Gorlincks

The city of Gorlincks is the largest settlement on Detritus, a sprawling mishmash of architectural styles and unchecked expansion. Gorlincks is situated on one of the most favourable pieces of territory on the plane: a plain beside the Runoff River, one of the largest freshwater rivers in the area, guarded by a basin of mountains and once upon a time bordered by a huge forest called the Wylders with some strange, wild intelligence within it.
Since the settlement of Gorlincks many centuries ago, it has plundered the nearby natural resources, and where once the Runoff was a sparkling waterway from the mountains to the Mother Sea with an unfortunate name, it is now polluted by the city's filth. The mountains that protect the city against attack are being mined of their resources, and there are fears that something within may have been awakened, considering the number of miners that are unexpectedly disappearing. The Wylders fought back pretty hard against logging and hunting within, and for a while it seemed that the citizens of Gorlincks would never manage to tame it, but these days it has been pushed back far from the edge of the city. Druids are starting to call for the preservation of these natural resources, some of the only pleasant areas of Detritus, but those in power refuse to listen.
When it was first founded, Gorlincks was run by a council of elected officials, but as time has gone on, this council shrank to a Triumvirate and from there it was only one bloody civil war to the hereditary monarchy currently in place. The monarch, King Serops, is part of a Yuan-Ti bloodline that has maintained the purity of their blood through arcane means rather than allowing their snakelike features to fall away over time. The Yuan-Ti travelled to Detritus centuries ago, fleeing what they claim was persecution but what others claim was the fall of their tyrannical rule over another plane. They found the fledgeling settlement of Gorlincks to be a useful base. At first, they attempted to take power in a bloody coup, but they were stopped by the Tiefling crime syndicate-come-political family Bounders-Chant. The members of the family were brought to trial and the ringleaders executed, but the Pureblood Yuan-Ti Stheno convinced the Council to allow her and the other Purebloods to live. The Bounders-Chant family pushed for the destruction of the Yuan-Ti and all their ilk in a cruel scourge, but Stheno claimed that the Pureblood Yuan-Ti were simply pawns of the powerful full blooded Yuan-Ti.
This was a decision that would resurface centuries later, when the Council became mired in accusations of corruption and only the Yuan-Ti, the Bounders-Chants and the Dwarven Cragslayer clan managed to retain enough public support (or dirt on influential figures) to come out of it with their power intact. The Bounders-Chants knew that the Yuan-Ti would push to take the whole council as quickly as possible, but one member of the family, a Tiefling called Karanis, fell in love with a member of the Yuan-Ti family and was tricked into betraying his family. The Cragslayers were suspicious by nature, but refused to work with the Bounders-Chants because of a historical grudge. And when the smoke cleared and the blood was cleaned from the streets of Gorlincks, the Yuan-Ti bloodline reigned supreme. The Bounders-Chants and the Cragslayers knew how to cut their losses and both retreated. The Cragslayers took an oath not to move against the Yuan-Ti and the members of the Bounders-Chants who were unimportant enough to escape notice fled the city.
The Cragslayers are now an entrenched criminal and mercantile group, but the return of the Bounders-Chants and the resurrection of their crime family has provided a threat. At the same time, the Yuan-Ti have ruled for generations without significant challenge, and King Serops is arrogant and oblivious to the true threats to his city.
The court of King Serops is a place of intrigue and whispers. Serops himself is a puppet king surrounded by advisors who run Gorlincks for him. He bears his scales proudly, with his clothes even cut to show off the places where they manifest on his skin. Obviously, this has started a trend amongst the wealthy of Gorlincks for scale decorations and cut-out clothes. Serops' advisors are all Pureblooded Yuan-Ti except for his half-sister Mella, the byblow daughter of his human father by another human, and a half-elf called Arathis, who has charmed his way into Serops' good graces despite the efforts of the king's advisors.

Type

City