#### The Crescent City This Tiefling founded city to the South of [[Cragwatch]] resides on the Western coast of [[Galantor]]. Originally founded by the Yugoloth [[Vizier Terrorcry]], this city became a mecca for business, dealings, and all things founded under the banner of trade. [[Taembria]] is a city on the Western coast of [[Galantor]]. It stands atop a vast promontory overlooking the sea and [[Sharkfin Bay]]. This city was left unfinished by the Yugoloth commander [[Vizier Terrorcry]] and sports an Empty Throne that is sought after by nine competing Devil families. The city is a hotbed of contractual obligation and technical refinement. The Devils that have sought asylum here form the Nine Hells have found a mecca of fair order and wicked cunning.  The Sky-Cliff Docks, the Red Gate Schism, the Red Square and much more are the peak of societal refinement and trade, but the Underdark, Gate to the [[Nine Hells]], and the Slums show just how swiftly a city can decline within its own border. --- The city of Taembria is perched on the Western coasts of Galantor, a crescent shaped mass of clumped buildings downturned on the promontory of a cliff’s edge. Overlooking a Bay far below shared with a Northern neighbor across the sea, this coastal city knows the fury of its waters and weathers seasons of rain and snow alike; a hot and humid summer and a healthy growing season. The Crescent City is separated into three distinct pieces that grow from the water's edge on the western and eastern shores and travel up the sheer cliffs until a wall divides the hive-like city. The Western Edge of the crescent, The Mortals District, grows from sparse homes and buildings into a proper busy town at its centers. The Shimmering wall towering above is a constant reminder that not all is afforded to the humans, halflings, and half elves here. The Tieflings keep the best for themselves within the enchanted wall that gleams with refractions of the sun or a mirror’s edge of their own district atop its central peak. The Eastern most side is known as the Port District. The inner coastal edge of a stubby peninsula in which the city resides upon has made this low land area the primary hub for ship building and sea faring.The vicious tide here sees the lower docks flooded over twice daily leaving the construction to primarily be built upon wooden stilts. Some call it the slums, others call it the Sticks, but it’s home to a hardy folk used to living in cramped conditions. This district is lively and crass, filled with hawking stores, fisherman, sailors, and some of the finest, if perhaps unregulated, food and goods stores in the region. Finally, the Northern Central district, nestled in by the gleam of the Shimmering wall, atop the zenith of the grand hill, District of the Nines. The industrial and noble epicenter of sociability and industry alike. Gothic steep gabled buildings crafted with the finest black iron stand shoulder to shoulder, looking down upon the cobbled streets with near disdain. Cathedrals, a coliseum, theaters, and factories dominate blocks where the families have deemed it fit. The sky docks pierce the cliffs edge with the presence of flying ships and the gigantic green square is befitted with a blackened ziggurat that peers into a craggy cleft at its most central point. Overlooking it all is the Empty Throne. The tall castle nearly pierces the sky, its bleak and empty windows bereft of light and life. Vizier Terrorcry’s stake has claimed many families that attempted to abscond it since… none have lived long with the treacherous devil-like mantle of that place. --- > [!infobox|right wikipedia]+ > # [[Taembria]] > ![[Taembria.jpg|518]]|300]] > ###### Taembria > | Settlement | Religion | > | -- | -- | > | > 2,000 Occupants | [[Fahshulzgarath The Hunger]] [[Vizier Terrorcry]] | > | **Founder** | **Mayor**| > | [[Vizier Terrorcry]] | The Nine Families | > > # Bureaucratic Kleptocracy > - Bullet list > - Testing > - Testing > - Testing ```zoommap image: z_Attachments/Maps/Taembria Map AI.jpg # markers is optional; defaults to <image>.markers.json # markers: Assets/Map.jpg.markers.json # Map view limits minZoom: .7 maxZoom: 1.5 # Size & interactivity height: 700px width: 60% resizable: false resizeHandle: right # left | right | both | native render: canvas # or: dom # Responsive display (fit into width, no wheel/pinch/dblclick pan/zoom) responsive: false # true → always fit; disables pan/zoom gestures # Storage (optional) # storage: note # default is json; use "note" to store markers inline # id: map-1 # optional stable id for inline storage (per code block) # Alignment / wrapping (optional) align: