Brillante
Pronunciation: BREE-ahnt
The people of Brillante are starving. Well, that's only true for about ninety-two percent of the population. The other eight percent has more food than they could ever need, and routinely gorges themselves to excess.
Indeed, excess and want divide Brillante even more so than they are divided on race lines - and to be clear, there are many many ways in which Brillantans divide and classify themselves into some groups and out of others. Wealth, race, gender, even clothing may be reason to ostracize from one social circle and yet find acceptance in another.
But while those may be divisions that the Brillantans consciously choose, one that they did not choose is their view on labor and hard work.
You see, for the privileged, it is seen as gauche to spend your hours toiling away in a workshop or bending your mind to learn or read. Instead, they see the world as their oyster of leisure, and spend their days playing croquet or hunting foxes or taking tea on large, whitewashed verandas. Magic, to them, is one more frivolous activity to use to show off at parties or woo a pretty young thing for a night.
For the lowborn, most see the fancy-free, easy way as nothing more than a fool's errand. Anything worth getting is worth getting your hands dirty for, and to declare that you only had to snap your fingers to get what you want is akin to treason for someone of the lower class.
Indeed, Brillante is starving. Its elite starving for purpose and its impoverished for revolution. But neither may ever get what they want. It is far too comfortable to focus on the here and now to ever think of the future...
Havre-Ordure
Brillante is old - so old that its bones would be dust if they weren't useful.
The Brillantans have used what remains of the Old City - named Havre-Ordure (HAV-ruh or-dyur) - as the foundations for their glimmering palaces and gardens. The poor live among these ruins... and the things that have infested it for centuries.
To be called a Ordure (or-dyur) is akin to a slur amongst the upper crust. It speaks of low breeding and eating rats and drinking sewage to survive. The Ordure themselves are too busy for self-loathing, but many feel some amount of shame in their position in life, and as such scurry about like their very presence could pollute the air - the classism of Brillante runs deep.
Structure
Brillante is, generously, a plutocracy. Those who know better would call it a kleptocracy. The money and wealth stays with the richest and most powerful, and when anyone with less wealth or power gets a little bit of it, it is torn out of their hands like a vulture tears flesh from the corpse.
And be careful that your own position is kept secure - if you show any signs of weakness or vulnerability, it will be struck upon. Even your own friends cannot be counted upon to not take advantage and elevate their own position.
But that is the rich and powerful. The weak and poor have a rather different structure to themselves.
Oh, some are still thieves and vagabonds, but because the poor are SO poor, they band together in communities of 20-30 that work together just to scrimp together a place that doesn't have a leaky roof and food that isn't rotted. These communities can range from communal living to incestuous familial colonies (cults) to gangs, but all are disenfranchised and must find a way to survive in such a world as this.
Demography and Population
Racial Breakdown
Brillante is:
- 42% Elf (high)
- 28% Half-elf
- 21% Human
- 4% Yuan-Ti
- 5% Other Races
Religious Breakdown
The most common deities of worship in Brillante are:
- Felisis - 24%
- Rochambeau - 22%
- Althjof - 17%
- Incenderre - 12%
- Engenii - 9%
- Doloros - 4%
- Other Deities - 12%
Military
Brillante doesn't have a military, per se, but rather a series of house guards that work together to preserve order while fulfilling their master's agendas.
Sometimes that's stopping a robbery. Other times its pulling a poor sap from the under city who won't be missed and letting the bored elite try their hand at scarification and branding work on their body before dumping them back in the sewers to die of shock or sepsis. Or to live. Who really cares at this point - at least it's not your hide on the line.
Places in Brillante
- Brillante , the city proper
- Gaern, the southern hamlet
- Havre-Ordure, the undercity
The most common skills for the Brillantan are:
- acrobatics
- deception
- performance
- persuasion
- sleight of hand
The most common backgrounds for the Brillantan are:
- courtier
- criminal
- entertainer
- noble
- rewarded
- ruined
- urchin
The most common classes for the Brillantan are:
- bard
- rogue
- sorcerer
- warlock
The traits most valued by the Brillantan are:
- Charisma
- Dexterity
The traits least valued by the Brillantan are:
- Constitution
- Strength
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