The Korvian City

The Korvian City is the capital city of the Korvian people, nestled on the north-eastern coast of Udai, at the edge of the Unnamed Bay.

Major Locations

As the urban center of Udai, the continent's largest settlement, the Korvian City has many places of interest that are known around the world.
The Korvian City is a round city that rounds up towards the center, getting smaller as it gets to the top, looking from the outside like a large egg. The top of the egg is a castle where the King stays. Many say the city, a rounded settlement with the royal castle at the center, is similarly constructed to Camor, and there likely was knowledge of Camor that went into the construction of the Korvian City, but it is different in other ways.

Poorer Areas

Entering the city, one would find all the vulnerable areas are where the poorer Korvians live, as the Korvian nobles believe the poor, weak Korvians to be cushioning to stop Orcish invasions.
The poor Korvian areas are known for sticking together through the limitations and horrible things imposed on them by the richer Korvians. There is a palpable sense of community among the lower class in the Korvian City that anyone who passes through can see.

Nightingale Song by Jarhed

Orcish Gates

The Korvian City exterior and boundary areas are designed to confuse the Orcs who would ever try to invade. There are homes outside of the city limits, spread around in small neighborhoods.
These small neighborhoods are meant to make the Orcs attack them instead of the true city. While outside strategists have suggested it would be smart to simply have these neighborhoods be empty, the Korvians keep the poorest folk in these homes, making them cheap and easy to afford, so that the Orcs will kill the poor while the rich can prepare for a fight.
Then, when one gets to the round edges of the true city, there are larger homes where large amounts of poor Korvians are crammed. However, while it is possible for Orcs to simply break through these homes to get in, they rarely if ever do because of another strange addition to the outer limits of the city: the Orcish Gates.
The Orcish Gates are a set of reinforced steel gates on almost every street that leads into the city. There are two streets without gates, but the gates read, in Orcish, "Orcs Enter Here." Most Orcish Chiefs who read this see an invitation and believe it is the only way to get in, all other ideas leaving their brains because the Korvians have now, in their minds, told them the best way into the city.

Warbler by Jarhed

Founding

There are varying accounts of how the Korvian City was founded. Some say it was founded when the Avians and Korvian were united as one people, and that they lived together in this city.
Other stories say that when the Korvians and Avians lived together, they lived in smaller settlements around the area, especially around the bay where the Korvian City was founded.
These stories, then, say that it may have been Warbler and Croaker, the leaders of the Orchestra, who founded the city. However, they were assumed to be a nomadic army.
The most prominent story is that the city was founded by the second Korvian King, Nightingale Song, and his group known as the Big Band.
Nightingale Song is the King most associated with settling the Korvian City where there were once smaller towns, forming peace where there once was war.

Of course, steel is not something that can hold Orcs forever, and inevitably they break through the gates. However, by that point, the nobles with powerful Korvian abilities are prepared to stop them and protect the city, or if they are not there yet, then the poor folk will be there to unite and push them back.

Croaker by Jarhed

Mermaid Port

Mermaid Port is the main seaport of the city, at the northern edge where the land meets the Unnamed Bay. Few ships actually sail here, as normally they end up stopping at one of the two northern cities at the place where the bay meets the ocean, KNE or KNW.
Ships that do make it here often carry important goods for the people of the city or travelers from foreign lands who have come to see the Korvian City.
The docks here are made of wood from demolished Orcish settlements, a way for the Korvians to mock the Orcish fear of the ocean by placing the ruins of their homes, which they may wish to recover, in a place where they culturally are raised to avoid: the sea.

The Poor Libraries

The libraries in the poorer areas are full, it appears, but always with only what the rich wish to supply them with. Rich fictional stories and some few academic sources.
Anything beyond that, anything that could fuel true scholarship from the poor regions such as peer reviewed works, are locked away to the rich. Only those who pay can truly reach the scholastic level of a scholar, and the poor folk of the Korvian City are instead kept satiated with what the rich think they deserve.
It is not that the rich Korvians think fiction to be unfulfilling or not worth their time, but instead that they do not fear the fiction of the world. They fear only facts that could tear them down. They fear the poor learning something such as how badly they are exploited by the rich, how the poor are treated in places like Draconian or Kamejin territories, and such similar things. The truth is the enemy of the rich, so they feed the poor fiction to keep them at bay.