left # left | center | right wrap: true # wrap text; useful with left/right alignment ``` --- # Districts Taembria is broken into three distinct pieces of city: The Mortals, The Nines, and the Sticks. These three districts each represent a different facet of life for the people in the Western most reaches of Galantor. There is a fourth unofficial district known as the Farmlands. This fertile coast-side farmland runs for miles along the peninsula feeding the city and surrounding burgs. ## The Mortals District The Mortals District is cozy if you’ve come from the Nines. Wooden cottages and spacious roads, bustling folk tending to their businesses and streetside efforts. Large wagons pulling produce from the farmlands nestled between the arches of the crescent city; a yield of fresh foodstuffs and the latest brewery efforts have happy taverns at every corner. A golden and resplendent Temple on the southern hills makes for pleasant worship and this surprisingly idyllic city region. If you need the Brewery Guild or the Cartwright’s seal for travel, you’ve come to the right place. If you don’t need them you’ll be hard pressed to find a better meal elsewhere. ### Temple of the Morning Sun Nestled in the bustling Southern heart of the Mortals District at an intersection of no less than five streets, this modest cathedral of stone sports the worship of multiple Gods. Estrel, of the Midden Day. Echo / Shadris; nature’s judgmental pair, and Bahndur, God of pain. Approaching from the street would show the face of the building nearly coming to a point where a set of winding stone steps lead into a brightly lit antechamber. The building grows larger from there in width as the shape of the block it inherited in full is triangular in shape. The building is a hodgepodge of renovations and sutured additions. The myriad shared spaces are maddening yet somehow homely and comforting in their closeness. ### Bazaar of Isfaahn This coastal block overlooks sharp falling dunes into the sea beyond and sports a wide open courtyard surrounded by a frame of semi permanent stalls. Merchants with mobile stands and pullable carts are assembled haphazardly as eddying and swirling folk mill like swarms of interested bees. One could get lost in the sheer mayhem of the Bazaar of Isfaahn, a local nobleman of human repute whose family hosted the first Bazaar years ago, still presides over the affair. If you are wont of anything this is the place in the city to be on a Sunday. Rare materials, exotic goods, foodstuffs, contracts, bidding, furniture, servants… if it is under the sun it can be bid, bartered, or chartered here. ### Isfaahn Estate TBD ### Host and Hearth Guild TBD ### The Loaded Die In North Central of the Mortal District, there is the premier tavern. The Loaded Die rests upon a four way intersection beneath the watchful shine of the Shimmering Wall. Its elaborate wooden walkways stained and worn with business, wind in arcs to the central entrance. A large pent roof overhangs the massive double oak doors, the gleaming handles inlaid with burnished brass dice. The storefront windows show from golden lamp light spilling out in the night. Upon entrance the foyer steps down into a sunken tap room with rows of large wheel shaped tables, dice clatter, cards flip and flick, laughter, shouting, orders, cat calls and more peel through the air of the popular tavern. The smell of sweat, sweet wine, and perfumes waft up and out before a powerful air of cooking meat and vegetables overpower the human aspect. A long circular dais is raised in the center with two fair barkeeps behind a polished mahogany bar. Above them, like a hanging garden, drape dice pouches innumerable from bleach white skeletal fingers affixed upon pewter plates. Cheaters beware. --- ## The Nines In North Taembria, cloistered beyond the grandiose Shimmering Wall, are swathes of buildings in beautiful repose. The Black Iron works of Taembria were put to good use in construction of the narrow built estates and buildings that tower upward like gaunt spirits with their pointed spires and steep sloped roofs. Smoke rises from the professional plaza along the Western side of the district where large blocks of offices and industrial complexes sprawl like twisted masses of skeletal buildings. Along the Northern most edge the hill takes its sharpest inclination upon which massive palatial homes stretch upward along the base of the Empty Throne. The walled in castle that presides over the whole affair of Taembria, reaching ever higher toward the clouds. The Central most point of the Nines from the point of view of a map is the green. It’s schism centrally