Phelandria
First built in 197 BC and ruled by Alexius de Fornaye, a cousin to Warlord Dorn III, Phelandria’s residents have long considered it the jewel of the Empire. While Karradone may well be the center of Tarien, Phelandria boasts stunning views, exquisite architecture, and a rich history of art and culture. Its importance to the Empire is so great that after its destruction less than two-centuries ago at the hand of Interrex the Terrible, Empress Ketura Laurant spent a fortune to have it rebuilt by Khadric stone masons.
Led by Roika Flametongue, the Khadric contingent - a combination of masons, engineers, and priests of Kharl - reshaped the cliffs around Verdun Bay into the magnificent shape that city takes today. Still built straddling Talbourne Falls, Roika envisioned a tiered city cut directly into the cliff face. She separated each side of the falls into nine shelves, each cut into the receding cliff-face. At anywhere from one hundred to three hundred (human) paces deep, the various tiers have become known as shelves, with each shelf having its own name and character.
Roika also preserved the historic divide between the eastern side of the falls known as Evenglow, where the Duke's Palace resides on the eighth shelf, between two sprawling parks - the private Ducal Reserve above and the public Rainbow Gardens below. At the bottom of Evenglow, built out into the bay on docks, sits an Imperial naval base and dozens of barracks used as staging areas for the deployment of new Legionnaires destined for service on foreign shores. Directly above it, a narrow shelf filled with a mix of taverns and whore houses alongside sailmakers, ropiers, and other businesses necessary to keeps a naval base running smoothly. The third shelf in Evenglow, known as Smithtown houses the city’s smithing district, filled with blacksmiths, armorers and fletchers as well as city’s fine collection of jewelers.
The middle three shelves on Evenglow were never rebuilt, as Ketura died and, with funds short, her son cut off the flow of gold to the Khadric engineers. Roika, despite her passion for the project, refused to work for the vague promises that Emperor offered. That didn’t stop a team of Nerrid archeologists from digging into the ruins of the middle shelf. They spent three decades in the late Seventh Century excavating the ruins with painstakingly care. Using tiny shovels and tinier brushes, they burrowed five hundred (Nerrid) paces into the ruins, cataloguing their discoveries in a 57 volume encyclopedia, thoughtfully produced in both Eldorian and Nerridian (though the Nerridian version spans 1,035 volumes in the Nerrid National Library). Alas, the Nerrid contingent lost interest in 702 AC, abandoning the project. Shortly thereafter, Phelandria’s disenfranchised and poor moved into the low-ceiling warren of tunnels that earned it the nickname “Moleville”.
The western side of the falls, known as Dawnlight for its early morning sun, hosts the city proper with its shelves ranging from the city’s public port at the lowest shelf through gradually gentrifying industries and neighborhoods until it reaches the Estates District, seventh tiers up, where the city’s wealthiest make their homes. The highest tier boasts mills - both lumber and grain - that harvest the power of Talbourne Falls. The city’s wealthy, desiring space between their residences and the mills that they owned, successfully lobbied Roika for a park of their own - a narrow eighth shelf now known as the Wilds due to the fact that none of those same merchants and minor nobles have agreed to pay for its upkeep. They have, however, agreed to pay for private guards who prevent miscreants and other undesirables from entering, let alone spending the night.
The shelves themselves are connected by broad spiral ramps, at one end or another of the shelf but never both. While a few steep staircases are scattered throughout the city, these tend to reside in private buildings, meaning that to go from Dockside to the Mills without impinging upon someone's property rights, one needs to traverse the entire length and height of the city.
Given each shelf is no more than a few hundred paces wide, space is at a premium. A single broad road runs down the middle of each shelf with whitewashed buildings jammed together and separated only by a smattering of narrow alleys. Tiled in red or blue, buildings stand anywhere from two to three stories tall on the outer part of the shelf to as many as six stories up against the cliff face.
Those buildings abutting the cliff often have interior rooms that cut into the cliff itself, adding lightless square footage to the city's footprint. Some of these interior rooms open up into the lightless tunnels and caverns that wind and wend throughout the cliff. Known colloquially as the Catacombs, they are part a natural cave system particularly in the areas closest to Talbourne Falls, and part tomb where the ruins of old Phelandria are buried. A known haunt of the members of the Thieves' Guild, most honest citizens stay well away from this mysterious "under city", though those that know it well claim that it allows them to travel anywhere in the city via the tunnels, drop shafts and even a few passages behind the falls themselves.
Without using the Catacombs, there are only three ways to travel from Evenglow to Dawnlight. Along the harbor front, once can simply walk along the vast network of docks that bulge out in an arc around the tumultuous terminus of the Talbourne. Of course, without the proper orders, the Legionnaires that guard the entrance to Naval Base will not let anyone through. Most in the lower parts of the city will therefore use the Mistspan. At fifty paces wide, this broad stone bridge is as much its own shelf as a bridge, packed with buildings, many of which hang precariously off its parapets. Further up, connecting the Rainbow Gardens and the Estates Shelf is Roika's Walkway. Far narrower than the Mistpan, Roika's Walkway appears more like spun silk than the stone, its emerald flecked marble glistening. While vendors may set up shop along this bridge, it is carts and temporary spans as the Lionguard - the city's police force - clear it nightly.
A View of the Palace from Smithtown
While extraordinary, the engineering underlying Phelandria is not what made it the Jewel of the Empire. When Ketura nearly beggared the Empire to rebuild the city, it was the art and culture that tugged at his heartstrings. The city's demise took with it a number of a famous artist, authors and actors, robbing the Empire of a generation of talent. In the intervening centuries, however, Jendredi's inspiration has returned to the city in full force. Thanks in no small part to the patronage of the Le Carre Family, one can now find artists offering spot sketches on Roika's Way and others creating their masterpieces in the seclusion of the Rainbow Gardens.
As the birthplace of Reynard, the city has long bore the standard for performative arts in the Inner Seas. Theater Row in Market Table has a half dozen permanent stages from humble to grand, where Eldoria's finest perform drama's, comedies, and operas both classic and modern. Street performers crowd its squares and song tumbles from every tavern, making the Table one Tarien's most festive neighborhoods after the sun goes down.
Founding Date
197 BC, Rebuilt in 600 AC
Alternative Name(s)
Jewel of the Empire
Type
City
Population
30,000
Inhabitant Demonym
Phelandrians
Location under
Included Locations
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
- Agatha Encroûte
- Alphonse Rocher
- Arlin Dross
- Bruklin Shatterhide
- Carolina le Carre
- Elira Viola
- Feldara Fantasia
- Fizzywit Thimbledown
- Gaston Truand
- Grogg the Merciless
- Guy d'Andor
- Ishta Shal'Vistani
- Iven Cole
- Jogar Merrin
- Louis le Carre
- Lysa Pithé
- Maerene Le Carre
- Matheo Varnet
- Mirelle Falnari
- Nivetta Cole
- Roux
- Sava the Alchemist
- Serene Dustelhyme
- Tessha of the Door
- Tistane
- Wert Ackerman
Related Reports (Primary)