Richer Areas

The richer areas, closer to the Unhatched Castle, are filled with the most powerful Korvians. An enemy walking down any street here could be finished off by the first Korvian noble they'd find, for the nobility are given their land and titles for having powerful abilities. The Korvian Kingdom does not have an army, only a nobility, and it is said that any ten nobles at their peak could defeat any army in the world.
For this, they grow complacent and think of themselves as better than anyone else. However, this confidence is something that often strikes them down, as it can be easily exploited by those they look down on, particularly Orcs.
The richer areas are filled with large manors and homes where Korvian nobility and their families live. These are only passed down if the child of a noble is as strong as the parent. Otherwise, new nobles take up these locations, with their own servants filling out the smaller homesteads on the land and taking care of the plantations or facilities.

Noble Manors

The manors of Korvian nobles are grand but have no shared designs amongst them. They are purely in the style that architects hired by each noble thought would fit best, or even sometimes merely the brainchild of the nobles themselves. One Elven architect named Qiraste visited the Korvian City once and she said:

"The Korvians have no unified mind. This is seen best when looking to their homes, their stores, their streets. A thousand architects over a hundred years, for every two generations of Elves there are 28,000 generations of Korvians. Something that evolves so much can never have such unity, and thus becomes a jumbled mess of visions of dead men who never lived long enough to see the fruits of their labor."

— Qiraste

Many of these homes have quarters for servants or, in some cases, slaves. Setting foot into the land of a noble is said to be such a threat that it can be taken care of with lethal force. Korvian Nobles are not willing to protect much, but threats to their lives and property are enough to provoke them to fight, and few can survive a battle with a Korvian noble who has reason to fight.

The Unhatched Castle

The Unhatched Castle is a castle with an egg shaped roof that is nestled at the center of the Korvian City. It is where the Korvian King sits atop their throne. Often the King does not leave, as they are said to wait to be hatched. What this means is that the King waits for something truly worth their time to leave. A true challenger, a powerful Orcish Chief or a Korvian with a powerful ability. Even, in some cases, an outsider who seeks to challenge the King.
The throne inside of the Unhatched Castle is rounded, shaped like an egg, so that it appears the King is sitting within an egg, not yet hatched. This is meant to be a way to cause fear to challengers, that the King made it here without their whole power, and that it could only come out against a threat if they were to stand. This does not stop many challengers.

Government

Tyrant by Jarhed

The ruler of the Korvian City is the Korvian King, a title that to many sounds gendered, but is in truth a genderless title that was applied by the Orcs to describe their enemy, like Meiriris Nerifir. The Korvian King is determined by strength, as the one who kills the previous Korvian King takes on the title of Korvian King and rules unquestionably over the Korvian people.
Often when a transfer of power happens, aka a King is assassinated and another takes their place, the people do not care. To the poorer citizens, they will be ruled by fear no matter who sits on the throne, and for the more powerful rich folk, the King is merely a figurehead for them.

Parties

The Korvians also have parties that support the Kings. These parties feature powerful Korvians who back the King and spread propaganda to keep the people's support up. Some do this through clever marketing while others do so with fear.
Some famous examples of Korvian Parties include Warbler's Orchestra, Nightingale Song's Big Band, and Tyrant's/Etcher's Hermits.

Nobility

The Korvian City is also filled with many nobles who wield powerful Korvian Abilities. They have authority over their own homes and properties in the city, authority that can only be questioned by those strong enough to stop them. Otherwise, even the laws imposed by the World Court have no power over the Korvian nobles, let alone the King's rulings.

Population

The population of the Korvian City is, as the name implies, mostly Korvians. There are some few tourists, but it is said that population is 90% Korvians, and that is only if one counts the slaves held by the nobles.
Most Korvian census polls do not count the slaves, as officially the Korvians do not acknowledge that they have them. The nobles wish to portray themselves as perfect, and without counting slaves the official polls say the city is around 96% Korvians.
As for the rest of the 4%, it is a mix of some Avians, Mammen, and other Beastmen. The few Elone species that come to live in the Korvian City (Elves, Dwarves, Humans) are so rare to see that they barely make up a fraction of the Korvian City's population.