dividing the lawns of leisure and pin pricked by the haunted monstrous ziggurat that is used to preside over the portal within the depths below that leads to the Nine Hells. To the East the Coliseum is readily visible along with a slew of opera halls and noble grounds that host the remainder of the Nine families. ### School of Illusion The Shimmering Wall was a sight to behold in any light and the holdings of the Enchantment / Illusion schools of magic were sure to flaunt that fact at any opportunity. Those with the proper equipment could see the lines in the enchanted panels. Truth be told the wall itself has, every square meter, inscribed with magics that must be maintained by wizards. If you were one such wizard you would have the spectacles that enable you to see the intricate lines spanning out like a meticulous grid. And should you be a member of the guild you would also be able to peel them back at the appointed place and waltz right into the demi plane that held the school on the inside of the second joint southern of the Western entrance. ### Hunter's Enclave The Hunter’s Enclave was crammed between a generic mercantile warehouse and an ironworks which left little room for the Hunters themselves within its walls. An alleyway beside the tall iron gated building led to a narrow courtyard in which horses were kept for the hunters and a small yard availed itself as a training area. Wide enough for a cart, the alley led to a set of double doors into a small kitchen that mostly doubled as an infirmary. Several offices on the first level were for Athena and guild members needing to study for a hunt. The upper floors included dorms and labs for various potion making endeavors. The third floor was the Guildmaster’s personal level and was strictly forbidden to all without invitation. A gryphon roost on the roof is only accessible by the Guild Master herself. The front of the building is drab and always watched by one of the members clad in full armor behind the bars on the tall brick wall that surrounds the grounds. ### Taembrian Ironworks The largest block in all of the Industrial District. Forges and fires fill the night sky and a dizzying number of folk come and go during the shift whistles. Soot clad individuals are always seen in this area as the ironworks never close, but the finest black metals come from Taembria and they take pride in that. ### Contractual Obligations Offices (COO) Mechanus Liasons A small building with small windows, and a small stoop affords a view into a small office with small desks. The paint on the wooden door is immaculate and a vibrant red, the desks are varnished and cared for, the floor spotless. The jingle of the bell as you enter raises a clerk’s eye from his work and he sets aside a careful stack of papers and gives you a curt nod. None of this raises an alarm within you until you realize that what you thought was a cabinet along the wall beside you moves, blinks unusually large oblong eyes and rattles its way toward you asking for your coat. ### Industrial Market In many ways, the Industrial Markets were the face of the sector. If you needed something crafted, enchanted, or custom made, this was the market in which to place the order with a professional of your choosing. The cramped block sported storefront after storefront, gilded lettering, clean young folk gently hawking their master’s repute. Displays of craftsmanship behind large glazed windows, the smells of smokepowder, magic ink, and oils fill the air of this splendorous and clean street. ### Red Gate Schism - The Green Ziggurat This square half mile of greenery marks the prestige of the city. A rare vestige of the verdant soil; a bleak juxtaposition of the Red Gate Schism that splits it in half vertically. This crag that looks down into the depths of the Underdark below and once yearly rends itself open to the Nine Hells themselves where a day of brokering occurs. A mighty obsidian slab of rock just out of the central parkway and upon it were the commandments laid forth by Vizier Terrorcry when he founded Taembria. Overlooking both the commandments and the schism in the earth itself is a modest, yet intimidating ziggurat of blackened stone and iron frame. A long stairway runs from the crag in the land to the slab of rock, then on to the ziggurat. ### Skyscream Coliseum The Skyscream Coliseum dominates the largest open square in the Nines. The six story tall bowl shaped building is a stark contrast to most of the district’s motif. It has bleached stone walls that gleam against its neighbors still clad with black iron. Its rotund edges smooth rather than angular. Monstrous portcullis