Rose City
History
The ancient Rose City was once a bustling stop on the Western Kingdom’s central trade route, connecting all the areas north of the Misted Mountains with the more populous central kingdoms. Back when copper and iron ore could be found in the Green Waves Hills, and the Misted Mountains and Bramblewood were thought to be unpassable, trade caravans would skirt the Umbragelb Desert, and stop at Rose City to load their goods up to sail down the TurkisGelb River. The city thrived with the trade route and all these people and ideas passing through. That is partly the reason Star Sign religion was organized here first. The leadership at the time was even more powerful with the King than the StarRise capital of Illuium. It was once said that one in every three dollars that flowed through the kingdom had passed through Rose City once in its lifetime.
But as time went on, more economical paths were carved through the Bramblewood and the Misted Mountains, essentially cutting Rose City completely out of the main trade route, in favor of passing through LaSuroan. The population of the city, at its height of 225 thousand, was more than halfed almost overnight. Perhaps the leadership of the city flew too close to the sun; their Star Seeker at the time told the governor that the building of the Skyway Pass, connecting the Bramblewood with the Green Waves Hills, was punishment for his reaching above his station and that the city would die for his sins. How much of this is true and how much of this is a legend, is hotly debated.
Several years later, an even more damaging natural phenomenon rocked the city: the flood of 1866. The city's buildings were built with bricks made from the sands of the neighboring Umbragelb Desert. This sand, unbeknownst to another at the time, had a very high salt content. So when the flooding of 1866 came stronger than ever, it dissolved that salt in the bricks, and the city was near destroyed, almost every building collapsed into ruins. An untold number of people died in this disaster, including the entire governing body in the collapse of the capital building.
The Head Star Seeker, who was miraculously out of the city attending another religious ritual during the crisis, had the city rebuilt, claiming religious significance when so many others chose just to abandon it. It's population fell below 10 thousand people and the city could only be built to a fraction of its original size (built more into the mountain and out of the harsh weather elements). The old ruins of the city were left as a burial ground to the once thriving city of the past.
Now, except for the most devoted to religious tourism, The Rose City is just another part of the forgotten Northern Expanses of the StarRise Kingdom. Its population dwindling down to a 10th of its height yet again, with more vibrant cultures in other cities drawing away many that remain. Tourists to the Umbragelb Desert now prefer to start their journey from the river settlement of Raea and even the caravans only pass through occasionally. The once culturally and financially rich city is now a shadow of its former self.
Founding Date
122
Type
Town
Population
1245
Inhabitant Demonym
Rosian
Owning Organization
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