The White City

An independent city-state nestled up against a mountain range, the White City, as traders have dubbed it, is the final stop on any trade route that reaches it. There is no passing through the City, only coming and then leaving again.

Demographics

The permanent surface population is predominantly human, with most of the smattering of non-human residents being merchants who remain in the City for extended periods to cultivate business contacts and forge social connections with potential upper-class customers while their employed subordinates take care of traveling the trade routes. There is a not insignificant population of other sapients employed in the Whitestone mines, but they are rarely seen by anyone but other workers, and most of the surface population wouldn't think to include them if asked what sort of people live within the Walls.

Industry & Trade

The City has two markets, one for local merchants and another for faraway traders. Generally, the locals will charge more than the foreign traders for imported goods, with a few notable merchants maintaining this business by a combination of scalping their wares as early as possible after arrival into the City, maintaining stock through the periods when no foreign traders carrying the same wares are present, and locals' apprehension towards strangers.

History

Magic wasn't always banned in the City, nor was it always so hermetically surrounded by the Whitestone walls that gave it its present name. There is no one currently alive that saw the City as it was before those changes - great grandparents' great grandparents' parents saw the early years of the Walls as children, and the very beginnings of the changes that would be wrought on the Wildlands as a result of their construction.
The ban on magic was put into place in the aftermath of great political upheaval by rulers who feared it could be used in the future to remove them from their position. It was accompanied by extensive efforts to purge any existing traces of magic already present within the City, including the displacement of any resident practitioners, no matter what side they had supported during the unrest. The issue was framed to the population as a matter of protecting them from the threat posed by a power that could be wielded by the relatively few, and much of the citizenry accepted that argument out of a desire for stability and peace after the conflict.

Architecture

The White City is surrounded by stark white, glittering Whitestone walls, broken only by two large, side-by-side gates, both adorned with liberal amounts of the same material. Within the walls the roads are all paved with Whitestone, well-kept and worn smooth over the years, while they transition into tightly packed crushed shards of the same rock a few carts' lengths outside the gates. Between the Gates stands a single building which houses the Gate Taxers.
While the foundations of the homes and businesses inside the City are generally Whitestone, the high value of the material along with the fact that some buildings predate the City's prohibition on magic means many houses, especially those owned by less affluent residents, are simply white-washed wood or common stone. All over the city, tall Whitestone spires rise high above the buildings, taller than even the Walls. Between these spires is strung a veritable cobweb of metal chains, all hung with Whitestone charms like a beaded snood for giants. Common for all buildings within the City is stern shapes and sharp lines, with windows much taller than they are wide, rarely enough for an adult to stick their head out of, and often trapezoid rather than rectangular in shape, as though one corner had been cut off the builder's template.
Residential buildings are generally 2-3 stories tall, with a narrow footprint and very steep stairs - almost ladders - inside. They tend to feature flat roofs surrounded by waist-high walls, where a family may keep small livestock or a household garden. Runoff water is collected and channeled under the city for use in its farms.

Natural Resources

Domestic production consists predominantly of Whitestone quarried from the mountain the City leans against, and crops farmed in fields underneath the city, ingeniously provided with sunlight through the use of precisely-set mirror arrays. Some would also count the luxury goods from the Wildlands as part of the City's products, as much as the people procuring those goods are generally Wildlanders no longer permitted past the Gates.

Alternative Name(s)

The City

Type

State

Included Locations

• Palisade Row