gates stand at each cardinal direction that could allow four cart widths at a time to enter. The interior stands as rings on a distant planet. The outer most harboring hawkers and vendors, patrols of Dreadnoughts, performers and sights and smells galore. The interior growing smaller and turning into tunnels leading from darkness and warm firelight to the blaze of sun. Along the interior are bleachers that dizzy the senses until you find your seat to watch the sands below. The fortunate nobility ride in enchanted clear coaches above the fray with the most immediate and desirable spectacle. ### The Scarlet Square A cramped block separating House Vateri and Ortanus. It overlooks the Green with sprawling balcony faced walls and high bound terraces. An ampitheater in the center is open to the sky and radiates every weekend with the magically enhanced sounds of performers and speakers alike. To find yourself here means you've ingratiated yourself among the wealthy and noble houses. Favor and elegance are equally required to remain in such a place. The building itself sports buttresses of high arcing marble supporting square balconies that pierce out over the streets themselves offering quiet and private areas that look inward upon the carved amphitheater within that descends almost quarry-like. Hanging vines and exotic plants are carefully grown and tended to lending vines and greenery to run up iron latticeworked walls and extravagant tall narrow windows with blackened grilles that allow the shine of the theater to peak out into the street. Attendants march about with frilled coats and white gloved hands ready to take you to your seat, should you have a ticket. ### Vateri Family Estate One of the tallest blocs within the estates of the nobility daring to peak up toward the walls of the Empty Throne Palace. The Vateri family estate oversees the caretaking of the Red Gate Schism. They hold themselves in high esteem among their Devil cohorts due to this honor and the style in which their homestead was crafted seems to state this. The building is the entire block and it towers over the surrounding structures. Sleek and angular, the rectangular building sports tinted glass walls and spires of iron posts every few meters. The walls themselves are as smooth as the glass. The greenery of a garden can be seen peeking over the parapet walls atop it, but due to the height its opulence is naught to be seen from the street. ### The Empty Throne What can be seen of the Empty Throne, when it isn’t ensconced by swirling low clouds, as it dutifully resides above its anterior walls, is a sight to behold. Three spires in perfect symmetry and spacing from one another, stark white as a bleached skull and still in the sky. They are topped with crenelated battlements as though meant for someone to stand atop and perform some forgotten duty, but they stand so tall above it makes little sense to that point. The body of the castle itself is a mighty cathedral that barely shows itself above the exterior perimeter. Long sweeping ridges fan out in a semi circular pattern leading to a central rooftop  that spans back to the middle spire and splays out in a blossom of stone and resplendent gilded spires. Small green flits of energy seem to pierce the shadowy veil beneath its flowing roof beyond the wall, but dissipate before being fully realized. ![[Taembria - The Empty Throne.jpg|500]] ### Historical Society of the [[Nine Hells]] One of the few buildings that stand out as peculiar in the Nines, the Historical Society of the Nine Hells does just that. Bulbous gold capped turrets and wide arcing gilded windows jar in comparison to the sharp sloped neighbors. The building is a reckoning of swirling shades of red that meld into the burnished yellows splashed along its corner trim. The Palatial building stands with four corners extending beyond the main central hub. Each square with a central gate opening to a courtyard with various displays and depictions of the Hells. The central building within those anterior courtyards is a tall black tower covered in Infernal runes depicting the history of the rings of Hell, but not their masters. The Nines worship the ever shifting landscape of power and worship the realms but not the ephemeral ownership. ### The Taembrionic Institute An entire block of marble faced townhouses are wedged against each other and this particular townhouse stands ever so slightly more prominent than its counterparts. A large stone stairway leads up to an elegant foyer trimmed with golden black filigree and 10 foot tall doors stained an immaculate dark yet fitting natural reddish hue. The near clone-like