Lyssaro
Demographics
Lyssaro does not put much stock in the aristocratic class - not even having enough of them to count towards a single percentage point of the population.
Instead, the great majority of the population falls somewhere in the survivable wealth brackets: a full 80% are either wealthy, comfortable, or modest (the lowest group in this category is those simply being comfortable, at 10%).
By the same token, very few of the population struggle to make ends meet, with only 20% being considered to be living in poor, squalid, or wretched conditions (and even then, only 5% each live in squalid or wretched environments).
Government
Ruled by the austere Queen Actae Riveremor, Lyssaro is slowly being guided by her hand towards closer relations and alliances with both Karasi and Brillante. This is due to her vast network of spies that have ingratiated themselves into most aspects of rulership.
She has decreed a 5% tax on all persons entering or leaving the city, based on a declared estimation of their wealth. As this is generally an agreeable amount that will not bankrupt an individual, there are heavily penalties on those who lie on their paperwork (which must be reevaluated every season and updated accordingly).
Industry & Trade
Lyssaro's trade is mostly relegated to other Atropaen cities, as there are not many teleportation circles in international locations (not to mention the difficulty of shipping by boat before even taking into account weeks of travel by horse once on land). That being said, their trade deals are secure with the other Atropaen city-states.
As befits an Atropaen city, their main trade is in magical items, with many wondrous items being manufactured and sold by the tradesmen of the city to one another and the trading partners.
Districts
The Dryan Conservatories
Made up of tiered garden structures, with waterfalls and the smallest of carefully curated greenery, the conservatories are as much a marvel of engineering as they are botany.
Druidic practices are not as celebrated in Atropae, and that is also true in Lyssaro. However, the conservators are mostly druids - or wizards who have studied natural magic alongside arcane lore - and it is known as a lovely place to visit on a weekend afternoon to stroll across the bridges or sit underneath a tree and listen to the fountains babble away.
Irontown
If you turn your face away from the ocean, and walk southwest, you will see the mountains rising to meet you, and a river rushing off of the face of it, creating a waterfall.
And if you follow that waterfall to the basin it collects in before joining the ocean, you will find two stone walkways, slick with water on the innermost edges, that walk around the spill of the waterfall into the cave system beyond.
This is Irontown, the small shanty town just inside the city limits (or rather, the city grew up to the mountain's cliff face where Irontown had been for decades and could grow no further, therefore absorbing the small worker's village into itself). It is not a bad part of town by any means - the water that runs through and underneath Irontown is cool, clean and clear, with several pools deep enough to bathe or swim in, and there are several openings in the cave that let in sunlight and the soil that collects on the cavern's uneven walls is fertile, but it is cramped and noisy (not just the people but the waterfall itself echoes back through the cave for a mile or more), and it takes months or years for new residents to learn to sleep through the racket.
The Guild of Ino
A massive complex of arcanists and enchanters, the Guild of Ino is overseen by Ino's granddaugher Ellyse.
It is a square, with buildings built 3-4 stories high all around it, creating a pseudo-courtyard.
The most odd thing about this complex of buildings is that the exterior walls - that is, the ones facing into the courtyard - do not have walls on them, giving the appearance of a child's dollhouse. This is to allow quick and easy transportation of items that can only be magically sent from one workshop to the other to a place that the caster "can see." You could simply load any such items up on carts and lug them to whichever workshop they needed to go to, and sometimes this is a punishment/chore given to apprentices, but if you have the magical reserves, why not save yourself the trip?
Of course, there are interior hallways and doors that function just as you would expect in any building or complex - the guild simply looks as if the last foot of its innermost construction was sheared off.
When it comes to the problems from inclement weather (rain, wind, etc.), the expectation is that the master craftsmen have enough knowledge to protect themselves from the elements, or that they will simply take the day off from the workshop.
Lycan Bay
An inlet protected by mountains on the northern side, Lycan Bay is where the shipping ports are located as well as the general market.
To the most southern side, away from the crowded walkways of the market, suffocating mountaintops, or noise of a commercial waterfront, several of the wealthier families have beachfront homes.
A few Brillantan nobles have summer homes in Lycan Bay (and even a few wealthy Lyssarites own a city home and a bay home), and so it is known as the trendy, upper scale area of the city.
Academic Scholar’s hovel, schoolhouse, alchemist’s laboratory, library, archives, observatory, university
The Bluffs
All official paperwork names the northern mountains the "Memphite Bluffs," but to call it that instantly marks you as a non-native. Anyone who grew up in Lyssaro simply calls it "The Bluffs."
It is the location of the Lyssaro Observatory, the arcane college that all proper socialites attend.
The Bluffs are also known to hide a special sea urchin at its most sea-ward base, known as Tyrian sea urchins. They are a popular side dish at most events, and since they come in all colors of the rainbow, to get a full spectrum of urchins is considered fashionable.
Lyssaro Observatory
Built into the side of the Bluffs, Lyssaro Observatory's location was very carefully chosen to take advantage of the caverns of crystals hidden in the mountains that work as natural arcane focuses (several young arcanists' first arcane focuses across Atropae come from Lyssaro).
Architecture
Made of stone with long-timbered roofs, the buildings of Lyssaro are decorated with pillars, sculpted molding, and columns.
Single story homes are the most common for families, but there are some multi-unit buildings towards the outskirts of town.
All the areas up near the sea have an enormous seawall built up to protect the most vulnerable structures nearby.
The Dryan Conservatories
Irontown
The Guild of Ino
Lycan Bay
The Bluffs
- Lyssaro Observatory
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