the river running through the city has been diverted to conform to the spiral pattern of the roads (and passes underneath the central hill), but since it provides all the water for the city, foot traffic around said river is often crowded. A large, thick wall surrounds the city proper, and it the real reason most citizens deal with cramped conditions; raids and attacks on the city are rather common, despite the difficulty most face in making any headway. When invading armies can't topple the walls they vent their frustration on the countryside, making life outside the city an unpopular choice.

Assets

In addition to their undead, the city is practically dripping with magic. Though it is of a sinister character, the walls are enchanted, its warmachines are potent, and the skyships produced here often have little difficulty in low prana areas.

Guilds and Factions

Three wizard colleges have been set up in the city, and constantly vie for power through their alumni. The Basilisk School focuses on combat applications of magic, instilling their students with a love of bombast and grandeur; duels in which a Basilisk are involved are often showy and potentially lethal to bystanders. The Black Mirror school is more esoteric, with a nominal focus on divination, though its pupils are adept at stealth and the sorts of magics that might take a month to kill someone. The Blood Moon school focuses on politics, with its magic encompassing an eclectic but comprehensive mix.
The Silverfoxes are a resistance group within the city who seek to stand against the evil and abusive cabal of wizards running things. This usually puts them in the position of organized crime, as loyalty is a must even among the people they protect, but this group receives outside aid from several other concerned organizations and cities so it has thus far been impossible to root out.

History

Founded in 9780, Kantashi originally started as a small retreat for wizards who found a cache of garnet geodes in the area. Increasing man'di raids at the time made for refugees coming up from the south, and the desperate people fleeing destruction begged the wizards for help. As the wizards weren't particularly sociable or altruistic, they agreed, but imposed strict conditions on the camp surrounding their chateau. Over time, the refugees grew in number and eventually settled around the river, and the wizards managed to create enough fear of invasion to maintain their grip on the fledgling society.

Architecture

The wealthy houses are spacious with inner courtyards, typically no more than two stories tall. Fitted stone and plaster with tile roofs are the norm for the better buildings, with wood and plaster making up the houses of most citizens.

Geography

Kantashi sits ten miles from the seacoast on a relatively flat plain, with a river cutting through it. The bog surrounding its farmlands started out naturally, and the wizards of the city make it a point to keep the bog intact.

Natural Resources

Wheat and rice are staple crops for the city, as well as grapes, cucumbers, and melons. Fish are a staple protein (along with captives or slaves who are no longer useful otherwise while the city is poor in metals and most of the local stone has been used up, the fantastic geodes in the area allow the most puissant wizards to create what they need.

Alternative Name(s)

City of Blood, the Necropolis

Type

Large city

Population

25,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Kantashites

Owning Organization

The Jagged Sea