Tel Hannon
Tel Hannon. The second chance city. The Lost city. The youngest city in the world built on the corpse of the world's oldest. Dangerous and beautiful. Indomitable and precarious. Tel Hannon is the first and last bastion of civilization on the untamed continent of
Nern . Home to a twenty thousand souls, the very poorest and richest. The aspiration and the desperate alike. Tel Hannon is a creature of wood and stone, growing and breathing. It gives and it takes. It cares not which.
Demographics
The Most predominant species is human, making up approximately 60% of the total population. Humanity has a presence in all strata of society and in all trades. Dwarves posses a sizable community of about 15% which is mostly formed into either private commercial communities or as independent middle class tradesmen. Tabaxi displaced from economic exploitation in the mainland have formed a community of roughly 8%. They occupy the lowest socio-economic rung of Tel Hannon's society, having largely been excluded from commerce and housing. High Elves account for only 5% of the population but are entirely sequestered to the upper echelons of society. They are over represented in both governance and religion. The other races form the remaining 12% and fulfill various demographic niches.
Government
Tel Hannon is a province of the Confederal Hereditary Monarchy the
Varodian Empire. The City is ostensibly governed by a Margrave who acts as the Emperors representative.
Defences
Tel Hannon is ringed by a rather ornate but functional 20 metre high wall of Limestone. Broken every two hundred metres with a guard tower. The harbour and North Eastern bank of the
Altaric River are protected by the The Black Kettle a fortress of granite and obsidian.
Industry & Trade
The majority of the cities wealth is generated by mining. Inland are extensive mining operations that are producing quantities of silver, gold, and copper. This enterprise is currently leased by the empire to the
Berkingrimm Minerals Company. Nern's volcanic soils produce an abundance of not only food but: coffee, wine grapes, spices, chocolate and sugar. The majority of which is traded on the open market. An ever increasing domestic industry of artisans and craftsmen has also sprung up around the abundance of cheap produce. Finally, exotic hard wood trees form the basis of a well established lumber industry for the wealthy elite on the old continent.
Infrastructure
Tel Hannon possesses extensive trade infrastructure; a
harbour and river port , basic roads and extensive warehouses. The city is ringed by ever expanding plantations, farms and lumber mills. Filling the old continents hunger for exotic produce and lumber. The City has a old but functional citadel as well as barracks and armouries. The Palace acts as a seat of power and the expansive magisterial complex acts as both the administrative and religious arm of the empire. The city is serviced by aqueducts and a sporadically functioning sewer system. What Tel Hannon lacks most is adequate housing for its growing population. As such the city is ringed with a rapidly growing sprawl of slums .
Assets
Much of the wealth of Tel Hannon is condensed into the warehouses of the
Port District and Merchant's Quarter . The Warehouses in these districts are filled to bursting with all the natural wealth of Tel Hannon. It's material wealth is the envy of the world.
Guilds and Factions
Tel Hannons wealth and relative social mobility has caused an influx of aspirational figures seeking upwards mobility. As such it is has an over abundance of political, criminal and ideological factions vying for power in one form or another.
The
Margrave Lucien Decartis holds imperial authority which, on the surface is absolute, but in reality, exists in opposition to the ambitious Lords of Nern ;who have a stranglehold on much of the city's commercial institutions.
On the fringes of this conflict are two notable if not smaller organisations: The industrious dwarves of Berkingrimm Minerals Company and the increasingly militant displaced natives tribes that form the Tabaxi Tribal Confederacy.
The long standing corruption and considerable distance to the capital of Tel Hannon has resulted in the growth of a sizable shadow economy. The control of which is fought over by various criminal organisations. The two most powerful are the:
Legarto syndicate and Black Shell. Who have both maintained a presence since the earliest days of the colony. This duopoly on crime however is now being challenged by a newly created third clan the Khopesh.
Tel Hannon also hosts a number of influential churches and temples that compete with one another for the hearts and minds of the common folk. Although this is a far more abstract path to influence then direct political authority or the accumulation of wealth; it is nonetheless a high stakes conflict. While the official religion of the empire is the worship of the law abiding
Temple of Tyr the wholesale auctioning of land for the construction of temples has led to the growth of the influential Temple of the Final Vision. The Temple's message of accepting ones station has brought into conflict with the more liberal minded and longstanding Tymorans.
Beneath this tumultuous ebb and flow of conflict and conspiracy, literally and systematically, are the rat men. Inhabiting the cavernous excavation of the
The Old City the mercantile rat men have formed a government of sorts. Although roundly despised by the citizens of the surface the rat men are an economic force in their own right.
History
Tel Hannon was founded as a colony of adventurers and enterprising merchants seeking respite from the various dangers of the continent. It was for a time a notorious and anarchic bed of pirates, mercenaries and wealthy explorers. A steady stream of exotic treasures attracted the attention of various city states and nations seeking to establish it as a colony in its own right. It changed hands many times as the fortunes on the mainland waxed and waned. All the while it continued to grow in wealth, power and population. Most recently it has been annexed from it last owners by the
Varodian Empire . They have taken a more involved approach to the management of the province then previous administrators.
Tourism
The dangers of Tel Hannon are notorious in the old world. So much so they are the basis of a small publishing industry. As such only the most desperate of souls travel to Tel Hannon and not for the purpose of sightseeing. However there is a small contingent of self styled
Noble explorers that travel to Tel Hannon for the purpose of exploring the continent. Although not precisely tourists they are as close as Tel Hannon comes to leisurely visitors.
Architecture
Tel Hannon has enjoyed or endured the governance of various kingdoms and cultures over its short history. As such the architecture of the city is a kaleidoscope of vividly different aesthetics. Elegant bone white minarets occupy the same skyline as brutalist stone towers. Homes range from massproduced wooden and brick structures and complexes to ostentatious villas of alabaster and stone. Here and there one finds structure belonging to the regions original inhabitants the Madifun . These ancient stone structures stand almost in defiance of time. There engineering brilliance and beauty are the subject of speculation and superstition by the Hanisians. Outside the city's walls however are the spreading slums. As beautiful and wealthy as the constructions city are, the Slums are equal in poverty and ugliness.
Geography
Tel Hannon is built in a natural harbour at the mouth of the Altaric River , which splits it down the middle. The surrounding lands are flat grassy plains that give way to rolling hills that form a natural boundary to the fetid jungles of the interior. To the south the natural sloping of the land gives way to swamps and wetlands.
Founding Date
1223
Alternative Name(s)
The Second Chance City, Lost City, Last City.
Type
City
Population
Approximately 20,000
Inhabitant Demonym
Hannisians
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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