structures give a hauntingly numbing view of the cobbled street before them. And they are quiet streets. ### Skycliff Docks The sheer edge of the cliff face overlooking the sea is, in a word, perilous. The drop is approximately 750 feet and no one mortal or otherwise has survived the fall without magical means or divine intervention. Several protuberances, however, mark the precipice, or near it at least. These illustrious bracketed structures are known as the Skycliff Docks. The black iron strutted beams and their glazed wooden slats are visible from the rocky sea below and they are known as stalwart landings for flying ships, however rare that sight may be. The skycliff docks are run by the Linxakasendalor Clan and receive air freighters run by the secretive and proud Dragonborn families. They are keen to keep their neutral port out of family business and are vital to the growth of exports. They are generally very lawful and distance themselves from the behavior of the devils here. ### Dreadnought HQ The Dreagnought Head Quarters stands on the slopes of the mountain spur overlooking the cliffs of Taembria. It hulks over its surrounding blocks and sports open courtyards, stables, and armories. A large black glazed bell presides over each corner of the compound and its black iron palisade wall. The sound of ringing metal, forging, and chains create a certain cacophony to the region of the Nines that is out of place. Two guards stand at attention under blackened plate armor with polearms at the ready adjacent to each fortified entry gate. --- ## The Sticks The Sticks are the lowest district along the cliffside, spanning all the way into the Sharkfin Bay below. The nickname arose due to the need for revised construction after a great flooding disaster nearly fifty years ago. Since then, the lower half of the Sticks has been constructed with piers and posts that anchor half the district to the Sluiceway that carves itself through the midst of the area. The shambling boardwalks and twisted streets held aloft by wood gives the impression, in nearly every instance, that the whole place is a bit tilted. The buildings are wood, the carts are meagerly laden, but the people are not so sparse, packed like sardines in the ever expanding blocks meshed upon one another, at least until structural integrity becomes a fear, then the expansion moves; even into the sea in some areas. Inventive vendors have constructed boats that float the sluiceway canal, markets spring up and die faster than a spring frost, and life moves by the tide, ebbing and flowing, sometimes cruelly, sometimes casually, but always flowing. ### Sluiceway Canal The mechanized opening for the Sluiceway. Only opening once a season to get to operational levels leaves the lagoon below a rife region for undesirables and the forgotten of society to hide away. The canal itself runs the length of the Sticks bisecting it and leaving a peculiar string of clay built bridges that connect either side in varying sizes. The sluiceway, or aqueduct as the Nobles refer to it, is an open semicircle buried into the base level of the sticks at about 20 feet in diameter. The water in it is brackish and warm from sunlight in the summer days and frozen in the winter. Runic purifiers run once a year to purge the water before using it in the farmlands. Many a strange soul has set their sights on the Sluiceway as a place of business in the ever cramped Sticks. It hosts flotillas and gondolas that skim the surface hawking goods with long poles and inviting smells. This is to say nothing of the lagoons beneath the beachhead that host a most inhospitable crowd in low-tide. ### Sluiceway Flotilla Sluiceway floating shop, mushroom and fungal supply, noodle shops, exotic herbs and mosses / peats grown in and around the sewers. **Dreb’s (Mushroom creature with sentience that grows moss and peat - poultices, insulation, long term shipping, potting soil). **Gao’s Sizzle Ship - A long canoe run by Gao. Cooks Sluiceway Shrimp ### Shades - Thieve's Guild The Thieves' Guild is the heart of the Slums in Taembria. Their headquarters are known to many (even the Dreadnoughts) and their realm is the sewers beneath the clay and cobble. But the access to the Guild is what sets it apart and keeps it from being infiltrated. The people of the Slums protect it themselves and the entrance through the Sluiceway is small and eternally observed. It spans four square blocks below and houses many unseeming citizens and those that prefer to remain outside of oversight. To those aware of it, it is a series of tunnels built before the sluiceway itself. The bowels of which are long