Altdorf
Altdorf is the seat of Emperor Karl Franz, the capital of Reikland and it has been the Imperial capital since the accession of Wilhelm III, Prince of Altdorf, almost a hundred years ago. As the current seat of the Imperial Court, Altdorf supports a flourishing economy, which attracts all kinds of people. It is a bustling city with a substantial community of merchants, adventurers, mercenaries and fortune seekers from all across the Old World. The wealth passing through Altdorf's gates and the political intrigues that unfold within its courts also support a rotten underbelly, a den for thieves, corrupt city officials and assassins. There are certain streets that even the city watch avoids at night for fear of finding a dagger stuck between their shoulder blades.
The City-state is renowned as a centre of learning and the University of Altdorf is the most highly respected academic institution in the Empire, where lords and princes from many lands come to sit at the feet of Mankind's foremost thinkers. Altdorf is also home to some of the most important organisations in the Old World such as the Colleges of Magic — the centres of magical lore and learning that are justly famous throughout the Empire and beyond. It is here that the Old World's finest mages learn their art, and where the Empire's deadly Battle Wizards are trained. Another great institution is the Imperial Engineers School, founded by the Tilean genius Leonardo da Miragliano.
Altdorf stands astride the confluence of the rivers Reik and Talabec, and is renowned for the numerous bridges that traverse these waterways. Many of these bridges were designed by the Imperial Engineers School, and are equipped with hissing steam-driven pistons that raise and lower them in all manner of unusual ways, allowing the many trade ships to travel further up the Reik. The Reiksport, home of the Imperial Navy, is a deep-water harbour built on the shores of Altdorf, where even ocean-going ships can unload their cargos. The city also boasts the famous Imperial Zoo, which houses all manner of large and fearsome monsters, some of which are trained and harnessed as beasts of war. These creatures have been captured from every corner of the Empire, as well as a few more curious specimens from the Northern Wastes.
Government
The supreme ruler of Altdorf is Karl Franz, the Prince of Altdorf and the Elector Count of Reikland, who is also the Emperor of the Empire of Man. His rule over his city is almost undisputed, not only because of his statesmenship but also because he commands the adoration of his people. Yet despite his best efforts, the day-to-day demands of governance are too much for one man or woman to keep track of. Dozens of decisions each day demand the Emperor’s attention, from policy on grain taxes to the final appeal of a prisoner condemned for treason to officially opening the Grand Altdorf Fair. To prioritize this mess and make sure that only those with the most urgent business get an audience with the Emperor himself, successive emperors appointed members of prominent families to advise them on matters of law, finance, diplomacy, and military matters, among others. Over time, this group of advisors grew into a formal body, the Council of State, the membership of which almost always includes the current Grand Theogonist.
Council of State
The Council has no formal power, although Emperor Mattheus II, grandfather of Karl-Franz, tried to write a constitution for the Empire built around the Council. This was quietly quashed by the Electors, who oppose anything that would limit their authority. The Council, however, does control access to the Emperor and thus what information he receives. Their power is, therefore, quite strong—when they can make a united stand. When this happens, it is usually due to the Grand Theogonist’s behind-the-scenes machinations on crucial issues.- Grand Theogonist Volkmar the Grim - Religious Leader of Matters Spiritual
- Count Siegfried von Walfen - Chancellor of the Reikland (Imperial spymaster)
- Supreme Patriarch Balthasar Gelt - Counsellor on Matters Magical
- Amadeus Mencken - Baron of Stirgau Chamberlain of the Seal (Foreign Relations)
- Reiksmarshall Kurt Hellborg - Personal Military Advisor to the Emperor
- Lotte Hochsvoll - Chancellor of the Imperial Fisc
- Lector Agatha von Böhrn - Supreme Law Lord (Legal Affairs)
- Arne Damstadt - Chamberlain of the Imperial Household
Prime Estates
The Prime Estates is an Imperial organization which was created to help administrate the actions and well-beings of the Emperor in person. At the end of the 11th century, when Boris the Incompetent tried to confer the title of Duke to his favorite race horse, the Electors unanimously decided that they had to administrate the emperor's actions so as to keep face with the Empire's people. So they assigned one representative each to form a watchdog body that would take the name of Prime Estates.
This institution is located within a beautiful building in the confines of the capital, ostensibly open to any person of recognized nobility, although the "lackeys" of the Emperor are carefully kept away. In fact, the Prime Estates has now become the Supreme Court. All Imperial Edicts are carefully examined "in the interest of the state", with documented reports being immediately sent to the Electors who would choose either to support or veto the edict. This organization has the powerful ability to refuse any edict that does not suit them or the Empire's interest, allowing the Prime States to have a near-complete control over what the Emperor is logically placed to decide.
