Crowmere

Crowmere is small city bordering on the Brightwood in the South East of Sedia, the closest city to Hyfrias. Known for its interesting history, high-quality farmed fish, and unique entertainment industry. Crowmere's old whaling port has now been repurposed as a theatre and fighting arena, hosting many festivals throughout the year and providing entertainment for travellers from far and wide.

History

Crowmere was founded some 4000 years ago. Originally it was a marketplace location for the nomadic sea elves that loop around the entirety of Aresia. Back then, little more than an arrangement of market stalls built from driftwood and scrap, it was known as Cra-meair, translating to "bloodied port" in sea-elvish (cra= port, meair= a term used to describe the colour of seawater stained in blood, that has no equivalent in common). The semi-permanence of this place came about due to the huge annual market that came from whaling in the area, when large pods of Coalwhales would gather in the bay to birth their young. The yearly slaughter and butchering of hundreds and thousands of these whales for their meat, skins and bones would result in the water of the bay becoming a bloodstained colour, and give the nomadic sea elves a good chance to barter their goods to people gathering in the bay with coin to buy whale meat. The market became increasingly popular year after year, the sea elves specialising their goods for the two-week long markets, making whale-themed trinkets and trinkets made out of whalebone to offer to tourists and the like. The market became so popular, that even when hunting coalwhales was banned, the markets continued to be a yearly affair.
As more common-speaking people attended the markets and came to see the whale hunting, the name was commonly mistranslated to "Crowmere", and as folk began building homes in the area and more advanced facilities to process whales, the town was officially founded as "Crowmere"

The Crowmere Sea Elf Massacre

The nomadic trading sea elves of Aresia made a lot of good coin and reputation working yearly at the Crowmere markets, and it was some hundred years after the town was officially founded that this behaviour sparked retaliatory action from sea elves living in the undersea civilisation of Shivaraath. In the evening trading of the second night of that year's market, the sea began to glow with the arcane light of a band of around 80 sea elves which beset upon the town, slaughtering 126 in the market, mostly market holders and whalers. The Shivaraathian elves fiercely believed that their land-dwelling cousins had betrayed their ocean ancestors in an offensive manner by profiting from the destruction of the calving whales and that it would lead to their extinction. 19 of the attacking elves were killed and burned communally on a pire the following day, the rest fled after they had taken a significant amount of lives. The nomadic group brought and hired guards to protect them for years in future, but not further mass attacks occurred. There were instances of suspicious deaths just out of town, as well as presumed drownings, but they have all remained cold cases.

The Flensing Arena

The Flensing Arena is a huge, circular, walled arena used for hosting arena fights and theatre performances. It was once a flensing facility, leading to the arena's name. It's 4 large, gated doors still have the tracks once used to pull the whales into the facility, which now function as entrances for performers or fighters. Many of the cranes and winches used to move whales around the facility are still in place, as well as the large raised platform which whales were lifted onto, which is now a stage for theatre performances. The Flensing Arena is very popular among history enthusiasts and art enthusiasts alike, and Crowmere has had an increasing presence in a lot of arts festivals throughout the year. Other Festivals too, such as the Festival of Fire lead to events hosted here, bringing about a good amount of tourism for the town.

Crimson Bay Fish Station

The Crimson Bay Fish Station has been built in the last 35 years ago under Mayor Arborn's directives, as an initiative to bring more production, economy and jobs to the town to boost its presence and standing. Starting as a high-quality salmon farming enterprise, the Crimson Bay Fish Station has branched out to farming other kinds of fish. The Station has a permanent shop outside of their main building of operations, as well as a regular stall in the markets. It employs hundreds, and makes the town a large amount of money while running release programs to reintroduce fish species back to the ocean which have suffered from overfishing in the past. This plant has caused some unease in Pneubury, which has a large fishing market. Many of the fish species available in Pneubury can be bought larger in Crowmere for cheaper, angering many companies in their opposing fishing town. A campaign by the Pneubury fishing and boating organisation that advocates that farming fish is unethical has since begun in Pneubury, and the Fish Station in Crowmere has suffered from graffiti and defacing attacks in the past few years, the drama making news across the country.

Political Stances

Crowmere has always been resistive to influence from Astrellos, keeping only the bare minimum guard presence as issued by the council, and usually turns to mercenary work for problems it may have. The relationship that Crowmere has had with Astrellos has therefore always been rocky, yet Astrellos continues to fervently push with campaigns to win over the people there. With tensions growing in the nearby town of Hyfrias and talks of independence from Sedia, this activity in Crowmere has only increased, presumably as an attempt to prevent Crowmere from joining forces with Hyfrias. The only exception to this has been Mayor Arborn's risky alliance with Astrellos to build the Crimson Bay Safety Net- an underground net that could be magically reinforced in case of attacks.

Governance:

Crowmere is currently run by Mayor Felicity Arborn. Mayors in Crowmere are elected every 5 years, and Mayor Arborn has been in her place for around 50 years, and is the longest-running Mayor of the town in history. She is well-loved by citizens, raising the town's economy almost 10 times what it used to be by imposing heavier taxes on wealthy nobles owning multiple households, as well as increasing industry by facilitating the building of the Crimson Bay Fish Station, as well as the Crimson Bay Safety Net.

Archetecture:

Crowmere is interesting architecturally, due to its mix of metals and woods. Very little stone is used in construction anywhere, as stone used for building is not cheaply accessible from the area, and isn't easily transported due to The Brightwood, but wood is. Iron is commonly used due to the nearby Wroughtbend mine and has been a source of extra jobs and industry for the town for over 1000 years. Much of the town is built onto land, but there is a large portion that is built onto docks built out across the calm water of the bay. The town is expanding rapidly, and almost all of this expansion is taking place across the water itself, to prevent the town having to expand their walls. Buildings tend to be tall toward the centre of the city, as this is where a lot of the poorer folk live, and it is cheaper and easier to build atop older buildings than demolish others nearby. Most buildings in the town tend to be cheaply assembled- strong and functional, but lacking aestheticism. Richer, more aesthetically pleasing buildings tend to be on the North of the town, by the main walls. These buildings are carefully carved from thick wood in a decorative manner. There are some more expensive houses along prime spots on the bay's shore where dock expansion is not occurring, but these are less common than expensive land-based buildings, as they are harder to craft on the shore and further away from the centre of the city.

Type

City