unused, or if still in use, trekked only by those aware of its safe routes. The spillways and random flushings driven by magic are avoided by the Dreadnoughts for this very reason. Risking a collapse by digging deeper would foment revolt and so the careful balance of crime and power is carried out still yet by the cunning of Dulian Markoth. ### Slum Square General central location of markets, shops, and services in the slums bound within a small open block. The people of the Sticks roust those bold enough to attempt to set up permanent stalls or small buildings before the guards would ever be called in. Sometimes children will play in the open square of wooden slats over the slosh of the high tide beneath. Grim mosses hang from the poles that hold it aloft, but the salt smell, children laughing, and hawked goods give it a peaceful and home felt vibe. ### Black Square - Market Far from the prying eyes upon the Shimmering Wall and farther yet from the Dreadnought patrols is the Black Square Market. A place where one can fence goods, buy poisons, or equip themselves for a bracing adventure of... well; crime. The market runs through a series of ramshackle buildings that appear residential on the surface, but the secret is not well kept, the buildings move every week or so to another locale and the location is only given to those in the know. --- ## Farmlands - Gorefields The Taembrian Farmlands are nestled between all the districts and fed from the Sluiceway after it has magically purged the salt from the ocean water. It is a mostly peaceful place and home to many druids, caretakers, and even retired veterans who tend the land and defend it from nefarious purposes. But like all commercially utilized lands it has strict rules that span the hundreds of acres that criss cross between the sprawl of the city that wraps around its Northern end. ### Taembrionic Gardens A square mile of rentable plots and exotic gardening for the needs of the private green thumb citizen of Taembria. Make no mistake in the exclusivity of this deal. The plots are guarded and provided for by the aqueduct services and these plots, many of which are elegantly walled in, are the pride and joy of many nobles. The quiet walkways adorned with greenery and hanging mosses, dappled by the shade granted from rare trees towering from private bowers and scents of unimaginable horticulture spreads and wafts its way through these tremendous greens. ### Gorefields A quarter mile of carnage. A flock of carrion birds hover above this magically shelled field of gore at all times. ![[Gorefields.jpg]] --- # Families ## Vateri #### The Family of Mazes The Vateri Family is related to the Maladomini layer of Hell. They are charged with protecting the portal and Broker Day - their estate overlooks the Green and they operate the Ziggurat in the green. They are also in charge of the Illusion school and half of the Shimmering Wall. These duties have placed them in high esteem within the city but also sets them as rivals with House Ortanus. ## Ortanus #### The Family of Fortress The Ortanus Family are the Dreadnoughts and enforce legal duels, guard the city, investigate crime, and lead the army. Currently they are attempting to escalate a war with their neighbors in Cragwatch and enforcing strict anti drug policy in the city as some new drug has appeared in the Sticks that many are abusing. They live in lofts above the Dreadnought HQ. ## Avernarius #### The Family of Machinations The Avernarius family keeps a tight leash on numerous ventures, crafts, and guilds. Their reach includes that of tinkerers, traders, brewers, tavern laws, and even the Hunter’s Enclave (a recent venture). ## Edaxinae #### The Family of Contracts The Edaxinae family is in charge of all contractual law, book-keeping, and judiciary officiants. Their control of consequences, closeness to lawful nature of devils, and position in the city has left them with the best stake for the Empty Throne. But the family seems to be content with their esteemed lot and doesn’t make moves for the throne. In doing so they have amassed a neutral reputation. ## Vilus #### The Family of Dark Nature The Vilus family is in charge of... ## Crassian #### The Family of Entertainment The Crassian family is in charge of... ## Benzicta #### The Family of Banks The Benzicta Family is obsessed with wealth first and the Empty Throne second. They want the lagoons cleared out of riff raff so that they can begin new mining operations under the city. ## Zicator #### The Family of Winter The Zicator family is in charge of... ## Gantyzi #### The Family of Mercantile The Gantyzi family is in charge of...