Each Elector Count has ensured an established representation in the capital, embassies directed by a loyal family member or close acquaintance. These ambassadors would discuss new imperial decrees or legislation, as well as send these reports back to the Electors that had elevated them to such a position. As they have the power to reject decisions that do not suit them, it is important for the Emperor to obtain the approval of the Prime Estates if he hopes to accomplish anything. In theory, the Emperor also has a veto over the choice, but in practice, it would be very difficult for him to exercise it. Indeed, without a real majority support amongst the Electors, the Emperor has no chance to assert his right of veto. The latest attempt to do so was Emperor Mattheus II who wised to institute the first ever democracy, but the threat of civil war by the other Elector Counts was so pressing that he was forced to give it up.Industry & Trade
City Tax
A subject close to most ‘dorfer’s hearts, taxation is complicated. Not only are goods subject to levies, but certain gates, roads, and wharfs are subject to tolls. Shops and businesses can expect to pay rates, while all guild members and magisters are committed to paying their dues. Added to these legal taxes are the illicit protection rackets, charlatans, and out-and-out thieves that operate all over Altdorf. Outsiders to the city can quickly find themselves thoroughly fleeced. To survive the capitol, a certain level of savvy is needed. Ordinary folk can expect to pay out as much as half their earnings to the state. Most pay just under a third of their coin in tax, but a rare few enjoy some sort of protected status. This heavy burden means that many will riot at the drop of a hat. New taxes tend to be announced on public holidays to ensure a workday is not lost to protests.Infrastructure
Altdorf is an enormous place. Rumours differ on whether there are no accurate maps or if one is held by the Emperor or one of the Colleges of Magic. At any rate, no full and accurate maps of the city are generally available. People navigate by following directions from major landmarks. Asking an Altdorf resident how to get to a landmark results in a moment of blank incomprehension; normal directions would start by saying “Go to the Imperial Palace.” That isn’t to say that directions can’t be had, just that the characters will not get them immediately. A few of these locations, such as the Bright College, are magically concealed and are not used as landmarks in normal directions. Still, all residents of the city know roughly where they are.
The streets of Altdorf are narrow, crowded, and filthy. While most are cobbled, in many places the cobbles have long since lost the battle with mud, manure, and less pleasant substances, becoming little more than an additional hazard. The drains and sewers are almost always on the surface, and people pour their waste straight out of their houses into the street. The more polite give warning first. While you are on the streets, people are constantly jostling against you. This provides pickpockets with perfect cover for their activities.
The crowds make it hard to keep an eye on a single person, making it tricky to follow someone but equally hard to spot whether or not you are being followed. The crowds are also loud. Peddlers call out to advertise their wares, and people shout conversations to make themselves heard over the people shouting next to them. Overhearing a conversation in the street is all but impossible. The most overwhelming feature of Altdorf’s streets, however, is the smell. Sewage, rotting meat and vegetation, corpses of both people and animals, all of these add flavour to the overall odour. On the streets, characters become accustomed to the smell, but so much so that there is a marked change whenever you return to the streets from somewhere like a noble estate or townhouse where it is less noticeable.
Altdorf is built on the banks and islands of the Reik, which means that bridges form a very important part of the city’s road network. The largest are made of stone and span wider channels, having houses and shops built on one side. Underneath are nets and weirs to catch the fish that manage to live in the river, and the restricted flow of water makes a mighty roar. On a couple of bridges, this noise is the only hint that you are over water, while on others there are spaces between the houses. The smallest bridges, over tiny channels between islands, might be nothing more than a plank of wood, removed when the neighbours fall out. In between are wooden bridges, decorated bridges, draw bridges, and private bridges linking two parts of a house built on opposite sides of a channel.
Markets are the heart of Altdorf’s commercial life and thus vitally important to most of the richest people in the city, as well as the poorest. While there are a substantial number of shops in permanent buildings, temporary stalls in markets are more common. Some traders might work from the same stall for years, making it much like a shop, while others might only set up for a week or so when they are in the city. The two types of stalls can be next to each other. Markets vary in many ways, and the following three variations are the most important. First, markets can be covered or open air. A covered market is a huge building containing spaces for stalls. It may even have more than one floor. An open air market is simply a space within the city where traders can set up stalls. The buildings around an open air market tend to contain shops or warehouses, while the stalls in a covered market tend to be more permanent, but there are exceptions on both counts.
