City of Thieves
Fellkarth is Khellador's greatest city, it is officially under the jurisdiction of the king, but it is defacto independent. The city has its own ruler, its own military, and its own laws, and it doesn't pay any taxes or tribute to the king of Khellador. The only reason it is officially still part of the kingdom is for political reasons, it makes it much easier for Fellkarth to support Khellador in wars, without it becoming a political nightmare, and it allows to city to blame others for their controversial reputation across the world.
Formation
The city was founded by a roaming tribe of Khellans, many years ago, who found the rich lands of the river delta to be a most convenient place to settle, they initially survived off farming, and fishing, first in the deep river, but quickly also in the sea. Over time, the settlement grew, and as amenities improved, it became a convenient stopping point for traders sailing between Yeno and the White Sea, bringing a whole new range of opportunities to the Fellkarth markets, and this only exacerbated its growth into an international power.
Naturally, many traders decided to base themselves here, as it was an easy point of departure to pretty much anywhere, and when some of these traders found the business a bit harsher than expected, they turned to piracy instead, and what made this city a haven and stopping point for traders, also made it an ideal base for pirates operating in the Khellan, Enyanian, and even Yenoan seas, it also made the trade route to Aenyth a whole lot less safe, triggering a number of military responses from surrounding nations, especially Enyanin, who suffered the most from this development.
Piracy in these seas has been reduced greatly in recent years, but not for any effort from the city government, in fact, half the city council is made up of retired pirates, and the other half got rich from their actions just as much, because however illicit, all the plundered wealth was ultimately spent in the city itself, enriching all who live there.
Government
The city council is ruled by an elected council, although in reality, most of these positions are bought, this council makes, and enforces laws using the city guard as their police force, this guard is made up of well-payed warriors, who are trained precisely to fight the undisciplined vagabonds who would stir up trouble here.
Laws
Most of these laws are about docking rights, taxes, and tules of conduct. There is no pirate business allowed within city limits, and ships are told to at least clear the delta, and have it on the horizon, before engaging any other vessels, if a ship wrecks due to your actions, you can be fined severely, and business within city limits has even greater punishments, depending on the severity. This is all meant to dampen pirate rivalries, as well a providing a neutral ground where they negotiate, and handle their deals without fear of being scammed.
Infrastructure
The city itself is dense, with many wooden buildings built next to, against, and on top of each other, it is famous for many of its larger buildings being made from upside-down ships, put on poles, and walled off.
There are many roads and alleys leading to the many different sectors of the city.
the city doesn't have any real walls, and there are many roads that just lead out into the wilderness, to smaller settlements, that are connected to the city, although all these smaller settlements, are really no more than an hour's walk from Fellkarth, and they are ruled as parts of the main city,
An hour's walk is the furthest you can walk because that is the size of the island on which the city was built, there are neighboring settlements, where the fishermen live, and there are several bridges leading to such other islands, which connect Fellkarth to all most of its neighbors.
All these bridge-connected islands fall under Fellkarth jurisdiction, and they pay taxes to the council of Fellkarth.
Demographics
While this is a Khellan city, on Khellan land, most of the people living here are no longer Khellan, most of them are humans from a variety of other nations, namely Isich, and Yeno, particularly the Onyef region.
There are also a significant amount of Dwarves living here, who make up a large portion of the higher merchant class, providing the pirates, and those regular traders brave enough to come here, with provisions for their coming journeys.
There are also a small amount of elves here, which account for a small minority.
The native Khellans mostly make up the agricultural class, they produce a lot of the food for the city, as well as being the ones who do any ship repairs, and construction of new vessels, but they can be found in any part of the city's hierarchy.
Geography
The city is located on a large island in the delta of the Red River, it is surrounded by vast reaches of densely forested swamp and mangrove, and the upstream river is blocked by massive herds of hippos, making it impossible to go very far inland, these conditions have combined to isolate this city, and its twin, Samiq, from the rest of the country.
This has also made it necessary for large portions of the city docks to be built on long stilts, as the water level rises drastically in the wet season. However, the majority of the river is built far above, on the hilly interior, safe from any floods.
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