Qoza

Qoza was the wealthiest and most populous city of Arqozath. Located at the Rainbow Delta where the Khromark met Tharza's Bight, the city was the center of the dye trade that dominated Arqozath's economy. Founded as Arza, it was originally part of Tharzavok until its merchant nobility rebelled in 690 1A, creating the fledgling dracostate of Arqozath.

Geography

Qoza is constructed where the colorful Khromark opens into Tharza's Bight. To the north, along the banks of the river, are rocky, dry hills, dotted with vineyards. To the east spans the Thunder Coast, known for its frequent storms. To the south, beyond the bay, stands the city of Zath, once Arqozath's capital until it was blighted during the Night Wars.
Apart from its dyes, Qoza is perhaps most famous for its endless downpours. More than a simple annoyance, these rains absorb the colorful riverwater and shower blue, green, yellow and purple down on the people of Qoza. The buildings, clothing and even plants of the city are streaked and dyed in fabulous contrasting colors.
Qoza is divided into a number of districts:

• Estu Island: A small island that serves as a docking port for incoming and outgoing ships, Estu Island is connected to the mainland by a pair of bridges. It is known for its seedy dockside life and its many taverns, including the palatial Dignitary and the revolutionary Scorpion's Sting.
• The Pallet: A brackish estuary situated between the Rainbow Delta and Estu Island, the Pallet gets its name from the dazzling array of colors on display in its silt. When the tide is low, many Qozans cross the estuary, dying their bare feet green and blue and purple.
• The Thumb: The poorer district of Qoza, the Thumb is located on the eastern bank of the Pallet and is home to many of the dyeworkers that make the city's trade bloom. Nonetheless, the buildings here are crowded and often leaky, disrepaired and disregarded by the city's merchant masters.
• Rainbow Delta: Where the Khromark empties into the bight creates a fabulous panoply of color. While the Pallet is a dim reflection of these colors, the Rainbow Delta displays them all the brighter. While the water is too swift to safely enter, vistas on the north end of the city offer a stunning view.
• Westshore: In contrast to the poorer Thumb, Westshore is where the city's wealthy elites live in fine manses overlooking the Pallet. Many of these homes have elaborate canopies to prevent their sandstone sides from becoming smeared with multicolored rain.

History

First Age

Founded in 387 1A, Qoza began life as Arza, a small port in southern Tharzavok. Even from its early days, the dye trade dominated Arzan life. Over the decades, it grew to an economic powerhouse, its singular dyes desired all over the world and making the city's merchant class quite wealthy. They became so wealthy, they began to resent the exorbitant taxes they were forced to pay Tharzavok the Tremendous and plotted to secede. Sponsoring their own dragon, Arza – now called Qoza – became the capital of Arqozath, a new dracostate under Arqozath the Audacious.
Tharzavok was none too happy about this and, in 610 1A, she stooped onto the city, attacking with her lightning. While Arqozath managed to escape, the newly-named Qoza suffered greatly under the dragon's assault. Many buildings were destroyed and the Palette was said to run red with blood. So great was the dragon's wrath that the storm she summoned has never abated; a permanent rain cloud hovers over the city, drenching in beneath ceaseless downpour.
While the capital was eventually moved to Zath across Tharza's Bight, Qoza continued to provide the lion's share of the dracostate's wealth over the centuries.

Second Age

Following the Night Wars, much of Arqozath was abandoned by its people, fleeing the oncoming Thanasian tide. In the decades that followed, more nonhumans – centaurs, minotaurs, gnolls and aarakocra, historically pushed from the coastal lands by the approach of humanity from the south – returned and occupied Qoza.
While a few desperate arqons clung to power, by 49 2A, the city was officially lawless. The wealthy dye trade attracted warlord after warlord, however, and the city repeatedly changed hands over the next five decades. By 97 2A, a pirate captain named Zelene Silvers ruled Qoza, fat from sacking a draconic treasure fleet.

Politics

Like all cities in Arqozath, Qoza was once ruled by an arqon though its council of merchant magisters wielded considerable influence. Since the Night Wars and the utter collapse of the state, however, a different warlord every month, week or year has claimed ownership of the city. This makes the place ideal for criminals and lowlifes but difficult for legitimate merchants to continue to ply their trade.
In 67 2A, Zelene Silvers, a notorious pirate captain, was the current unofficial warlord of Qoza, flooding the city with gold pilfered from a draconic treasure fleet.

Economy

During its heyday, Qoza was the wealthiest city in Arqozath. Its rare and fabulous dyes brought prospeirty to the whole nation. Nearly all of the city's economy, therefore, hinged on this single trade. Laborers would collects the plants from further up river and then extract the dyes needed. Merchants would haggle over contracts and plan shipping routes and captains would ferry the goods across the world.
Following the government's collapse, however, the trade become much more erratic. How much the merchant class could profit depended largely on the individual warlord currently ruling the city.

Demographics

Like Arqozath at large, Qoza was mainly a human population before the Night Wars, with small minorities of minotaur, gnoll and aarakocra from over the mountains. Foreign merchants – particularly elves, orcs and Obsidian humans – could also be found in some numbers in the city.
After the nation's evacuation, however, many of the wildborn began to return to Qoza in numbers, reclaiming land that once belonged to their ancestors.

Culture

Qoza was not only Arqozath's economic capital – it was also its cultural one. Many of the ideas that would eventually take root in the Arqozathi consciousness, particularly about fashion, originated here. The access to the dyes allowed the Qozans to experiment in ways the Arqoans and the Zathi could not.
So too did Arqozath's revolutionary spirit begin in Qoza, thanks to the city's highest stratified society between the merchant elite and the working class. There has always been an undercurrent of revolutionary politics beneath Qoza's success and its short history has seen a fair share of worker's riots.

Campaigns

The Menagerie

• Vhakizla: After a disatrous defeat in Tharzavok, the Menagerie licked its wounds on Estu Island in Qoza for a short time. While staying at the Dignitary, Commander Chimera was attacked by the Son's assassins and members of her company burned down the Scorpion's Sting with alchemist's fire.

Qoza

City of Colors, the City in Motley

Country: Arqozath
Founded: 387 1A
Authority: Arqonate
Population: 6,600 (current)
Demographics: Integrated (54% human, 10% minotaur, 9% centaur, 7% dragonborn, 4% aarakocra, 4% gnoll, 3% dwarf, 2% elf, 1% halfling, 1% orc, 5% other)
Demonym: Qozan