Eledir City
The capital city of Eledir is a grand city, beautiful and refined. Its architecture is distinctive and proud, the inspiration for the rest of the empire of Tamous to mimic. Its people know they live in one of the safest and most prosperous cities on the continent (particularly after the fall of Liminal). It is known as the City of the Griffin, as local lore says that it used to be nesting spot of griffins in the days before the city was built.
Population: 22,000
Government: Eledir City is the capital of the Empire of Tamous, and home to its emperor. Though he is of course the final authority, the city itself is run by the Griffin Regent, an appointed noble official that oversees the city's day-to-day functioning, serving as the emperor's formost hand and mouth in all such things.
The current Griffin Regent is Lady Sandæra Ylrannin, the younger sister of Emperor Ædelann. Lady Sandæra has a reputation of a strong will and sharp mind, as well as a reputation for securing the unwavering loyalty of those beneath her in the hierarchy. She is also a Knight of the Griffin, and frequently arrives in the city's courts astride her griffin, Thunderstorm.
Defense: The city is defended by its Watch (whose members are called "watchmen"), who act as its police force, and by the Guard (colloquially, its members are called "guardians"), who are its military. These two groups are kept very separate, with individual commanders each of whom answer to the Griffin Regent. The Watch are truncheon-wielding, leather-wearing men and women who patrol in groups of four, while the Guard are usually clad in chain and wield mace-and-shield. The Guard has no authority over the average citizen, save in times of war.
The concept of who has authority over the populace has been formalized over the years: the Watch possesses the Authority of Command, save when the city is under military danger. Then, a horn in the possession of the Griffin Regent's household is sounded, and that authority shifts to the Guard until it is passed back.
The city's defense is augmented by two knightly orders: the Knights of the Holy Throne, who have supreme authority over city defense for the Thronesward, and the Griffin Knights, who are folded into positions of command in the Watch and Guardians.
Commerce: Eledir is the mercantile center of the empire of Tamous. The Guilds maintain a large bank in the Road's Crossing district, the Griffin Vaults. This building - which is well-fortified and defended - serves as the headquarters for the Guilds in Tamous. The Throne's willingness to treat well with the Guilds has ensured an unprecedented prosperity for the nation in general, and for Eledir City in specific. The majority of the shops in the city are Guilds-owned, and its people have given over to the Guilds' ideal mentality: they trust the quality of work of the Guilds so implicitly that it is difficult for non-Guildsfolk to make a living in the city where they face competition by Guilds craftsmen.
Organizations: The three biggest power groups in the city are the Throne, the Faith, and the Guilds. Most of the other organizations - knightly orders, monastic orders, and the like - owe their service to one (or more) of those groups
Thronesward
The Thronesward is home to the massive Palace of the Throne, a many-winged palace surrounded by several fortifications that protect it from attack without having to compromise its beauty for defensibility. The grounds of the Palace are massive and labyrinthine, divided by walkways and walls, scattered with gardens and courtyards of all sorts. Towers stick up from various wall junctions as far as the eye can see, and many of those towers are interconnected by high-flying walkways that are architectural marvels.
Many organizations and bureaucracies are based out of some keep or chapterhouse of the Palace or another, including the Knights of the Holy Throne, as is a cloister of the Muscoval monks, whose green vestments are usually found tending to the sanctified gardens around the Throneward.
Clinging to the outer walls of this structure are myriad buildings that serve government purposes - or simply serve government officials, from scriveners' shops to bookbinders to inns and taverns. Several other important buildings, including the chapterhouse of the Griffin Knights, can be found in the outer edges of the Thronesward.
Templemont
This district is built up around the needs of the Faith, and its central temple, the Cathedral of the Holy Throne. Though it was originally a temple of Aevo, the Cathedral was consecrated to the three gods of the Faith at the ascension of King Tamous I, and has served as the heart of the Faith ever since. The Cathedral complex isn't quite as large as the Palace, but comes close. Its central spires - three great towers that rise from the middle of the main Cathedral proper - are certainly taller, and the great bells that toll in it occasionally can be heard for many miles around.
Around the massive temple proper are myriad small chapels and even two cloisters. The Preceptory of the Sun is based out of the Cathedral, and so it often sees nobles of all sorts treading its halls. In one portion of the Templemont is the Holy Sepulcher of the Blessed Canon, a burial ground for the majority of the Faith's saints over the years, and a major pilgrimage site for the faithful.
There are many small chapels, which are technically open to all visitors, but which are sponsored by one of the Houses of Tamous, and are the preferred destination for private spiritual reflection by members of that House. Such chapels have public areas as well as places set aside for members of the House alone. Its chaplains and priests are always part of the Preceptory of the Sun, and usually considered in service to that House directly.
At the edges of the district are many businesses that those visiting or living in the district find useful: pilgrims' inns and bedhouses, scriveners who sell Faith-approved tracts and chapbooks of prayer, tailors to provide clothing fit to enter into the Cathedral, and the like.
Road's Cross
Road's Cross is the district built up around the Crossroads Market, the central market area of Eledir City. It is the mercantile and craftsmans' district, with most of its building housing shops on its lower floors, and two to four floors worth of residences above those. The Road's Cross also houses the most inns and taverns of the city. Road's Cross is also the entertainment center of Eledir City, featuring several theaters, music halls, and other such venues in the city. It has a thriving population of artists who usually dwell in Skyheights and the Pulcher.
Skyheights
So-called for the number of very tall buildings, some of which are in excess of six stories in height, that can be found in the district, Skyheights is something of the working man's neighborhood. There are a great many residences for those who can't quite afford to live in Road's Cross, but who do too well to live in the Pulcher. It has some of the rowdier taverns in the city, though it is also well-patrolled by the city watch.
The Pulcher
When the city was much younger, this district was where the settlement's graveyard was located. Over time, as its grounds were dug up, the corpses moved to the lichyards nearby, and the ground deconsecrated, it still bore the memory of its original use in its name: the 'Pulcher, short for "the Sepulcher," as the cemetery was once called.
The Pulcher is where the city's poor and destitute live. Though this started simply out of superstition when the old graveyard was cleared - after all, anyone who could afford to live somewhere other than on that land did so - it's simply become the place where the poor are known to dwell. The Pulcher is also the only place in Eledir where watchmen patrol infrequently, allowing the homeless to sleep peacefully in its gutters.
The Pulcher is also a haven for criminal activity of all kinds, from bands of pickpockets to two full thieves' guilds to a variety of brothels and similar establishments. Its taverns are rough and seedy places, where the desperate go to seek sour wine and bitter beer that can be had plentifully for cheap.
The Estates
x