Altdorf does have underground sewers. Some of them are even effective, channelling sewage and rainwater into the river, away from the city. Others are now blocked and are little more than fetid underground pools, a breeding ground for rats, diseases, and fouler things. Still others were never quite completed and are used as hideouts by criminals and cultists. Many of the sewers are large enough for a Human to walk through as long as he bends over a bit. Dwarfs and Halflings have no problem. This is deliberate; it is the only way the sewers can be maintained and the rat population kept down. In addition, most are in more prosperous areas, having been constructed in an attempt to keep the smell down. This makes them an ideal way to move around rich neighbourhoods unseen.
Colleges of Magic
Altdorf has been the home of magical study since the time of Magnus the Pious. There are eight colleges of magic, one for each of the colours of the winds of magic:- Amber Order (beasts): The only College not within the city, preferring instead the caves of the Amber Hills, away from the civilisation that is anathema to their magic.
- Amethyst Order (death): overlooks the infamous haunted cemetery of Old Altdorf, the resting place of the plague victims, and few dare go near it.
- Bright Order (fire)
- Celestial Order (heavens)
- Gold Order (metal): Alchemists maintain a vast, smoke-billowing forge complex, and pollute the river Reik with their arcane chemicals.
- Grey Order (shadow): A run-down building located in the city’s poorest slums, and allegedly connected with many secret tunnels.
- Jade Order (life): Formed from living trees, the College is hidden behind high stone walls.
- Light Order (light).
The School of Engineers
The School of Engineers has been responsible for some of The Empire’s most amazing technical breakthroughs, especially in the field of warfare. The School’s founder was the legendary genius Leonardo of Miragliano, whose Steam Tanks are still repaired, maintained and refitted here (though it has so far proven impossible to create new tanks from scratch). The weapons produced by the engineers range from the infamous Helblaster Volley Gun to the useless von Tropp’s Spring-assisted Chain Lasso, though most lie somewhere in between. Many of the engineers are Dwarfs, banished from their holds for showing too much innovation - a trait not popular among the traditionalist dwarfs. Altdorf has a large Dwarf population, not only engineers but merchants, workers, and indeed members of all branches of society. Dwarfs fight in their own units rather than being recruited into state regiments – they will often wear uniforms of their own design, and favour Imperial fashions over the sombre clothing of other Dwarfs.The River Reik
Though far inland, the river Reik is still phenomenally deep and wide at Altdorf. Even ocean-going war vessels can dock here, and do so at the Reiksport. The ships of the Imperial fleet lack the grace of those of Bretonnia or Marienburg; they are boxy, practical constructs laden with heavy weaponry. Of particular note are the Hellhammers – wargalleys that mount a solitary, massive cannon capable of sending a Man o'War to the bottom with a single shot.Guilds and Factions
Many hundreds of guilds find their homes within the stinking streets of Altdorf. Technically, to qualify as an official guild, an organisation must be recorded in the Civic List, but this is increasingly irrelevant. Guilds frequently operate as a law unto themselves, policing their members, protecting their interests, and attempting to gain concessions from the various political groupings of the city. Guilds are almost infinite in variety. Broadly speaking, all offer some form of apprenticeship and career progression to their members, while demanding fees and services in return.
Admission to a guild allows the individual a chance to earn Altdorf citizenship and, perhaps, a chance to join one of the many city councils. Some guilds are powerful enough to defy city law, having somehow won charter to try their own members by private means. Guilds offer a variety of benefits to their members from pensions and scholarships to matchmaking and widow funds. A man may easily spend his whole life within a guild; although, it is a rare day when loyalties are allowed to change. If asked (or even bribed) the average Altdorfer might say the following about the foremost guilds.
- The Mercer’s Association: “Bunch of jumped-up tailors. Yer can spot ‘em by their fancy robes.”
- The Guild of Stevedores: "Don’t mess with the Wharf Rats—there’s an awful lot o’ big lads in that Guild.”
- The Mercantile Society: "The Grocers? Ah, they’re sponsoring that new weights an’ measures law, right?”
- The Butchers' Guild: "Solid lads. Still, I wonder if they’re going ter survive that dead body scandal.”
- The Masons' and Carpenters' Guild: “ Damn builders! They’re slow, expensive, an’ stuck up. How many qualifications do yer need to lift bricks, I say!”
- The Blackpowder Men: "I never seen no one scareder of a Bright Wizard. Heh. Run at ‘em in orange robes an’ watch ‘em squeal! Guns or no guns, they sound like girls!”
- The Imperial Guild of Arms and Armourers: "The A and A is a solid guild. They’re all a bit deaf, but they’re good to widows.”
- The Lawyers' Guild: "Just like Morr, yer can’t avoid ‘em, but you don’t have ter like it.”
Type
Capital
Inhabitant Demonym
Altdorfer
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments