Vadiases

Where you've found yourself

You are walking around the town, trying to find any kind of help, but everyone you see is giving you a side eye or ignoring you. It's cold and windy, you try warm yourself up by hugging yourself and rubbing your arms, but it does next to nothing.

You look up, to the blue sky, of the bluest blue you've seen. It feels like home, as if this sky were the same wherever you are from. There's not a single cloud in the sky, but you can spot a few gulls trying to fly around. When they beat their wings, you can see them flying and struggling to fight the wind, but when they aren't beating their wings, it looks like they are frozen in place.

You didn't even realize someone had snuck behind you until you felt something fall on your shoulders. You quickly grab it with your hands and see a jacket, which you, gratefully, use to cover yourself from the wind before turning around.

Behind you is a human, with a big warm smile, who is missing his jacket. It surprises you, it's the first person paying attention to you. "You don't look from around here. Usually it means you'd be a tax collector or an adventurer... or worse, both." he lets go a short laugh, "Most importantly, you look cold and lost, so why don't you follow me to my inn? I'll give ya a warm meal for free.".

You look at him confused and then look at some nearby people, who are whispering and watching both of you discreetly. "Don't mind them, outsiders often bring bad news. Or adventurers, and we don't have the money or patience to deal with someone full of themselves thinking it's their right as adventurer to get cheaper prices and better paying works. Come on, lest we both freeze." he pats you on your back and starts walking.

New area unlocked: Vadiases.

The town

What you have seen of it

Vadiases is a fishing town located in an interesting spot. It is found in a bay, right between a mountain range and a swamp, having a forest "behind" it that ranges from the mountains to the swamp. At first sight, people here aren't welcoming and you quickly learn that's because they've had bad experiences with outsiders coming to town.

As you cross two streams, leaving behind the mountains and the couple rather interesting buildings on it, you approach the citadel. You expected it being the most busy part of the town, and while it had some movement, specially around the farms, you cannot but realize that the outskirts hold more movement and can only guess that this is where most of the housing is.

The town is divided in two sections: the citadel and the outskirts. This division happened because lack of space inside the city but shows next to no difference of behaviours against people from each side and everyone can come and go from the citadel. And surrounding the town, a couple of ruins and repurposed old buildings can be found, as well as a reclused monastery.

Vadiases

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Population

Who lives here?

The town's population is quite diverse, there's a lot of different people, all working together without problem. You see a lot of fishermen with their boats on the beach's soil, unloading their ships and laying their nets across the beach, picking up any fish that has stayed in there. There's also a lot of farming area towards the northen east part of the city, most of them being worked with help of different farm animals, including boars.

Architecture

How this town looks like

Buildings are mostly made of stone and are often two floors tall at least. Corners, the most top and bottom parts of each floor, and surrounding doors or windows are often decorated with contrasting painted colours (often darker colours), wood frames, or a coglomerate of smaller stones. Most used colours are soft warm colours, such as pastel yellows, oranges or browns, with dark browns and strong reds as contrasting colours.

When building houses in the mountains, they are often built layered so that it requires less carving into the mountain. Bottom floors stay close to the streets, while higher floors are built further back from the streets and into the mountain, allowing either extra living space or space for terrace.

Away from the mountains, many buildings share a similar structure with the layering of floors. They have a smaller bottom floor that holds the extra space of the higher floors with stone pillars.

Often, bottom floors are shops, workshops, storage, or more rarely, patios or a different house. Higher floors are the places where people have their houses and, while having a third floor is rare, sometimes one can find them as "house expansions" or another different house.

The article is not over! If you want to keep exploring Vadiases, you should accompany the man that helped you and get the achievement from that article.

Go read Oaken trunk.

Wake up!

Journal

Main Story

Oaken Trunk