Zimnirila

History

Early Settlement

In 1342 the area was first settled, quickly turning into a fishing town sheltered from the heavy winter storms. The many natural cliff edges and almost shelf-like formations made a perfect way for the city to expand, growing upward along the white cliffs.

From there it became a proper city, moving from exclusively fishing into masonry and stonework around 1403. Deep mines were cut into the tops of the cliffs, extending down through natural caverns and pulling up stone and ore.

Chained Labor

In the early 1540s, the quickly-growing city required more space along the cliffs to expand. To do this quickly and cheaply, the prison population of Gostary proper, as well as the many inmates in Zimnirila were manacled together and given pickaxes and tools to start carving out pieces of the cliffside. The disregard for the inmates' lives and health led to overtime on the cliffs and no real safety options. Instead, overworked and often exhausted and sickly prisoners would lose their footing, dropping off the narrow ledges towards the rocky beaches and bay below, sometimes dragging multiple others down with them thanks to the heavy manacles.

This reached peak levels in 1551, as the need for more space began to outpace a dying labor force. More overseers, often ex-military, were brought in to speed up the work, and in doing so only slowed it down more as the prisoners were at a breaking point.

Prison Revolt

As 1560 arrived, along with a new batch of retired soldiers to overwork Gostary's legalised slave labor, said prisoners were able to organise. As they were being led to the cliffs at the height of winter, on the sharp whistle by their appointed leader, the inmates turned on their overseers, throwing them off the rocky ledges and beating them to death with their manacles. Removing their chains, they took the prison proper by force, ousting the other guards and staff and heading for the ships in harbor, many of which had carried them into port. Commandeering one, the group of nearly 80 escaped from the city, vanishing west into the ice fields towards Aquimore.

The city, shaken by the halt of work and the violent uprising, quickly tried to figure out what possibly could have caused the revolt. The leaders of the city had no guesses, deciding that it was just a lack of national pride, and decided to continue with prison labor, instituting twice the guards and shortening the chain lengths.

The exact same thing happened again within the week, this time the group heading east towards Alpta.

Aftermath

The mines above the city finally dried up, and that, coupled with the inability to continue expanding along the coast, meant the city began to stagnate. While it never became a ruin, it slowly died out over the next century. By 1638, it was almost half its peak population.

Many blame its demise on how many died on its cliffs, believing the wronged spirits brought the city down. Skeptics point out that since it is still a large city, those claims are false, and since nearly every city in Gostary was built on poor decisions and human cruelty, it doesn't make sense for only Zimnirila to be affected.

Geography

The city of white marble and cut stone sits on the edge of the high cliffs, expanding across wide ledges cut into the rock. It is made up of multiple levels, extending down to the beaches and sheltered hills sitting between the naturally curved cliffs and the deep bay.

Alternative Name(s)

The Cliffs, Falling Rock, Prison, that fucking hellhole

Type

Large city

Population

14,239